This YouTuber brought the first-ever Cybertruck to the UK but ran into a big issue

  • This man brought the first-ever Cybertruck to the UK
  • He paid a lot to get the EV shipped over 
  • But it wasn’t long before he hit a problem

Published on Nov 29, 2024 at 4:22 AM (UTC+4)
by Claire Reid

Last updated on Nov 29, 2024 at 3:38 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by Kate Bain

A British car enthusiast brought the very first Tesla Cybertruck into the UK but it didn’t take long before he ran into a problem.

The Cybertruck had been bought in California three months earlier and its owner spent a lot of time and money getting the whopper of the EV into Europe. 

That owner then decided to sell the Cybertruck and it was snapped up by certified car lover Yianni Charalambous.

The car turned a lot of heads on UK roads, but it also came with its fair share of problems. 

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The Tesla Cybertruck was not designed for UK roads

The Cybertruck is simply not designed to take on European roads – so much so that many Tesla fans have been urging Elon Musk to consider making a special ‘international version’.

Musk himself has hinted at such a product too.

Speaking at a shareholders’ meeting back in June, he confirmed that the Cybertruck was designed to ‘North American requirements’ but said Tesla ‘might be able to certify it for other markets’ as soon as next year.

Until then, folks living outside of North America will need to import a US-bought Cybertruck – like the one belonging to Charalambous.

One obvious downside to it not being designed for the European market is that certain things won’t work.

In a clip shared to his YouTube channel, Charalambous – who you may remember as the guy who used AI to choose the wrap for his Lamborghini Urus – notes that neither the autopilot or maps were working on the car.

He hit a pretty major problem early on

Things soon got worse.

“I ran into some serious issues along the way,” Charalambous admitted. 

After driving around London, urging members of the public to kick the truck to test its strength, Charalambous realized his battery was on just 12%.

So he headed to a charging station, but it was there he realized he had a big problem: the car wouldn’t charge.

In the video, he can be seen struggling to hook the charger up to the truck, despite using a ‘specially made’ adapter.

He tried two more adapters before he decided to call up the UK-based previous owner who informed him that the newer chargers don’t work on the Cybertruck. Ouch.

Thankfully, a helpful Tesla owner named Ben approached Charalambous and was able to seek out one of the older-model chargers and, after a few more snags and a bit of jiggling around, the Cybertruck finally started charging. 

Phew.

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Claire Reid is a journalist who hails from the UK but is now living in New Zealand. She began her career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Liverpool John Moore’s University and has more than a decade of experience, writing for both local newspapers and national news sites. Across her career she's covered a wide variety of topics, including celebrity, cryptocurrency, politics, true crime and just about everything in between.