Tesla's sales in Europe are rising, despite a series of investigations, recalls and regulatory delays affecting the company in 2026. FSD supervised is approved in Croatia from late September, with Croatia becoming the eighth European country to recognise the approval.
The TÜV Report 2026 processed 9.5 million technical inspections. The Model Y two to three years old has 17.3 per cent serious defects, while the Model 3 has 13.1 per cent. The Mazda 2, meanwhile, has only 2.9 per cent serious defects. TÜV cites suspension, brake discs and lights as the main issues.
The US agency NHTSA opened an investigation in late July 2026 into approximately 1.2 million Model 3 and Y vehicles. The impetus was 156 complaints about the separation of the front lower control arm, with Tesla having already issued two recalls for the same assembly. China launched its largest recall to date: 4.3 million vehicles, of which 2.98 million were Teslas. The reason was the manual lever for emergency situations, which was difficult to locate after a crash, with a solution of warning labels and software that lowers the windows after a severe crash. Bloomberg counted at least 15 fatalities in ten years in which Tesla doors could not be opened after a crash and fire. China is banning hidden handles from 2027, while in Europe there is currently no recall.
NHTSA raised the FSD inquiry to an engineering analysis in March 2026, covering 3.2 million vehicles. The question is whether the system detects poor visibility early enough to warn the driver. In addition to the engineering analysis, two other inquiries are ongoing: one is examining whether Tesla reports accidents in a timely manner, and the other is a fatal accident reported with a seven-month delay.
The Dutch RDW approved FSD Supervised on 10 April 2026, but only for the HW4 hardware, which is installed from late 2023. Owners of the older HW3 were left out, with nearly 7,000 HW3 owners joining a collective lawsuit by June 2026. RDW confirmed in writing that the Tesla HW3 had never been submitted for assessment, and vehicles produced before the end of 2023 almost certainly do not have the HW4. The vote on approval for the entire EU, scheduled for 6 October, has been postponed, with the next attempt expected as early as December.
Tesla removed Autosteer from standard equipment in January 2026, and from 14 February it can no longer be purchased there, only subscribed to for 99 dollars per month. In May, the same model arrived in the Dutch configurator, with a monthly fee of 99 euros. The new Model Y comes standard with less assistance than the basic Toyota Corolla. In June, it was reported that Tesla had submitted its own statistics to regulators, according to which vehicles with FSD travel seven times further between accidents than average, but the comparison for Tesla counts only serious crashes, while for others it is all. Of the independent researchers, ten concluded that this was not a serious analysis. RDW does not publish the results of its own tests, citing business secrecy.
According to iSeeCars, the Model Y loses 55.4 per cent of its value in five years, and the Model 3 53.6 per cent, while the average for all vehicles is 41.7 per cent. Prices for used Teslas in 2026 have stabilised and risen slightly. Consumer Reports placed Tesla at the bottom, 26th place, with 31 points out of 100, in its ranking of vehicle reliability for five to ten years old, with Jeep having one point more, and this is for the 2016 to 2021 models. New Teslas in the same survey were ninth in reliability.
In the US, the cost of insurance for a Tesla is $4,512 per year on average, while insurance for all other vehicles costs $3,037 per year. One US comparison places the estimate for a Tesla at $3,914, and for a Honda at $1,629. Production of the Model S and X ended this year, with the line in Fremont being reconfigured for humanoid robots. Musk estimated in January that people will drive less than five percent of the distance in the future.
The second quarter of 2026 saw 480,126 deliveries, but the operating margin was 1.4 per cent, with a negative free cash flow recorded.
