Tesla Cybertruck Not Street-Legal In EU - Forbes

US-AUTOMOBILE-TESLA-CYBERTRUCK — Tesla co-founder and CEO Elon Musk introduces the Tesla Cybertruck at Tesla Design Center in ... [+] Hawthorne, California on November 21, 2019. (Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP) (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
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It may be a head-turner, it may already be a financial success, and it may have won the drooling admiration of car nerds and sci-fi wonks alike, but the Tesla Cybertruck would not be street-legal in Europe.

The European Commission has strict automotive testing and safety protocols, and the Cybertruck—as is—would fail many of them, including increasingly stringent pedestrian and cyclist protection standards. Perhaps when it finally reaches the market sometime in 2021 or 2022, the futuristic-looking electric vehicle will have been modified to meet EU standards, but that would mean significant changes having to be made to the Cybertruck’s angular stainless-steel shell.

And it’s the Bladerunner-style aesthetics that are wowing audiences, including Bladerunner’s artistic director Syd Mead. He told Business Insider that Elon Musk’s latest toy was “stylistically breathtaking.”

That it may be, but, to be driven in Europe, the Cybertruck would need to be redesigned in different materials. Or, perhaps Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk is banking on the Cybertruck being sold in the US only? Many motor vehicles in the US are exempt from pedestrian protection protocols.

According to EU auto standards expert Stefan Teller the Cybertruck would have to undergo “major modifications to the basic structure” because the Cybertruck “contradicts the European security philosophy.”

Teller, who works for the German safety organization SGS-TÜV, said that the EU mandates pedestrian crumple zones on motor vehicles.

“The bumper and [hood] must be able to absorb energy to protect pedestrians,” Teller told the German car magazine Automobilwoche, a standard that the Cybertruck would fail.

EU standards for motor vehicles are getting tougher. Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection voted in February to approve a range of new vehicle safety standards including automatic detection of pedestrians and cyclists, and a new direct vision standard for lorries and buses to enable drivers to have a better view of other road users around their vehicles.

MEPs also voted for the installation of speed-limiter devices on all new cars from 2022. MEPs also green-lighted the requirement for motor vehicles to be fitted with aviation-style “black box” Event Data Recorders, which record critical information on the status of a motor vehicle in the moments before a collision.

The Cybertruck could no doubt meet pedestrian and cyclist detection standards—technology already fitted in new Tesla vehicles—and, similarly, the “black box” requirements would also be a shoo-in for a tech-focussed company such as Tesla.

Musk is proud that existing Tesla models exceed EU safety standards. On December 4, he tweeted that: “Model X just earned 5 stars from Euro NCAP in safety testing.”

However, pedestrian-safety omens for the new Cybertruck don’t look good. On December 7, Musk was spotted at the wheel of a prototype Cybertruck as he and celeb pals left the Nobu Japanese restaurant in Malibu, California. Despite a sign telling Musk to turn right, he turned left, driving over the plastic sign in the process. As many have pointed out on social media, the traffic sign was about the size of a small child.

Musk has boasted that Tesla has received more than 200,000 pre-orders for the electric pickup truck, which has a starting price of $39,900. He has not revealed the geographical break-down of where these $100 pledges have come from so it is not known how many are from European consumers.

And another unknown is whether the Cybertruck will be street-legal in the U.K. For now it is not but, in a post-Brexit future, the U.K. may not cleave to EU automotive standards.

Many of the EU’s testing and safety protocols were developed in the U.K. The European New Car Assessment Programme, or NCAP, mentioned by Musk, was founded in 1996 by the Transport Research Laboratory for the U.K. Department for Transport, and later adopted by the European Commission.

This article was updated with additional information added on NCAP standards.

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