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Tesla could benefit as South Korea pushes to update EV incentives
South Korea is the world’s 11th largest car market according to IHS Automotive but 5th in sales of luxury cars like the Mercedes S Class and BMW 7 Series. That means it could be an important market for Tesla’s Model S and Model X. The country ranks in the top six in terms of the number of reservations for the upcoming Tesla Model 3 midsize sedan.
South Korea offers buyers of electric cars a subsidy equivalent to 22 million won or approximately $18,000 dollars but the incentive only applies to cars that can be recharged in 10 hours or less using 220 volt household current.The rule was enacted in 2012 and was intended to encourage manufacturers to limit the charging time required for electric cars. But electric cars today have much larger batteries than they did then. Those larger batteries may take more than 10 hours to recharge on household current, making them ineligible for the subsidy.
Minister of Environment Cho Kyeung-kyu says it may be time for his country to revisit that rule. A ministry official tells Reuters that a government appointed panel will submit recommendations “by June, but it could be much earlier. We haven’t decided whether to keep the rule alive, or kill it, or come up with complementary rules.”
Last month, opposition lawmaker Lee Sang-don called the rule an “unreasonable non-tariff barrier” that discourages drivers from considering long range EVs. “The rule is meaningless,” Kim Pil-soo, president of the Korean Electric Vehicle Association, told Reuters. “We have kept telling the government they should remove it.” In October, Tesla Vice President of North Asia and SEA Nicolas Villeger said the company is working with the government to change a “unique rule” that does not reflect advances in battery technology.
Tesla is about to open its first showroom in the upscale Starfield shopping district east of Seoul. In fact, it was supposed to be open before the end of 2016, but a sign in the window saying “Opening Soon” was still in the window as of last week. A delay in obtaining the permits required to begin sales has pushed the opening to early next year, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Tesla has been accepting orders from Korean customers since August for its Model S and Model X as well as reservations for the Model 3. With the present rule in place, a car that the company expects to sell strongly in the South Korean luxury car market — the Model S 90D — will not be eligible for the electric car incentive because its battery is too large to recharge in less than 10 hours on household current.
Chinese automaker BYD also intends to offer its long range electric car, the e6, for sale in Korea but has delayed starting sales until the incentive rule is amended. The e6 also will require more than 10 hours to fully recharge on household current.
Sales of electric cars in South Korea have been weak so far. To date, there are only about 4,000 EVs registered in the entire country despite the generous subsidy. South Korea has been proactive when it comes to building charging infrastructure. There are 750 fast chargers available to Korean EV drivers at present and the government plans to increase that number to 3,000 by 2020. Tesla is also planning to construct Supercharger locations in Seoul, Busan and Pyeongchang.
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
