A striking Tesla Cybertruck which is illegal to drive in the UK due to safety concerns has been seized by police in Greater Manchester, according to BBC.
Officers spotted the eye-catching vehicle, which carries a price tag of about £48,000, in Whitefield, Bury, and stopped the driver on Thursday night.
In April 2024, Tesla recalled thousands of its new Cybertrucks, which weigh more than three tonnes, after concerns about its accelerator pedals.
Tesla removed the option to pre-order a Cybertruck in the UK and Europe well over a year ago, and there’s no sign of this rolling axe head making an appearance on our streets anytime soon.
Tesla cars had previously been barred from entering some government and military complexes in China due to spying and data security concerns. Those restrictions were lifted in April, when a top auto association announced that Tesla’s cars had passed China’s data security requirements.
In 2023 Elon Musk, the visionary CEO of Tesla, has hinted the electric car maker’s next gigafactory could be built in the UK. Musk said the EV heavyweight would likely begin the process of searching for a new battery factory site towards the end of 2023 – and revealed England would be under consideration.
According to New York Times, Elon Musk is a deeply unpopular figure in Britain, according to opinion polls, and his social media channel has lost users in the country since he took it over in October 2022. Yet when Elon Musk put Britain in his cross hairs on X in recent weeks, pounding the political establishment over a decade-old child sex abuse scandal, he instantly catapulted the issue to the top of the news agenda.
Musk’s ‘outrageous’ actions represent an ‘extremely dangerous’ threat to political systems in other countries, warned ex-British naval chief Alan West
Musk is trying to ‘stir up division and hatred in British politics … whip up hatred against Europe’s large, generally law-abiding Muslim populations,’ said veteran journalist Peter Oborne.
Musk has shown ‘he has the power to disrupt the political agenda,’ but his influence is unlikely to significantly affect electoral outcomes, said British academic Rob Ford
Musk is not welcomed in Germany as well.
Three quarters of Germans and Britons (74-76%) say that it is unacceptable for American political figures to intervene in domestic European political issues, with only 14-16% seeing it as acceptable.
The two publics feel that the principle extends in the opposite direction as well, with 72% in each nation saying that it is unacceptable for European political leaders to intervene in American political affairs.
When it comes specifically to Musk’s attempts to influence politics in Germany and Britain, the public has reacted negatively. Around seven in ten in both countries (69-73%) say such attempts by Musk have been unacceptable, with only 13% saying they are acceptable. Indeed, few Britons and Germans even think the billionaire’s attempts to influence politics in the US are acceptable (23-25%).
While Germans and Britons are unhappy with Musk’s interventions, few believe they will make much difference. Only around one in five (18-22%) believe that Musk has much influence on politics in their respective countries. Most Britons and Germans do, however, think that Musk has a great deal or fair amount of influence on politics in the USA (64-69%).
Musk is a close ally of US president-elect Donald Trump, who is set to return to the White House on 20 January.
Nevertheless, Musk’s influence on US politics is not seen as a reason to cosy up to him. Only 26-29% of Britons and Germans think that it’s important for their national governments to build and maintain a good working relationship with Musk – 54% see such a relationship as being of little importance.
Indeed, half of Britons and Germans (50-51%) think that Musk is best ignored when he makes claims about a country. Only 28% in each nation think the better approach for politicians to claims made by Musk is to engage with him.
Chinese officials are discussing a possible option that involves selling at least a portion of the US version of the app to Musk’s X, according to reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. CNN has not independently confirmed the discussions. “For China, selling to Musk could mean placing TikTok in the hands of an ally, someone whose business empire is deeply reliant on the Chinese market and who has the ear of incoming President Trump at a time when China will be looking for leverage in tariff negotiations”, CNN reported.
China is Tesla’s second-largest market; in the third quarter of 2024 alone, Tesla earned $5.7 billion in revenue from China. Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory, which Musk has praised as building the company’s highest quality cars, is also among the company’s most productive plants. And the company is also in the process of building a massive battery factory in Shanghai.
Musk has also referred to Taiwan as an “integral part of China,” infuriating Taiwanese leadership.
TikTok has called a report that China is considering allowing a sale of the social media company’s US operations to Elon Musk “pure fiction.”
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