Tesla delays FSD approval in Europe again, now expects April 10

Tesla’s European arm announced today that it has completed all vehicle testing for Full Self-Driving (Supervised) in the Netherlands — but the expected approval date has slipped yet again, from March 20 to April 10.

The announcement, which Tesla framed as progress, also reveals that a broader EU-wide approval is now not expected until the summer.

Testing done, approval still pending

Tesla Europe posted on X today that it has “officially completed the final vehicle testing phase” for FSD (Supervised) with the Dutch road authority RDW and submitted all documentation required for UN R-171 approval and Article 39 exemptions.

However, the RDW is still reviewing the documentation and test results package internally. Tesla said the Dutch regulator has communicated a new expected approval date of April 10, pushing back from the March 20 target that CEO Elon Musk had previously touted.

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It’s worth noting that when Musk claimed RDW would give them approval in March, RDW had to correct him, saying that no approval is guaranteed.

Tesla shared impressive-sounding testing figures to support its case: over 1.6 million kilometers of FSD testing on EU roads, more than 13,000 customer ride-alongs, over 4,500 track test scenarios, and thousands of pages of compliance documentation covering 400-plus requirements.

Following the Netherlands’ approval, whenever it actually comes, other European countries would be able to recognize the Dutch approval nationally under EU mutual recognition rules. Tesla said it anticipates a “possible EU-wide approval during the summer.”

A long history of missed deadlines

European Tesla owners have heard promises about advanced driver-assistance features before. Musk claimed FSD would launch in Europe in the summer of 2022. That didn’t happen. In late 2024, Tesla said approval would come in early 2025. That didn’t happen either.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos in January, Musk said FSD could get approved in Europe and China in February 2026. China’s government shut that claim down within 24 hours. The European timeline also didn’t pan out — here we are on what was supposed to be approval day, and the date has been pushed back another three weeks.

Meanwhile, regulators haven’t exactly been rubber-stamping Tesla’s claims. When Tesla first announced the Netherlands timeline in late 2025, the RDW contradicted Tesla’s characterization, clarifying it had only established a schedule for Tesla to demonstrate FSD meets required standards — not committed to approving it, which seems to have been confirmed by Tesla today.

FSD faces headwinds even in North America

The timing of today’s announcement comes as Tesla’s FSD program faces growing scrutiny at home. Just yesterday, NHTSA upgraded its investigation into FSD crashes to an Engineering Analysis covering 3.2 million vehicles — typically the last step before a recall. The probe focuses on FSD’s failure to detect impaired camera visibility in conditions like sun glare, fog, and dust.

Tesla disclosed in January that it has 1.1 million FSD users, but that number includes people who purchased the package outright years ago. The actual take rate sits around 12% of all Tesla vehicles ever sold, not exactly the ringing endorsement the company needs to justify its autonomy-driven valuation.

Electrek’s Take

This sounds like progress, and in a narrow technical sense, it is — completing a testing program with a national regulator is a concrete milestone. But EU Tesla owners have been burned so many times by missed FSD deadlines that the right approach now is to believe it when you see it. The date has already slipped from March 20 to April 10, and there’s no guarantee it won’t slip again.

As for the broader picture, Musk believes FSD will save Tesla in Europe, where the brand is in deep trouble — registrations crashed 27.8% in 2025 and the decline has continued into 2026.

We don’t see that happening. FSD has a take rate in the low teens in North America, where it has been available for years and where the regulatory environment is far more permissive. It can meaningfully help Tesla’s offering in Europe, but it won’t put the company back on a path of meaningful growth in a market where it’s losing ground to competitors with newer products, better prices, and CEOs who aren’t actively alienating the customer base.

The real question isn’t whether FSD will eventually get approved in Europe — it probably will, in some form. The question is whether it will matter enough to reverse a sales decline that has little to do with driver-assistance software and everything to do with brand damage and an aging lineup.