The UK now has its own illegal rubber e-truck on the road

“The Cybertruck’s weight, solid construction, and edgy design raised legitimate concerns,” she told WIRED. “Any loophole that allows these vehicles onto (UK) streets must be closed quickly.”

Margaret Winchcombe, deputy chief executive of the Parliamentary Advisory Board on Transport Safety, an expert body, agrees: “It would be very disappointing if a back door was opened allowing vehicles to bring an increased risk of damage to the UK’s streets and roads.” For over 100 UK transport organisations.

“Allowing vehicles for which the safety of others seems to have become an afterthought would be a huge step backwards,” she adds.

Although Tesla has made bold safety claims about the Cybertruck and released mock crash-test footage, no independent bodies have crash-tested the vehicle. US regulators rely on automakers to conduct self-testing and confirm their compliance with safety standards.

The federal National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is supported by the insurance industry Insurance Institute for Highway Safety IIHS only performs crash tests on certain vehicles. The cost is too great for these organizations to test all compounds, so choices are made based on sales volume.

“Although the Cybertruck has generated a lot of buzz, we are unlikely to invest resources to test it unless it sells in numbers similar to other popular large pickups,” says Joe Young, director of media at IIHS.

“Without testing the Cybertruck, I cannot comment on the effectiveness of its crumple zones,” he asserts. “Right now, our concerns about its design are limited to issues we’ve raised with other electric vehicles. It’s too heavy and too fast.”

Because of what it calls the Cybertruck’s “unusual design,” the UK Department for Transport (DfT) told WIRED it “did not wish to predict” whether the van would receive a DfT-managed IVA permit.

“The IVA scheme was designed (for small and medium-sized businesses) involved in the conversion or import of specialized vehicles,” the statement continues to WIRED, “and was created long before the Cybertruck was designed.”

Extrapolating from the DfT’s carefully calibrated comments, Charalambous may be wasting his time and money trying to pass the IVA test. “The vehicle has advanced technology that may not be designed to meet UK regulations,” the DfT statement warns.

In his videos, Charalambous drives across southeast England in his Albanian-painted e-van. If caught doing so by a knowledgeable police officer, Charalambous could be fined. The DfT statement confirmed that “a UK resident cannot drive a vehicle displaying foreign number plates in the UK”, saying that “an imported vehicle must not be driven by a UK resident on foreign number plates, except to and from (annual safety inspection) and a ) Book an IVA (appointment) in advance.”

In the third video, Charalambous said he was legally allowed to drive his Cybertruck in the UK because the Albanian seller provided him with a green card, an international insurance certificate issued in Albania. Again, this is prohibited, as the DfT says: “Driving an unregistered vehicle would render any insurance invalid.”

Only time – and a lot of money – will tell whether Charalambous will succeed in legalizing his UK-based Cybertruck, but the odds are against it.