diff --git a/.github/workflows/kind-e2e.yml b/.github/workflows/kind-e2e.yml
index 43beb206e..72539edda 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/kind-e2e.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/kind-e2e.yml
@@ -48,9 +48,6 @@ jobs:
           sudo apt-get install -y j2cli
           echo $(j2 --version)
 
-      - name: Setup registry
-        run: docker run -d --restart=always -p "5000:5000" --name "kind-registry" registry:2
-
       - name: Build latest-amd64
         uses: docker/build-push-action@v5
         with:
@@ -60,10 +57,6 @@ jobs:
           file: ${{ matrix.docker-file }}
           platforms: linux/amd64
 
-      # docker buildx push is failed due to https://github.com/docker/buildx/issues/94
-      - name: Push to local registry
-        run: docker push localhost:5000/multus:e2e
-
       - name: Get kind/kubectl/koko
         working-directory: ./e2e
         run: ./get_tools.sh
@@ -74,7 +67,7 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Setup cluster
         working-directory: ./e2e
-        run: MULTUS_MANIFEST=${{ matrix.multus-manifest }} ./setup_cluster.sh
+        run: MULTUS_MANIFEST=${{ matrix.multus-manifest }} MULTUS_DOCKERFILE=none ./setup_cluster.sh
 
       - name: Test simple pod
         working-directory: ./e2e
@@ -108,5 +101,3 @@ jobs:
       - name: cleanup cluster and registry
         run: |
           kind delete cluster
-          docker kill kind-registry
-          docker rm kind-registry
diff --git a/e2e/get_tools.sh b/e2e/get_tools.sh
index 3e4aef0b6..fbc5b4057 100755
--- a/e2e/get_tools.sh
+++ b/e2e/get_tools.sh
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ if [ ! -d bin ]; then
 	mkdir bin
 fi
 
-curl -Lo ./bin/kind "https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/download/v0.20.0/kind-$(uname)-amd64"
+curl -Lo ./bin/kind "https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kind/releases/download/v0.22.0/kind-$(uname)-amd64"
 chmod +x ./bin/kind
 curl -Lo ./bin/kubectl https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/`curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt`/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl
 chmod +x ./bin/kubectl
diff --git a/e2e/setup_cluster.sh b/e2e/setup_cluster.sh
index 3a4ab806d..40286628a 100755
--- a/e2e/setup_cluster.sh
+++ b/e2e/setup_cluster.sh
@@ -14,32 +14,17 @@ MULTUS_MANIFEST="${MULTUS_MANIFEST:-multus-daemonset-thick.yml}"
 # define the dockerfile to build multus.
 # Acceptable values are `Dockerfile`. `Dockerfile.thick`.
 # Defaults to `Dockerfile.thick`.
-MULTUS_DOCKERFILE="${MULTUS_MANIFEST:-Dockerfile.thick}"
+MULTUS_DOCKERFILE="${MULTUS_DOCKERFILE:-Dockerfile.thick}"
 
 kind_network='kind'
-reg_name='kind-registry'
-reg_port='5000'
-running="$($OCI_BIN inspect -f '{{.State.Running}}' "${reg_name}" 2>/dev/null || true)"
-if [ "${running}" != 'true' ]; then
-  # run registry and push the multus image
-  $OCI_BIN run -d --restart=always -p "${reg_port}:5000" --name "${reg_name}" registry:2
-  $OCI_BIN build -t localhost:5000/multus:e2e -f ../images/${MULTUS_DOCKERFILE} ..
-  $OCI_BIN push localhost:5000/multus:e2e
+if [ "${MULTUS_DOCKERFILE}" != "none" ]; then
+	$OCI_BIN build -t localhost:5000/multus:e2e -f ../images/${MULTUS_DOCKERFILE} ..
 fi
-reg_host="${reg_name}"
-if [ "${kind_network}" = "bridge" ]; then
-    reg_host="$($OCI_BIN inspect -f '{{.NetworkSettings.IPAddress}}' "${reg_name}")"
-fi
-echo "Registry Host: ${reg_host}"
 
 # deploy cluster with kind
 cat <<EOF | kind create cluster --config=-
 kind: Cluster
 apiVersion: kind.x-k8s.io/v1alpha4
-containerdConfigPatches:
-- |-
-  [plugins."io.containerd.grpc.v1.cri".registry.mirrors."localhost:${reg_port}"]
-    endpoint = ["http://${reg_host}:${reg_port}"]
 nodes:
   - role: control-plane
   - role: worker
@@ -52,28 +37,8 @@ nodes:
   - role: worker
 EOF
 
-cat <<EOF | kubectl apply -f -
-apiVersion: v1
-kind: ConfigMap
-metadata:
-  name: local-registry-hosting
-  namespace: kube-public
-data:
-  localRegistryHosting.v1: |
-    host: "localhost:${reg_port}"
-    help: "https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/docs/user/local-registry/"
-EOF
-
-containers=$($OCI_BIN network inspect ${kind_network} -f "{{range .Containers}}{{.Name}} {{end}}")
-needs_connect="true"
-for c in $containers; do
-  if [ "$c" = "${reg_name}" ]; then
-    needs_connect="false"
-  fi
-done
-if [ "${needs_connect}" = "true" ]; then
-  $OCI_BIN network connect "${kind_network}" "${reg_name}" || true
-fi
+# load multus image from container host to kind node
+kind load docker-image localhost:5000/multus:e2e
 
 worker1_pid=$($OCI_BIN inspect --format "{{ .State.Pid }}" kind-worker)
 worker2_pid=$($OCI_BIN inspect --format "{{ .State.Pid }}" kind-worker2)
diff --git a/e2e/teardown.sh b/e2e/teardown.sh
index a9f6d12f8..6f56d7e19 100755
--- a/e2e/teardown.sh
+++ b/e2e/teardown.sh
@@ -1,10 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 #set -o errexit
 
-reg_name='kind-registry'
 export PATH=${PATH}:./bin
 
 # delete cluster kind
 kind delete cluster
-docker kill ${reg_name}
-docker rm ${reg_name}
diff --git a/e2e/templates/multus-daemonset-thick.yml.j2 b/e2e/templates/multus-daemonset-thick.yml.j2
index 8fdc8e4c5..035304188 100644
--- a/e2e/templates/multus-daemonset-thick.yml.j2
+++ b/e2e/templates/multus-daemonset-thick.yml.j2
@@ -133,7 +133,6 @@ spec:
       containers:
       - name: kube-multus
         image: localhost:5000/multus:e2e
-        imagePullPolicy: Always
         command: [ "/usr/src/multus-cni/bin/multus-daemon" ]
         resources:
           requests: