Hungarian Tesla owners are urging the government to approve the company’s Full Self-Driving Supervised (FSD) system before an EU-wide decision, arguing that drivers risk falling behind neighbouring countries that have already moved ahead. The appeal comes as Elon Musk’s company faces a collapse in sales in the country just as the fully electric vehicle (EV) market is rising rapidly, driven mainly by Chinese BYD.
Tesla Owners Club Hungary, an officially recognized owners’ association, sent an open letter to Transport and Investment Minister Dávid Vitézy on Monday, 21 September, asking Hungary to recognize the provisional approval issued by the Dutch vehicle authority RDW on 10 April and to support EU-wide recognition when the Technical Committee for Motor Vehicles meets on 6 October to negotiate the issue.
While its name suggests otherwise, FSD Supervised is not a fully autonomous driving system. It can perform several driving tasks, but the driver must continuously supervise it and remains responsible for the vehicle. Tesla says European cars using FSD recorded 4.1 times fewer collisions than manually driven Teslas between April and August, based on more than 100 million kilometres of driving.
The Netherlands approved the system after more than 18 months of testing. During the summer, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark and Belgium subsequently recognized the Dutch approval, followed by Slovenia on 7 September and Czechia on 21 September, bringing the number of EU countries allowing it to seven.
In a statement in July, Hungary’s Transport and Investment Ministry said it was following the EU-level regulatory process instead of moving ahead like the seven member states. It stressed that new technologies required appropriate guarantees at the technical, safety and regulatory levels. The ministry concluded that Hungary supported innovations that demonstrably improve road safety, but did not commit to recognizing the Dutch approval nationally.
Tesla owners made their appeal at a time when the American company is struggling to regain momentum in the Hungarian EV market. While EV sales grew by more than 30 per cent compared with a year earlier between January and August, Tesla’s share shrank, with new registrations falling 30 per cent to 909. Model Y registrations dropped 24 per cent to 650 and Model 3 registrations by 42 per cent to 257.
Tesla’s decline marks a sharp reversal from just two years ago, when it dominated the Hungarian market, with the Model Y and Model 3 topping the list of new sales and comfortably outselling BYD.
‘While the Model Y is still the top-selling EV model, BYD occupies four of the top six places on the list’
That, however, has changed dramatically in recent months. While the Model Y is still the top-selling EV model, BYD occupies four of the top six places on the list. The Chinese manufacturer benefited enormously from former prime minister Viktor Orbán’s efforts to court as much Asian investment, mainly Chinese, into the country as possible in an effort to make Hungary Europe’s number one battery and EV industry hub.
BYD’s first European manufacturing plant in Szeged began trial production in early 2026, with mass production expected later this year. The company has also expanded its electric-bus production and R&D presence in Hungary. While the new government has tightened scrutiny of Orbán-era state-supported foreign investment projects, including launching investigations and imposing sanctions over alleged environmental breaches at BYD’s Szeged site, BYD has reiterated its commitment to Hungary and is proceeding with production there.
The regional picture is much more mixed. In Czechia, Tesla registrations rose about 18 per cent to 1,586 in January–August, while the wider EV market grew roughly 25 per cent in the first half, led by domestically produced Škoda models.
Slovenia has seen the strongest Tesla boom in the region, with registrations reaching 1,272 in January–July, up about 152 per cent. EVs are generally becoming increasingly popular, accounting for 26.4 per cent of all new cars in July, against 10.4 per cent last year. Renault, Škoda, Volkswagen and Chinese newcomer Leapmotor are also gaining ground.
Further south, the Romanian market is similarly expanding rapidly. Tesla registrations jumped 187 per cent to 1,564 in January–August, a little more than a hundred units ahead of BYD. Besides the two giants, US carmaker Ford doubled its sales, while French Renault also remained a significant player.
Croatia, meanwhile, shows close similarities with Hungary, with the overall EV market booming and BYD moving ahead of Tesla, although Tesla itself is still growing there. Registrations more than quadrupled from 583 to 2,333 in January–August, with BYD leading on 723 and Tesla second on 352, followed by Hyundai, BMW, Mazda, Škoda and Renault.
Elsewhere, subsidies and the used-car market are shaping demand as much as individual brands. Poland’s EV registrations fell 34 per cent year-on-year in August after an EU-funded incentive programme ran out, marking a fourth consecutive monthly decline.
‘Slovenia has seen the strongest Tesla boom in the region, with registrations reaching 1,272 in January–July, up about 152 per cent’
Slovakia shows the opposite structural problem: of 2,651 EVs registered in the first quarter, only 913 were new domestic sales, while 1,738 were imports. Škoda led new registrations, while Tesla accounted for almost 30 per cent of imported EVs. The Baltics show a similar reliance on second-hand cars. In Latvia, for example, only three of 120 Teslas registered in August were new, with the rest being imported used vehicles.
Tesla’s story in Central and Eastern Europe has therefore reached an important milestone with the FSD approvals at a time when its overall performance in the region is extremely uneven and Chinese carmakers are increasingly gaining ground, while European brands are becoming more competitive in a generally more optimistic European market.
That makes software significantly more important to Tesla’s position in the region. Škoda, Volkswagen and other rivals already offer increasingly sophisticated assisted-driving systems, narrowing Tesla’s technological lead, but still lagging behind FSD Supervised, which is designed to handle more complex driving situations. In other areas, Tesla is being challenged on range, charging and pricing. In Hungary, where Tesla sales are falling significantly, approving FSD could help stop the downward trend, particularly as consumer demand for the technology is already there.
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