Close to 38,000 pre-orders had been made by Australians
Refunds of the 100-dollar deposit will be offered on application
The Cybertruck has been delayed many times and no time frame is currently listed on the company’s website
Tesla recently announced that the long-awaited Cybertruck will not be sold in Australia, despite having opened orders there back in 2019.
This is a strange decision since Australia was listed as the third largest market for the Cybertruck with 3,16% of the orders registered as of 2020, which amounted to around 38,000 units
With close to 1,2 million reservations for the Cybertruck being recorded in August of last month, Tesla has made almost $120 million just with the $100 deposits required to secure a place on the waiting list.
Of course, the deposits made by Australians will be refunded, but not automatically. Indeed, reservation holders who want their money back will have to apply for a refund, despite the vehicle for which they have paid having been canceled in their market.
This means that Australians have effectively made a $3.8 million interest-free loan to Tesla over a three-year period without receiving anything in return.
On a broader scale, this doesn’t bode well for the Cybertruck since it has already been delayed multiple times over the past two years and its design keeps changing every time it is displayed, which means that it is probably farther away from its production state than Tesla claims.
This latest development could also open the door to more markets being abandoned by this model, such as a number of European countries that have been able to pre-order for a while.
A possible reason for this is that Tesla might not be able to build the 1,2 million units it has currently on order in a reasonable time, so it is choosing to reduce the number of orders.
The automaker has not commented on this decision so we will have to wait and see what the future holds for the Cybertruck.
