Tesla’s European sales surged last month, showing that Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle maker keeps gaining ground in a region where Chinese rivals are also growing strongly.
The market for battery-electric vehicles grew nearly 60% in Europe last month. Registrations of hybrid-electric cars gained 5.3%, while plug-in-hybrid models were up 24%.
FSD doesn’t make vehicles fully autonomous and is meant to be used only with a fully attentive driver, according to Tesla’s website. Tesla’s growth comes as the company seeks approval for its full self-driving technology in the EU. In April, the Netherlands became the first country in the bloc to greenlight the system that helps drivers change lanes and navigate around other vehicles and objects.
Since then, some EU member states including Lithuania, Estonia and Denmark, have recognized the Dutch approval, allowing Tesla to roll out FSD in those countries while EU authorities review an application from the Netherlands Vehicle Authority to make FSD available across the bloc.
New-car registrations for Tesla models, a reflection of sales, jumped 72.5% on year in September to 68,776 units across the European Union, the U.K., Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, an industry body also known as ACEA.
