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Tesla can tap into a $360B market in Europe, but it has to address its service first
SAP SE, a German software maker and one of Europe’s largest tech companies, provides cars for company and personal use as a perk for its workers. And as electric cars continue to gain ground in the region, SAP has noted that its employees are starting to show increasing interest Teslas. Despite this interest and specific requests for Teslas every month, SAP has decided not to purchase any of the American firm’s electric cars. The tech firm’s rejection of Teslas was primarily due to one key factor: the electric car maker’s small service network.
Keeping the Status Quo
SAP’s company car fleet today remains populated by vehicles from veteran premium automakers like BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz. In a statement to Bloomberg, Steffen Krautwasser, who manages the company’s 17,000 company cars in Germany, explained SAP’s stance on Tesla’s electric vehicles. “(Servicing teams) need to be there at short notice, and Tesla still has some work to do. The interest in Teslas is extremely high, but we simply can’t offer them at this point,” Krautwasser said.
SAP is not the only company with strong views about Tesla’s service network in Europe or its lack thereof. Ursula von Stetten, a spokesperson for chemicals giant BASF SE, also cited that Teslas couldn’t be options for its 50,000 German employees until the electric car maker establishes a robust service network. “Teslas will be available as soon as the appropriate infrastructure is in place,” the spokesperson said.
A $360 Billion Market
Considering these sentiments, it appears that Tesla’s service network in Europe is costing Elon Musk a significant number of EV sales. About 60% of all new vehicle sales in Europe, after all, are made through corporate channels. This translates to the company car market in the region being worth about $360 billion. So notable is the size of Europe’s corporate vehicle segment that the industry is expected to play a crucial role in determining just how fast the region could retire the internal combustion engine and embrace sustainable transportation. That being said, Tesla is, for now at least, largely absent from this market.
Apart from Tesla’s weak service network in Europe, companies have also cited the electric car maker’s refusal to offer bulk discounts and its lack of long-standing relationships with the region’s biggest companies as reasons why the American electric car maker is lagging behind its local rivals in the corporate vehicle segment. This is true to a point, especially considering that veteran automakers have decades of experience tailoring some of their vehicles to be the perfect company cars. Tesla does not do this with its vehicles, though many of its trademark features like Autopilot would likely be appreciated by corporate workers who spend long hours at the office.
Electric Opportunities
What’s interesting is that Europe’s corporate car sales are actually rising by about a fifth over the past decade as companies take advantage of generous subsidies, including tax breaks, value-added tax rebates, and depreciation write-offs. Transport & Environment, a Brussels-based research firm, has remarked that in Europe’s eight biggest corporate vehicle markets alone, the aid is worth $38 billion per year. But inasmuch as Tesla is lagging in Europe’s company car market, the region’s aggressive sustainability goals hint that the electric car maker has the potential to close the gap between itself and legacy automakers.
So far, only about 4% of cars bought by European companies in 2019 had a plug, and this list includes Plug-in Hybrid Vehicles. Amidst the region’s push for sustainability, battery-electric vehicles like the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y may very well become preferable alternatives to cars typically used as company vehicles. Germany, Italy, and France are among these regions, with the countries boosting subsidies for battery-powered vehicles as part of their pandemic stimulus programs last year. The trend is continuing too, with BloombergNEF estimating that Europe would likely see sales of about 1.8 million hybrid and battery electric vehicles this year alone. The following years would likely see this number rise even further.
To tap into Europe’s corporate vehicle segment, Tesla has to ramp its service network at a rate that’s far more aggressive than before. And while Teslas generally require a lot less maintenance due to their all-electric design, the company has to tangibly exhibit its capability to service multitudes of vehicles without breaking a sweat. A robust mobile service team would be invaluable in this light, and more dedicated service locations would be extremely beneficial. Such improvements would likely increase the confidence of companies whose employees are already requesting Teslas to be their corporate vehicles. If Tesla is able to accomplish this, then the Elon Musk-led electric car maker might be on track to take a piece out of of Europe’s $360 billion corporate car pie.
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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
