diff --git a/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu_update.sh b/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu_update.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..e9ddfacf14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu_update.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,80 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# Copyright (c) 2021 The Flatcar Maintainers.
+# Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
+# found in the LICENSE file.
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+# Test execution script for the update payload using the previous
+# release as starting point, and doing a second update from the current
+# build to itself again.
+# This script is supposed to run in the SDK container.
+
+work_dir="$1"; shift
+arch="$1"; shift
+vernum="$1"; shift
+tapfile="$1"; shift
+
+# $@ now contains tests / test patterns to run
+
+if [ "$@" != "" ] && [ "$@" != "*" ] && [ "$@" != "cl.update.payload" ]; then
+    echo "Only cl.update.payload is supported, got '$@'"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+source ci-automation/ci_automation_common.sh
+
+mkdir -p "${work_dir}"
+cd "${work_dir}"
+
+mkdir -p tmp/
+if [ -f tmp/flatcar_test_update.gz ] ; then
+    echo "++++ QEMU test: Using existing ${work_dir}/tmp/flatcar_test_update.gz for testing ${vernum} (${arch}) ++++"
+else
+    echo "++++ QEMU test: downloading flatcar_test_update.gz for ${vernum} (${arch}) ++++"
+    copy_from_buildcache "images/${arch}/${vernum}/flatcar_test_update.gz" tmp/
+fi
+
+# Get last release tag (and filter out the alpha-3046.0.0 tag which was done without updating the submodule and thus refers a commit on main)
+PREV_TAG=$(git describe --tags --abbrev=0 | sed 's/alpha-3046.0.0//g')
+if [ "${PREV_TAG}" = "" ]; then
+    # For main we compare to last alpha release
+    ON_CHANNEL="alpha"
+else
+    ON_CHANNEL=$(echo "${PREV_TAG}" | cut -d "-" -f 1)
+fi
+if [ "${ON_CHANNEL}" = "lts" ]; then
+    echo "Updating from previous LTS is not supported yet (needs creds), fallback to Stable"
+    ON_CHANNEL="stable"
+fi
+if [ -f tmp/flatcar_production_image_previous.bin ] ; then
+    echo "++++ QEMU test: Using existing ${work_dir}/tmp/flatcar_production_image_previous.bin for testing update to ${vernum} (${arch}) from previous ${ON_CHANNEL} ++++"
+else
+    echo "++++ QEMU test: downloading flatcar_production_image_previous.bin from previous ${ON_CHANNEL} ++++"
+    rm -f tmp/flatcar_production_image_previous.bin.bz2
+    curl -fsSLO --retry-delay 1 --retry 60 --retry-connrefused --retry-max-time 60 --connect-timeout 20 "https://${ON_CHANNEL}.release.flatcar-linux.net/${arch}-usr/current/flatcar_production_image.bin.bz2"
+    mv flatcar_production_image.bin.bz2 tmp/flatcar_production_image_previous.bin.bz2
+    lbunzip2 -k -f tmp/flatcar_production_image_previous.bin.bz2
+fi
+
+bios="${QEMU_BIOS}"
+if [ "${arch}" = "arm64" ]; then
+    bios="${QEMU_UEFI_BIOS}"
+    if [ -f "${bios}" ] ; then
+        echo "++++ ${testscript}: Using existing ${work_dir}/${bios} ++++"
+    else
+        echo "++++ ${testscript}: downloading ${bios} for ${vernum} (${arch}) ++++"
+        copy_from_buildcache "images/${arch}/${vernum}/${bios}" .
+    fi
+fi
+
+sudo kola run \
+    --board="${arch}-usr" \
+    --parallel="${QEMU_PARALLEL}" \
+    --platform=qemu \
+    --qemu-bios="${bios}" \
+    --qemu-image=tmp/flatcar_production_image_previous.bin \
+    --tapfile="${tapfile}" \
+    --torcx-manifest=../torcx_manifest.json \
+    --update-payload=tmp/flatcar_test_update.gz \
+    cl.update.payload