Tesla in China is asking those interested to choose the city where they want the Cybertruck to make its debut, but the pickup may not be available for sale in the country for the foreseeable future.

(Image credit: Tesla)

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is letting the Cybertruck go on tour in China, but the electric pickup truck may not be available for sale in the country for the foreseeable future due to regulatory factors.

Cybertruck's tour in China will begin, and those interested have until 6 pm Beijing Time on March 31 to submit the cities where they want the electric pickup to make its debut, according to a poster by Tesla today.

Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck in November 2019, and the polygonal design makes it stand out.

Tesla began delivering the Cybertruck on November 30, 2023, with a delivery ceremony at the Texas Gigafactory.

Rumors began to circulate last week that the Cybertruck would be unveiled in China, sparking much discussion on social media.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk later acknowledged that the electric pickup would be on display in China, but downplayed the prospect of it going on sale in the country.

"Getting Cybertruck road legal in China would be very difficult, but we could ship some prototypes over for display," Musk said on January 14 on X, previously known as Twitter.

Musk didn't mention specific legal hurdles, but pickup trucks are categorized as light trucks in China, and are subject to a lot of restrictions compared to regular passenger car models, including sedans, SUVs and MPVs.

On Chinese highways, pickup models are required to drive in the rightmost slow lane and are not allowed to exceed 100 kilometers per hour. Regular passenger cars can legally go up to 120 kilometers per hour on the highway.

Pickup trucks in China are also required to be used for no more than 15 years, at which point they need to be scrapped.

Such vehicles are required to undergo annual inspections with transportation authorities for the first 10 years, and biannual inspections beyond that. In contrast, regular passenger cars with seven seats or less are not required to have an on-site inspection for up to six years.

In addition, many Chinese cities have restrictions on pickup trucks entering urban areas, although those restrictions have been narrowed over the past few years.

China's main pickup makers are Great Wall Motor, SAIC, and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group (JAC), though the offerings are largely fuel models.

In July 2022, Geely unveiled its outdoor lifestyle vehicle brand Radar Auto and its first model, the RD6, an electric pickup truck that officially went on sale in late November 2022 in China.

Radar introduced the RD6 in Vientiane, Laos, on November 21, 2023, marking the brand's official entry into the international arena.

Tesla has a factory in Shanghai that produces the Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV, and its more expensive Model S sedan and Model X SUV are not produced in China but are sold here as imports.

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