South Korean vehicle import sales surge 37% in June

Tesla has launched a Megacharger network for heavy-duty electric trucks, opening its first site with Pilot in the United States. The new Megacharger location with Pilot is aimed at freight carriers moving along major U.S. trucking corridors, with each stall offering up to 1.2 megawatts and the ability to recover 60% charge in 30 minutes. Separately, Tesla stock is among the first U.S. equities to be tokenized for blockchain trading through Securitize on the Solana network. The Megacharger rollout and Tesla's inclusion in Securitize's tokenized stock offering only capture part of the story for this business, and the clearest marker ahead is whether Megachargers spread beyond Ellabell into the planned corridors in California, Texas, Nevada, Georgia, and Indiana, with multiple sites live and serving commercial Semis.

Stellantis is betting on affordable electric vehicles and a wave of new models to reverse declining sales and market share in Europe, where Chinese competitors are gaining ground. Chief Executive Antonio Filosa unveiled six concept vehicles Sunday ahead of the Paris Motor Show, led by Citroen's revival of the classic 2CV as a low-cost electric vehicle expected to enter production in Europe in 2028. That model will be among the first developed for Europe's proposed "e-car" category, which targets prices around €15,000, or $16,800. The other international debuts are the DS7, Fiat Grizzly, Lancia Gamma, Opel Corsa GSE and two models from Chinese partner Leapmotor, part of a turnaround strategy Filosa outlined in May that calls for dozens of new models through 2030, lower costs and closer cooperation with Chinese manufacturers. The recovery remains uncertain: Stellantis shares recently fell to €3.81, their lowest level since the company was formed in 2021, and Bernstein analysts downgraded the stock to Underperform in August, questioning whether recent sales improvements reflected stronger consumer demand or increased shipments to dealerships.

Tesla Inc. has begun replacing its "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" branding with "Tesla Assisted Driving" across its European websites, following criticism from German officials that the FSD name was potentially misleading because the system still requires driver supervision. Tesla watcher Sawyer Merritt first flagged the live branding change on X on Oct. 8, and Not a Tesla App subsequently reported that Tesla had adopted the new name across the continent. Germany's Federal Ministry of Transport had said two days earlier that Transport Minister Steffen Bilger wants Tesla's system approved across Europe "in a timely manner," calling the FSD name "somewhat misleading" since the system does not take over the complete driving task and drivers must remain attentive. Tesla offered the rename during talks with German officials over technical and liability issues, Reuters reported, and CEO Elon Musk welcomed Germany's backing with "Danke Schön!" as the company's European approval push gained momentum. The approval remains contested: Reuters reported Germany supports allowing the system to operate up to 10% above detected speed limits, while France and Sweden objected, pushing an EU vote from October to at least December, and eight EU countries had approved the system by Wednesday, with Slovakia saying Thursday it expected to become the ninth within days.