Tesla $TSLA shares spike on FSD release plans in China and Europe

Tesla shares (NASDAQ: TSLA) are up this morning based on the company’s announcement last night that it would release Full Self-Driving in both China and Europe in the first quarter of 2025.

On Thursday morning, Tesla released an extensive Full Self-Driving roadmap with specific date goals for the release of certain features, as well as explicit plans to expand the FSD suite to regions outside of North America.

Tesla AI team publishes release roadmap for FSD features, global rollout

Tesla said it is aware that the impending release of FSD in Europe and China will depend on regulatory approvals for both markets. Europe has been entertaining the release of Driver Control Assistance Systems (DCAS) for some time.

Meanwhile, rumors of a meeting between Tesla and Chinese government officials resulted in CEO Elon Musk stating that the Full Self-Driving suite would make its way to China by year’s end. Now, it seems it has been pushed back to Q1 of next year.

Musk said during the Q2 2024 Earnings Call:

“I should also say that the self-driving capabilities that are deployed outside of North America are far behind that in North America. So with Version 12.5, and maybe 12.6, but pretty soon, we will ask for regulatory approval of the Tesla supervised FSD in Europe, China and other countries. And I think we’re likely to receive that before the end of the year, which will be a helpful demand driver in those regions obviously.”

The prospect of FSD making it to new countries is an advantage for Tesla investors for several reasons. First, the expansion of the suite shows Tesla’s prowess as a developer of self-driving tech and AI.

While other semi-autonomous driving suites are available in multiple areas, like Mercedes-Benz Drive Pilot and Ford BlueCruise, Tesla’s FSD features more functionalities, like the recent release of Actually Smart Summon, for example.

It also will help make the suite more robust through Tesla’s neural net, which gains data through every mile driven.

Investors should be encouraged by the prospect of Tesla’s potential growth because of these developments. At the same token, there should be hesitancy considering the automaker’s track record of not staying on announced timelines.

At 10:56 a.m. eastern, shares were up 5.79 percent.

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Tesla shares spike on Full Self-Driving release plans in China and Europe