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Why Sweden is primed to become home of Tesla’s European factory
Could lightning strike twice for Tesla? It’s current factory was once used by NUMMI — a joint venture by Toyota and General Motors — to make cars in Fremont. Tesla was able to purchase it for pennies on the dollar. After years of extensive upgrades, it is now one of the most automated and efficient production facilities in the world.
Saab, on the other hand, used to manufacture world class automobiles at its factory in Trollhattan, Sweden. That factory is now owned by NEVS — an acronym for New Electric Vehicle Sweden. The principal owner of NEVS is National Modern Energy Holdings Ltd, a Beijing based company founded in 2004 by Kai Johan Jiang. NEVS has a contract with Panda New Energy Company to provided it with 150,000 electric versions of Saab’s last production midsize sedan, the 9-3 sedan.
Making 150,000 cars over 4 years is not enough to keep the factory fully operational — it’s capacity is far greater than that. All of which has several people in Sweden thinking it would be the perfect place for Tesla to locate its first European factory.
There are several factors that could make Trollhattan attractive to Tesla other than the fact that it has a large factory sitting practically idle. It has a large pool of workers who are familiar with building automobiles from the days when Saabs were manufactured there. It also is near Gothenburg, with its international railway hub and large ocean freight terminal.
Sveriges Radio P4 Väst says that a group of local stakeholders is working to attract Tesla to the area. According to reports, the group includes Business Sweden and automotive supplier FKG. Fredrik Sidahl, CEO of FKG, confirms that the group has been in contact with Tesla. Everyone involved is tight lipped when it comes to details, though.
Sidahl says the group is confident that it can revive the car industry in Sweden. “I think the possibilities are quite good because Sweden has a well developed infrastructure with suppliers and expertise in building great vehicles with high technical standards.”
A spokesperson for NEVS would not comment directly on the report but said in an e-mail to Radio P4 Väst that the company could be a valuable partner for other car manufacturers in terms of both production and development. “It’s part of our strategy to increase the capacity of our plant but we do not comment on the dialogue around this.”
Local automotive journalist Benny Christensen says, “It would be really fun if Sweden got the assignment. There are many people who think it is sad to see the car factory in Trollhattan idle. I think that whoever wins the [Tesla factory] will be those who put forth the best organized proposal based purely on economic and practical considerations. Everything from infrastructure to environmental and tax policies will undoubtedly be crucial,” he says.
Sweden is not alone in its attempt to lure Tesla. Finland’s Minister of Industry has indicated his country has its eye on the Tesla factory. There are interested parties in Germany, France, Spain, and Portugal as well. Tesla has let nothing slip about its intentions after Elon Musk’s whirlwind tour of the Continent last summer.
Is a mostly idle factory enough to seal the deal for Sweden? Even though cars were manufactured there up until 5 years ago, much of the tooling and equipment would likely need to be replaced. Elon Musk is intent on reinventing manufacturing — building the machine that builds the machine, as he calls it. It’s possible Tesla would prefer to construct its own facility utilizing all the efficiency strategies it can muster rather than spending money to reconfigure an existing space.
An announcement from Tesla about where its next factory will be is anticipated later this year, probably after production of the Model 3 gets started and begins running smoothly.
Hat tip: Leif Hansen
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) reported its earnings for the first quarter of 2026 on Wednesday afternoon. Here’s what the company reported compared to what Wall Street analysts expected.
The earnings results come after Tesla reported a massive beat on vehicle deliveries for the second quarter, delivering 489,126 vehicles and building 451,758 cars during the three-month span.
This was a major shock for those on Wall Street as they anticipated somewhere around 400,000 deliveries for the quarter, and showed Tesla still has plenty of demand for its vehicles around the world and in the U.S. despite losing the $7,500 EV Tax Credit last year.
Tesla Q2 2026 Earnings Results
- Non-GAAP EPS – $0.33 reported vs. $0.53 expected
- Revenues – $28.236 billion reported vs. $26.4 billion expected
- Free Cash Flow- -$1.092B
- Profit -$ 4.751B
Tesla (beat/missed) analyst expectations, so the market response to the company’s quarter is what we will look for next.
Tesla shares closed today down just over 1 percent, trading at $374.01.
In the past, it has been anyone’s guess with what Tesla shares will do after they report earnings. Strong quarters have resulted in sharp drops, while lackluster quarters have seen the stock shoot up considerably.
Tesla will hold its Q2 2026 Earnings Call in about 90 minutes at 5:30 p.m. on the East Coast. Remarks will be made by CEO Elon Musk and other executives, who will shed some light on the investor questions that we covered earlier this week.
You can stream it below. Additionally, we will be doing our Live Blog on X and Facebook.
Q2 2026 Earnings Call https://t.co/zZS6ii2TWK
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
Tesla is about to make parking in busy parking lots at businesses and other points of interest less stressful than ever by allowing drivers more control over where they park and how, CEO Elon Musk confirmed on X.
Tesla has been working to improve the parking performance of vehicles utilizing the Full Self-Driving suite, but now it is looking to add more customization, allowing drivers to choose the specific space they park in, but also potentially the orientation the car pulls into the spot:
It’s coming soon
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 21, 2026
Musk has reiterated on X twice over the past several weeks that Tesla is working to make things with the FSD suite based more on the driver’s specific preferences and behaviors that were seen in past drives.
Essentially, it sounds like if you tend to park away from a business to avoid other vehicles, Tesla FSD will soon recognize that preference of yours and start parking further away as well. Additionally, the prospect of assigned parking spaces has been something many owners have voiced concerns about.
Living in a community with assigned parking spaces makes using FSD incredibly difficult as it will rarely park in the correct spot when there are so many to choose from. This is also pertinent in work settings where there are sometimes assigned parking spaces.
The updates to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite in terms of listening to driver preferences with parking are also extending to routing. Tesla announced yesterday that with the release of its 2026 Summer Update, it was adding Automatic Navigation and Preferred Routes:
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
Tesla has always maintained the idea that any human input is bad input, and that, ideally, Tesla Full Self-Driving will always make the right decision. Of course, this is all in theory, but the issue is that so many of Tesla’s interventions have come because it does something that is not necessarily wrong, but perhaps not what the driver would prefer.
Taking these preferences into account will help Tesla alleviate some of the potentially unnecessary interventions that drivers perform.
Tesla is starting to prepare for the launch of the Optimus robot in its smartphone app, new coding strings show. Elon Musk has referred to Optimus as what will be the greatest-selling product of any kind of all time, and now, Tesla is getting ready for its launch.
Tesla’s smartphone app had several first-time mentions of the Optimus program, according to Tesla App Updates, who intially reported on the appearance. Here’s what they found:
A Dedicated “Robot” Phone Key Authentication
Tesla is working on a Bluetooth Low Energy, or BLE, authentication that is specifically for robots. This does not only apply to Optimus, though, as Robotaxi, which is Tesla’s autonomous ride-hailing platform, might also identify vehicles within the fleet as robots as well.
Tesla shows rapid teardown of Model S and X lines, paving the way for Optimus at Fremont
Essentially, pairing your phone as a key to anything Tesla identifies as a robot to a “whitelist” of authorized devices. Optimus, Robotaxi, or other products that fall into this category will only respond if the device trying to communicate with it is authorized.
This is a great security feature that will eliminate at least face-value and low-level threats.
Home Data Collection and System Alerts
This appears to be somewhat of a neural network for Optimus within your house. There will be a dedicated screen that asks for consent to collect both video and spatial data while Optimus performs in-home tasks. Everything from vacuuming, washing dishes, dusting, and other activities will be tracked.
There will also be a comprehensive alert system that will track everything from low battery to mechanical issues.
Other Changes
Most of the changes tracked in this particular app update are related to Tesla’s 2026 Summer Update, and include things such as image assets for new features, a preview of the new custom wraps feature, and other unique features.
You can check out our coverage on what is included with the 2026 Summer Update here:
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue
Tesla is about to make parking in busy lots less stressful than ever
