Owner of three-tonne Cybertruck seized in Manchester 'can't touch public roads' in UK

Police seized the three-tonne Albanian-registered car in Whitefield, Greater Manchester, on Thursday, January 16, after officers said it was ‘not road legal in the UK’. The vehicle has been kept in a Greater Manchester Police garage ever since and its battery is now completely out of charge.

The car’s owner, Alban, said he had lent one of his two Tesla Cybertrucks which he keeps in the UK to a friend so he could make marketing videos when it was seized.

He said: “They stopped him at midnight, he showed documents to them and the police said ‘I’m not happy with the insurance’.”

The owner, who imported the vehicle from Albania, criticised police – saying it would have been easy for officers to verify insurance details.

He added: “[The officer said] I’m not happy, I can’t verify – which is very easy just to scan a barcode, everything comes up.”

Alban spoke to supercar customiser Yianni Charalambous, who bought a Cybertruck from Alban last year, on the Yiannimize YouTube channel.

He continued: “No one’s said anything about sharp edges, about dangers. After that, I’ve produced all documents, everything.

“Police was happy, he said ‘if that was a [Mercedes] G Wagon, you could drive that now, but this is a Cybertruck, we believe this is a dangerous car to be on the road.’”

After seizing the car, which is manufactured by Elon Musk’s Tesla, police said there were ‘legitimate concerns’ over the safety of other road users. The force added that the car, which has a top speed of 130mph and can accelerate from 0 to 60mph in just 2.6 seconds, was ‘not road legal’.

The vehicle, released in the US in 2023, cannot be bought in the UK and does not yet have ‘type approval’ under UK law.

Yianni added: “It has got zero charge, they won’t allow us to charge it and the fact it’s got no charge and how heavy it is and how you need to move this, it’s going to cause us real problems. I actually don’t know what’s going to happen when we manage to get a charge put back on to it and if it’ll top itself back up.”

Greater Manchester Police said the owner had now provided all required documentation for the release of the vehicle. However, a force spokesperson added: “The vehicle is not road legal in the UK and that it will need removal via recovery truck and be transported from our garage to private land, never touching public roads.

“We have asked for specific details which need to be provided to us and be checked, before we approve the vehicle for release.”