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Tesla’s pooling deal with Fiat-Chrysler is proving to be a killer combo in Europe
New data from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) shows that the pooling deal between Tesla and Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles is proving to be a strong force, as the two companies recently made up for 39% of the total electric vehicles registered in Europe.
According to the ICCT, the FCA-Tesla duo made up for nearly 2 of every five electric vehicles sold in Europe during the first quarter of 2020. The next closest competitor was Volvo, which shared 22% of the market with their electric cars. BMW was third with 14%.
“This is the result of a strong uptake of Tesla battery-electric vehicle sales, with a tenfold increase in deliveries in markets such as the UK, while at the same time sales of the Fiat brand combustion engine vehicles were cut in half compared to the previous month,” an ICCT Fact Sheet said.
⚡️Unprecedented⚡️ EV sales🚗all across European car markets in Q1 2020:
📈Record 10% marketshare in March
🇪🇺Driven by EU car CO2 regulation that kicked in on 1 Jan 2020See @TheICCT @MockPeter analysis:https://t.co/eYe8UrfngZ pic.twitter.com/fi7Q2FMcbe
— T&E (@transenv) April 29, 2020
In April 2019, Tesla and Fiat-Chrysler struck a deal to “pool” together their fleets to meet tough European Union emissions standards. The EU allowed company “pooling” to reach the goal of 95g of CO2 per kilometer at the beginning of 2020, and FCA chose Tesla to help accomplish that feat. Fiat Chrysler will pay Tesla around 1.8 billion euros for the deal, which will help them avoid large fines for having excessive emissions rates.
Fiat-Chrysler has plans to transition some of its most popular vehicles to electric as emissions standards are proving to be a tough task for the company when it is standing alone. The Fiat 500e will roll out for its first deliveries in Europe in July 2020. Meanwhile, the company also has plans to electrify the Fiat Panda, a car that could launch as soon as 2021.
Furthermore, FCA also expressed intentions to build Plug-In Hybrid variants of the Jeep Compass, Renegade, and Wrangler in a $10.5 billion initiative to transition to a more sustainable transportation lineup. But until then, the automaker’s pooling deal with Tesla would be its trump card to avoid emissions fines in Europe.
Tesla’s presence in Europe is notable. The company’s Model 3, Model S, and Model X are currently all available for purchase in the region. The Model Y will be available for purchase when the first phase of Giga Berlin is finished, and Tesla plans to complete that project in July 2021.
The Model 3, for its part, has made waves in the region’s auto sector. While other manufacturers like Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW continue to maintain high sales numbers through their lineup of petrol-powered sedans, the Tesla Model 3 has competed with these companies head-on. Figures from JATO Dynamics suggest that the Model 3 was the third most popular car, regardless of power source, in Europe in December 2019.
The partnership between both Tesla and Fiat-Chrysler goes way past selling vehicles. The collaboration between the two companies will, of course, increase sales figures. However, the ultimate goal was to decrease the amount of CO2 emissions into the Earth’s atmosphere, which is an issue that Fiat-Chrysler would have struggled with on its own. However, Tesla has helped FCA come within just three points of its emissions goal of 95g of CO2 per kilometer.
Elon Musk
Why automakers keep turning down Elon Musk’s Tesla Full Self-Driving offer
Elon Musk confirms no automaker has ever accepted Tesla’s offer to license Full Self-Driving software.
Elon Musk gave a brief answer on X Monday that confirmed that Tesla’s standing offer to license Full Self-Driving to other automakers still has zero takers. Sawyer Merritt wrote that “Tesla has for years openly invited other automakers to license FSD. None of them have accepted,” responding to a prediction from Boom Supersonic founder Blake Scholl that Tesla would eventually open FSD the way it opened its Supercharger network to rival brands. Musk’s reply to Merritt was one word: “Exactly.”
It is not the first time Musk has made this point. He said something similar in November, when he called legacy automakers reluctance to adopt FSD “crazy,” and Tesla has floated the offer publicly since at least 2021. Scholl’s prediction touches on something real. Once NACS became the de facto charging standard, adoption from Ford, GM, Rivian and others followed within about a year. FSD licensing was supposed to work the same way once Tesla built enough of a lead that switching made sense for everyone.
Tesla has for years openly invited other automakers to license FSD. None of them have accepted. https://t.co/kgz4idpoUM
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) September 22, 2026
The case for licensing now is stronger than it was two years ago. Waymo and Zoox are logging hundreds of thousands of unsupervised autonomous miles, along with Tesla’s own Robotaxi fleet. Every automaker still selling driver assist systems that lag FSD has given the robotaxi conversation to Tesla, Waymo and Zoox by default. Licensing FSD would let a GM or a Ford compete on the same field without spending a decade and billions of dollars building a stack from scratch, the same argument Tesla made when it opened the Supercharger network to bring more EVs onto its chargers.
But FSD is not a connector standard. As one reply to Musk’s post pointed out, licensing FSD is not a software license the way NACS was a plug spec. It requires adopting Tesla’s eight camera layout and its onboard compute architecture, meaning a licensee’s cars would effectively become Tesla hardware wearing someone else’s badge. That is the visible obstacle. The less visible one is data. A licensed FSD stack would report back the same telemetry Tesla collects from its own fleet, giving Tesla a continuous read on how a competitor’s cars are actually driven, where they struggle, and how often drivers intervene. For an automaker trying to build its own autonomy program, or simply trying to keep its build quality and safety record private, handing Tesla that visibility could be a bigger cost than the hardware bill. It is the reason the Supercharger comparison only goes so far. Opening a charging plug cost Tesla very little. Opening FSD would cost a rival something it cannot get back.
News
Tesla Roadster is available for order once again following brief hold
Tesla has reopened reservations for its long-delayed next-generation Roadster, asking buyers for a $50,000 deposit just days before an October 1 reveal event in Waco, Texas. The move revives a reservation process first launched in 2017 and later paused when Tesla pulled pricing from its website in 2021.
The reservation page requires an immediate $5,000 credit-card payment, described as fully refundable, followed by a $45,000 wire transfer due within 10 days, which is identical to what was expected previously. Reservations are not considered final until the wire clears.
The structure matches the 2017 terms Tesla used when it first collected deposits after unveiling a prototype. Tesla has not published a confirmed retail price or production start date on the order page.
Go buy a Roadster pic.twitter.com/n7rhouAmIS
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 21, 2026
The October 1 event is scheduled in Waco, about 90 minutes north of Tesla’s Austin headquarters and near SpaceX’s McGregor rocket test site. Tesla sent invitations to existing reservation holders and posted a “Go for launch” teaser on September 12.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) established a temporary flight restriction over the McGregor area from September 18 through October 2, consistent with plans for a demonstration involving SpaceX-designed cold-gas thrusters. Elon Musk has previously described the optional package as enabling extreme acceleration or brief hovering. Tesla has said the event will include pricing, specifications, and production targets.
The second-generation Roadster was first shown in November 2017 during Tesla’s Semi launch. Musk promised production in 2020, with claimed performance of 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds, more than 250 mph top speed, and roughly 620 miles of range.
Those targets have slipped repeatedly.
Tesla later pointed to 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025-2026 before indicating production would not begin until 2027 or 2028 at Gigafactory Texas. Design work has continued, with reports of a sharper, Cybertruck-influenced look replacing the original curvy prototype.
Original reservation holders who paid $50,000 in 2017, or $250,000 for the Founders Series, have waited nearly nine years without a production car. Some high-profile customers canceled. Tesla’s decision to reopen orders now, after previously shutting them down, tests whether new buyers will commit substantial funds before seeing a finalized production vehicle. The October 1 event is intended to answer remaining questions about what those buyers will actually receive and when.
News
Tesla Full Self-Driving expands to another European country
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is heading to Czechia after the Czech Ministry of Transport recognised the Dutch RDW’s provisional type approval, making the country the seventh EU member state to clear the system for public roads. Tesla Europe announced on 21 September 2026 that “FSD Supervised is now approved in Czechia” and that rollout “will begin soon.”
The decision marks a notable reversal. Earlier in 2026, Prague had declined to automatically recognise the Netherlands’ April approval, citing concerns over speed-limit compliance, traffic-sign recognition and driver-attention monitoring, and arguing that a coordinated EU approach was preferable. Officials said months of expert review, talks with Tesla and other member states, and real-world data from countries already using the system resolved those issues.
🚨 Tesla FSD heading to Czechia 🇨🇿 pic.twitter.com/mkzlM9QjrB
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 21, 2026
“Safety remains the top priority,” the ministry stated.
FSD Supervised remains a Level 2 driver-assistance system: the driver must stay engaged and is legally responsible. Eligible vehicles need AI4, the company’s most up-to-date hardware version. Tesla is expected to push the feature over the air in the coming days, following the pattern seen after earlier national approvals.
Europe’s rollout began when Dutch regulator RDW issued a provisional EU type approval on 10 April 2026 after extensive testing. Mutual recognition then produced a rapid cascade: Lithuania (20 May), Estonia (29 May), Denmark (9 June), Belgium (10 June) and Slovenia (7 September). Czechia now completes that list of seven.
The approvals cover only a modest share of the EU population, but they add political weight ahead of a 6 October vote by the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles. A qualified majority, at least 15 of 27 member states representing 65 percent of the EU population, could open the remaining markets, including large ones such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain that have so far preferred to wait for a bloc-wide decision.
For Czech Tesla owners, the immediate prize is access to the same supervised highway and city driving already available in the other six countries. For Tesla, each new market generates additional European driving data and strengthens the case that FSD Supervised can operate safely under the continent’s varied road rules. The Czech approval is therefore both a local milestone and another incremental step toward a wider European launch.