Policy

Slovakia has approved rules for fully automated vehicles, effective 1 December 2026. Operators must first pass testing in a secured area, then obtain a trial-operation permit and finally an operator licence from the Ministry of Transport, with police input. A control centre must provide continuous technical supervision, and during an intervention a remote operator may handle only one vehicle at a time. Operating unlicensed carries a EUR 5,000 to EUR 50,000 fine.

The Department for Transport confirmed on 11 September 2026 that it will create a permitted development right in England for cross-pavement charging, so a household with only kerbside parking can fit a cable gully without a planning application. The right is not in force — the secondary legislation is due before Parliament in autumn 2026, and councils keep every one of their highway powers.

EDF, wholly owned by the French state, is using certificats d'économies d'énergie money to take €365 off four BYD models for private buyers and €555 for businesses. Industry minister Sébastien Martin has reportedly asked EDF to end the partnership by year-end. Only the Berlin-built Model Y qualifies for the same scheme in Tesla's range.

On 11 September 2026 President Trump told Fox News he would be fine with Chinese carmakers opening plants in the United States if they hire American workers — while ruling out imports and keeping tariffs above 100%. Europe has already lived through the same sequence, and it ended with Chinese factories inside the tariff wall.

Tesla Motors Vietnam Limited Liability Company was established on 11 September 2026 with charter capital of 77.7 billion dong, about 3 million US dollars, and registered for car import and distribution in Ho Chi Minh City. It is Tesla's first formal step into a market where VinFast holds roughly 42% of EV sales and where fully built imports face duties of about 47% to 70%.

On 11 September 2026 China's MIIT and eight other departments issued the 15th Five-Year Plan for intelligent connected new energy vehicles: 70% NEV share of passenger car sales by 2030, 40% for commercial vehicles, and — for the first time in such a plan — a capacity warning mechanism meant to thin the field of carmakers. Autonomous systems are told to significantly outperform human drivers.

Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi wrote to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on 9 September 2026 citing 43 videos of apparently sleeping Tesla drivers, 17 posted in 2026. He put five questions to NHTSA, including how effective the cabin camera is and what would trigger a recall, and asked for an answer by 30 September.

A YouGov survey commissioned by supplier association CLEPA found only 8% of 5,221 adults across France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain intend to buy a battery-electric car next, with hybrids ahead in four of five markets. Fieldwork ran 7-16 July 2026. Actual EU BEV registrations in H1 2026 were 20.7%.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Ford CEO Jim Farley on 8 September 2026 that his department is "deeply alarmed" by Ford's licensing of CATL battery technology at Marshall, Michigan. Tesla's Nevada LFP line runs on CATL equipment Tesla bought outright — a structure that has drawn no such letter. Ford calls the letter wrongheaded and says it contains factual errors.

European Environment Agency data from 220,000 plug-in hybrids shows 2024 registrations average 145 g CO2/km in real-world use against 24 g/km officially. The gap widened from five-fold to six-fold in a year, and ACEA is pushing to cancel the 2027 utility-factor correction that would narrow it.

Germany's BAFA had approved 52,473 applications for the state EV purchase premium by 1 September 2026, worth about 230 million euros. Volkswagen leads on 11,680 cars, Tesla is second on 8,141 and Stellantis third on 7,482. At the 1 August count the single most-subsidised model in the country was the Model Y built at Grünheide.

Renault, Stellantis, Aramis and three trade bodies signed a pacte de confiance with the French government on 4 September, committing to display battery State of Health in used-EV listings. It is a voluntary pledge with no deadline and no penalty - unlike the EU battery passport, binding from 18 February 2027, and France's own used-EV grant, which already requires an SOH of at least 80%.

Euro NCAP's 2 September 2026 results put Crash Protection scores in a narrow 86-92% band while the new Safe Driving pillar spanned 58-79% - and Safe Driving is what decided whether the CUPRA Raval scored four stars or five. The pillar marks cars down for burying indicators, wipers, horn and SOS in a touchscreen. No Tesla has been rated under the protocol; the Model Y's five stars date from November 2025 under the old scheme.

Three Chinese ministries issued a 20-article guideline on 1 September 2026 telling Chinese automakers not to export their domestic price war. It asks for cost-based pricing, fixed price tiers per trim and an end to frequent, steep discounting. It is guidance, not law.

A 2% consumption tax on lithium and lithium-ion cells took effect in China on 1 September 2026, ending a decade-long exemption, and rises to 4% in September 2027. Sodium-ion and solid-state cells stay exempt until the end of 2028. It adds about 438 yuan to a 60 kWh pack today and roughly 876 yuan from next year.

NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation opened Audit Query AQ26002 on 3 September 2026, covering roughly 1,000 Cybercabs, to examine how Tesla self-certified a car with no steering wheel, pedals or mirrors as compliant with federal safety standards. It is a process audit, not a defect investigation, and it opened the same day paid Cybercab rides began in Austin.

B.C. Highway Patrol ticketed a 45-year-old Tesla driver $368 for driving without due care and attention after two witnesses filmed him apparently asleep on Highway 1 in North Vancouver on 11 August 2026. Police made no finding on whether Autopilot or FSD was engaged. The case lands five weeks before the EU votes on whether to accept Tesla's request to relax attention-monitoring rules.

From 29 November 2026, newly type-approved cars in the EU must carry an Environmental Vehicle Passport under Euro 7, reachable by QR code inside the car and showing the traction battery's state of health. Euro 7 also sets battery durability floors of 80% after five years or 100,000 km and 72% after eight years or 160,000 km. The rule extends to all new cars and vans on 29 November 2027.

A research consortium at the Technical University of Munich reviewed 19 studies covering 47 modelled scenarios and found battery-electric cars emit 41% less CO2 on average than comparable combustion cars over their full life. It calls the EU's tailpipe-only fleet limits a 'substantial misdirection' and wants a lifecycle standard instead, starting with steel.

A draft revision of China's Road Traffic Safety Law, submitted on 25 August 2026 to the NPC Standing Committee, adds a chapter on autonomous vehicles making manufacturers or importers handle traffic violations committed in fully autonomous mode. Assisted-driving systems such as Tesla's FSD (Supervised) stay under conventional rules with the driver liable, so nothing changes for Tesla owners in China today.

Canada's first Chinese-EV import window closed on 31 August 2026 with 15,603 of 24,500 permits used. The 8,897 unused slots carry forward into the second window, which opened on 1 September with as many as 33,397 available — just as BYD prepares to enter the market Tesla has had almost to itself.

The CDU/CSU-SPD coalition agreed at its Münster retreat on 31 August 2026 to add local-content criteria to Germany's running EV purchase subsidy, once the government drafts EU-compliant rules. The bonus pays €3,000–€5,000 for a battery-electric car by income band, up to €6,000 with children, and today carries no build-location test. Tesla's Model Y is built in Grünheide; its Model 3 for Europe comes from Shanghai.

The Oberlandesgericht Celle dismissed a buyer who said his used electric car could not reach its rated 337 km. An expert found the battery at 93.5% of original capacity after 4.5 years, and the court held that age-related capacity loss matching the state of the art is not a defect.

Berlin's finance ministry has written to the European Commission asking that member states keep the freedom to tax electricity above the EU minimum. The German motor trade association says a higher electricity tax would erase what is left of the EV running-cost advantage.