Tesla cancels Cybertruck for Australia and New Zealand: refunds, and a year of FSD for reservation holders

The Cybertruck isn't coming to Australia or New Zealand. On the morning of Friday 23 October, Tesla emailed local reservation holders to say it has stopped plans to build the electric pick-up for both countries. Nearly seven years after Australians first lined up with $150 deposits, their reservations are being cancelled.

The email is headed "Important Update to Your Cybertruck Reservation". Copies have been posted publicly by several reservation holders, and the wording is identical across them. Tesla Owners Club Australia says the news came out at 10am (Melbourne time).

What Tesla told reservation holders

In the email's own words: "After careful consideration, plans to produce Cybertruck for Australia and New Zealand have been discontinued." Tesla says it can't fulfil the reservations and will cancel them, and it apologises for the disappointment.

Your refund

• Amount: a full refund of "any payments made". For most Australians that's the $150 reservation payment taken from late 2019.
• Process: Tesla says a second email with refund details follows "later today". Once you confirm those details, Tesla says it will process the refund within 30 days.
• Nothing to do yet: you don't need to cancel through your Tesla account. Tesla is cancelling the reservation itself. Look out for the second email, and check it really comes from Tesla before you enter any bank details.

The consolation offer: a year of FSD (Supervised)

To thank early supporters, Tesla is offering a complimentary one-year Full Self-Driving (Supervised) subscription when a reservation holder orders a new Model 3 or Model Y. According to the email:

• It can be combined with Tesla's limited-time "current benefits".
• It's applied to a new order linked to the same email address as the Cybertruck reservation.
• It's activated after delivery, not when you order.

At Tesla's current subscription price of $149 a month in Australia, a year of FSD (Supervised) is worth about $1,788. In New Zealand it's NZ$159 a month, or about NZ$1,908. Both figures assume a car with Basic Autopilot. It's a subscription, not a permanent upgrade, so it ends after 12 months unless you start paying.

What we haven't confirmed: the email refers to footnoted terms and conditions, and we haven't seen the full text. So we can't yet tell you the order deadline, whether the offer covers demo or inventory cars, or whether it can be transferred to another person or a later car. Tesla hasn't published the offer on its Australian or NZ websites either. Check the terms in your own email, or ask Tesla, before you order on the strength of it.

Why it never arrived: right-hand drive and the ADRs

This outcome was a long time coming. The Cybertruck is built only at Tesla's Texas factory, and only in left-hand drive. In June 2024, Elon Musk told shareholders the truck was designed "to North American requirements". He said meeting every international standard would make the product "frankly, worse", and that other markets would need a special version.

To be sold new in Australia, a car has to meet the Australian Design Rules (ADRs). The Cybertruck's stainless-steel body, sharp edges and size were all hard to reconcile with pedestrian-safety and dimension rules, before you even get to converting it to right-hand drive. The Cybertruck that toured Tesla showrooms here from April 2024 ran on temporary Queensland conditional plates, and only Tesla staff could drive it.

A seven-year reservation saga

• Late 2019: Tesla's Australian website starts taking fully refundable $150 Cybertruck reservations, weeks after the US reveal.
• May 2022: Tesla stops taking new reservations outside North America. The Australian page switches to "Get Updates", but existing reservations stay open.
• April 2024: a left-hand-drive Cybertruck begins a showroom tour of Australia and later New Zealand.
• June 2024: Musk says the truck is certified for North America only, and that other markets would need a special version.
• 23 October 2026: Tesla cancels Australian and NZ reservations and offers refunds plus the FSD deal.

FSD (Supervised) in Australia and New Zealand

FSD (Supervised) became available here in September 2025, and Tesla added monthly subscriptions in October 2025. From 1 April 2026, Tesla stopped selling it outright, so a subscription is now the only way to get it. That costs $149 a month in Australia, or $75 a month for cars that already have Enhanced Autopilot. In New Zealand it's NZ$159 and NZ$80. In June 2026 Tesla rolled out version 14 to Model 3 and Model Y cars with Hardware 4, which covers every new car you can order today.

Whatever the name suggests, FSD (Supervised) is a driver-assistance system. The driver has to keep watching the road and stay responsible for the car at all times.

Our take

Few reservation holders will be surprised, given the truck was never engineered for right-hand drive. The refund is straightforward. Whether the FSD offer is worth having depends on whether you were going to buy a Model 3 or Model Y anyway, and on the fine print we haven't seen yet. If Tesla publishes the full terms, we'll update this story.