Safety groups call on Czech government to review registration of dangerous Cybertruck

In July, the owner of a Tesla Cybertruck based in the Czech Republic publicly announced that national authorities registered his vehicle for use on public roads. An online post suggests that the Czech Republic’s system of Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) was used to register this Cybertruck.

Tesla's manual for the Cybertruck pick-up truck gives its maximum mass as 4 tonnes, with some small differences between model variants. However, the group of NGOs understands that the owner-importer of this Cybertruck, or the technical testing centre working on his behalf, declared its maximum mass as 3.5 tonnes in documentation submitted to Czech registration authorities, in an attempt to classify this import as a light duty vehicle under EU law.

The letter asks the Czech ministry to point to a legal basis allowing the maximum weight of the vehicle, as declared by the vehicle-maker - and imprinted on the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) plate, to be disregarded in favour of a figure approximately half a tonne less, thereby conveniently matching the EU weight limit for light duty vehicles.

EU law also requires the goods-carrying capacity of a N1 commercial goods vehicle to be at least as high as its person-carrying capacity, measured by a weight-based test.

This test is clearly intended to safeguard Europe from the very over-sized pick-up trucks now being increasingly imported and bringing danger to our streets. Based on data published by Tesla, the Cybertruck appears not to pass this test."

The letter calls on the Czech government to review the registration, which could, if not addressed, represent the beginning of the mass import of Cybertrucks into Europe.