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Tesla wind and solar-powered Superchargers come to the UK with Fastned partnership

Credit: Fastned

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Tesla and fast-charging company Fastned have once again partnered up to bring sustainably-powered electric vehicle chargers to the United Kingdom. The next project will be at the Energy Superhub Oxford in the United Kingdom, where 14 fast chargers capable of peak charging rates of 300 kW will be available for electric vehicle drivers.

Fastned announced the partnership with Tesla on Friday, but there are several other entities that are teaming up to bring more EV chargers to the UK. Along with Tesla, Fastned is working with the Oxford City Council, Pivot Power, and Wenea to “build and operate one of its largest fast-charging stations at the Energy Superhub Oxford.” Along with the 14 fast chargers, Tesla will install 12 Superchargers on site, according to Fastned’s press release.

Initially, 10 EVs will be able to charge simultaneously at rates of up to 300 kW. To put this into perspective, Tesla’s most powerful Superchargers are the V3 chargers it rolled out a few years ago. These are capable of 250 kW peak charging rates, which offer up to 1,000 miles of range per hour of charging. Fastned says it can expand the station with four additional chargers in the future, and the station “will become part of the growing Fastned network in the United Kingdom.”

It will be Europe’s most powerful EV charging hub with up to 10 megawatts of power available. This will open the door for a future expansion, the company noted.

The Tesla partnership with Fastned is not the first time the two companies have worked together to expand electric vehicle charging options. In October 2020, Tesla, Fastned, and the Seed & Greet Bakery opened Germany’s largest fast-charging hub with 28 total charging stalls. 20 of them were Tesla V3 Superchargers, the other 8 Fastned’s 300 kW fast-chargers.

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The two locations that Tesla and Fastned have worked together to develop have utilized sustainable energy for the projects. Like the previous project in Germany, Tesla and Fastned will utilize only energy from the sund and wind, “generated partly on-site by its trademark solar canopy.”

Credit: Fastned

Fastned continues to expand EV charging options for UK drivers who have chosen electric powertains. According to their press release, there are still limited charging options in the region despite a growing demand for electric cars. In 2019, the EV market share in the region was only 1.7%, but this exploded to 6.6% last year.

“Our mission is to accelerate the transition towards electric mobility by giving freedom to electric drivers. EV drivers experience this freedom when they know that fast and convenient charging is omnipresent,” Fastned CEO Michiel Langezaal said. “Energy Superhub Oxford is a great initiative by the City Council that supports us in working towards that goal. We need hundreds more and will therefore continue to engage with landowners and partners such as Pivot Power across the UK. Big stations are the only way to provide charging capacity to the exponentially growing number of EVs coming to our roads.”

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below, or be sure to email me at joey@teslarati.com or on Twitter @KlenderJoey.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Tesla Sweden faces fresh union blockade at key Gothenburg paint shop

Allround Lack works with painting and damage repair of passenger cars, including Teslas.

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(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla’s ongoing labor conflict in Sweden escalated again as the trade union IF Metall issued a new blockade halting all Tesla paintwork at Allround Lack in Gothenburg. 

Allround Lack works with painting and damage repair of passenger cars, including Teslas. It currently employs about 20 employees. 

Yet another blockade against Tesla Sweden

IF Metall’s latest notice ordered a full work stoppage for all Tesla-related activity at Allround Lack. With the blockade in place, paint jobs on Tesla-owned vehicles, factory-warranty repairs, and transport-damage fixes, will be effectively frozen, as noted in a report from Dagens Arbete. While Allround Lack is a small paint shop, its work with Tesla means that the blockade would add challenges to the company’s operations in Sweden, at least to some degree.

Paint shop blockades have been a recurring tool in the longstanding conflict. The first appeared in late 2023, when repair shops were barred from servicing Tesla vehicles. Days later, the Painters’ Union implemented a nationwide halt on Tesla paint work across more than 100 shops. Since then, a steady stream of workshops has been pulled into the conflict.

Earlier blockades faced backlash from consumers

The sweeping effects of the early blockades drew criticism from industry groups and consumers. Employers and industry organization Transportföretagen stated that the strikes harmed numerous workshops across Sweden, with about 10 of its members losing about 50% of their revenue.

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Private owners also expressed their objections. Tibor Blomhäll, chairman of Tesla Club Sweden, told DA in a previous statement that the blockades from IF Metall gave the impression that the union was specifically attacking consumers. “If I get parking damage to my car, I pay for the paint myself. The company Tesla is not involved in that deal at all. So many people felt singled out, almost stigmatized. What have I done as a private individual to get a union against me?” Blomhäll stated. 

In response to these complaints, IF Metall introduced exemptions, allowing severely damaged vehicles to be repaired. The union later reopened access for private owners at workshops with collective agreements. The blockades at the workshops were also reformulated to only apply to work that is “ordered by Tesla on Tesla’s own cars, as well as work covered by factory warranties and transport damage on Tesla cars.”

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Tesla breaks Norway’s all-time annual sales record with one month to spare

With November alone delivering 4,260 new registrations, Tesla has cemented its most dominant year ever in one of Europe’s most mature EV markets.

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Credit: Grok Imagine

Tesla shattered Norway’s decade-old annual sales record this month, overtaking Volkswagen’s long-standing milestone with over one month still left in the year. Backed by surging demand ahead of Norway’s upcoming VAT changes, Tesla has already registered 26,666 vehicles year-to-date, surpassing Volkswagen’s 2016 record of 26,572 units. 

With November alone delivering 4,260 new registrations month-to-date, Tesla has cemented its most dominant year ever in one of Europe’s most mature EV markets.

Model Y drives historic surge in Norway

Tesla’s impressive momentum has been led overwhelmingly by the Model Y, which accounted for 21,517 of Norway’s registrations this year, as noted in a CarUp report, citing data from Elbil Statistik. The Model 3 followed with 5,087 units, while the Model S and Model X contributed 30 and 19 vehicles, respectively. Even the parallel-imported Cybertruck made the charts with 13 registrations.

Demand intensified sharply through autumn as Norwegian buyers rushed to secure deliveries before the country’s VAT changes take effect in January. The new regulation is expected to add roughly NOK 50,000 to the price of a Model Y, prompting a wave of early purchases that helped lift Tesla beyond the previous all-time record well before year-end. 

With December still ahead, Tesla is positioned to extend its historic lead further. Needless to say, it appears that Norway will prove to be one of Tesla’s strongest markets in Europe. 

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FSD could be a notable demand driver in 2026

What’s especially interesting about Tesla’s feat in Norway is that the company’s biggest selling point today, Full Self-Driving (Supervised), is not yet available there. Tesla, however, recently noted in a post on X that the Dutch regulator RDW has reportedly committed to issuing a Netherlands national approval for FSD (Supervised) in February 2026

The RDW posted a response to Tesla’s post, clarifying the February 2026 target but stating that FSD’s approval is not assured yet. “The RDW has drawn up a schedule with Tesla in which Tesla is expected to be able to demonstrate that FSD Supervised meets the requirements in February 2026. RDW and Tesla know what efforts need to be made to make a decision on this in February. Whether the schedule will be met remains to be seen in the coming period,” the RDW wrote in a post on its official wesbite.

If FSD (Supervised) does get approved next year, Tesla’s vehicles could gain a notable advantage over competitors, as they would be the only vehicles on the market capable of driving themselves on both inner-city streets and highways with practically no driver input. 

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Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.2’s best new feature is not what you think

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Credit: TESLARATI

Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.2 rolled out late last week to Early Access Program (EAP) members, but its best feature is not what you think.

While Tesla has done a great job of refining the performance of the Full Self-Driving suite with the latest update, there are some other interesting additions, including one that many owners have requested for some time.

Upon the release of v14.2, many owners recognized the Blue Dot next to the Autopilot tab in Vehicle Settings, notifying them of a new feature. What was included as a new feature in the new update was a Full Self-Driving stats feature, which now will show you how many miles you’ve traveled in total, and how many of those miles were driven using FSD:

The feature seems to be more of a bragging rights thing than anything, but it will also give drivers a good idea of how many miles they are using Full Self-Driving for. Those who use telematics-based insurance services will also be able to run experiments of their own, and could determine whether their premiums are impacted by the use of Full Self-Driving, and whether it is more advantageous to use over manual driving.

Tesla rolled out numerous other improvements with Tesla Full Self-Driving v14.2, most notably, the company seems to have resolved previous complaints about brake stabbing and hesitation. This was a major complaint in v14.1, but Tesla has seemed to resolve it with this newest branch of the FSD suite.

There were also improvements in overall operation, and it was notably smoother than past versions. Speed Profiles are seemingly refined as well, as they seem much more fixed on how fast they will travel and how aggressive they will be with things like passing cars on freeways and lane changes.

In future updates, Tesla plans to add Parking Spot selection, along with overall operational improvements. However, CEO Elon Musk recently said that the next branch, Full Self-Driving v14.3, will be where the “final piece of the puzzle is placed.” Tesla believes it is close to solving autonomy, so v14.3 could be a major jump forward, but it remains to be seen.

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