Tesla Inc. will pare back production of its polarizing Cybertruck pickup next year, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said, suggesting the slow-selling model could be phased out as the company reorients around driverless technology and artificial intelligence.

Output will wind down at its Texas plant in mid-2027 to free up capacity for the Cybercab autonomous vehicle, Musk said Friday in a social-media post. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Cybertruck production would be switched to another factory or ended completely. Tesla didn’t immediately respond to requests for further comment.

Musk’s announcement is the latest blow to the divisive electric pickup, which has fallen well short of demand projections and suffered a series of recalls. Bloomberg News reported earlier this year that sales had been propped up by purchases from Musk’s other companies, particularly SpaceX.

The angular and unconventional vehicle has divided opinion since Musk first unveiled a prototype in 2019. Tesla began building it at its factory near Austin in 2023, when Musk estimated Tesla might make more than 250,000 annually, depending on demand. It sold less than one-sixth of that number in its first year.

If the Cybertruck is phased out, it would extend Tesla’s push to prune the more-expensive and lower-selling models from its already-slim lineup. The automaker earlier this year discontinued its pricey Model S and X vehicles. The vast majority of its sales come from the Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan.

Tesla shares rose 1.9% as of 8:28 a.m. before regular trading in New York, rebounding modestly after several days of declines following the U.S. midterm elections.

Tesla has been deemphasizing its core auto business in recent quarters and investors have largely looked past sales results as Musk works to refocus on futuristic business lines such as AI, robotics and autonomous vehicles. Central to that effort is the Cybercab, a two-seat car with no steering wheel or foot pedals.

The company began producing the model at the Austin factory this year and recently rolled it out for the public through Tesla’s robotaxi service. The Cybercab is facing scrutiny already: U.S. auto-safety regulators are probing the process and technical data Tesla relied on when the company self-certified the vehicles as compliant with all federal safety standards.

(With assistance from Albertina Torsoli.)

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