Tesla's Cybertruck will no longer be released in Australia and New Zealand. The company announced its cancellation in these regions in an email to customers on Friday.
"After careful consideration, plans to produce the Cybertruck for Australia and New Zealand have been discontinued," Tesla wrote. "As a result, we're unable to fulfil your reservation and it will be cancelled."
Drivers in Australia and New Zealand had been able to preorder Tesla's Cybertruck since it was initially unveiled in 2019. At the time, the company planned to start production in late 2021, eight years after CEO Elon Musk first teased the Cybertruck in 2013.
Now five years past the Cybertruck's previous manufacturing date, it seems that Australian and Kiwi customers' patient waiting has not borne the results they were promised. The Cybertruck has been removed from both Tesla's Australian and New Zealand websites, which now only offer the Model 3, Model Y and preorders for the Roadster.
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Those eager to secure a Cybertruck had been required to pay a preorder deposit of $AU/NZ150. Fortunately, Tesla has stated that all such payments will be refunded. The company has also said that customers whose preorders were cancelled will be given a one-year subscription to Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system — provided they buy a new Model 3 or Model Y instead.
(Despite its name, the Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system does not enable Tesla's electric vehicles to autonomously drive themselves. Rather, it is a driving assistance feature that offers some automation, and still requires a driver to actively pay attention and control the car.)
While some enthusiasts have been disappointed by the cancellation of their Cybertruck preorders, many other EV users are celebrating that it won't make it onto Australia and New Zealand's roads. Even users of the r/TeslaAustralia subreddit have shed few tears over the Cybertruck's cancelled plans in the country.
The Cybertruck has been widely derided as ugly since its introduction, with people likening it to everything from a child's drawing to low-poly video game graphics. Many have also been unimpressed by negative reports on the Cybertruck's build quality, the vehicle having been subject to multiple recalls in the U.S. where it is already available. Now drivers in Australia and New Zealand won't have to worry about it as well.