Xiaomi says the SU7 has passed 500,000 cumulative deliveries in 28.5 months, the fastest for any Chinese EV above CNY 200,000. But Xiaomi has delivered 216,322 cars in 2026 so far, 39% of its 550,000 target, and would need close to 67,000 a month to close the gap against a record month of 50,212.

WeRide has completed Slovakia's first autonomous robotaxi test drive, using its lidar-equipped Robotaxi GXR on a closed circuit with a safety driver aboard. Slovakia's Ministry of Transport has written a framework allowing testing with no driver at the wheel, which no other EU state has matched, while Tesla's FSD still awaits EU approval.

A German importer will deliver the China-only Audi E5 Sportback from EUR 59,980 before VAT, roughly double its Chinese price. EU countervailing duties of 7.8% to 35.3% explain the gap: SAIC, Audi's Chinese partner, drew the top rate, while Tesla holds the lowest at 7.8% for its Shanghai-built cars.

A Robotaxi Model Y with nobody in the driver's seat stopped for a row of plastic lane bollards in Austin, then pushed through them and kept going. It happened four weeks after Tesla's VP of AI told investors the programme had an 'impeccable' record with zero notable incidents over 380,000 driverless miles.

The Powered by E.ON Drive & Clever joint venture, 157 fast-charging points across 37 Nordic motorway sites, is being divided by country. Clever keeps Denmark, E.ON Drive Infrastructure takes Sweden and newcomer Uno-X Mobility takes Norway. From 1 September, Clever subscribers pay by card in Norway and Sweden.

Tesla is liquidating new, unused Model S and Model X components on the B-Stock bulk auction platform, sold by the pallet with starting bids as low as $100 against a retail value above $1.3 million. It is inventory clearance, not a parts-supply retreat — but it is where the independent repair trade will get its stock.

An EU filing dated 5 August 2026 records Porsche leaving the Volkswagen Group's CO₂ pool to form an open pool with XPeng for 2026 and 2027. Porsche's own fleet averaged 118.6 g/km in 2025 against a VW Group target of 93.6 g/km, and its European EV sales are down about 30% year-on-year. The detail that matters for Tesla: a manufacturer that genuinely needs credits went to a Chinese brand with under 20,000 European registrations rather than to Tesla, whose regulatory-credit revenue fell 67% to $146 million in Q2 2026.

From 1 September a French taxi driver ordering an electric car can claim roughly €3,500, rising to about €5,500 where the car and its battery are both built in Europe. Orders must be placed by 31 December. For Tesla the money matters less than the gate: the scheme reuses France's environmental score, which the Berlin-built Model Y clears and the Shanghai-built Model 3 does not — and VTC drivers, who account for most of the Teslas working French streets, are excluded outright.

Germany's electric-car purchase premium means-tests the applicant's income but puts no ceiling on the price of the car. By 1 August that had subsidised more than 50 luxury EVs, including 36 Porsches, a Mercedes G 580 and a BMW i7. SPD and Green politicians want a price cap; the environment ministry refuses.

Prague has pushed its streetlight-charging programme from the end of 2026 to 31 December 2028 after the first phase ran slower than planned and left money unspent. About 150 lamps get prepared this year, against roughly 4,500 charging points the city says it will need by 2030.

Ron DeSantis rode Tesla's control-free Cybercab through scripted hazards at SunTrax, Florida's state-owned autonomous-vehicle proving ground, on 11 August 2026. The venue matters more than the endorsement: Florida already lets a car with no steering wheel carry passengers on public roads with nobody inside.

Zoox has published the framework behind the first US robotaxi cleared to charge passengers without a steering wheel or pedals, after an NHTSA exemption granted on 31 July 2026 that permits up to 2,500 vehicles a year until 2028. With no controls, supervised-mile testing was impossible, so validation rests on simulation and roughly 3 million miles of data benchmarked against US crash statistics. It is self-certified and landed three weeks after a fleet-wide recall — and it previews what Tesla's Cybercab will have to demonstrate.

BYD has launched the Qin Max in China from 109,900 yuan for the electric version, using its second-generation Blade battery and flash charging that the company claims takes it from 10% to 70% in about five minutes. It is not sold in Europe, but the platform underneath it is what BYD brings to European showrooms next.

Tesla Energy has launched a Powerwall Lease in parts of Texas: two Powerwalls, no installation cost, a $100 order fee and a $122 monthly base payment that falls to about $35 after an $87 Tesla Electric credit. The base payment rises 3% a year, and the credit disappears the moment you leave Tesla Electric.

The Nevada Transportation Authority has granted Tesla Robotaxi, LLC its operating permit, but capped the fleet at 10 vehicles against the 5,000 Tesla requested, confined it to a Las Vegas Strip geofence, barred roads above 45 mph and required human supervision on board.

Samsung SDI is buying GM's 49.99% stake in Synergy Cells, the $3.5 billion cell plant at New Carlisle, Indiana, and will run the 27 GWh site as its first wholly owned battery factory in North America. Both sides name the same reason: EV demand grew more slowly than the plan assumed.

XPeng plans to sell over a million vehicles outside China by 2030, with overseas business generating more than 70% of profits. Germany goes from about 70 dealers to 110 by year-end, Europe is at 290 outlets across 28 countries, and the 2026 goal is to double overseas sales past 90,000 units — while XPeng sells its VLA 2.0 driving software to Volkswagen.

California's MyFirstEV gives first-time ZEV buyers an instant $3,500 off. Tesla's share of the $135 million state pot, matched dollar for dollar by the automakers, was exhausted five days after it opened to Tesla buyers on 3 August.

Tesla is raising its Japanese delivery locations by about 60% this year and more than doubling service centres from 14 to over 30, chasing the title of Japan's biggest imported car brand as early as next year. Japan sales hit just over 10,000 in 2025, roughly 90% up and a brand record, with Q1 2026 already at about half that total.

A new map from Italian research body RSE finds just six operational heavy-vehicle charging sites in the whole country — two in Alto Adige, two in Emilia-Romagna, one in Veneto, one in Liguria — with nothing south of Emilia-Romagna and Sardinia absent entirely, against binding AFIR obligations.

Italy opened its 2026 Ecobonus for light commercial vehicles at midday on 29 July. The €16 million ring-fenced for electric vans was fully booked in about 20 minutes, and all €40 million in roughly 50 minutes.

XPeng launched the L03 compact SUV coupé at a Munich event, opening orders in more than 60 markets at once. German prices start at €35,600, with up to 520km WLTP and 236kW charging on a 400-volt architecture.

The ID. UNYX 09 is a five-metre electric saloon co-developed with XPeng, launching in China in the second half of 2026 with up to 370 kW and city-street navigation on autopilot. European sales have not been announced, and the ID.9 talk is speculation.

Waymo has shown the interior of the Ojai, its sixth-generation robotaxi built with Zeekr. A tri-screen layout adapts to which seats are occupied, a Calm Mode strips the display back to the essentials, and Google's Gemini handles climate and questions — but never the route.

SAIC Volkswagen filed the ID. ERA 5X with China's MIIT in the catalogue published on 7 August 2026. It is the first battery-electric model in an ID. ERA family that until now has been hybrid, the first Volkswagen on the new CMP platform, and it uses the CEA electronics architecture co-developed with Xpeng.