Tesla Cybertruck to start China tour at late Jan with 8 cars to debut in 8 cities

Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Xi'an, and Chongqing will be the first eight cities that Cybertruck will tour in China. (Image credit: Tesla) Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) will soon begin a tour of China for the Cybertruck, an electric pickup truck that may not be available in the country anytime soon but is expected to bring an increase in store visits. The Cybertruck tour of China is set to begin in late January, local media outlet The Paper said in a report today, citing Tesla. There will be eight Cybertrucks debuting simultaneously in eight cities -- Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Xi'an and Chongqing, the report said. After the eight city debuts, all of Tesla's other models -- Model S, Model X, Model 3, and Model Y -- will embark on a nationwide tour with the Cybertruck, according to the report. Tesla unveiled the Cybertruck in November 2019 and began deliveries of the model on November 30, 2023. The US electric vehicle (EV) maker said last week that the Cybertruck's tour in China will begin and invited those interested to submit cities where they would like the electric pickup to make its debut. The Cybertruck probably won't be available in China in the foreseeable future, as pickups are categorized as light trucks in China and are subject to many restrictions compared to regular passenger car models, including sedans, SUVs and MPVs. On China's 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 and need to be scrapped at the end of that time. In addition, many Chinese cities have restrictions on pickup trucks entering urban areas, although these have been narrowed over the past few years. But it's worth noting that the Cybertruck is expected to attract more visitors to Tesla's stores in China, and may also reinforce the perception that the EV maker has advanced technologies, which are important in the increasingly competitive Chinese EV market. On January 12, Tesla cut prices for all two versions of the Model 3 by nearly 6 percent, and for two of the three versions of the Model Y by nearly 3 percent. Tesla has a factory in Shanghai that produces the Model 3 and Model Y. The factory currently has an annual capacity of more than 950,000 vehicles, its largest in the world. Tesla sold 75,805 vehicles in China in December, up 80.81 percent year-on-year and up 15.73 percent from November, data compiled by CnEVPost showed. For all of 2023, Tesla sold 603,664 vehicles in China, up 37.27 percent year-on-year. Tesla cuts Model 3 and Model Y prices in China amid fierce competition