March 2024
With millions of Cybertruck reservations in hand, Tesla has yet to open reservations for Europe. There is a lot of speculation on why the Cybertruck would not or can’t be sold in Europe, but we’ll shatter those claims and make the case for Cybertrucks being sold in Europe sooner rather than later!
Production Limitations
The Claim: Until production volume catches up with North American demand, there is little reason to bother with versions for other countries – as these are costly changes and make production efforts difficult.
Reality: This has never slowed down Tesla in the past. Tesla is very comfortable designing and manufacturing country vehicle variants, even for low-volume vehicles like the Model S and Model X.
Pedestrian Safety
The Claim: The EU has strict standards on how the front end of vehicles must be designed to be a little less likely to kill pedestrians when you hit them.
Reality: It turns out there is a clause in the EU standard that would allow the Cybertruck since the Cybertruck could be safer than most other vehicles due to Tesla’s pedestrian avoidance system.
Standard 78/2009, Section 6: “Vehicles equipped with collision avoidance systems may not have to fulfill certain requirements laid down in this Regulation to the extent that they will be able to avoid collisions with pedestrians rather than merely mitigate the effects of such collisions.”
Size
The Claim: The Cybertruck is too large.
Reality: There are plenty of vehicles sold in the EU that are similar in size or even larger, although perhaps not as popular as in the USA. For example, the Dodge RAM 1500 is sold in Europe and is larger in every dimension than the Cybertruck. The Ford Lightning, being sold in select European countries, is also bigger in every dimension than the Cybertruck.
Costly Shipping
The Claim: Shipping would be too costly from California to Europe.
Reality: Tesla already ships the Model S and Model X from California to Europe. The Cybertruck would be a bit more expensive as it is physically larger and heavier, but likely the costs would add less than 1% more to the total cost.
Lack of Desire
The Claim: Few Europeans will want one.
Reality: The Cybertruck may have more demand than Tesla’s Model S and Model X in Europe. The Cybertruck can also be a “Halo” car that attracts customers to stores, those that will never buy one, but once in the store, view Tesla’s other offerings. This is working today in China, where the Cybertruck is attracting massive crowds.
Weight
The Claim: It’s too heavy!
The Reality: The US version AWD Cybertruck with a full payload requires a Class C truck license in Europe. Ideally, you want the gross vehicle weight to be under 7,716 pounds, to allow common drivers with a Class B license.
Tesla could offer the AWD version and limit the payload to 1,100 pounds to achieve this. The RWD will be even lighter and could offer a larger payload and be under the 7,716-pound limit. There are options, so the weight does not prevent Cybertruck sales.
Style
The Claim: The Cybertruck is the wrong styling for Europeans.
Reality: The Cybertruck does have a polarizing style. Those who cannot accept anything other than a tired truck that looks duplicated over and over are never going to accept the Cybertruck. That said, many love to go beyond the traditional and want to stand out from the crowd. While the Cybertruck is not for everyone, there are still plenty of people who want to go with the new and challenge the status quo.