Tesla Shifts Gears: Dumps One-Time FSD Purchase for $99 Monthly Subscription Model
Tesla just slammed the brakes on its old pricing model. The company's controversial Full Self-Driving suite is no longer a permanent purchase—it's now a recurring revenue stream.
The New Price of 'Beta'
Forget the hefty upfront cost. Access to FSD's evolving—and some would argue perpetually unfinished—feature set now runs you ninety-nine bucks every single month. It's a pivot from ownership to access, locking drivers into a subscription that analysts predict will smooth out revenue bumps better than Autopilot handles a sharp curve.
A Calculated Financial Move
The shift isn't just about software; it's a masterclass in financial engineering. Tesla trades volatile one-time sales for predictable, high-margin recurring income. It's the kind of pivot that would make any SaaS CFO grin, turning every Tesla on the road into a potential annuity. One cynical observer noted it's a brilliant way to monetize the gap between promise and delivery—charge monthly for a capability that's always just around the corner.
What's the real destination here? For Tesla, it's a clearer path to profitability on its tech bets. For drivers, it's a new calculation: is the promise of autonomous driving worth a perpetual toll? The road ahead, much like the technology itself, remains to be fully navigated.
Tesla’s sales drop while BYD takes the top spot
Tesla’s sales have dropped for the second year in a row. In the last quarter of 2025, deliveries fell 16%. For the whole year, the company’s total was down nearly 9%. That’s how BYD ended up selling more fully electric vehicles than Tesla in both the fourth quarter and the full year.
BYD delivered 2.26 million EVs in 2025. Tesla sold 1.64 million. The year before, Tesla held on to the top spot, but BYD was already closing in. Now the gap is clear.
The fall in Tesla’s deliveries came after EV tax credits expired in the U.S. Analyst Jed Dorsheimer from William Blair said in a note that many on Wall Street were expecting a sales drop after the tax changes. He also said Tesla is now “valued almost entirely on the transformation to real-world AI.”
At the start of 2024, analysts expected Tesla to sell more than 3 million cars by 2026. That forecast has been cut to 1.8 million.
Tesla’s attention is now on other projects like FSD, robotaxis, and robots. With the subscription-only change, FSD joins the list of tools Musk is using to push Tesla’s tech plans forward.
The only part of the business that grew was energy storage. In the fourth quarter, Tesla delivered 14.2 gigawatt hours of energy storage systems. That’s up from 11 a year earlier. For the whole year, the total was 46.7 gigawatt hours, a rise of nearly 50%.
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