Why Tesla’s Cybertruck won’t be sold in Australia soon despite rolling up at Bunnings

Tesla is showing off its polarising Cybertruck across Australia, including at a Bunnings store, but there are a few key reasons why it won’t be sold here anytime soon.

Call it a tease. Tesla is showing off its polarising Cybertruck across Australia, including driving it to a Bunnings store this week where it took up two parking spots.

The vehicle has been in Australia since about April, under dealer registration plates.

It was seen in Sydney around then, Western Australia and more recently at a vintage car event in South Australia. But the exact itinerary for the electric truck – which was developed after Elon Musk’s son Saxon asked “why doesn’t the future look like the future?” – continues to surprise, with Telsa giving little away.
One thing we do know is that it won’t be arriving in any Australian garages soon.

Despite “touring” the Cybertruck across Australia and New Zealand, Tesla has no plans to sell the 5.6 metre-long, 2.4-metre wide vehicle locally. Although Musk says it may be able to certify it in some international markets next year.

Bunnings was able to piggyback off the showcase and light up social media to promote its foray into electric vehicle chargers and accessories.

Musk said costs and regulation were why the Cybertruck, priced from about $US80,000, will be a US-only vehicle for the time being

But cutting production costs on the Cybertruck – which is wrapped in stainless steel, with its body panels, according to Musk, can resist small arms fire (or at least remove driver anxiety over paint chips) – has proven challenging.

Musk said costs and regulation were why the Cybertruck, priced from about $US80,000, will be a US-only vehicle for the time being.

“We did design the car to North American requirements, because if you start going with a superset of all international requirements, it forces a lot of constraints on the Cybertruck that would make the product, frankly, worse,” Musk told investors in June.

“So I think we’ll need to make a special version that is, for example, China-compliant or Europe-compliant.

“But it really doesn’t make sense to add that complexity until we’ve achieved a higher-volume production on the Cybertruck. There’s still a lot of work to do on driving costs down for the Cybertruck. The level of difficulty of going from, say, a prototype…to production…is 100 times harder, and then once you reach production, to improve the price by 20 per cent, like, the cost of goods by 20 per cent, is harder than reaching production in the first place.”

A Tesla Cybertruck parked at Bunnings at Caloundra in Queensland to promote the hardware chain's foray into electric vehicle charges and accessories. Picture: Reddit

Musk described this process in searching for costs a “mega pain”. To be frank, it’s not the funnest job in the world. Like chiselling pennies is not … it’s like washing the dishes, frankly, like wash a lot of dishes here,” he said.

“It’s super fun to make prototypes. That’s really fun and it’s kind of cool to get, it’s pretty cool to get the production going. Then the cost of production is a grind. That is like, you know, it’s hard work.

“You know, there’s some reward to it. Like the sort of a reward to washing the dishes, I guess. You have clean dishes. But that is a tough … so, that’s real hard work.

Despite the challenges, Musk said Tesla might be able to certify it for other markets “sometime next year”.

Telsa Cybertruck in Sydney in April.

Bunnings director of merchandise Cam Rist said the Cybertruck was at the hardware chain’s Caloundra store on the Sunshine Coast as part of a Tesla “activation” of a new EV accessory and charging range launch.

Mr Rist said Bunnings was the first major retailer outside of the US/Canada to partner with Tesla on these products, which includes the Tesla Powerwall battery.

“We’re launching a range of electric vehicle chargers and accessories across selected stores to make it easier for our customers to own and maintain EVs,” he said. 

“The range, which includes wall-mounted EV charges that can be installed in customers’ homes, is currently being rolled out to 40 pilot stores across Australia in a phased approach.”

“We know the EV market is growing rapidly in Australia and we’re pleased to be making these products more accessible to customers at an affordable price, which have been traditionally hard to find in retail stores.”

Elon Musk says the Cybertruck’s panels are resistant to small arms fire. Picture: @Tesla on X (Twitter)

Back in the US, a judge has rejected Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package, upholding an earlier ruling, plunging Tesla’s board into more uncertainty over how to compensate its superstar chief executive for a decade of work.

Delaware judge Kathaleen McCormick rescinded the entire pay package – now worth over $US100bn ($155.62bn) based on Monday’s closing share price – and said Tesla’s board, led by Australian Robyn Denholm – misled investors.

Denholm says the board is considering alternatives but told CNBC “none of them are as good from a shareholder perspective”.

Musk has been hailed as a visionary. He has become an influential figure in Donald Trump’s incoming administration, heading a new Department of Government Efficiency, and plans to save the US federal budget “at least $US2 trillion” as he adopts his ruthless management style on America’s public service.