diff --git a/ci-automation/ci-config.env b/ci-automation/ci-config.env
index 52768fb8eef..8fce6b67cb4 100644
--- a/ci-automation/ci-config.env
+++ b/ci-automation/ci-config.env
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ QEMU_UEFI_BIOS="${QEMU_UEFI_BIOS:-flatcar_production_qemu_uefi_efi_code.fd}"
 
 # Update payload for the qemu_update.sh test.
 # The default path set below is relative to TEST_WORK_DIR
-QEMU_UPDATE_PAYLOAD="tmp/flatcar_test_update.gz"
+QEMU_UPDATE_PAYLOAD="${QEMU_UPDATE_PAYLOAD:-tmp/flatcar_test_update.gz}"
 
 # Devcontainer settings for isolated / local testing w/o a remote
 #  devcontainer server and/or binhost.
diff --git a/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu_update.sh b/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu_update.sh
index 5232b099383..2af19bd0708 100755
--- a/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu_update.sh
+++ b/ci-automation/vendor-testing/qemu_update.sh
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ if [ "$*" != "" ] && [ "$*" != "*" ] && [[ "$*" != *"cl.update."* ]]; then
 fi
 
 mkdir -p "$(dirname ${QEMU_UPDATE_PAYLOAD})"
+mkdir -p tmp
 if [ -f "${QEMU_UPDATE_PAYLOAD}" ] ; then
     echo "++++ ${CIA_TESTSCRIPT}: Using existing ${QEMU_UPDATE_PAYLOAD} for testing ${CIA_VERNUM} (${CIA_ARCH}) ++++"
 else