A Tesla tuning shop says it wants to keep the Cybertruck alive even after Tesla itself walks away from the controversial pickup. Unplugged Performance publicly pitched taking over Cybertruck production, saying a consortium of investors would fund the effort, just days after Tesla confirmed it would wind down the vehicle's manufacturing run.
The proposal, posted on X on November 10, arrived on the heels of comments from Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk indicating Tesla will wind down Cybertruck production at Gigafactory Texas around the middle of 2027, according to Electrek. The automaker is shifting the Austin factory's floor space toward Cybercab, its autonomous taxi vehicle, as it pulls back from the angular pickup that once generated so much hype. Unplugged's pitch, detailed in a separate Electrek report, says it would run the line without touching Tesla's floor space, headcount, or focus, funded entirely by its own investor group.
Unplugged's offer isn't just about keeping the existing truck in production. The company proposed building the Cybertruck alongside a three-row, SUV-style vehicle it's calling the CyberSUV and an unmanned hauler dubbed CyberCargo, according to the same Electrek report. The pitch explicitly backs Tesla's Cybercab priorities too, with Unplugged saying it supported putting Cybercab first and offering to give the robotaxi vehicle first call on battery cells.
What Tesla Would Reportedly Get Out of the Deal
Under the proposal, Tesla wouldn't walk away empty-handed. The automaker would collect a license fee plus FSD and Robotaxi network revenue on every vehicle built, per the pitch Unplugged laid out. Unplugged also described its own sales approach as deploying vehicles to robotaxi fleets for maximum profit per unit while selling other units privately at a lower margin per vehicle.
As of the Electrek report's publication, neither Musk nor Tesla had publicly responded to the offer. Unplugged has also been careful about how it characterizes its investor outreach. Per Teslarati, the company says the outreach is solely to gauge interest and does not constitute an offer to sell securities or acceptance of funds at this stage. Replies to the pitch on social media were overwhelmingly positive, though public enthusiasm is no substitute for an actual deal.
A Truck That Never Hit Its Numbers
The Cybertruck's struggles explain why Tesla is pulling the plug in the first place. First announced in 2019, the angular pickup didn't actually begin shipping to customers until late 2023, according to Fox Business. Since then, sales have fallen well short of whatever Tesla's original ambitions were — though reporting diverges on the exact number. Electrek has reported Tesla planned the Cybertruck line for 250,000 units annually, while The Guardian has reported Musk had said the company aimed to sell 200,000 Cybertrucks each year.
Either way, the shortfall has been steep. Electrek estimated Cybertruck sales running at roughly 12% of the larger of those targets, with Q3 2026 deliveries pointing to an annual pace of only about 30,000 trucks. The outlet noted that Tesla delivered 8,295 vehicles total in its broader “Other Models” category that quarter — down 48% year-over-year — and estimated that 7,000 to 8,000 of those deliveries were Cybertrucks specifically.
Fox Business reported that Tesla sold just 20,237 Cybertrucks in the U.S. in 2025, a 48% decline from 38,965 the year before. Cox Automotive's own estimates, cited by Electrek, showed U.S. sales sliding to 3,519 in the first quarter of 2026 and 3,744 in the second quarter, down sharply from 14,416 in the third quarter of 2024. S&P Global Mobility data cited by the outlet also showed that SpaceX alone bought 1,279 Cybertrucks in the fourth quarter of 2025, representing about 18% of U.S. registrations that quarter — a reminder of how much of the truck's demand has come from Musk's own companies rather than the broader public.
The Cybertruck has also drawn scrutiny beyond slow sales, experiencing several recalls.
What Happens Next Is Still Unknown
For now, the ball is in Tesla's court. Unplugged has made its case publicly and framed it as a win-win — Tesla gets Cybercab room and ongoing licensing revenue, Unplugged gets a production line and new vehicle lineup to build out. But without a response from Musk or Tesla, there's no indication whether the automaker is even considering outside investors to keep its pickup's assembly line running once the shutdown at Gigafactory Texas proceeds.
