Episode 525: Tons of New Model Y L Details Revealed

On this week's episode of Ride the Lightning, the Tesla and EV podcast, the new six-seat longer

wheelbase Model Y L has officially launched in China, and we've got a ton of new details

about the biggest Model Y ever as a result, and some of them are very pleasantly surprising.

Plus, Model 3 adds a highly desired part back into the interior in China, the Model

S, X and Cybertruck get a fancy new Luxe package and more.

What's happening friends?

Ryan McCaffrey joining you for the palindromatic episode 525 of Ride the Lightning, the Tesla

and EV podcast, coming at you every single Sunday at 9am Eastern, 6am Pacific.

This one is publishing on August 24th, 2025.

I am surrounded by not one, not two, but three wonderful four-legged friends.

I've got Daisy the Boxer to my immediate left.

Oh, somebody who's not supposed to be on the couch, that would be mine of the future

service dog.

I'm gonna have to shuffle her off of there in a second because that's against the canine

companion's rules, and behind me, chewing on a bone or something over there, would

be Lily the silly Labrador puppy.

As I said, this is a palindrome episode 525.

I always like pointing those out because they're just fun.

Speaking of fun, I want to thank everybody that came out to my Ride the Lightning

Listener Meetup this past week at the Tesla Diner in Hollywood.

I'll be gonna be totally honest with you guys, as always, it is incredibly humbling that

anyone, let alone the great group of people that came, that anyone would take time out

of their life to drive an hour across LA, or in some folks' cases, even longer and

farther than that, just to come out and meet up with me.

And check out the Tesla Diner, I mean it is super humbling, honestly.

And speaking of that Listener Meetup at the Tesla Diner, this week's Lightning Round

mini-episode, which I do exclusively for my very generous Patreon backers, those of

you kindly contributing at that $10 per month tier or higher, that's the most popular

tier on my Patreon, this week's Lightning Round was all about the Tesla Diner.

It was an impromptu recording.

It was recorded from the Tesla Diner, I just took out my iPhone, I didn't have any of my

recording equipment with me, and just passed the phone around to everybody, all the listeners

that attended and we all talked about where we're from and what food we had and what

we thought of the Tesla Diner food and it just turned into a really fun, it's

short, it's like a 10-12 minute conversation.

But I hope those of you who are very generously supporting what I'm doing here with Ride

the Lightning over on Patreon, check out that Lightning Round and enjoy it.

And if you'd like to join my Patreon, I would be so grateful and appreciative if you did.

This is a free podcast, it always has been, it always will be.

It gets on thanks to the support of all of you guys and Patreon is the primary way

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For more information, you can go to my Patreon page, which is at Patreon.com

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So again, Patreon.com slash Tesla podcast.

Let's get right into the main story this week.

It is a big one.

The Model YL has been officially launched in China with deliveries set to begin very

soon in September, which as of me recording this is barely over a week away.

And so we now have a bunch more details about the longer three row six seat Model

Y and I'll be totally honest with you guys, I am genuinely surprised by some of the

features that Tesla is including in this longer, taller car that also happens to have

more headroom for the third row.

So just a lot of, like we knew that, but a lot of little changes as well.

So a lot of this information that I'm about to share with you comes from a video uploaded

to YouTube by a Chinese user with the channel name Geek Lai, L-A-I-I, and he is speaking

Chinese because he is of course from China, but thanks to that user's English subtitles

on the bottom and just the visuals of what you're seeing in the car, we get a pretty

clear idea of just about everything that's new and interesting about the Model YL.

And I also want to give a tip of the cap to our Tesla tips to friends, Sawyer Merritt

for rounding up all of the interesting new details as well.

So let me get started here.

One of the biggest surprises for me is that the headrests are now adjustable in what appears

is definitely the front row, the front two seats, and it sure looks like they are in

the second row as well.

That is a feature that many people have wanted in their Tesla for a long time, including

my wife for the record.

I think she's kind of used to it now, but I still think she would prefer to have an adjustable

headrest, so the Model YL has exactly that in the first two rows.

Second, I am also quite surprised by this one, the extendable leg supports, if you

want to call them thigh bolsters, in again the first and second rows.

So what I'm talking about here is that the bottom section of the seat closest to the edge

can extend out for taller passengers to better support their legs, their thighs there.

So as far as I know, don't quote me on this for sure, but as far as I know, this is

the first time Tesla has ever offered that feature in any of the cars that they've

ever made.

In the Tesla space, kind of a big deal.

Next, it's got air-cooled wireless phone chargers in the center console, so very, very similar

to what we have in all of our newer Teslas, basically anything from 2019 on up, because

let's see, my 2018 didn't have it.

I think they added it to the Model 3 in 2019 and the SNX at about the same time.

Every Tesla made in the last five years has a wireless phone charger in the center console,

but the Model YL air-cools them.

Yes, the charging base has small air vents in the center that blow cool air out onto

your phone to help prevent overheating while wireless charging.

The left driver's side wireless charger now supports up to 50 watt charging speeds as well.

That's a significant increase over the 30 watts it is in all of our cars.

The passenger charger, the right hand charger is still 30 watts, so the driver one on the

left there gets a significantly quicker charging speed and both of them get the air-cooling.

Let's move to the second row now and talk about that.

The second row captain's chairs fold flat, something that even the Model X's super fancy second

row seats, at least when we're talking about the six-seat configuration of the X, they don't

do that on their very, very cool pedestals.

In fact, both the second and third row seats fold flat or come back up at the touch

of a button, so that is the case with the second row bench in the new Model Y, and it

is now the case in the second row captain's chairs and third row bench in the Model YL.

Oh, by the way, those second row seats are ventilated, which is also not the case in

the current six-seater X.

The seats themselves are perforated, but there's no ventilation, there's no air flow through

the second row seats in the six-seat Model X, but they are ventilated in the Model YL's

second row.

The third row seats are not, though they are heated, so every seat in the car in

the Model YL is heated, and the first two rows, four of the six seats are ventilated

as well.

And yes, you did hear me say captain's chairs, which means those second row seats have arm

rests, and what's, these are super cool.

They can be hidden away or raised up to be used at the touch of a button.

They, if you, just touch a button down below, kind of on the base of the seat on the

inside section, so if you're sitting on the driver's side second row seat, it's

on your right.

If you're sitting on the passenger side second row seat, it's down on your left.

Just tap the little button down there, and the captain's chair arm rests come rising

up out of the base of the seat, which is just super cool.

Speaking of cool, literally cool, there are dedicated air vents up at face level on

the B pillars on either side for the second row occupants, and again at face level back

on the C pillar for the third row passengers.

So I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, owners of 7 seat Model Ys, but I believe the existing

the old generation 7 seat Model Y does not have air vents for that third row.

The Model YL rectifies that and adds them.

White interior, if you're a fan of white interior like I am, it is a bit different from what

we have now in that the entire arm rest is the vegan white material.

The entire arm rest is white.

Now, all of you know I am a huge fan of the white interior.

I have it in both of our Model 3s, but even I, if I'm being honest here, I'm a little unsure

about white arm rests, because the arm rest is such a major touch point in the car, it's

going to get touched a lot over the many years of use, and I worry a little bit that over

time those white arm rests and thus the door handles built into them that you're going

to use to pull the door shut from the inside are going to get grimy and weathered, whereas

you don't see that on a black arm rest.

I'll say I get the same worry about the white leather or I don't know if it's vegan

leather or what, but there's the Volkswagen ID4 EV in the first edition ones, which

some of you out there may own one of these.

They have a white steering wheel and that to me just is like, oh man, that seems like

it's going to look pretty bad slash pretty gross after a while.

I hope not, but that's what I can't help thinking when I see that, although then

again just to bring it back to Tesla, the new SNX have a white center console arm

rest.

If you order the white interior, so maybe not maybe definitely there are listeners

out there hearing this that have a white interior 2020, let's say the 2021, one of

the early refreshes, either long range or plat, it doesn't matter just the white

interior and maybe you can drop me an email Tesla podcast at gmail.com and let

me know if that center console arm rest piece that's white is staying nice for

you or if it's starting to get a little bit grimy.

So we'll see what happens on the Model YL that the point is that arm rest is white

and I guess it remains to be seen how that's going to hold up over time.

Now here's a feature in the Model YL that I genuinely wish that I could get

in my Model 3 performance, all black headliner.

Yes, every Model 3 and every Model Y that have been made to date outside of

Giga Shanghai or even I guess all the ones even at Giga Shanghai just up to the

Model YL have had just a, I won't call it white, but just like a light,

you know, light beige, whatever color that actually is, a light colored

fabric headliner, although I know just for you, for you historians out there,

when I say fabric, before you email me, oh yes, I remember well that the first

2000 or so Model 3s back in 2017 actually had an Alcantara headliner

and then Tesla stopped doing that.

So those cars are unicorns in the overall Model 3 family.

Anyway, all black headliner in the Model YL.

So the Model S and Model X have this, although it's a more premium material.

It's Alcantara, which if you're not familiar with Alcantara, it is a,

in my opinion, really nice to the touch, very soft, luxurious feeling material.

A lot of a lot of more luxury and premium cars do use Alcantara

in either a little bit or a lot throughout the interior.

And so I will just jealously say that in my Model 3 performance with the

white interior, man, what I love to have that black headliner,

because it would just make the white seats and the other white,

you know, the white door panels, it would really make the white components

of my white interior pop a little extra.

I would be thrilled to add that in my car.

I know that is not going to be a retrofit option.

I mean, I guess I could get it if I took it to a an upholsterer,

I guess a professional, maybe I'm sure such a thing as an automotive upholsterer exists.

But anyway, I'm not going to probably not going to go spend the couple

thousand bucks that would take.

But all I'm saying is Model YL will have the black headliner,

which should make the white interior in that vehicle just look extra good

in my humble opinion.

The Model YL adds a new speaker below the screen on the back of the center console.

So below that second row screen in between the two second row captain's chair seats.

And then it adds another one in the ceiling just behind the second row

captain's chairs. And that means in total, there are 18 speakers

and one subwoofer in the Model YL.

Speaking of the second row screen on the back of that center console,

there's now a pair of cup holders that slide out.

It's like a tray, a little thin tray that slides out at the touch of a button as well.

So another nice little addition by Tesla there, cup holders for the second row.

And I'm still going, by the way, there's there's still a lot more to talk about here.

There's, again, a lot going on with the Model YL.

Speaking, let's see here a word I leave off.

Ah, in addition to the USB-C chargers that are as in our cars now,

underneath that second row screen for the second row passengers,

there are now two more for the third row on the fronts of the seats in the center,

meaning they're basically under the bottom part of your thigh hamstring.

When you're seated there, just in the in the center area,

like between the two seats in the third row, basically, if you can picture that.

So all three rows have access to USB-C charging.

Up front, the main center touchscreen is ever so slightly larger.

It's a 16 inch touchscreen versus the 15.4 in the cars now.

That's I would guess that's probably more of just a Tesla supplier updating their

product thing rather than any sort of super intentional move on Tesla's part.

But I guess you never know.

Either way, bigger screen, that sounds pretty good.

The suspension in the Model YL is described as a second generation

suspension system equipped with continuous variable damping that is noted

as unique to the Model YL.

The L clearly in this vehicle does not stand for long, although I mean,

I guess it does.

But I think it clearly also now stands for luxury between the adjustable

headrests, the extent, the thigh bolsters,

the black headliner, larger screen, the nicer suspension.

This the L and Model YL stands for both long and luxury,

because at least compared to the the regular Model Y.

The overall cubic feet of storage number is 89.6 on the Model YL.

It does have the same 82 kilowatt hour

battery pack that the other Model Ys do with a range that translates to

an EPA rating of about 327 miles.

Now, if the car comes over here, we don't actually know exactly what

it's going to be rated at by the EPA.

But the the Chinese metric, which is way optimistic converts.

It's like 400 something by the Chinese metric.

It'll actually be like 327 or so miles.

As for the performance of the L, the 0 to 100 kilometer per hour time,

which, by the way, is 0 to 62 miles per hour is the exact

translation there, is 4.5 seconds.

So adjusting for 0 to 60 means it's probably

a it's pretty close about a 10th or two difference on that.

It is priced in China.

Now, this don't get too too excited here, because I just don't think

this is going to translate to the US if this car comes over.

It's priced in China at the equivalent of 46,700 dollars.

And if that sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Because the existing long range all-wheel drive five seat model Y

here is $49,000.

So if it comes stateside, I'm going to stick with my previous

prediction and I'm going to say it's going to be $55,000.

So we'll see what happens there.

Now, overall, and there is more to discuss, but overall,

my opinion on the model YL, this seems like

an absolutely fantastic version unquestionably

the best version of an already amazing car.

Like this is it's easily the best of the new model wise.

It's it's not even close in term with all the features that it's got.

And I think it would sell extremely well here.

As I've said before on probably many other podcasts,

there really aren't any EV minivans unless you want to count

the the Volkswagen ID buzz, which again, I would count

even if Volkswagen doesn't count it because it does have three rows and a sliding door.

Now, the model YL doesn't have a sliding door.

It is not a minivan, but I think it could appeal to families

who want an EV minivan, but maybe are don't have a choice

of one. It's like the VW ID buzz, which is like 70 grand.

It's it's a little overpriced for what it is, in my opinion,

particularly with the fact that it has a range of about 235 miles.

But anyway, though, I think I just think the L could appeal

to a lot of families in a big, big way.

So I'm not now I'm not going to sit here and say that if the model

YL is available globally, meaning in North America and Europe,

I'm not saying it would just vault to the top of the charts

and become the top selling version of the model Y

because price is going to be a huge factor in that.

The the long like Tesla doesn't tell us which version

of the Y sells the most, but I would make a small

in and out bet lunch wager that it's the more affordable one.

It's the long range rear wheel drive.

Now that that same logic probably doesn't apply to the Cybertruck

because it's just in a much higher price class.

And as I've said before, and you guys voted in the Patreon poll,

most of us don't really think that the more affordable Cybertruck

the the long range rear wheel drive is a particularly good value

for all the things it takes away.

But when it comes to the model Y, a more mass market priced vehicle,

I would imagine that the long range rear wheel drive

since it has pretty much everything that the long range

all wheel drive does, it has more range.

Number one, it just doesn't have as much performance

or the all wheel drive traction.

But anyway, the cheapest model Y is probably the top selling one now.

And it will probably remain the top selling version.

We'll see about the stripped down model Y

that that I detailed on what was that last week of the week before.

We'll see it depending if they've stripped away too much.

And if the price is right, if that is a thirty five thousand dollar model Y,

then that one probably will become the top selling model Y variant.

But all that is to say,

I think the model YL is going to appeal to a lot of families in a big way.

Now, on a related note, I saw a lot of chatter online

in the Tesla community this week centered around the what must surely be

the imminent demise of if not the model S, the model X.

And by the way, if one were to go, the other would probably go to,

especially in this case, because the X sells more than the S does.

I doubt they discontinue the X and keep the S.

But I don't think either one of them are going anywhere.

And I'll talk more about that now.

As I said, after the recent mini refresh

from just a couple months ago now, I just don't see Tesla getting rid

of the S or X or both.

The model YL didn't come out of nowhere, right?

Meaning Tesla's been planning it for some time.

And if they were going to kill the S and the X,

they almost certainly would not have bothered to update the SNX at all.

Minimal, though, those updates were.

Plus, it just makes good business sense to have the more aspirational

flagship cars in the lineup because it helps get more people in the door

via the actual foot traffic into stores or in the door online via the website.

Tesla.com and by extension helps get more people into model

wise and model threes.

Now, the SNX as well, they're also profitable.

You know, they've been around for quite some time now,

regardless of how few they sell, they are profitable vehicles.

Those are profitable vehicle programs for Tesla.

So the question would be if the model YL were heralding

the demise of the X and possibly the S, what would you do

with the manufacturing resources in Fremont if you killed them?

And since there currently aren't any other high volume cars on the horizon

that would make more sense for that manufacturing capability.

And before you say cybercab, I'm not counting that

because we already know that cybercab will be built in Texas

using the unboxed method.

And so the existing SNX production line would not be a good fit

for the cybercab for a couple of reasons.

So I just don't think there's really enough of a case to convince me

that the S and X or just the X will or even should be sunsetted.

Now, there's another piece of this and this might.

I don't when I say upset you, I don't mean in like the actual like

girl, I'm angry sense, but in the kind of like throw your hands up

and and maybe just be a little annoyed sense.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to a post on X about the model YL

and its availability here, and he did so pretty definitively.

Elon posted, quote, this variant of the model Y doesn't start production

in the US until the end of next year might not ever given the advent

of self-driving in America, end quote.

However, the day before this post, a reliable Tesla source

that I trust that is delivered in the past for me on news,

on stuff I've brought to this podcast and it's come true.

A reliable Tesla source I trust told me that the model YL will be

made available to order here in North America this quarter.

So basically any time now, but probably in September,

with deliveries beginning in the US in Q4.

Now, I am pretty confident in who I heard this from,

but it's quite at odds with what Elon just said.

I mean, I suppose we should probably believe Elon when it's coming

straight from him versus anyone but him, which is my source is

not Elon in this case as a spoiler.

That's not who the source is.

So Elon would have to be blatantly lying with that

post for my source to be correct.

So I'm not saying that I don't believe Elon.

I'm not saying that I think he's lying, but I do think it just

doesn't make sense to have a new product that a lot of customers

are really interested in and to just say essentially, well,

we might not ever bring it over to our biggest market,

but if we do, it's over a year away.

That just doesn't seem to make any business sense to me.

Do I know business better than Elon Musk?

No, I absolutely don't.

But it seems pretty common sense to me.

Now, for what it's worth, Elon was getting killed in the

comments over that post, both on X and over on the Tesla

Motors Reddit as well, because here's the thing.

Even with autonomy, you are still going to need to transport

your family all together.

A family of four, five or six.

They're not going to take two or three cybercaps to get

where they're going or even two separate five seat model

Y robo taxis.

If it's a family of six or or well, I guess six, not seven,

but they're not going to take two robo taxis to get somewhere

when the Model Y L could fill that need.

And this is I don't want to get too off track,

but this is the zero sum game with autonomy

that I've talked about that I I just don't get.

Tesla can vigorously and wholeheartedly pursue

full autonomy and still make new vehicles in new segments

to satisfy actual market demand for the next 10 to 20 years

as autonomy will slowly.

It's not going to happen overnight.

Even Elon should hopefully admit that autonomy will slowly

over the next decade or two change society

and also how we view transportation.

And Elon certainly thinks and I would agree that it will change

society and how we view transportation for the better.

So it's just it's honestly if you go look at the post,

I don't know if you have an X account and you want to go find his post on it,

but it's honestly pretty rare to see Elon get lit up

on his own platform by his own fans

because usually, if I'm being honest,

it's pretty cult worshipy on Elon posts.

If you look at the comments underneath, but not this time.

And good because it a cult worshipping

that's not good, that's that doesn't help anybody.

But two, he should get lit up for this one.

It's just it's not it's just not a great statement.

It's like and I know that a lot of you are probably saying,

well, he just wants people to buy the existing versions of the Model Y right now.

And if you are sitting at home saying that, I would agree with you.

But if he were just if his goal here

was just trying to not Osborn effect the current why,

I feel like he would have phrased his post differently

because he he was pretty definitive about it, saying

not till the end of next year, if ever.

So we'll see what happens with this.

And I guess I'll sum up by saying that

if the Model Y L were to suddenly appear

on the North American Tesla website in about a month from now,

don't be surprised.

And if it happens, I could maybe see Elon saying something on X like,

oh, OK, we heard you guys, you win.

We're bringing it out over here, too, which

if they're planning it, they're planning it.

They're not just going to snap their fingers

and suddenly a Model Y L production line

appears out of nowhere in Texas and or Fremont.

So I really want my source to be right.

And I guess I'm saying I hope Elon is lying here,

even though I'm not a fan of lying.

I I just don't he could have just phrased it another way.

So I don't know where this ends.

But if it's either he's lying and we get the Model Y L here

and we get it soon and that would be great.

But it would be not great that he posted a straight up lie about it

or he's not lying and we're not going to get it here

for at least a year and maybe never.

And I think that would be the absolute wrong bad decision.

So I'm not sure where this is going to go,

but we'll all just have to sit back and find out.

And I decided to make this the subject of this week's Patreon poll,

not Elon's post specifically, but just the Model Y L itself.

And I phrased it this way.

And by the way, for those of you, if you're like,

hey, what do you mean? What poll?

I every week on my Patreon page, I post a new poll for anybody to vote on.

It's open to the public.

You don't have to be supporting me.

You don't have to be giving me a dime.

You just have to swing on by my Patreon page each week

and vote in the poll because I want to hear from all of you.

I think these polls can be fun and sometimes instructive.

So swing on by the poll usually goes up on Tuesday evenings.

And again, the website there is patreon.com slash Tesla podcast.

And so the poll question was, which Model Y would you buy?

Now, I said basically set aside whether you already own one or not.

And I just said, if you were looking to buy a Model Y,

which variant would you want?

And the poll results here, which again,

I would venture to say most of the people that voted in this poll

hadn't seen Elon's post.

And I think the poll results are very telling

because 39% of you, which is by far and away

that the number one most voted option in this poll,

the next closest choice had 19% of the vote.

So by more than a two to one ratio compared to any other choice in this poll,

39% of you said voted I'd want the Model YL.

And then another 8% of you,

because I knew somebody would leave a comment on this

if I didn't include it as an option.

So another 8% of you voted I'd want a Model YL performance

if Tesla is going to offer the L in a performance variant.

For now, there's no indication that they're going to do that.

But I just thought I would throw that in in case people wanted to vote that way.

And well, 8% of you did.

By the way, over 300 votes in this week's poll.

So a pretty nice sample size.

Thank you to everybody that took the time to vote.

So if you add those two together,

that is nearly half of all the votes said

of all the Model Ys, I would want the Model YL.

19% of you said voted I'd want the existing long range

all wheel drive, the dual motor.

And then 15% of you said I'd want the upcoming Model Y performance,

which we know is coming.

And then after that, it's all single digits after that between

I'd want the existing long range rear wheel drive

and I'd want the upcoming cheaper stripped down Model Y.

So the point is there's a lot of love in this poll

for the Model YL.

And I imagine that pretty much everybody that voted in this poll

is in either North America or Europe.

Shout out to my Australian friends.

But that tells me Tesla needs to bring this thing over here.

And I think they are going to do it.

I just think it would be insane not to.

And hopefully we'll find out in about another month or so.

Before I continue with the rest of this week's Tesla and EV news.

And yes, there is plenty more to talk about.

I want to quickly mention my friends at Xcare

who are redefining the EV extended warranty.

They're not thinking outside the box.

They have crushed that box, disassembled it

and built a geodesic dome in its place, which is so much cooler.

But seriously, looking ahead, building for the future.

It's not anything crazy.

It is what innovative organizations do.

And that's why these folks who are former Tesla employees,

current Tesla owners developed Xcare.

They've been around for 10 years now.

So this is not some new startup fly by night thing.

Xcare is a comprehensive extended warranty

designed exclusively for EVs.

They've also rethought the entire customer experience

because you know how annoying that can be.

I have a three year, 40,000 mile additional policy

on our 2018 Model 3 and the couple of times that I've had to use it.

The claim process has been super easy.

Reimbursement has been quick and painless.

Also, if you just want to cover the high voltage battery

and the drive unit and not worry about kind of the rest of the car,

but just make sure that those high price,

those high cost to replace items are covered.

Your vehicle may qualify for that coverage as well.

Best of all, because you're a ride the lightning listener,

you get $100 off when you select Xcare's one time payment option.

Use the discount code Lightning.

Go to Xcare.com.

That's X C A R E dot com.

And you can choose the EV extended warranty

that's best for you, whether it's like me, three years, 40,000 miles.

Maybe you want to go five years, 50 all the way up to 10 years

and up to 125,000 additional miles.

Again, check them out X care dot com.

OK, speaking of new things happening with Tesla over in China,

here's a plot twist.

The Model 3 is now coming out of Giga Shanghai.

Include a turn signal stock just like the new Model Y.

So history tells us that it is highly, highly likely,

dare I say, all but guaranteed that this will come over

to the Fremont made Model 3s,

AKA the only other place on earth that the Model 3 is built.

Now, it's been almost two years

since the new Model 3 launched out of Giga Shanghai.

And the only, the only reason that I can see Tesla doing this

to a car that's been in production without a turn signal stock

for nearly two years is that sales numbers are down.

Now, Tesla, as we know, is so hell bent on deleting parts

whenever possible that it just seems to me that for them

to make a significant UI change like this

that involves adding a part back in,

they must think that it's going to make a material difference in sales.

Now, normally with a change that debuts out of Giga Shanghai,

I would say, well, give it a quarter or so,

especially with the super busy Q4 looming.

However, if my hypothesis is correct

and Tesla does see the turn signal stock

as something that makes an actual difference in demand

and subsequently sales, then I think there's a good chance

that they will reintroduce it here in the U.S. sooner than that,

perhaps even at the start of Q4, whereas normally, again,

I would think they might do it in Q1 when things are quieter.

Oh, and by the way, it gets even a little juicier than that.

Tesla China is offering a retrofit for existing new Model 3s

for what is the equivalent of three hundred and fifty U.S. dollars.

So we'll see if that same thing gets offered over here pretty soon.

For my part, if it does,

I will not be partaking in this particular retrofit.

I have genuinely come to like the turn signal buttons in my car.

I will say that I like them from the jump,

although I know that the reason that I was that I felt good about them

right out of the gate is because I had the distinct pleasure

of spending a weekend with a Cybertruck.

No, was that that was early 2024, courtesy of longtime listener

Emmett Peppers. Emmett, thank you so much.

Again, you're awesome. You continue to be awesome.

And now the Cybertruck drives differently, certainly with the steer by wire,

but I just got you that weekend.

I got used to having to using my left thumb

to hit either the left or right turn signal.

And so when I got my new Model 3 performance at the end of last year,

I it just felt super second nature and super comfortable to me.

So and I also I like that there are no stocks on my car.

I like the clean look of it that that minimalist looks.

So it works for me, but I want to be super clear.

I don't begrudge anybody out there

who would prefer to have the stock because, again,

clearly the market has spoken on this

and the majority of folks would prefer to have a turn signal stock.

But I am happy with the buttons in mind personally.

So anyway, if, in fact, every Model 3

built worldwide does get a turn signal stock back,

I think the next reasonable question to ask would be,

are the Model S and Model X next?

And again, if Tesla thinks that it is having a genuine negative

effect on sales, then yes, I think S and X will also get

a turn signal stock put back into them.

Although in their case, it would be for the first time in five years.

It would be quite a gap.

But I do think if if it does come over here

and especially if there's a retrofit offered for the threes as well,

S and X will probably be next because, again, we I don't like it

because I think there's such amazing cars and it just bums me out.

But the fact is sales of S and X have been trending downward

for quite some time now.

So if putting a stock back in those cars might help

in any way with with putting moving sales back in the right direction

on S and X, then Tesla will do it.

Cybertruck, if you're curious, it genuinely, truly doesn't need it

because of the steer by wire.

And if you don't believe me, I really encourage you

to go take a demo drive of a Cybertruck because, honestly,

you should just experience steer by wire anyway,

regardless of the turn signal thing.

Steer by wire is just so much fun.

And it'll if your experience mirrors mine,

you will get back in your Tesla and it will make

your cars steering feel archaic by comparison.

That's how cool steer by wire is.

But there you go.

That's I have to say this story took me by surprise this week.

I was not expecting Tesla to to walk back

the turn signal situation in the Model 3.

And there are yet more changes afoot with Tesla.

This one is stateside.

This is not coming out of Giga Shanghai

or Tesla China.

This one, though, is probably not so great, in my opinion.

And the reason is because Tesla isn't giving you a choice in the matter.

So the story here is the Model S and Model X

and the Cyber Beast specifically,

so not the dual motor Cybertruck

or the long range rear wheel drive Cybertruck,

are getting a mandatory new Luxe package.

L, U, X, E and with it,

a price increase of ten thousand dollars

on the Model S and the Model X and

fifteen thousand dollars on the Cyber Beast.

Now, you do get cool stuff in that Luxe package.

Don't get me wrong.

You are getting FSD, free lifetime supercharging,

free lifetime premium connectivity

and four years of premium service.

And if you're wondering what premium service means,

it means the wheel and tire protection subscription,

the windshield protection subscription

and recommended maintenance, which per Tesla means

scheduled services, including wheel alignment,

tire rotations, front camera cleaning

and replacement of the HEPA filter, cabin filter

and wiper blades.

So I am not knocking the package

because I do think you get a lot of cool stuff there.

Like if they had offered this exact thing

as an option on my new Model 3 performance

that I bought at the end of last year,

I would have bought it.

If it were the same 10th out, not 15,

the 15 would have probably been a bridge too far for me

on the price of the Cyber Beast version there.

But if it were ten grand like it is on S and X,

I probably would have bought it

because I was already happily paying eight thousand dollars for FSD.

So another two grand for free supercharging alone

would have been worth it to me.

And then because I keep the I'm planning

to keep the car for a long, long time.

And then the free premium premium connectivity

saves me 100 bucks a year.

And the those other protection plans

would have been a nice bonus as well.

So I I absolutely would have taken them up on this

had it been available to me.

What I don't like is that this Luxe package

isn't optional on any Model S

or on any Model X and of course on Cyber Beast.

So it means that the Model S now starts at ninety five thousand dollars.

Yes, you get FSD.

Yes, you get free lifetime supercharging.

Yes, you get those other things.

But the bottom line is the new starting price of Model S

is ninety five thousand dollars.

The plaid Model S now starts at one hundred and ten thousand dollars.

The Model X starts at one hundred grand

and the plaid X is one hundred fifteen K

and the Cyber Beast also one hundred fifteen thousand dollars.

All that said, I do hope that Tesla starts

offering this package on the three in the Y as an option.

Not as a mandatory thing, although honestly, I mean,

I think I've been doing this podcast long enough

and following Tesla long enough to confidently say

that they would not dare make it mandatory on the high volume cars.

They're not just going to add ten grand or even eight

to the to the cost of those cars,

especially with the tax credit going away.

So I'm not worried about that in the slightest.

But if they offered it as an option on three and Y,

they might not get too many takers,

but I bet whoever they did get to opt in on that

would still be a net positive for them.

And can I just throw this out to anybody at Tesla

that might be listening?

If you would like to make free lifetime supercharging

an option that I can buy as an upgrade in the Tesla app,

I would like to do that.

I I think I mean again,

because I plan on keeping the car for a while.

So it would be if anybody from Tesla is listening,

please consider that because I think there are power users

out there like myself that that would value that.

And it's and let's be honest,

you're that's Tesla is going to come out ahead on that

for most with most customers, right?

As long as they price it fairly,

they're going to still come out ahead.

Anyway, Tesla, please consider that.

But my final note on this that I had left in my notes is this.

I salute those of you who bought the new Model S

in the April to July window of 2024.

And the reason I specify that window

is because that is when the price of the new Model S

bottomed out at seventy three thousand dollars

for the starting price for the long range

and eighty eight grand for the plan.

So there was a brief three month moment in time

where you could get a plaid for a brand new plaid for eighty eight thousand dollars.

Now, the X in that time,

shout out to the same group of people.

If you bought an X in the April to July of 2024 window,

the Model X bottomed out at a seventy eight thousand dollars

starting price for the long range and ninety three thousand dollars

for the plaid X.

And finally this week, a new study says that

Teslas are the least stolen cars in America.

Are any of you surprised?

The answer, no, none of us are the least bit surprised.

I saw this on Drive Tesla, Canada, who wrote,

Tesla vehicles are proving to be the hardest targets for car thieves.

A new study from the Highway Lost Data Institute, or HLDI,

shows that four Tesla vehicles top the list of vehicles

least likely to be stolen in the United States

with theft claim frequencies far below industry average.

According to the data,

the Tesla Model 3 all-wheel drive recorded a theft claim frequency of just one.

The context being one hundred is the industry average.

So it's one making it the least stolen vehicle on the market

for twenty twenty two to twenty twenty four model years.

The Tesla Model Y all-wheel drive followed closely with a score of two.

While the rear-wheel drive version of the Model 3 tied with the Model Y at two.

The Model S all-wheel drive, meaning not the plaid,

also made the list coming in with a relative claim frequency of five

equal with the Toyota RAV4 Prime reinforcing Tesla's dominance in the top five.

Overall, four Tesla models placed among the ten least stolen vehicles

highlighting the brand's resilience against theft compared to traditional gasoline powered vehicles.

Thank you to Drive Tesla Canada and to the folks at the Highway Lost Data Institute.

If you're curious as I was about the opposite end of the spectrum,

Drive Tesla Canada says the study says that high performance

and large pickup trucks dominate the most stolen list.

The Chevy Camaro ZL1 topped the ranking with a theft frequency nearly

I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at the Camaro.

I'm just laughing at the relative number compared to Tesla.

Theft frequency nearly forty times higher than average.

Now remember one hundred is average and Tesla is the Model 3 is one.

So just that just puts it on the scale for you on the on the spectrum there.

So the ZL1 Camaro, a theft frequency nearly 40 times higher than average,

followed by the Acura TLX all-wheel drive and the standard Camaro.

Several large trucks, including the GMC Sierra and Dodge Ram,

also ranked among the most frequently stolen.

So again, this none of this on the Tesla side is a surprise to any of us

because we all drive these cars.

We know it's really tough to steal a Tesla.

Every three and Y ever made has not come with a traditional key or even a key fob.

SNX had a fob for the longest time until the last, you know,

what five years the current generation of SNX.

But every three and Y ever made has only had the key card.

You just when you buy the car, you get you take delivery, you get handed a key card

and then I would venture to say most three and Y drivers.

And again, these days, SX and Cybertruck in there as well, use their phone key.

So you would have to get the person's phone in order to get the car.

You're not just going to hot wire it in the parking lot and steal it.

That's just not how it's going to work with a Tesla.

Oh, and another thing, Tesla could give us the numbers on this.

And I would love to know them and we're never going to get them.

But I'm just saying Tesla could give us the numbers on this.

That is what percentage of Tesla owners are using pin to drive.

I would wager that that number is actually quite low.

Like I'm totally guessing here, but it's the most educated guess I can make.

But maybe one in four, like maybe a quarter of Tesla owners are using pin to drive.

I do. I use it.

I would wager that the number, whatever the number is, is quite low.

It could easily be less than a quarter.

It could be 10 percent for all I know.

And if you activate pin to drive, you know, those of you that use it,

you've got another significant layer of protection.

Even if you got someone's phone to get in their Tesla,

you're not going anywhere without the pin code.

So I just wish this study could get granular enough with its research

to tell us what the theft rate of Tesla's with pin to drive activated is.

Because I genuinely think I'm not trying to be funny.

It's if if the Model 3 has a rating of one with the industry average being 100,

my guess is, and I really don't think I'm wrong here,

that the pin to drive number would be zero.

Like or if it's if it's one, it's only because

somebody got one somehow once and you just and that's higher than that's

like there was a theft somewhere once with pin to drive.

So it's just it's so cool that Tesla's you're not getting one.

If you want to try and steal one, it's it's probably not happening.

All right, that is everything I've got for you in another busy week of Tesla news.

Stick with me, though.

I will be right back with some of your excellent ride the lightning hotline

phone calls coming up next.

This is Bill Daniels, the voice of Night Industries 2000 or kit.

You're listening to Ride the Lightning, the Tesla unofficial podcast.

Happy electric motoring.

Welcome to the part of the podcast where I get to hear from all of you.

The ride the lightning hotline.

If you've got a question, comment or discussion topic for the podcast.

I welcome and invite you to call in with it.

There are two easy ways to call in either use your smartphone's built in voice

recording software, record your question.

And I kindly ask that you keep it to 90 seconds or less so that I can get

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First up is Steve from Austin talking about the expiration of the tax credit.

Hi, Ryan. This is Steve from Austin with a few things I've discovered

recently about buying new Teslas.

First, for now, full self-driving is transferrable to your new purchase

at no cost. Make sure the Tesla you're buying is on the same Tesla

account as the car you're transferring FSD from.

Do not include FSD on the order as it will be added later in the sales process.

Second, if you don't use any Tesla financing, you'll get 18 months of

free supercharging. This offer is stackable.

So if you're buying more than one car, it's 18 months per car as long as

they're on the same Tesla account.

Third, you can get a customer appreciation discount of $500 off the

price of your new car if you already own a Tesla.

And last, which is a big deal for us in Austin, if you're buying an Austin

built car, you can choose to pick it up from the factory and get a one hour

factory tour as well. You have to ask a sales representative to do this for

you. If you just order online, it won't be offered.

I'll report back on the factory delivery in a few weeks after it happens.

Keep up with the podcast.

I've been enjoying it since episode 200.

Thanks so much, Steve.

These are great last minute incentives to know about as the end of the

quarter and thus the end of the tax credit creeps closer.

Now, fortunately, as I was talking about last week, the FSD transfer has

been added to the revamped loyalty program.

So even though the fine print says it's subject to end at any time,

this is pretty darn close to Tesla formalizing it as a normal, always

available thing. And also, I guess on this note, I should add, there was a

post this week by somebody in the Tesla community that I can't a hundred

percent vouch for verify, but it seems as though there is a little loophole

in the tax credit where as long as you have a purchase, a green or not

not a purchase agreement.

But if you have put money down towards the car by September 30th, you can

then take delivery after September 30th and then still get the tax credit.

So I will look more into this for next week because I have not seen

this sort of formally reported anywhere.

I want to see if this gets vetted, but there could be some optimism

if you find yourself kind of in a place where you've ordered an EV,

whether it's a Tesla or anything else, and you're just not quite sure if

it's going to get delivered by September 30th.

But Steve, I appreciate your call.

Thank you so much. Next up is Stefan from Monterey.

Hi, Ryan. This is Stefan from Monterey.

Thanks again for the wonderful podcast.

I was responding to Mike's call, Mike from Florida, regarding the

full self-driving in his Tesla.

And I'm a person that has a 2018 Model 3 with AI3 hardware

and I get so many phantom breakings.

I just I don't use FSD at all.

And I'm very frustrated that Elon hasn't upgraded our cars yet.

I would certainly buy a new Tesla with a new hardware.

But unfortunately, I can't transfer my free lifetime super

charging to a new car.

So I'm just holding on to my 2018 with the older hardware

and I can't help the feeling that Tesla is just stalling

and trying to wait us out, those of us with the old hardware

thinking, well, they'll just upgrade the car.

Then we won't have to upgrade them.

I know he said he was going to upgrade our cars.

I'm still waiting.

I'd be willing to buy a new car

if I could just transfer that free lifetime super charging.

So I'm still holding on.

So I'm sort of stuck.

Anyway, thanks again for all you do. Bye bye.

Hi, Stefan, I always appreciate your call.

Well, I understand your position.

I happen to be in the same spot, though, admittedly,

we're not currently looking to upgrade the 2018 yet,

as that is now my wife's car, and she could not care less

which FSD hardware version is in it.

But I can't argue against your thought

that Tesla could try to wait out the three people.

I mean, Tesla's CFO did say on the last earnings call recently

that they're going to get FSD unsupervised out the door

and then worry about what needs to be done with the AI three cars.

I can't find fault with that statement

and Tesla's position on that, but I'm also not saying that you're wrong.

For me, as I've said many times before,

I do believe that Tesla does the right thing more often than not.

And I believe they'll do it here as well.

And as far as your free lifetime supercharging,

keeping you from upgrading well, I will optimistically say

I think there is a reasonable chance, certainly not a guarantee,

but a reasonable chance that Tesla brings back

the free lifetime supercharging transfer in the coming quarters

as an incentive to get people to buy a new car

once the tax credit is gone for good

or at least for the foreseeable future.

So we'll see what happens on both accounts.

Thanks, Stefan. Appreciate it.

Next, John from West Virginia,

responding to David's request from Episode 524

that I was quite fond of.

Hey, Ryan, this is John from West Virginia.

Just listening to the 524.

I got an additional feature part of David's request.

This doesn't have to be limited just to the new cars

with the lights bar inside

to be able to change colors for emergency vehicles.

Tesla has the screen.

You know, whenever we have a violation

or they want to give us our attention,

they turn around and put things on the screen,

the red, the steering wheel with the red.

It would be really easy for them to program in

for them to cycle red and blue lights

and lower our volume on our stereos

to give us a warning of that emergency vehicle

approaching from behind or even from the front.

I know with full FD, I see the car slowing down

for those emergency vehicles already.

It doesn't pull over the side, but it does slow down.

So I think Tesla could take it another step further.

So it would be a feature for all cars, not just the newer ones.

Thanks for what you're doing, Ryan.

Love the podcast as always and you have a great day.

Thank you. Great idea here, John.

That is an excellent addition to that previous call

last week from David. I have nothing to add.

I just think that is super awesome.

I love it. It's a great thought.

And Tesla should absolutely do it.

Thank you for your kind words, by the way,

and your very welcome call.

Two more calls for you.

Here's Brian from Pennsylvania, who has a suggestion slash question.

Hey, Ryan, thanks for that suggestion question.

Maybe someone knows a way around this.

I know what I'm doing road trip tonight.

I do them fairly often, especially on the way back.

I like to take a different route back.

I don't like doing the same way back and forth.

Do the same thing. Hiking.

I hate going back the same way.

So I'm always looking for a different route back.

Back road, something like that.

And the Tesla generally will give you options,

you know, two or three other optional routes.

My problem is if I choose one of those optional routes,

which are almost always longer and then I make a pit stop,

gas station, whatever it may be,

when I get back in the car or if I make a wrong turn

and have to turn around or something, I miss a turn

because I'm not using my full self driving like I should be.

The car will reroute back to the quickest route.

And it's very annoying when it does that.

Is there any way to stop it from doing it?

I would just like to be able to lock in the route that I choose

without having to put in waypoints.

I know I can tell it, oh, Timbuktu is on the single route.

And well, if I lock in Timbuktu,

well, then the car is locked in the going that way.

But that is a pain in the butt, too.

I shouldn't have to do that.

Back to you.

Thanks again.

This is a great question, Brian.

And as it turns out, I think a fellow listener

might have something that can help you and the rest of us as well,

specifically for having FSD go the way we want it to go

rather than the way that the car wants to go.

Let's hear next from our final caller this week.

It is Dave in Georgetown, Texas.

Hey, Ryan, it's Dave from Georgetown, Texas, just north of Giga, Texas.

Long time listener, first time caller.

Love your show.

I just listened to the call in where the guy was talking about

being able to route your trips a certain way.

And I've heard you talk about it and annoys me, too.

The solution I came up with is I drop a pin

along the route that forces the route to go a certain way.

And then just before I get to that pin, I say, remove first stop

and it'll pull the pin up and keep going so it doesn't stop at each pin.

I have about four pins sit around the city

that I use for different trips and different routes.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for all you do, Dave.

What a fantastic pro tip slash Tesla life hack slash FSD

navigation work around this is I love it.

I should note, too, that Dave followed up via email after his call

to clarify that the waypoints he has around his area

are saved as favorites so that he can easily use them at any time.

Dave, this is awesome.

And until Tesla smooths this out for us with a remember my route button

or something like that, this sounds like it'll do the trick brilliantly.

Thank you so much.

Man, I love this community because we're all here to help each other out

and it's just great.

So thank you, Dave.

Thank you to everybody that kindly took the time to call in this week.

I promise I will get to more of your ride the lightning hotline

phone calls on next week's show.

But for now, I will tell you quickly about what I've been up to

with my car and well, I guess not much with my car this week.

But as I said at the top of the show, the Tesla diner

ride the lightning listener meet up with a number of wonderful listeners

who very generously came out to meet me just so much fun.

And just my second time being there, I really like that place.

It just the energy is great.

Like it was far less crowded this time, as you'd expect.

That was the first time I was there.

It was the second day.

So it was it was more, I would say, normal this time,

like what the probably more typical experience is going to be like,

where it wasn't empty by any stretch,

but it wasn't like huge lines and crazy crowded.

I just I love the energy.

I love that sky pad with you can see the Hollywood sign

in the distance from one of the one of the viewing spots.

It's just really cool.

So I'm so grateful that I got to go down there again.

Just again, I was there on business for my day job.

So I mean, I flew in the same time I would have flown in

if I wasn't doing that and just worked out

or was able to get over there for dinner in the evening

and a bunch of listeners came over and met me.

So so much fun.

I will try to do that any time I'm in LA.

I can't always promise it, certainly.

And but I do find myself in Los Angeles

probably three to four times a year, I would say,

generally speaking for for various day job things.

So I'll and again,

I'll try to give more advanced notice next time as well.

Entertainment recommendation for this week.

There is a classic couple of video games

that got a a plus stuff re-release this week

on basically all platforms, PC, Xbox, PlayStation,

including Game Pass, if you're a subscriber there.

And that is Heretic and Hexen.

So you can get them together.

These are old school games

that are kind of cousins of the original Doom.

Like Heretic is basically medieval fantasy Doom in a sense.

And then Hexen kind of is the sequel to Heretic

that starts to establish a little bit more

of its own identity and kind of leans into the RPG side

a little bit more like their melee weapons

and three character classes.

So it got kind of a got cleaned up

for modern platforms.

They added some new content.

So that is definitely a recommendation for me

because Heretic, especially Heretic,

Hexen too, but I'm a big, big, big Heretic fan

from way back in the day.

So if you're a video game player,

check out Heretic and Hexen

if you like the original Doom.

Back to Tesla stuff

and back to Brian from Pennsylvania.

He's got this week's Tesla pro tip of the week.

Thanks Ryan, I appreciate that.

Got a pro tip for you here.

This summer I've been hauling around

the five by 10 landscape trailer

and that thing is near impossible

to see when backing up in the cameras,

rear view mirror, anything.

Today I was driving around the yard

and I'm hauling this with a Tesla.

And I've been driving around the yard

and filling in holes with dirt and stuff.

The two dogs are with me jumping in and out

of the hatch whenever I move around the yard with it.

But I was backing into the driveway just now

and I still had the hatch open.

What a difference that makes in seeing.

One, I can see completely out the back of the car.

But two, you get a top down view

with the backup camera in the hatch with the hatch up.

You can see the entire trailer.

You can see all around the trailer on the screen

because of the hatch being open in the camera.

This is like beautiful for trying to back up a trailer.

Making the job so much easier.

Back to you.

Thanks, Brian.

I do need to politely throw in a do this

at your own risk warning here for sure.

But I nevertheless appreciate this pro tip

because yes, if you're towing with your SX or Y

and backing up at low speed, you're absolutely right.

You'd suddenly have a much better higher angle view

of what's going on back there with your trailer.

So definitely best to only use this

at very, very, very low speeds,

but take great care and caution when doing this at all.

Yes though, this is a good Tesla life hack when towing.

Thank you, Brian, appreciate it.

If anybody else out there has a good Tesla

or EV pro tip of the week, I'd love to hear it

so that I can learn from it

and then I can share it with all of you

so that we can all learn from it.

To send in a pro tip of the week,

you just send it in exactly like you're sending in

a regular ride the lightning hotline call.

I gave you the two easy calling methods

for that a little while ago.

All right, home stretch here.

Just wanna mention some friends of Ride the Lightning

that can hopefully be of use to you at some point.

Starting with abstractocean.com,

purveyors of so many great aftermarket Tesla accessories

and not just Tesla accessories,

accessories for other stuff too.

Rivian owners out there might find what they like as well

and especially Cybertruck owners.

We're talking a little bit about Cybertruck

on this week's podcast.

They've got all the expel pre-cut pieces

to cover up and protect the non-stainless parts

of the truck, the side mirrors,

the truck bed, sail trim and lip,

the wheel arches, the rocker panels,

the fender, all this stuff.

And then if you don't have a Cybertruck,

they've got a million other things

like the custom fit tempered glass screen protectors

that use Gorilla Glass for the center screens

on all of our cars.

They've got various lighting kits

in both higher brightness and or higher,

just different colors as well.

So just go to the website sometime, see what they've got.

It's abstractocean.com,

pile everything you like into your online shopping cart.

And when you get to check out,

use the coupon code RTLpodcast to get 15%,

that's a lot, 15% off your first order

using the code RTLpodcast,

that's all one word, no spaces

as the Labradors are starting to rumble behind me here.

So hopefully that's not coming through on mic.

But if it is, now you know what's up.

They're just down on the floor playing.

Next up, snap plate

and the newer, stronger snap plate plus

available for three, Y, X and S.

And yes, that includes the new Model Y

with the lower front bumper camera.

I guess if the front bumper camera does come to the Model 3

as we hope and expect,

that then the folks at snap plate

are gonna have to redesign their Model 3 one too.

Although I guess maybe the Model Y one

will just end up being compatible.

I guess we'll find out.

But for right now, if you've got a Tesla

and you would like to or need to by law

put a front license plate on it,

I do recommend the snap plate,

either the regular snap plate

or the stronger reinforced snap plate plus,

both are available at everyamp.com slash RTL.

They're a nice clean minimal design.

That's why I like it and while it's on there securely,

it will come off without leaving

any unsightly hardware behind

if you for any reason wanna take it off.

Whereas the one Tesla gives you with your car

uses automotive tape.

It physically sticks to the front of your car.

So I'm not really a fan of that.

Use the snap plate, everyamp.com slash RTL

and get a discount using the coupon code RTL.

Don't forget about Immaculate Reflections,

a wonderful professional automotive detailer.

If you're either in the greater San Francisco Bay Area

or gonna be here,

I highly recommend you make an appointment

to bring your car to Immaculate Reflections.

The summer special rolls on,

probably not for too much longer,

$200 off of any paint correction service,

pardon me, $500 off of any ceramic coating package,

15% off of any paint protection film package.

So a lot of potential savings right there

and you will get awesome protection on your car

one way or the other, whether it's from rocks

and chips and things via the PPF

or if you're ceramic coating,

you'll get protection from the sun's harmful UV rays

for your paint job there.

And of course, paint correction

is just gonna get your paint looking

as good as it possibly can,

getting all those little swirl marks

and little scratches out of that paint finish.

So check them out at irdetailing.com

or on Instagram, the handle there

is immaculateunderscorereflections

or you can even look at his Yelp page

which is yelp.com slash immaculatereflections.

I mentioned my Patreon a little while ago,

I'd like to mention it one more time

if you wouldn't mind because that is the way

that this podcast continues.

It's through your support.

I'm here every week.

You've all seen that for the past 10 years.

I will continue to be here

for the next hopefully 10 plus years

but your support does mean a lot to me and my family.

So if you'd like to support the podcast,

you can do so by going to my Patreon page

found at patreon.com slash Tesla podcast

or just click the link in the episode description.

And from there, there's of course the poll

to vote on each week.

That doesn't cost anything, that's free to everybody

but there's also the lightning rounds

that go up every week for the folks

at that $10 per month tier or higher.

There's also the ad-free episodes go up there

as soon as they're done

which is gonna be in about oh 15, 20 minutes from now

after I get done recording this and I edit it

and process it and get it uploaded and all that stuff.

So the early access and ad-free is there

for every single tier on my Patreon.

So I'd be humbled and grateful if you'd consider a pledge.

You can follow this podcast if you like

on any of the big podcast services

either Apple podcasts or Spotify or tune in

or YouTube podcasts.

Just search ride the lightning Tesla

on any of those big podcast services.

This podcast should come right up

and just click the follow button.

That way you will get a push notification

every time a new episode is published.

You can follow me on X and or on Instagram.

I have the same username on both

and that username is DMC underscore Ryan.

You can also email me anytime about Tesla

or EV related things at teslapodcastatgmail.com.

The last order of business before I go this week

is one of my favorite parts of the podcast each week.

It's saying hello and thank you

to all of the top tier Patreon backers.

I will start this week

with the newest maximum plaid backer, Robert Moran.

Robert, thank you so much.

Also sent me a very kind note as well.

Thank you so much for your generous support, Robert.

You will now be invited

to every month's Patreon Zoom Hangout,

which the next one, let's see, will be,

well, the first Saturday of the month,

which is gonna be the sixth.

So it's coming up in just about two weeks here.

So I'll send out invites for that soon.

The people that get invited

to the monthly Zoom Hangout is the,

it's the maximum plaid backers they always get invited

or hire the Roadster in Space Tier get invited too.

And then anybody that has made a new

or upgraded pledge over the course of the month

gets a one-time thank you invite

to that Hangout if they'd like to join as well.

So Robert, thank you.

I hope I'll see you at the upcoming September Hangout.

And I wanna thank the rest

of the maximum plaid backers,

Jonathan Wales, Cameron Clark, Daniel Grummer,

Seth Capello, Nick and Tony,

the Galpin family, Ryan from New York City,

Darren Nickel, Kaz Barnes, Patrick Wisneski,

Gil Cabrera, Todd Badger, Joe Edgel,

Kevin Yank, the Tesla owners club

of San Joaquin Valley, Will Steadman,

Justin Perez, Jeremy Harris, Chris Beach,

Tom Mills, Cory O'Donnell, Aaron,

John Cody, Joel Sap, Paul Casarino,

Chris Osborn, KB, Adam Lavoie, Jason Chalukis,

Travis Krenzel, Bruce Otterstein, Tom Behan,

Josh Pennington, John from Cream Ridge, New Jersey,

Dustin Hart, Derek Finley, Charles Clement,

Damon Kline, Jeff Brown, Jerry Slinger,

Kenneth Corbett, Brian Bertoglio, Kim Bae,

Troy Sievers, Nick Jacobi, Chip Hooper

and Matt Chinander.

Next, the Roadster in Space Backers.

Big thanks goes out to Pete White,

Lyle Austin, Steve Radspinner, Fernando Cordero,

Lawton from Chicago, Sean Knightig, Neil Weaver,

Jackson Wallace, Rolf and Jennifer Evers,

Howard Anthony Smith, Victoria Aya Caveto,

Tesla Hitchhiker 42, Kara Weston,

Robert from Near Philly, American Home Contractors,

Doug Carey, Michael Gallo and Tony Figueroa.

Lastly, the grandfathered in plaid level supporters.

Huge thanks for your continued support

to George Casiopo, Logan Willis, Peter Chalet,

Eric Randolph, Dori and Steve Guberman,

the Tesla Owners Club of Taiwan,

Ron Lee, Charlie Gillespie, Jeff Angwin,

Chase Cabaneas, the Lydia family,

Aaron Altschul, Jared Brown, Jerome Strack,

Jamie Dalton, Mike and Barbara from Louisville,

Matt Nixon, the Tesla Owners Club of Wisconsin, Ish,

Not Elon Musk, Peter and the Bear Boys of Colorado.

And that'll do it for Ride the Lightning episode 525.

That'd be a palindrome.

It reads the same forwards and backwards.

And I've got three pretty tuckered out puppies.

The puppy is working on a wood stick right now,

like a proper dog toy chewable wood stick.

And the other two are just kind of chilling out.

I'm about ready to go chill out myself Friday night here.

I'm looking forward to getting into my weekend.

I'm gonna wash the spirit of adventure this weekend.

It's a little grimy at this point.

My car's still doing okay, but I hope all of you are,

well, I guess most of you are hearing this

on Sunday or later.

I hope you've had a great weekend

and that your week is off to a great start.

Happy electric motoring, my friends,

and I'll see you back here next week.

["Pomp and Circumstance"]

Elon Musk, people don't like Elon Musk.

The guy found a PayPal and Tesla

and people are like, yeah, but he's a troll and a bad dad.

I'm like, so is mine.

He did nothing to fight climate change.

Also, have you been in a Tesla?

Have you been in a Tesla?

My buddy let me drive his Tesla.

I laughed out loud at how fast it went.

Been clinically depressed my entire life

on dozens of medications in a Tesla

for 13 seconds cured forever.

I mean, I think a Tesla is the most fun thing

you could possibly buy ever.

That's what it's meant to be.

Our goal is to make, it's not exactly a car.

It's actually a thing to maximize enjoyment.

It's maximum fun.

Episode 525: Tons of New Model Y L Details Revealed

Tesla Model Y

Tesla Model 3

Tesla Cybertruck

Tesla Model X

Volkswagen Id4

Tesla Model S

Volkswagen Id

Tesla Cybercab

Toyota RAV4

Chevrolet Camaro

Acura Tlx

Dodge Ram

Gmc Sierra

Rolls-Royce Phantom

About this episode

Original notes