Tesla refunds $150 deposits as Cybertruck exits Australia and New Zealand

Tesla customers in Australia and New Zealand will receive a refund of their A$150 deposit this month. The company confirmed on October 23 that it is cancelling all Cybertruck reservations for the region, ending a wait of nearly seven years for buyers who placed orders in 2019.

Reservation holders began receiving emails informing them that their orders are void. Tesla stated it is unable to fulfill the reservations due to production constraints. The company said full refunds will be processed within 30 days. Those who switch to a Model 3 or Model Y will receive a free one-year subscription to Full Self-Driving (Supervised).

The delay stemmed from a design mismatch. The Cybertruck is built exclusively in left-hand drive, while Australia and New Zealand require right-hand-drive vehicles. Tesla closed its Australian reservation page in May 2022 but did not issue refunds at that time. In 2024, Elon Musk told shareholders the company might certify the truck for other markets the following year, but no right-hand-drive version was produced.

Market data indicated a strong potential customer base in the region. A 2020 survey estimated that Australia held about 3% of all global Cybertruck reservations, placing it third behind the United States and Canada. By 2023, tracking data suggested total reservations had reached roughly 2 million units. Tesla has not publicly confirmed these regional figures.

Current sales figures show the vehicle is struggling to maintain volume. Tesla reported delivering 8,295 units in its Other Models category during the third quarter of 2026. Analysts estimate this figure represents approximately 7,000 to 8,000 Cybertrucks, or about 30,000 units annually. This pace is well below the production line capacity of 250,000 units per year.

The company has limited its international rollout to left-hand-drive countries. Deliveries started in South Korea in late 2025 and in the UAE in January 2026. Configurator options are now available in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Israel. The truck remains blocked from the European Union primarily due to pedestrian safety regulations.

The cancellation arrives one day after Tesla released its third-quarter 2026 earnings report. The move shifts the company's international strategy toward selling existing left-hand-drive inventory rather than engineering new variants for right-hand-drive markets.