Policy

Emails obtained by Reuters through a public-records request show Tesla has pushed the Dutch RDW to withhold the documentation behind its FSD safety assessment since late 2024. The RDW approved FSD (Supervised) in April 2026 and cites Tesla's commercial secrets as the reason it will not say why.

Porsche AG chief executive Michael Leiters told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that Porsche cannot survive alone in its current form and depends on Volkswagen Group scale. The same interview confirmed the electric 718 is going ahead, the Taycan stays with fewer variants, and close to 9,000 jobs will go over ten years.

Germany's new electric-car purchase premium had drawn 103,500 applications by 5 August, roughly double the mid-June figure. More than 90% are for battery-electric cars, but only about 28,000 have been fully approved so far.

The Danube fell to about 10 cm at Budapest on 3 August 2026, below the 2018 record low of 33 cm. Nuclear plants in Hungary and Romania lost most of their cooling water, Romania declared a nationwide energy state of alert, and Dacia and Ford stopped their Romanian plants until 19 August to free up around 200 MW.

China has published GB/T 46991.1-2025, which sets capacity-retention reference points of 82%, 75% and 70% at five, eight and ten years, and caps the error on a car's own battery-health readout at 5%. It is a recommended standard, not a mandate — unlike Euro 7, which becomes binding in Europe from 2027.

Bavaria's CSU is demanding that Germany's EV purchase premium be tied to European value creation after ministry data showed Tesla, Skoda and Renault taking the largest share. A coalition review is due in the autumn.

A Deloitte study finds 98% of Europe's battery cell production capacity is controlled by Asian manufacturers and Europe risks forgoing €100–150 billion in value added by 2030 unless it builds its own cell supply.

UK factories built 385,979 cars and commercial vehicles in the first half of 2026, down 7.5% year on year, though output all but stabilised in the second quarter. The SMMT says regulation is running ahead of demand and that ZEV Mandate reform is now essential if manufacturers are to keep investing in British plants.

The European Commission has opened applications for the Battery Booster facility, offering interest-free loans of up to €1.5 billion in total — and up to €500 million per project — to first-time commercial-scale EV battery cell manufacturers in the EEA. The deadline is 30 September 2026.

US regulator NHTSA has rejected a petition asking it to investigate the hidden manual door releases on 179,031 Tesla Model 3 sedans, finding just one matching complaint that traced back to the petitioner's own car. But in the same decision it agreed to start writing new federal door-egress rules for the entire auto industry, conceding that today's standard says nothing about where a manual release sits or how it is labelled.

Spain has approved the Auto+ incentive programme, offering up to €4,500 plus a mandatory €1,000 dealer discount for ZERO-label EVs and running through 2030. It replaces the region-run MOVES III with faster, centrally managed grants — and Tesla's Model 3 and Model Y both qualify.

The UK is removing VAT from domestic electricity from October, making home charging for cars like the Model Y slightly cheaper — but public charging stays at 20% VAT, widening the gap for drivers without a driveway.

A new Transport & Environment analysis finds that public charging infrastructure across the EU has grown faster than the battery-electric fleet. Every member state except Malta now meets the fleet-based targets in the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), with total public capacity running 180% above the minimum. The findings undercut the long-running claim that a lack of chargers is what holds back European EV adoption.

Britain will introduce a mileage-based Electric Vehicle Excise Duty from April 2028, charging battery cars 3p per mile and plug-in hybrids 1.5p, on top of standard road tax. Tesla drivers face a new running cost the pipeline puts at roughly £240-£300 a year for an average driver.

Early figures from Germany's 2026 income-based EV incentive show Tesla and Skoda leading approved applications under the €3 billion, up-to-€6,000 scheme, helped by the programme's lack of a price cap or local-content rule.

New Jersey's S1677 would require driverless commercial vehicles to carry cameras plus two additional sensor types — a threshold Tesla's camera-only Robotaxi cannot meet, while lidar-equipped rivals like Waymo can. A near-identical bill is pending in New York.

Tesla's 216-page 2025 Impact Report says customers avoided 37 million metric tons of CO₂e last year, up about 16% on 2024, and puts fresh numbers on FSD (Supervised) safety — with methodology caveats worth reading before you cheer.

Tesla buyers in France can stack up to €10,700 in aid on a Model Y this summer — a €5,000 trade-in bonus plus a €3,600–€5,700 income-based CEE grant — cutting the entry Propulsion to €29,290 for orders placed by 30 September 2026.

The UK government has opened a consultation on a £190m Strategic Charging Infrastructure scheme that would fund electricity-grid upgrades at English motorway service areas, easing the connection costs that have stalled fast-charging rollouts.

From 1 October 2026, the Brussels-Capital Region introduces a rotation fee for EVs left plugged into public chargers after charging is done. It follows Antwerp and Ghent, which already bill idle cars by the minute.

Ireland's new ICE2EV scrappage pilot was fully subscribed within an hour of opening on 1 July 2026, with the rural allocation gone in 30 minutes. It offers up to €8,500 off a new EV when an older petrol or diesel car is scrapped.

A majority of MEPs back exempting motorway fast-charging stations of up to 1 MW from permit requirements. If it survives trilogue talks, the change could speed up Supercharger and rival network buildout across Europe.

US regulators have closed their power-steering-loss investigation into 376,241 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y cars without further action, after an over-the-air fix and recall cut owner complaints.

US regulators have proposed scrapping the requirement for brake pedals in purpose-built driverless vehicles — a change that removes a key obstacle for Tesla's pedal-free Cybercab, even as Europe takes a very different, safety-case route to the same destination.