The Tesla Cybertruck program, once heralded as the company’s avant-garde strike at the highly profitable US pickup market, has just lost its captain. Siddhant Awasthi, the executive who led the Cybertruck program since September 2022, has announced his departure from Tesla in a highly emotionally charged LinkedIn post. He called it “one of the hardest decisions of my life”. Apparently, guiding a vehicle whose sales trajectory resembles a cliff dive is quite the intense privilege.
Awasthi’s tenure at the company spanned eight years. He started as an intern and culminated in the dual roles of Cybertruck Program Lead and, more recently (since July 2025), Model 3 Program Lead. His career came full circle, moving from the Model 3 production lines at Giga Shanghai in 2018-2019 to managing the program for the company’s most important sedan right as he oversaw the dramatic downturn of the eccentric stainless steel pickup.
Despite his effusive thanks to Elon Musk and “talented, motivated, and truly extraordinary Tesla colleagues”, Awasthi’s exit occurs at an acutely awkward moment for the Cybertruck. The vehicle was supposed to revolutionize the full-size pickup segment and hit annual production volumes of up to 250,000 units, as initially envisioned by Musk.
Reality, however, has proven to be less enthusiastic than the initial pre-order hype. Even in 2024, its first full year of commercialization, the Cybertruck remained well below its ambitious targets. But 2025 has delivered the real knockout. In the first nine months of the year, Tesla only managed to sell a meager 16,907 Cybertrucks. This represents a catastrophic 38% decline compared to the same period the previous year. Then, sales had reached 25,974 units.
As Awasthi now lists himself simply as “Ex-Tesla” with no stated next career move, the timing of his departure is less a bittersweet farewell and more a highly symbolic retreat. The executive responsible for the Cybertruck’s production ramp-up is leaving precisely when the vehicle’s sales slump is undeniable.
