Hardware

Tesla and SpaceX have confirmed Grimes County, Texas as the site for Terafab, the semiconductor megafactory Elon Musk first teased in March. The initial phase is put at roughly $16.8 billion, the finished site is planned at more than 100 million square feet, and SpaceX has paid the county a non-refundable $10 million. Construction starts within months.

Škoda began series production of the all-electric seven-seat Peaq at Mladá Boleslav on 6 August 2026, on the same line as the Enyaq, Elroq and the combustion Octavia. The top version pairs a 91 kWh battery with more than 640 km of range, and the car has taken close to 8,500 orders since its June launch. Deliveries start around the end of the year.

Kia has issued a worldwide recall for first-generation e-Niro cars built between May 2020 and March 2022 because the battery management system does not monitor the high-voltage pack closely enough. 14,117 cars are affected globally, 11,331 of them in Europe. The fix is a software update, with a free battery replacement if damage is found.

BMW began series production of the electric i3 at its Munich home plant on 6 August 2026, the second Neue Klasse model after the iX3. A four-year, roughly €650 million conversion has left the plant with an almost fully automated body shop, and BMW says the i3 will cost about 10% less to build than the generation it replaces. Deliveries start in autumn 2026.

Tesla has begun building Megapack 3 at its new Brookshire, Texas Megafactory, a plant designed for 50 GWh a year. The timing matters for Europe, where Tesla is sitting on a 25 GWh order book across Italy and the UK.

Steyr Automotive in Upper Austria has begun series-assembling battery-electric tractor units for the Chinese brand SuperPanther, with the first trucks handed to DHL and three other operators for service in five European countries. Sinotruk is using the same contract manufacturer, giving Chinese truck makers an assembly foothold inside the EU.

Hyundai is recalling 40,045 Inster electric city cars built between February 2024 and April 2026 because a faulty three-way valve in the thermal management system can leak coolant onto electrical components and cause a short circuit or fire. Around 14,610 of the affected cars are in Germany.

Mercedes has revealed the third-generation GLA, an electric-first compact SUV replacing the EQA, with up to 657 km of range, 320 kW peak charging on an 800-volt platform, and German prices from EUR 48,599.60.

Tesla has asked a Texas federal court for emergency access to a supplier's plant to retrieve the stamping tooling it needs for the Cybertruck, warning that several thousand trucks cannot be built without it.

Buried in the last note of its Q2 2026 quarterly filing, Tesla confirmed it has closed the mysterious acquisition of an AI hardware company it first hinted at in April. The final price came in at $1.95 billion, paid entirely in Tesla stock and equity awards, with almost all of it tied to keeping the acquired team in place and hitting deployment targets. Tesla still refuses to name the company or explain what it bought.

Tesla's 2026 Summer Update turns Grok into a hands-on voice assistant, teaches navigation to remember your regular routes, lets you preview vehicle wraps in the app and even scores your singing with Caraoke.

Tesla has confirmed the Cybercab will be its first vehicle with an integrated Starlink V5 antenna, giving the two-seat robotaxi its own satellite link for connectivity, faster software updates and remote oversight in areas with poor cellular coverage.

Tesla confirmed on 17 July 2026 that it is entering Latvia, opening a Riga pop-up store ahead of an August launch, alongside a parallel move into Estonia. Latvians can order the Model 3 from EUR 30,990 and the Model Y from EUR 34,490, shipped from Gigafactory Shanghai, with deliveries quoted for September to November.

Tesla has brought back a EUR 2,000 'Tesla Bonus' on the base rear-wheel-drive Model Y in Germany, cutting the entry price to EUR 37,990 before delivery. Combined with Germany's reinstated federal EV subsidy and zero-percent financing, buyers can save up to EUR 8,000 on orders placed by 30 September 2026.

Xpeng has opened European sales of its L03 electric SUV-coupe from €34,990, undercutting the Tesla Model Y in its highest-volume segment, with deliveries starting in Q4 2026.

A Swedish study of 9,954 battery-health tests finds Tesla's LFP Model 3 pack among the most durable EV batteries, retaining 93.3% of capacity past 100,000 km, while its nickel-based packs degrade faster.

NHTSA denied Tesla's petition to avoid a recall, forcing a free remedy for roughly 19,917 2017–2023 Model 3 and Model Y cars whose low-beam headlights breach US glare rules.

Tesla dismantled its two-decade-old Model S/X assembly line at Fremont in 46 days to install the world's first large-scale Optimus humanoid-robot production line, targeting up to one million units a year.

Tesla is inviting outside startups to help scale 4680 battery-cell production at Gigafactory Berlin through the JUNI x Tesla Battery Cell Giga Challenge, with applications open until 24 July 2026 and the strongest submissions eligible for a paid pilot with Tesla's cell team in Grünheide.

A Tesla Semi rear-ended two stopped cars at a red light in Dayton, Nevada on 28 June 2026, killing a couple. It is the first known fatal crash of Tesla's electric Class 8 truck. Early evidence points to a fatigued human driver, not autonomy — the Semi has no Full Self-Driving.

Tesla has launched the long-wheelbase, six-seat Model Y L in the United States and Puerto Rico at $61,990 as a Launch Series, with 325 miles of range and a genuine third row. Europe is not on the list yet.

Tesla is using each vehicle's own interior microphones during final factory checks to detect squeaks and rattles, VP of Engineering Lars Moravy revealed. The car listens to itself on the line so build-quality faults are caught before delivery rather than by the owner.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has given the Tesla Cybertruck its highest 2026 honour, Top Safety Pick+, making it the only full-size pickup to clear the bar under the institute's tougher new criteria. The award covers crew cabs built after April 2025 and rests on top 'Good' crash ratings plus a clean sweep in pedestrian-collision avoidance. For European readers the result is more reputational than practical: the Cybertruck still isn't sold or type-approved in the EU.

Tesla is extending its Blind Spot Warning While Parked safety feature to the refreshed ("Juniper") Model Y with the 2026.20.3 software update. The system uses the car's cameras to warn occupants and resist the door opening when a cyclist, pedestrian, or vehicle is approaching in the blind spot — a feature with particular relevance on Europe's cycling-heavy streets.