Elon Musk says customers still waiting for a Tesla Cybertruck may not get one after all, with many deposit holders in line for refunds as the company winds down the angular electric pickup to prioritize its autonomous Cybercab.

In a post on X early Monday, Musk said the number of Cybertrucks ordered "far exceeds our production rate," meaning many buyers will miss out after the chief executive announced Friday that Tesla would be "winding down" the electric truck's production by the middle of next year.

"We will try to make as many as possible before shutting down the line in about 8 months, but will have to return deposits for a lot of people," Musk said Monday.

The news comes as some fans of the boxy, futuristic-looking truck said on social media that they were placing new orders or upgrading existing ones before the vehicle ends production. As of Monday, Tesla's website still appeared to be accepting new orders — even as Musk signaled the order book already outstrips what the line can build, leaving open how late orders will be handled and when refunds will reach those farther back in the queue.

Musk said in his latest post that Tesla is shutting down Cybertruck production not because the vehicle is unprofitable, but because "the opportunity cost of the complexity of Cybertruck is vastly outweighed by the value of incremental Cybercab production." In his telling, the engineering and manufacturing effort the truck demands would create more value if directed into Cybercab production instead.

Steep sales, pared-back lineup

Unlike staples such as the Model Y, the Cybertruck has struggled to reach and maintain high sales since its release in 2023. When the vehicle was first announced in 2019, Musk hailed it as Tesla's best product "ever," and he later predicted the company would build between 250,000 and half a million units per year.

Instead, Cybertruck sales plummeted 48% between 2024 and 2025, falling to 20,237 from 38,965 — a fraction of even the low end of that target. Through the third quarter of this year, Tesla had sold an estimated 11,586, according to Kelley Blue Book. Over the same period, Tesla sold 262,491 Model Ys and 106,962 Model 3s.

In recent years, Tesla has also discontinued models such as the Model S luxury sedan and the Model X SUV, narrowing its consumer lineup as Musk shifts the company's focus toward autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots. That focus could drift further from cars as Tesla explores a merger with SpaceXAI, Musk's other public company.

A cult following

The Cybertruck has nonetheless amassed a cult following for its distinctive design — despite, or sometimes because of, its association with Musk, whose rightward shift once made him a close adviser to President Trump and the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). After a brief falling out with Trump, he returned to the fold and reportedly spent as much as $474 million in the midterm election cycle to boost Republican candidates. But many of his preferred candidates lost, following a surprisingly strong showing for the Democratic Party in the midterms last week.

The end of the Cybertruck's production run has also triggered criticism from Tesla fans, who accused the company of neglecting existing customers as Musk chases a future in which consumers do not own their own vehicles.

"Watching the decisions Tesla is making recently has just left me puzzled as a consumer. We went from having lots of choices in vehicles. To those being whittled down," one X user wrote.

The Cybercab vision

When Tesla unveiled the Cybercab concept in 2024, Musk portrayed the vehicle as "a little lounge" rather than a car in the traditional sense. He pitched a future of "individualized mass transit," in which people would not necessarily need to own a car but could still buy one if they wanted. He noted that ownership can be expensive, between the price of the car, insurance, and storage. The price per ride in a Cybercab, he predicted, would be about 30 to 40 cents per mile.

"Your average passenger car is only used about 10 hours a week out of a 168 hours. So the vast majority of the time, cars are just doing nothing. But if they're autonomous, they could be used, I don't know, 5 x more?" Musk said at the time.

In replies to Musk's post on Monday, X users pushed back on that vision.

"The problem is no one is going to want to give up their personal cars for a ride share service. Are you going to annihilate uber? Yup. Are you going to be every Americans daily transport via Robotaxi anywhere in the near future? Nope," one user wrote.

Other X users complained that the company is cutting out customers whose needs are not met by other vehicles in Tesla's lineup, while others said Tesla should be expanding vehicle production rather than cutting it.

"This is still not making any sense. Why even make the Cybertruck in the first place?" wrote one user.

This story originally appeared on Fortune.com.