Tesla’s Cybertruck electric pickup could gain certification in international markets, including China and Europe, in 2025, according to Elon Musk’s remarks during the 2024 Annual Shareholder Meeting on Thursday.
Tesla to prepare Cybertruck for international debut
Tesla critics have expected that the Cybertruck would never go on sale beyond North America since its official debut in late 2019 due to its design, which does not meet the safety standards in markets like Europe.
In a surprising turn of events during the 2024 Cyber Roundup, Chief Executive Elon Musk revealed in a response to a shareholder question that Tesla “might certify it for other markets sometime next year.”
Therefore, it would no longer be surprising to see videos of huge Cybertrucks stuck on narrow European streets unless Tesla makes some changes.
Musk hints at design changes to meet regulations
Tesla CEO Musk explained that the Cybertruck team designed the stainless steel pickup specifically for the North American market. Therefore, it only complies with the vehicle requirements in the region. This makes sense, considering Americans’ love for pickup trucks.
The Tesla boss further asserted that developing the Cybertruck for the international market would have made it “frankly worse.”
Tesla must produce a special version of the Cybertruck that complies with regulatory requirements in Europe and China to sell it there, CEO Musk said.
For instance, other foreign markets impose pedestrian-impact safety rules. Such rules may pose a major challenge for Tesla’s enormous electric pickup.
“For sure, this year, it’s just North America. We did design the car to North American requirements because if you start going with the superset of all international requirements, it forces a lot of constraints on Cybertruck that would make the product, frankly, worse. So I think we’ll need to make a special version that is, for example, a China-compliant or Europe-compliant.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk
Priority
While international sales are on the table, CEO Musk prioritizes ramping up Cybertruck production first.
Talking about the potential development of a special version of the electric pickup for other markets beyond North America, CEO Musk explained, “it really doesn’t make sense to add that complexity until we’ve achieved a higher volume production on the Cybertruck.”
As mentioned, Tesla must first redesign the Cybertruck to ensure compliance with a certain region’s vehicle standards.
The Tesla Chief also proudly declared that customer demand for the Cybertruck continues to extend outside its home region.
That said, the electric vehicle giant must determine the best way to build the Cybertruck cheaply enough to justify the cost of getting it certified for international markets.
“I think from a demand standpoint, we would have plenty of demand in other parts of the world for Cybertruck, no question. Like, wherever it goes anywhere in the world, it gets a massive crowd. So it’s not a demand thing. It’s really, we’ve got to reach volume production, go through the cost grind — it would be difficult for me to overstate the difficulty in the cost grind, it’s really intense — and then we’ve got to recertify the car which includes making some design changes to be compliant in other markets.”
Tesla CEO Elon Musk
In other Cybertruck news, CEO Musk announced plans to halt Foundation Series production “pretty soon.” It aims to finally start manufacturing non-Foundation Series models sometime in Q3 2024. Tesla also set a target of producing 2,500 Cybertruck units per week by the end of 2024.
