New York, Feb 25, 2026, 07:30 ET — Premarket
- Tesla shares up about 0.3% in premarket trade; stock rose 2.4% on Tuesday’s close.
- New European registration data showed Tesla’s January sales slide extended, while BYD surged.
- Traders are also tracking fresh legal and regulatory fights tied to hiring and Autopilot branding.
Tesla, Inc shares (TSLA.O) were up 0.3% at $410.60 in premarket trading on Wednesday, after gaining 2.39% to close at $409.38 in the previous session. (Public)
The move comes as investors digested new Europe-wide registration data that points to a tougher demand backdrop and sharper price competition. For Tesla stock, that matters because the company still makes most of its money selling cars, even as the share price often swings on its long-run bets in software, autonomy and robotics.
Headlines are also piling up on the risk side. Tesla is juggling fresh litigation in the U.S. and a regulatory fight in California, while the broader “AI trade” is again on watch ahead of Nvidia results due after the closing bell on Wednesday. (Reuters)
In Europe, Tesla’s registrations — a proxy for sales — fell 17% year-on-year in January, its 13th straight monthly decline, according to data from auto lobby ACEA cited by Reuters. Chinese rival BYD’s registrations jumped 165% over the same period, as overall new car sales in the region fell 3.5%. (Reuters)
In the U.S., a federal judge said Tesla must face a lawsuit alleging anti-American bias in hiring, rejecting the company’s bid to toss the case. Tesla called the claims “preposterous,” while the judge said the lead plaintiff had “just enough facts” to keep the case alive. (Reuters)
Tesla is also taking the fight to California regulators. The company filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Motor Vehicles after the DMV moved to label Tesla a “false advertiser” over its marketing of Autopilot, TechCrunch reported. (TechCrunch)
The DMV said last week Tesla took corrective action to avoid a suspension, after the agency said the term “Autopilot” could mislead drivers about what the system does. The driver-assistance features still require an attentive human driver, the DMV said. (California DMV)
Even with the car business in focus again, Tesla’s “physical AI” pitch keeps pulling attention back to robots and robotaxis. GLJ Research analyst Gordon Johnson called Tesla’s humanoid robot effort a “delusion,” arguing the market is treating a hard manufacturing problem like a near-certainty, Barron’s reported. (Barron’s)
Competition in autonomous rides is also getting louder. Alphabet-owned Waymo is opening robotaxi service to the public in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, bringing operations to 10 U.S. cities, TechCrunch reported. Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said the company is on track to serve more than one million rides per week by year-end. (TechCrunch)
The timing is awkward for long-duration stories like Tesla’s. “You are seeing more anxiety about AI disrupting businesses,” said Chuck Carlson, chief executive at Horizon Investment Services, in a Reuters report on Wednesday’s tech-heavy trade. (Reuters)
But the story can flip quickly. A deeper demand slowdown in Europe, tougher regulation of driver-assistance claims, or an adverse turn in court could push investors back toward near-term delivery and margin worries — the part of Tesla’s business that is easier to model and harder to hand-wave away. (Reuters)
For the next session, traders will be watching Nvidia’s earnings after markets close on Wednesday for the read-through on the AI complex — and any fresh court or regulator moves that could sharpen the near-term risk premium on Tesla stock.
