Electrek reported on 19 May 2026 that Tesla is building its first solar panel manufacturing operation at Empire West Business Park in Brookshire, Texas, about 35 miles west of Houston and co-located with its Megapack Megafactory. Tesla already leases Buildings 9 and 10 totalling 1.65 million sq ft and is planning a further 600,000 sq ft. It is the first concrete site tied to Musk's January 2026 Davos target of 100 GW per year of US solar manufacturing capacity at Tesla.

Teslarati reported on 18 May 2026 that Tesla's internal Robotaxi app version 26.4.5 introduces a high-security command capable of freezing a vehicle's ability to drive — pulling it from the fleet and preventing it from being put into gear even with valid keys — alongside new remote operations and safety-protocol code. The update lands as Tesla's unsupervised robotaxi fleet has grown from 9 cars at the start of April to 39 by mid-May 2026.

Pod (formerly Pod Point, owned by EDF since August 2025) has acquired UK fleet charging specialist EO Charging out of administration in May 2026. The deal absorbs EO's depot-charging software platform and blue-chip fleet customers including Amazon, DHL and Tesco into the newly rebranded, services-focused Pod, consolidating the UK commercial fleet depot charging market under a single EDF-backed operator.

Speaking on Monday 18 May 2026, Elon Musk said Tesla's driverless Robotaxi service will reach roughly a quarter to half of the US population by the end of the year, pending regulatory approval — with no-safety-monitor vehicles becoming widespread later in 2026. Tesla already operates fully unsupervised vehicles in Austin, Dallas, and Houston, and is targeting four more cities in the first half of the year.

An app decompile spotted by Not a Tesla App reveals Tesla is preparing per-profile toggles to block the in-car web browser, Arcade games and Tesla Theater. The new flags — a browser flag, an Arcade flag, a Theater flag — sit alongside the existing Parental Controls system and the recently added rule that disables Track Mode whenever Parental Controls are engaged.

Europe registered 1,083,241 plug-in passenger cars in Q1 2026 (+28% YoY), the first time the region has cleared one million in a single quarter. Tesla took second place among EV brands with 78,642 units (+45.4% YoY), trailing Volkswagen's 96,601 but ahead of BYD's 73,535. The Model Y was Europe's best-selling battery EV at 51,395 units. The data, published by Autovista Group on 15 May 2026, also shows BYD growing 154.7% YoY and three Chinese brands — BYD, Leapmotor and Xpeng — capturing measurable share across all five major markets.