In February, we brought you a story about the Tesla Cybertruck being banned, seized and impounded by British police in the U.K. due to its lack of a conformity certificate, its sharp edges, it being too big and too heavy for British roads, its illegal light bar, and its supercar-like acceleration. Britain’s National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Jennifer Hominy said of the Tesla, “The Cybertruck is an over-6000 lb piece of steel that has no business going a quarter mile in under 11 seconds.”
Since Elon Musk’s controversial foray into U.S. politics, and the subsequent backlash from the motoring public, all Tesla models, including the Cybertruck are suffering falling sales. Owners of the edgy, poorly built truck are now finding it hard to sell or trade-in their vehicles as resale values fall through the floor.
A ray of sunlight for Tesla in Australia
But it’s not all bad news. There is a ray of light for Tesla on the horizon, and it comes, strangely enough, from Down Under.
That’s right, the Cybertruck is being seriously considered to go on sale in Australia. According to ‘evcentral.com’ a local site, Tesla Australia has been briefed on the Australian Design Rule(ADR) changes required to launch the Cybertruck in Australia, as the controversial truck prepares to debut there.
Country Director for Tesla Australia, Thom Drew, says the Cybertruck was “never off the table” for a local launch – despite the vehicle reservation system being stripped from the Tesla Australia site – and instead says demand in the USA pushed back any global rollout.
But while Mr Drew stopped short of confirming a local launch, he says it has “always been on the radar,” suggesting a debut Down Under is close.
Australian car market seen as most progressive in the world
Generally considered as a one million car sales per year market, the Australian car market is one of the most progressive and open in the world, with virtually every car brand on sale except Acura, Citroen, Chrysler, Dodge and Infiniti.
By contrast, Australia was one of the first markets to open up to Chinese brands such as BYD, Geely, Chery, GWM, MG, Zeekr, Deepal, JAC, XPeng, NIO, Leapmotor and Haval and has remained arguably the world’s best test bed for Chinese cars.
The local Tesla team have sought a briefing on how to get the Cybertruck to comply with ADR regulations, following a 12-month Australian roadshow with a US-spec left-hand-drive truck. As far as design regulations stipulate, the truck apparently does not require much modification to meet local design standards. “There are small changes to bumper widths, some external lighting requirements, and obviously left to right-hand drive, and just a few engineering changes like that, but fundamentally it’d be the same vehicle.” These changes could add between $5,000 to $10,000 to the price of a truck.
Drew adds, “I can’t tell you a timeline, or if or when, but just locally, we’re advocating for it as much as we can.” If it is launched, and that would be in early 2026 at the earliest, it will be the first version of the Cybertuck to debut with right-hand-drive anywhere in the world.
This article was originally published on forbes.com and all figures are in USD.
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