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Tesla gets boost from China’s regulations as Europe sees influx of Model 3 registrations
Tesla’s push into the international market with its Model 3 electric sedan could see a notable boost, thanks in part to some unexpected support from Chinese regulations and what appears to be widespread support for EVs in the European region. With the Model 3 about to saturate the right-hand-drive markets, it appears that Tesla’s ramp of the vehicle is entering its later stages.
A recent update from Beijing stands to benefit the countries’ largest local electric car companies and Tesla, which is currently building a wholly-owned factory in Shanghai. In an announcement on Friday, China’s Ministry of Finance announced that it would be extending a sales tax break for battery-powered and hybrid vehicles. A change was expected to go into effect on Monday, but with the update in place, battery-powered and hybrid vehicles will still be exempt from a 10% sales tax until the end of 2020.
With the extension of the tax break, analysts from China have noted that strong brands in the EV sector, such as Tesla and local companies like Geely Automobile Holdings, SAIC Motor, NIO, and Xpeng Motors, would likely see benefits from the government’s adjustment. Tax break or not, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers expect New Energy Vehicle (NEV) sales in the country to increase by 27%, which would translate to around 1.6 million units over the course of 2019. If these forecasts prove accurate, China will set another sales record for its NEV initiative this year.
If Tesla starts producing the Model 3 at Gigafactory 3 later this year, the company could tap into the country’s growing NEV market. Tesla, after all, is considered a premium brand in the country, holding a reputation that is not too far from Apple. Tesla’s vehicles like the Model X have been considered as status symbols in the past, and this could ultimately benefit the Model 3, which offers a more affordable entry point into the Tesla ecosystem.
Apart from a potential boost thanks to China’s regulations, Tesla’s push into the European market also appears to be bearing fruit. Tesla conducted a massive end-of-quarter push in Europe last month, as part of its attempt to meet or even break its record in Q4 2018, when it delivered over 90,000 vehicles in one quarter. Data from Europe’s car sales in June 2019 show that Tesla’s delivery push might have paid off.
June’s sales from the European region are currently trickling in, and based on data from countries such as Norway and the Netherlands, where registrations surpassed 2,500 for the first time, Tesla appears to be increasing its reach. Denmark also saw 426 Tesla registrations, which is more than four times the total for all of 2018. In line with the company’s end-of-quarter push, almost a third of Denmark’s Tesla registrations were submitted in the last week of June. This influx of registrations is likely due to the Model 3, which is currently being shipped to the region.
Bloomberg Intelligence global autos analyst Kevin Tynan believes that Europe’s momentum could help the company, particularly as the company’s expansion in the US “stalls.” The analyst also expects Tesla to meet competition in Europe and China, as the company will have to challenge established local competitors. “Tesla’s global push will deliver expansion as the US stalls, but at great expense to margin. And dominance of the battery-electric vehicle market may not come as easily in China and Europe, as the company faces established hometown — and government — favorites there,” Tynan wrote.
Tesla’s Model 3 ramp has been the focus of the company for over a year. As Tesla starts its push into the RHD territories this quarter, and as the company prepares to manufacture the Model 3 in China, the later stages of Elon Musk’s play into the mass market could finally be at hand. Once the Model 3 ramp reaches its full fruition, Tesla could start its next, more ambitious push into the mainstream: the Model Y, which will compete in the competitive and lucrative crossover SUV market.
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Tesla FSD’s newest model is coming, and it sounds like ‘the last big piece of the puzzle’
“There’s a model that’s an order of magnitude larger that will be deployed in January or February 2026.”
Tesla Full Self-Driving’s newest model is coming very soon, and from what it sounds like, it could be “the last big piece of the puzzle,” as CEO Elon Musk said in late November.
During the xAI Hackathon on Tuesday, Musk was available for a Q&A session, where he revealed some details about Robotaxi and Tesla’s plans for removing Robotaxi Safety Monitors, and some information on a future FSD model.
While he said Full Self-Driving’s unsupervised capability is “pretty much solved,” and confirmed it will remove Safety Monitors in the next three weeks, questions about the company’s ability to give this FSD version to current owners came to mind.
Musk said a new FSD model is coming in about a month or two that will be an order-of-magnitude larger and will include more reasoning and reinforcement learning.
He said:
“There’s a model that’s an order of magnitude larger that will be deployed in January or February 2026. We’re gonna add a lot of reasoning and RL (reinforcement learning). To get to serious scale, Tesla will probably need to build a giant chip fab. To have a few hundred gigawatts of AI chips per year, I don’t see that capability coming online fast enough, so we will probably have to build a fab.”
NEWS: Elon Musk says FSD Unsupervised is “pretty much solved at this point” and that @Tesla will be launching Robotaxis with no safety monitors in about 3 weeks in Austin, Texas. He also teased a new FSD model is coming in about 1-2 months.
“We’re just going through validation… https://t.co/Msne72cgMB pic.twitter.com/i3wfKX3Z0r
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) December 10, 2025
It rings back to late November when Musk said that v14.3 “is where the last big piece of the puzzle finally lands.”
With the advancements made through Full Self-Driving v14 and v14.2, there seems to be a greater confidence in solving self-driving completely. Musk has also personally said that driver monitoring has been more relaxed, and looking at your phone won’t prompt as many alerts in the latest v14.2.1.
This is another indication that Tesla is getting closer to allowing people to take their eyes off the road completely.
Along with the Robotaxi program’s success, there is evidence that Tesla could be close to solving FSD. However, it is not perfect. We’ve had our own complaints with FSD, and although we feel it is the best ADAS on the market, it is not, in its current form, able to perform everything needed on roads.
But it is close.
That’s why there is some legitimate belief that Tesla could be releasing a version capable of no supervision in the coming months.
All we can say is, we’ll see.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX IPO is coming, CEO Elon Musk confirms
However, it appears Musk is ready for SpaceX to go public, as Ars Technica Senior Space Editor Eric Berger wrote an op-ed that indicated he thought SpaceX would go public soon. Musk replied, basically confirming it.
Elon Musk confirmed through a post on X that a SpaceX initial public offering (IPO) is on the way after hinting at it several times earlier this year.
It also comes one day after Bloomberg reported that SpaceX was aiming for a valuation of $1.5 trillion, adding that it wanted to raise $30 billion.
Musk has been transparent for most of the year that he wanted to try to figure out a way to get Tesla shareholders to invest in SpaceX, giving them access to the stock.
He has also recognized the issues of having a public stock, like litigation exposure, quarterly reporting pressures, and other inconveniences.
However, it appears Musk is ready for SpaceX to go public, as Ars Technica Senior Space Editor Eric Berger wrote an op-ed that indicated he thought SpaceX would go public soon.
Musk replied, basically confirming it:
As usual, Eric is accurate
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2025
Berger believes the IPO would help support the need for $30 billion or more in capital needed to fund AI integration projects, such as space-based data centers and lunar satellite factories. Musk confirmed recently that SpaceX “will be doing” data centers in orbit.
AI appears to be a “key part” of SpaceX getting to Musk, Berger also wrote. When writing about whether or not Optimus is a viable project and product for the company, he says that none of that matters. Musk thinks it is, and that’s all that matters.
It seems like Musk has certainly mulled something this big for a very long time, and the idea of taking SpaceX public is not just likely; it is necessary for the company to get to Mars.
The details of when SpaceX will finally hit that public status are not known. Many of the reports that came out over the past few days indicate it would happen in 2026, so sooner rather than later.
But there are a lot of things on Musk’s plate early next year, especially with Cybercab production, the potential launch of Unsupervised Full Self-Driving, and the Roadster unveiling, all planned for Q1.
Tesla has added the 15th automaker to the growing list of companies whose EVs can utilize the Supercharger Network this year, as BMW is the latest company to gain access to the largest charging infrastructure in the world.
BMW became the 15th company in 2025 to gain Tesla Supercharger access, after the company confirmed to its EV owners that they could use any of the more than 25,000 Supercharging stalls in North America.
Welcome @BMW owners.
Download the Tesla app to charge → https://t.co/vnu0NHA7Ab
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) December 10, 2025
Newer BMW all-electric cars, like the i4, i5, i7, and iX, are able to utilize Tesla’s V3 and V4 Superchargers. These are the exact model years, via the BMW Blog:
- i4: 2022-2026 model years
- i5: 2024-2025 model years
- 2026 i5 (eDrive40 and xDrive40) after software update in Spring 2026
- i7: 2023-2026 model years
- iX: 2022-2025 model years
- 2026 iX (all versions) after software update in Spring 2026
With the expansion of the companies that gained access in 2025 to the Tesla Supercharger Network, a vast majority of non-Tesla EVs are able to use the charging stalls to gain range in their cars.
So far in 2025, Tesla has enabled Supercharger access to:
- Audi
- BMW
- Genesis
- Honda
- Hyundai
- Jaguar Land Rover
- Kia
- Lucid
- Mercedes-Benz
- Nissan
- Polestar
- Subaru
- Toyota
- Volkswagen
- Volvo
Drivers with BMW EVs who wish to charge at Tesla Superchargers must use an NACS-to-CCS1 adapter. In Q2 2026, BMW plans to release its official adapter, but there are third-party options available in the meantime.
They will also have to use the Tesla App to enable Supercharging access to determine rates and availability. It is a relatively seamless process.
Tesla FSD’s newest model is coming, and it sounds like ‘the last big piece of the puzzle’
SpaceX IPO is coming, CEO Elon Musk confirms
