Tesla Cybertruck received homologation of energy consumption in China days after the automaker denied a rumor of an imminent launch.
It was less than a week ago that Tesla China’s comms team went out of its way to deny rumors that Tesla currently had plans to launch the Cybertruck in the Chinese auto market.
That’s why it is surprising to see now that Tesla has received some level of homologation for the electric pickup truck in the market.
CNEV reported Tesla received an energy consumption label from the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology:
Tesla made a filing with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) to measure the energy consumption of the Cybertruck, and today it received an Automobile Energy Consumption Label.
It is not the entirety of the needed homologation process, but it’s a step toward that.
However, it would be surprising if there were indeed any plans to launch the Cybertruck in China anytime soon following the denial just a week ago.
Furthermore, CEO Elon Musk also threw some cold water on the prospects of a Cybertruck launch in China just a few months ago. He said that it would be hard to modify the vehicle for Chinese homologation.
On the other hand, we reported last week that Tesla has told employees working on the Cybertruck production line at Gigafactory Texas to take a few days off.
It comes as Tesla appears to have some demand issues with the Cybertruck as it added incentives to buy. It points to the automaker potentially throttling down production of the electric pickup truck.
The Cybertruck is only sold in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
This led some to believe that Tesla might try to launch the vehicle in other markets to address this demand problem.
Now this new filing is reigniting speculation that Tesla might launch the Cybertruck in China.
Electrek’s Take
I’d note that Tesla appears to have only filed for the Cyberbeast tri-motor version of the Cybertruck.
It’s possible that Tesla might test the waters in China with this more expensive version of the vehicle, which should be easier to sell profitably in the market after import costs.
It’s a real possibility, but it would be strange after Tesla just denied having plans to launch in the country.