Why the Tesla Cybertruck will remain US-only... for now

The Tesla Cybertruck is currently limited to being produced for its home market of the US, thanks in part to the country’s lax vehicle regulations.

However, that may soon change, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk claiming a global version of the Cybertruck could enter production as early as 2025.

But wait just a moment before you go rushing down to your local Tesla showroom to place an order for the angular electric pickup.

Supplied Credit: CarExpert

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According to Mr Musk, a global Tesla Cybertruck may be different to the version currently on sale in the US, as overseas regulations will likely force the carmaker to make drastic design changes.

“We might be able to certify it [Cybertruck] for other markets sometime next year [2025], but this year it’s just North America,” Mr Musk told attendees at Tesla’s 2024 Investor Day.

“We did design the car to North American requirements, because if you start going with the superset of international requirements, it forces a lot of constraints on the Cybertruck that would make the product frankly worse.

“I think we’ll need to make a special version that is, for example, China compliant or Europe compliant, but that doesn’t really make sense to add that complexity until we’ve achieved higher volume production on Cybertruck.”

Elon Musk Credit: CarExpert

Mr Musk cited the high production costs for the Cybertruck – which remains a relatively low-volume vehicle compared to the Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan – as a reason why Tesla can’t yet build the electric pickup for overseas markets.

“There’s still a lot of work to do on costs down for Cybertruck. It’s 100 times harder to go from prototype to production, and then reducing costs by 20 per cent is harder than reaching production in the first place,” he said.

“We would have plenty of demand in other parts of the world for Cybertruck. Wherever it goes it gets a massive crowd, so it’s not a demand thing.

“We’ve got to reach volume production, go through the cost grind – I can’t overstate the difficulty in the cost grind, it’s really intense – then we’ve got to re-certify the car which includes making some design changes to be compliant in other markets.”

Supplied Credit: CarExpert

Tesla previously allowed Australians to place a $150 deposit on a Cybertruck through its website, though the ability to do so was removed in late 2021, replaced by a simple information page.

An example of the Tesla Cybertruck is currently being shown off around Australia at the carmaker’s showrooms and driven on local roads. Tesla is able to do this as this particular example is classified as an evaluation vehicle.

While Tesla’s core Model Y and Model 3 lines are produced in right-hand drive – with Australian examples coming from China – the US-built Model S and Model X are not.

Last year, the electric vehicle giant announced it would exclusively produce the two flagships in left-hand drive, understood to be a result of low demand.

Given Tesla produces more Model S and Model X vehicles per day than the Cybertruck, it’s currently hard to see how it could justify making a business case for a right-hand drive version of its niche electric pickup.

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