Tesla Cybertruck: From Cracked Windows to Production Halt, a Three-and-a-Half Year Journey Ends

This controversial stainless steel pickup from Tesla is exiting the stage in a manner as dramatic as its debut.

According to Wallstreet News, Elon Musk announced on the X platform Friday that Tesla will begin "winding down" Cybertruck production at its Texas Gigafactory around mid-next year, shifting efforts towards ramping up production of the self-driving taxi, Cybercab.

Since its unveiling in 2019, the Cybertruck drew massive attention with its futuristic design and bulletproof features. However, the vehicle was plagued by continuous delays, escalating prices, and a string of recalls, keeping it at the center of controversy.

This means the model, officially delivered starting from the end of 2023, will have an actual sales lifecycle of only about three and a half years—a strikingly short span compared to the four years from announcement to first delivery.

The day before Musk announced the production halt, Tesla once again raised the price of the Cybertruck, with the highest-end Cyberbeast now starting at $102,490.

The Cybertruck's troubles began on the very day it launched.

On November 21, 2019, at the Tesla Design Studio in Hawthorne, California, Musk hosted a live demo to showcase the truck’s supposedly shatterproof windows—by throwing a metal ball at the glass. Both windows cracked on impact, and the footage quickly went viral online.

Musk later explained on X that smashing the door with a sledgehammer before the demo damaged the base of the glass, which caused the steel ball to fail to bounce off. At the handover event in November 2023—four years later—Tesla’s chief designer Franz von Holzhausen threw a baseball at the bulletproof glass again, and this time, the windows remained intact.

According to analysts and brand experts, the Cybertruck's shiny stainless steel body—its dystopian look inspired by "Blade Runner"—was originally expected to help reshape Tesla’s brand at a time when demand had slumped due to major price cuts.

Musk also claimed the vehicle would use the ultra-hard cold-rolled stainless steel alloy found on the SpaceX Starship rocket. However, according to Reuters, the two actually use related but slightly different variants of the alloy.

Early pre-order numbers after the launch excited the public and investors. On November 23, 2019, Musk said 146,000 orders had been received; just a few days later, he announced orders had reached 250,000 in five days. Tesla accepted reservations with a refundable deposit of $100.

However, the refundable structure cast doubt on the true value of these pre-orders. Some buyers listed their reservation slots for sale on eBay—priced between $1,000 and $8,000—suggesting that many were speculators, not genuine customers.

The road to Cybertruck’s mass production was equally turbulent.

Musk initially promised production would begin by the end of 2021, but by August 2021, Tesla quietly postponed plans to 2022, disclosing the change with a small note on the reservation page. Production was subsequently pushed back again to 2023, with Musk blaming supply chain shortages.

In July 2023, the first Cybertruck rolled off the line at the Texas Gigafactory in what Tesla described as trial production. The official delivery event was held in Texas on November 30th, with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian receiving one of the first keys directly from Musk.

At launch in 2019, the base price was announced at $39,900, with the tri-motor flagship at $69,900. By the time it was officially delivered at the end of 2023, the lowest price had risen to $60,990.

In February 2026, Tesla introduced the $59,990 dual-motor all-wheel-drive model, with Musk specifying that this price would only last "for the next ten days"—it rose to $69,990 in March, and then to $74,990 in August.

The day before announcing the end of production, Tesla raised prices once again: the same model now costs $82,490, the Premium edition is $92,490, and the Cyberbeast reaches $102,490—almost double the lowest price announced at launch in 2019.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, since the Cybertruck hit the market at the end of 2023, Tesla has issued 11 recalls for the model. Some vehicles required physical repairs, while others were addressed via over-the-air software updates.

The widest-reaching recall occurred in January 2024, when an issue with dashboard warning light fonts triggered a recall of over 2.19 million Tesla vehicles, including multiple models beyond the Cybertruck.

In April 2024, 3,878 Cybertrucks were recalled because the accelerator pedal pad could loosen and get stuck in the interior trim. In March 2025, Tesla recalled another 46,096 Cybertrucks over a potential delamination of the roof light bar.

The repeated recalls echo the broader fate of this vehicle— from cracked glass at launch to an abrupt end in production, the Cybertruck could never escape that fateful flaw at its core.