Tesla Withdrawal: Cybertruck Gone From Australia And New Zealand
Deposits from 2019 are being refunded as the automaker abandons its right-hand-drive plans for the electric pickup.
By Jonathan Pierce ·
Tesla has officially ended its quest to bring the Cybertruck to Australia and New Zealand, a decision that marks the conclusion of a seven-year wait for thousands of customers in the region. The automaker sent emails to reservation holders this morning confirming that their orders are now void and that their deposits will be fully refunded. This move effectively removes the electric pickup from the market in two of its most anticipated international territories.
The primary driver for this cancellation is the vehicle's left-hand-drive configuration. Australia and New Zealand require right-hand-drive vehicles, and the Cybertruck was never engineered to meet those specifications. The truck also faces strict local certification rules in Australia, which add significant cost and complexity. Given that Tesla has struggled to ramp up production in North America, the investment required to re-engineer the vehicle for these two markets was no longer justifiable.
Customers who reserved the truck starting in November 2019 with a 150 Australian dollar deposit are receiving notifications of the change. Tesla stated that full refunds for all payments made will be processed within 30 days. To sweeten the deal, the company is offering a free one-year subscription to its Full Self-Driving software for anyone who orders a new Model 3 or Model Y instead. This strategy aims to convert the cancelled reservations into sales of vehicles that are already built in right-hand drive configurations.
The timing of the announcement comes just one day after Tesla reported its third-quarter 2026 earnings. The numbers reveal a significant gap between production capacity and actual demand. Tesla delivered only 8,295 units in the 'Other Models' category during the quarter, a segment that now almost exclusively consists of Cybertrucks since the Model S and Model X lines ended. Analysts estimate that Cybertruck sales in that period ranged from 7,000 to 8,000 units, representing an annual pace of roughly 30,000 units. This is far below the production line's capacity of 250,000 units per year.
International expansion for the Cybertruck has remained limited to left-hand-drive markets. Deliveries began in South Korea late last year and in the UAE in January, with configurators subsequently opening in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Israel. The truck remains blocked from the European market primarily due to pedestrian safety concerns. With the US and Canada leading in reservation counts, the decision to drop Australia and New Zealand aligns with a focus on markets where the existing hardware can be sold without modification.
Tesla had previously signaled uncertainty about the truck's global rollout. In 2024, the company shipped a Cybertruck to Australia for a display tour, and CEO Elon Musk told shareholders that certification for other markets might happen the following year. However, the right-hand-drive version never materialized. The company quietly closed the Australian reservation page in May 2022, replacing it with a button to get updates, but it did not refund customers at that time. Many buyers continued to wait for a vehicle that has since changed in price and range from the original 2019 promises.
The cancellation confirms that the Cybertruck is becoming a niche product with a strong focus on the American market. While Tesla continues to seek buyers for its existing left-hand-drive inventory globally, the financial logic for expanding to smaller, right-hand-drive regions has weakened. For the roughly 33 million people living in Australia and New Zealand, the era of waiting for the electric truck is officially over.
Source: Electrek
