Episode 550: Rivian R2 Gets Glowing First Reviews

On this week's episode of Ride the Lightning,

the Tesla and EV podcast,

Rivian's first high-volume, more affordable vehicle,

the R2, is getting closer to release

and the initial reviews are extremely positive.

Plus, Ferrari's first ever full-B EV

has a very unique interior

designed by longtime Apple designer, Johnny Ive.

Toyota gets a bit more serious about electrification

with its just-announced Highlander EV and more.

["Highlander E-V"]

What's happening friends?

Ryan McCaffrey joining you for episode 550

of Ride the Lightning, your EV and Tesla podcast.

Yes, I guess for one week at least here,

I've gotta flip it around

because the headline story is not about Tesla.

It's about Rivian and we've got Ferrari

to talk about in Toyota,

but there is also plenty of Tesla stuff to discuss as well.

Joining me as always, my canine co-hosts,

Daisy the Boxer to my left looking happily out the window

and on the floor behind me

is Lily the silly Labrador puppy.

Well, it is FSD Day tomorrow as I record this.

I'm recording on Friday the 13th here in the evening

as I typically do record on Friday evenings.

By the time most of you hear this however,

February 14th will have come and gone

which means full self-driving supervised

can no longer be purchased outright

for your vehicle for $8,000.

That's the bad news.

The good news or at least let's call it welcome news

is that Tesla has quietly updated its rules

for the FSD transfer program

giving owners a bit more flexibility

when upgrading to a new vehicle

while also clarifying how FSD ownership

and trade in valuations work for some of its newest vehicles.

This comes courtesy of Drive Tesla Canada

who writes, the most notable change

shifts the key deadline requirement.

Previously customers needed to take delivery

of their new Tesla by March 31st, 2026

in order to qualify for a free FSD transfer.

Now Tesla has relaxed that condition

confirming that your order must be placed

by March 31st, 2026.

Tesla's also clarified ownership rules

to eliminate confusion.

Once FSD is transferred and associated with the new vehicle

it remains tied to that vehicle permanently

even if it is later sold to another owner.

This ensures that FSD continues to add resale value,

a key consideration for many Tesla owners

given the features high upfront cost.

Tesla's updated policy also introduces

an important exception affecting the Cybertruck

and it's soon to be discontinued vehicles

the Model S and the Model X

that were purchased with the Luxe package that included FSD.

According to Tesla quote,

FSD supervised from the Luxe package

cannot be transferred to another vehicle.

As such FSD supervised will be taking into account

when evaluating the trade in value for any Cyber Beast

or Model Year 2026 Model S and Model X vehicles

with the Luxe package end quote.

This means owners of those specific configurations

won't be able to carry over FSD to another Tesla.

Instead the value of FSD will be reflected

in the trade in offer rather than transferred directly.

Thank you to Drive Tesla Canada for that.

Well that is something of an extra punch in the gut

for SNX owners who are forced to pay for FSD

whether they want it or not and can't transfer it.

However, honestly speaking I'm just not gonna get upset

about this one at all because the Luxe package is so new

I looked it up to be sure it only debuted six months ago

that I simply cannot imagine anyone

with a Luxe package SRX or especially a Cyber Beast

because that got the mandatory Luxe package after SNX did

that any of those people would even want

to trade in their vehicle right now.

And if they are trading in a 2025 car for a 2026,

well I mean this with all due respect

they can probably afford to just buy FSD again.

If you're trading in a 2025 for a 2026 odds are

the $8,000 is not gonna make or break you.

As we continue to warm up this week,

Tesla has significantly expanded the number

of superchargers with the live site view map feature

available.

This comes from long time Tesla community member,

Zach, whose handle on X is BLKMDL3,

which I think might be his license plate, Black Model 3.

Zach posted with photo evidence I might add,

he says new sites I've noticed so far,

he's referring to sites that have

the live site view map support.

The Tesla Diner, Kettleman City, Culver City, California,

San Clemente, California, Cabazon, California,

Gilroy, California, and Diamond Bar, California.

Now again, if you're not remembering exactly

what the live site view map feature is,

it's exactly what it says is as you're heading,

as you're nearing one of those supercharging locations

that supports this feature, it will actually show you

on the screen which parking,

which specific charging spots are available

and which ones are taken.

Now, I know this won't affect most of you directly

because these are all California sites,

but the reason that I wanted to give it a quick mention

here on the start of this week's podcast

is because to me, this means that Tesla

must have clearly seen enough good feedback

and good results from the initial sites

that they supported with this feature

and they decided to expand it to these half dozen plus

new sites, which means that this probably, hopefully,

will affect all of you eventually

because hopefully this means that Tesla

will eventually roll this out to every single

supercharger site that they can.

I mean, it's certainly a nice convenience

to not only see which specific supercharger stalls

are available before you get there,

but doing so also allows you to tell FSD

to go to an exact available charging spot

if you wanted to, which is just cool and also convenient.

So from here, I say, let's see how long it takes

for Tesla to expand this feature beyond California,

but it does certainly make sense to start here

because California's got some of the most

high volume supercharger locations in the world.

For those of you who are kindly supporting this podcast

on my Patreon page at that most popular tier,

that's the $10 per month tier,

where you get early access to each week's episode,

ad free episodes early, and you get each week's

lightning round mini episode that I do

each and every single week on Patreon.

I hope all of you enjoyed this week's Lightning Round

mini episode, which was about the 11 car names

that I came up with for the new Tesla Roadster.

After, of course, we had a Roadster story

on last week's podcast about the couple of trademarks

that Tesla filed for.

I had Roadster back on the brain,

not that the Roadster ever gets too far from my brain,

especially now that we're starting to ramp up a little bit,

but I came up with 11 car names,

because, you know, it's fun.

We get to name our cars.

It's cool that Tesla lets us do that.

So I came up with 11 fun Roadster names.

Check that mini episode out,

that Lightning Round mini episode out on Patreon

if you're supporting me there.

If you're not already supporting me on Patreon,

boy, would I be super grateful

if you would consider a pledge.

The support tiers start at just five bucks a month,

and for five bucks a month,

you'll get early access to an ad-free episode

every single week.

If you step up to that $10 tier,

you'll get that and all of those Lightning Round mini episodes,

including the entire back catalog.

There's 180 of them now.

So there's so much extra fun evergreen content

waiting for you on my Patreon page.

If you wanna support me,

so head on over to patreon.com slash Tesla podcast.

We begin this week with other EV news.

Yes, the main story is Rivian.

The first reviews of the Rivian R2 are out

based on drives using manufacturing validation builds.

And the early word I am happy to say,

because this vehicle is one of,

if not the most anticipated EV right now,

the early word here is extremely positive.

Now, I wanna preface that by saying,

we still don't have all of the details quite yet.

Rivian posted to their social media accounts

after those first reviews went up,

saying, quote, the weight is almost over.

The first R2 variant featuring dual motors

and all-wheel drive launches this spring.

We'll be sharing full details,

pricing options and more on March 12th.

So the version that the initial reviewers got

has 655 horsepower, yes,

and 610 pound feet of torque, love it,

and does zero to 60 in 3.6 seconds.

Love that as well, that is all super impressive.

Now, is that version going to be the $45,000 version?

Most likely not.

So it's probably gonna be closer in price

to the Model Y performance.

Now, the Model Y performance, as we know, is what?

57.5, if I remember correctly,

I have to double check myself real quick.

Let me make sure here.

But I do believe it's 57.5,

but in that case, if I'm indeed remembering correctly,

which I am, thank goodness, all right,

just double check myself.

57.5, I'm gonna agree with Hamid,

who, if we follow each other on X,

he's a big-time investor, his Tesla owner.

He posted, I saw him post this on X today,

that he thought that this version,

you know, the version that the reviewers tested,

which is gonna be presumably the launch edition

that won't be the $45,000 base version,

it'll be optioned up somehow,

some way with these horsepower numbers.

But he thought it would be 5K more.

So he, and so 62.5, basically.

And I am inclined to agree with him on that.

I think that probably makes sense.

5K more than the Model Y performance.

I mean, you get a little more performance

out of the Model Y performance,

which is zero to 60 in 3.3 seconds.

We don't know the final range figure yet.

Now, in one of the videos that I watched,

I can't remember if it was Doug DeMiro's

or Marquez Brownlee's, I'm gonna play you a clip

from both here in a second.

I think it might've been Marquez's.

He showed the state of charge,

and it was, I think it was close to full,

he said in the video, but anyway,

it extrapolated out, I did the math

from whatever it showed on the screen.

And I think that it came out to 310 miles

of total possible range.

And if that's where it lands, 310,

that would be fine.

That would be perfectly workable.

The Model Y performance is right there.

306 is the Model Y performance's EPA estimated range.

But in any case, the price is crucial, right?

We know there's going to be a base $45,000 R2.

That's probably not what's gonna be delivered first.

This spring, we'll see how long it takes them

to get to that $45,000 version.

But for now, the reviewer's loving

this 655 horsepower version.

And I wanted to play you a couple of clips.

So first, here's a quick snippet from Doug DeMiro's review.

And for a little context,

Doug had previously given the R1T and the R1S

his Car of the Year award in separate years.

So he awarded them separately.

And Doug reviews a lot of cars each year.

So it was very high praise from Doug for the R1.

So here is what he had to say in part,

because this video is like 30 minutes long.

You should go watch it on his channel

if you wanna see the whole thing.

But here's a snippet from Doug DeMiro's review

of the Rivian R2.

I think basically anybody who's gonna be able to,

who is still looking for an electric SUV

is gonna wanna have this on their radar.

This is, there's a lot of great things about this car

that I think are really, really, really beneficial.

Curious to see where all of the pricing falls,

all of the trim levels and all of the versions.

And obviously to hear full range numbers from EPA

as this gets closer to launch,

that could be kind of make or break.

But I think regardless,

this is a really, really capable vehicle

that is just well thought out in all ways.

It seems, it's fast and fun

and surprisingly dynamic, surprisingly athletic,

considering it's also a capable kind of off-roading vehicle.

And it looks cool and like R1S,

I think there's a lot of great stuff here.

And so that's the new Rivian R2.

This is a really impressive vehicle.

It takes everything we love about the R1S SUV

and scales it down a little bit.

A more manageable size and a more affordable price point.

This really is a well-executed vehicle, really fantastic.

And I think even as EV demand slows down a little bit,

this will still be a big hit.

I've said this before, but I enjoy Doug's reviews.

I subscribe to his YouTube channel

because he drives and enjoys everything.

I wouldn't say he's an EV super fan.

He's definitely not an EV hater.

I mean, he's reviewed most of the Teslas,

the Model S Plaid, he had very, very kind words for.

In fact, I think when he reviewed the Plaid,

I played an audio clip from it

because it's one of Doug's more memorable reviews

when he first floors it in the Plaid.

His reaction is genuinely priceless in that video.

He was very kind to the new Model X when he reviewed that.

He had reviewed the original,

the Gen 1 Model 3 Performance.

He hasn't reviewed the Gen 2 Model 3 Performance selfishly.

I wish he'd do that because I own that car

and I think it's a great car.

But anyway, Doug drives everything

and is open-minded to everything.

And again, he's already clearly a fan of what Rivian has done

and he was extremely impressed with the R2

on its first drive.

Next up, another gentleman who I really value the opinion of

and I subscribe to his autofocus channel

and I guess I subscribe to his main channel too,

but Marquez Brownlee, MKBHD,

longtime Ride the Lightning listener

and one time Ride the Lightning guest.

I interviewed Marquez a while back on the podcast,

but Marquez has had a Plaid in his life

and he recently reviewed the new Model Y Performance

and had a lot of great things to say about it again.

Marquez autofocus is basically pretty much like 95%

all about EVs, so he's out there driving everything.

Here's what a clip of what Marquez had to say

about the R2.

All right, at the end of the day,

what I think a lot of people are wondering

with this Rivian R2 is, is it good and should I get one?

And here's my honest thoughts.

I think if they can nail this price,

which they're saying it will start at $45,000

and then go up from there,

if they can actually deliver something this compelling

at that price, it's going to be awesome,

but there are going to be a bunch of trims of this

and they're going to go up in price from the $45,000.

So of course, the one that I'm testing

is the highest performance maxed out version.

I, as of the time of this recording,

don't know the price of this fast one yet,

but if the base $45,000 version of the R2

with 300 plus miles of range and decent performance

and all of the same character and the same great setup

and packaging is still a good product,

which I think it will be,

this I think can be their model Y

for lack of better comparison.

I think this can be their actual entry

into that mass market vehicle.

As long as our margins are good,

I don't know if their margins are amazing

on the $45,000 version,

but I do feel like from $45,000 to $55,000,

this is a very compelling vehicle.

There are a couple of other first drive reviews

out there of the R2,

but those are the two I wanted to play for you

because I personally enjoy those two creators

that are in their channels very much

and this is extremely encouraging.

I mean, with apologies to the Mustang Mach-E,

the Volkswagen ID4, the Chevy Equinox EV,

there in my opinion,

hasn't been a real heavyweight contender

to truly go toe-to-toe with the model Y as of yet.

It's not that the Mach-E and ID4 aren't good,

the Equinox, they're good,

but a real like legitimate true toe-to-toe contender,

I hope the R2 is gonna be that car

because it certainly has all the pieces in place.

And yes, before you email me,

I certainly recognize that for a lot of you,

the lack of FSD is an automatic disqualifier for anybody,

for Rivian or anybody else.

I fully acknowledge that.

I'm using FSD every day in my new car that's got AI4.

I'm at 98% FSD usage in a performance Model 3

in the most fun version of the Model 3.

I'm using FSD all the time.

That's how excellent it is.

So I completely understand anybody

that's saying that no FSD is a non-starter,

but hopefully Rivian gets there, right?

The R2 has the hardware,

they're offering it for a much lower price

than what Tesla has again,

but they haven't delivered anything.

But if they can and they're still charging

either 50 bucks a month or $2,500 to buy it outright,

that'll be really, really tempting for a lot of people.

Cause this car, the Rivian R2, it's fully capable.

Does pretty much everything the Model Y does other than FSD.

And it even has a trick that the Model Y doesn't,

which is legitimate off-roading.

So that's now granted,

I recognize for probably 95% of buyers of a mid-size SUV,

they're looking for a family hauler.

They're not looking to go off-road,

but the R2 can absolutely do it.

And some of those first drive reviews

demonstrated that very thing.

But my point is, as a total package vehicle,

the R2 is incredibly compelling here in the early going.

But the pricing, again,

the pricing is such a crucial piece of information.

Yes, that base price of the R2

has been announced for $45,000,

but when will we get there?

We don't know, like Tesla did the same thing, right?

With the Model 3, which was their first high volume vehicle

as the R2 is planned to be Rivian's first high volume.

It took Tesla a while to get down to a more affordable price.

They debuted with a $50,000 Model 3,

and they did eventually hit that 35K target

that they said they were going to.

It was a long, strange road to get there,

but a 45K base price for the R2,

we'll see how long it takes them

before they're actually selling a $45,000 version.

This first version, though, dual motor, all-wheel drive,

ton of horsepower, and so as I was saying

before I played you those two clips,

likely to cost a good bit more than $45,000,

probably between $15,000 to $17,000 more than that.

So how much more specifically, beyond just me guessing,

we will get the answer to that question in about a month.

And I recognize that these are only a couple of reviews

before you would invest a ton of money into any vehicle

you'd probably want to hear from a lot of different sources.

I hear you there, but my point about the R2

is the early returns on it

seem to be every bit as fantastic

as we had hoped they would be.

Now, what will that $45,000 version,

as my final point on the R2 here before I move along,

what will that $45,000 R2 look like?

What will the numbers and specs on that be?

Because the $45,000 Model Y

is the premium rear wheel drive

with 357 miles of range.

Now, I would fully expect that Rivian

is not going to be able to match that range number.

Hopefully it gets close-ish.

I think as long as it's over 300, that's sufficient,

but 357 is a tough to beat number, I think, for 45 grand.

I think it's probably more likely

that the R2 is closer to the standard all-wheel drive

that was just introduced last week

in terms of specs and performance, right?

So the zero to 60 on that,

as I was talking about on last week's podcast, 4.6 seconds.

The price on that $42,000 and the range is 294 miles.

So I would expect the base R2 for 45K

to roughly match Tesla's $42,000 option.

I hope I'm wrong in the direction that would benefit buyers

versus being overly optimistic, but we shall see.

But certainly a great, great start

of in the court of public opinion for the Rivian R2.

Next up this week, continuing in other EV news,

Ferrari has officially announced,

but not yet fully revealed its first fully electric car.

It's called the Luce, L-U-C-E.

The Luce formally codenamed the Electrica,

as I think I had mentioned at some point on this podcast

in the not too distant past.

So what do I mean by announced but not fully revealed?

Well, we still haven't seen the exterior of this car yet,

though we do know for a fact that it's got

two rows of seating.

However, Ferrari did reveal the interior this week

to much fanfare in addition to that official name Luce,

which I learned means light in Italian.

Here's a clip from part one of Ferrari's

in-house produced video series on this new car.

And the person that you're gonna hear speaking in this clip

is Ferrari's executive chairman, John Elcan.

All of what we do is about the future.

And if you think about a car which is completely different

in every possible way to what we ever made,

then you need a name about all of this.

And that's really, really hard.

Then it all seems so clear, so simple, Luce, light.

You see the light in many equations,

especially when it comes to the electromagnetic space.

It's something that is showing you the way forward.

It's not only about the electric.

Electric is one part of the Ferrari Luce.

As we were thinking about this incredible convergence

of so many different technologies,

which is really when also Johnny Ive with Mark Neusen

was thinking about what they wanted to do next.

And those conversations led us to understand

how important it was to be aware of the history,

but equally excited, not frightened,

but encouraged about what is to come.

Now I recognize that that was an internally produced

marketing piece, basically,

not an independent evaluation of any kind,

but I thought it was still kind of an interesting piece there.

So I wanted to play a clip for you.

If you wanna see the whole thing,

and presumably by the time you hear this episode two

of this video series will be out,

you can go to Ferrari's YouTube channel.

But if you would do me a favor right now,

wherever you are, pause the podcast,

and go do a Google image search

for the Ferrari Luce interior,

or you can go to my Patreon page,

and I promise I'm not just trying to lure you

to my Patreon page.

It's the subject of this week's Patreon poll,

what I'm about to talk about.

So I've posted pictures of the Luce's interior

on my Patreon page at patreon.com slash Tesla podcast,

or just Google image search Ferrari Luce interior,

so you can see what I'm talking about

as I'm commenting on this,

because this is a pretty different interior

than as Tesla owners we are used to.

All right, you've paused it, you've pulled it up,

you've hit play again.

Okay, so what's notable about this interior to me

is two things right off the bat.

One, it uses a whole lot of tactile buttons

and switches and knobs rather than screens,

though it does have screens in it too,

and two, it's designed by longtime Apple designer Johnny Ive

and his new design firm, I don't know how new it is,

but since he left Apple at least,

but Johnny Ive's design firm called Love From,

as in Love From, I don't know, San Francisco,

which is where I am.

So Love From is the name of his firm.

So the toggle switches for the climate control,

the knobs to adjust the drive modes

right on the steering wheel,

which by the way, the steering wheel itself

is a very retro looking steering wheel.

It's a simple three spoke design

with a turn signal button Tesla fans

on each side of the steering wheel that your thumbs hit.

So left thumb hits the left turn signal,

right thumb hits the right turn signal,

which honestly, I wish Tesla had done it that way as well.

And fun fact, by the way,

Ferrari has been doing turn signal buttons

on their steering wheels longer than Tesla has,

but other stuff about this very unique EV interior,

the three small round instrument cluster screens

very much look like analog gauges,

which kind of gives it a unique like retro future look.

There is a square shaped center touchscreen,

I guess it's technically rectangular,

but it's almost square.

And it's got a row of fighter jet style switches

and buttons along the bottom row

for seat heating or cooling,

for turning your climate control on or off, et cetera.

And then there's another fun physical switch.

There's an overhead panel up by the dome light basically

with more buttons on it,

including a knob that you have to pull on

to activate the car's launch mode.

There's even an analog clock

built into the upper right corner

of that center squarish touchscreen

that is in fact a small round screen,

but there is a physical red toggle switch

on top of the display just above that little clock

that can switch it from being a clock to a lap timer.

In fact, after I was pouring over the website again,

looking at all the renders, all the information,

even the windshield wipers in the Luce

have a physical toggle switch for off,

speed one, speed two, and automatic wiper setting.

Now personally, as you all probably know well by now,

I have always loved Tesla's minimalism,

both on the exterior of the cars,

but very much also on the interior.

I've loved the interiors from the very first Model S.

I loved how just minimalist the interior was,

but I don't love it at the expense of anything

and everything else.

There are other interiors that I like,

and I honestly, I know everybody's gonna feel differently

on this and I'll go to the Patreon poll here in a minute,

but I honestly really like the idea of this interior

intentionally being very different

from not just other EVs, but from other Ferraris.

Not that I'll ever get to drive one of the Luches,

let alone own one,

so I'll probably never physically experience this interior,

but I am very glad to see Ferrari trying to carve

its own path forward into EVs rather than just

copying Tesla, which is what many others have done

as they've come into the EV space.

And I wonder, once the Luche is fully revealed

and reviewers get their hands on it,

I wonder if being very different from other Ferraris

is going to end up being a good thing or a bad thing,

because I can see the case for either of those scenarios.

And I suppose that maybe Ferrari itself

sees how poorly the fairly fantastic Porsche Taycan

has sold by basically just trying to be a Porsche,

but electric, so maybe that's part of the reason

that Ferrari is pivoting here,

at least with regard to interior design.

Maybe Ferrari figures that its existing customer base

and fan base is probably going to reject this

simply by virtue of it being an electric vehicle,

so maybe they figured, okay, well,

let's just create an entirely new design language

within our brand, at least for the interior,

to potentially attract new customers to the Ferrari brand.

At least that's my best theory for now.

So this beast, I had to go refresh myself and look this up,

this thing is going to cost over half a million dollars,

which probably won't surprise any of you,

given that we're talking about Ferrari here,

over half a million dollars,

so it is going to be in a class by itself

compared to other EVs price-wise,

because for at least the next few months,

there's the Model S Plaid at just over $100,000,

there's the Lucid Air Sapphire at the top end

of their lineup for $250,000,

there's the Porsche Taycan,

which can be equipped up to close to a quarter million dollars,

and then there's the Luce,

and then you leap up from there

from that half a million dollar Luce level,

you go pretty much up to hypercar EV level,

and which is one car, excuse me, it's actually two cars,

although they're both based on the same platform,

we have the Rimoc Navara at $2 million plus,

and the Pin and Farina Batista,

which is based on a Rimoc Navara,

which is also north of $2 million.

So I can't wait to see what Ferrari does with this car,

even if they're gonna end up being pretty few

and far between as any Ferrari is,

and even if I'll be lucky to ever even see one on the road,

I'm still excited that they're getting into electric,

that they're gonna do a full battery electric vehicle,

and I can't wait to see it.

So as I alluded to earlier,

I was curious to hear what all of you thought

about the Luches, I guess we could call it

a controversial interior design from Johnny Ive,

so I made it the subject of this week's Patreon poll,

again, I brought plenty of pictures to that post,

and the Patreon poll question, which I remind you,

is free for anybody and everybody

to stop by and vote in every single week.

I typically put the poll up on Tuesday evening,

this week's actually ended up going up on a Monday,

because that's when the Luches was,

when this interior was revealed,

but the poll question was,

what do you think of the Ferrari Luches EV driver interface?

And the results were fairly evenly split.

There were three choices,

plus an I'm indifferent slash just show me the results choice,

but of the three primary choices,

36% of you voted, I don't like it.

There are too many darn buttons, knobs and switches.

27% of you voted, I like it.

The physical switches might be a bit much,

but it's nice to see something different

than Tesla's ultra minimalism in an EV.

And then right behind that at 25% was, I love it.

Physical switches are great to pair

with a digital touchscreen.

So thank you very much to all 260 plus of you

that took the time to stop by patreon.com

slash Tesla podcast and vote in this week's Patreon poll.

I hope all of you will take a minute

and do the same this week

for whatever this week's Patreon poll ends up being.

I'm already thinking unless another big news story pops up

between right now and I'm recording this

and the time that I go to put up a poll on Tuesday night,

I'm probably gonna make the next poll this week's poll

about the Rivian R2 in some way.

So stay tuned for that on my Patreon page.

A quick pause before I continue

with the rest of this week's EV and Tesla news

and there is plenty more of both to cover.

A quick note for my EV owners out there listening

and not just Tesla owners, all EV owners.

One thing that comes up a lot here on this podcast

is how long people actually plan to keep their cars.

And a new study I found recently,

actually not a new study,

but somebody brought this up online

and I went and looked it up

and there was a survey data,

there was data from this past year

that showed people were keeping their cars for 12 point,

I think four on average, 12.4 years in America.

And with an EV, there's certainly every reason to do that.

There are fewer moving parts.

A car is more likely to last that long,

but whether you realize it or not,

there is a timing element to ownership

that matters more than most people think.

When it comes to EV coverage,

it's not really about when you would buy

an extended warranty plan, it's about when.

Coverage is generally more cost advantaged

when it's purchased before your factory warranty ends

rather than after.

That's because pricing eligibility

and available options change with time and mileage,

even if nothing's wrong with the car.

Think of it like tires.

You don't wait till they're bald to plan your replacement.

You're looking at mileage, wear, timing.

EV ownership works the same way and X care,

my friends at Accelerate Auto,

X care helps EV owners understand where they are now,

what changes later, and when it makes sense to act

and get yourself an extended coverage plan for your EV.

You can talk directly with Tesla and EV experts,

not a generic call center,

by calling 1-844-755-4186,

or you can go to xcare.com, that's X-C-A-R-E,

xcare.com, and during checkout,

use the referral code Lightning for $100 off

your extended policy purchase.

So again, that's xcare.com,

referral code Lightning for $100 off,

or call 844-755-4186.

Next up this week, Toyota has announced an EV version

of the 2027 Highlander SUV.

There can be only one.

I have to tell you, I actually like the look of it.

I've not typically been a fan of Toyota's design work,

in fact, I thought, I mean, actually I will say,

I actually like the new Prius.

I think it's a nice looking car.

The previous Prii were really unattractive in my eyes,

and if there were an ugliest car contest,

the first generation of the Marai,

their fuel cell hydrogen vehicle,

which I think was only sold in California,

so probably most of you haven't seen it,

but if you Google image it, Marai is,

I think it's M-A-R-A-I.

There's a second generation version

that just looks like a Lexus, that honestly looks fine.

The first gen Marai was like it was,

it was like the Toyota designers were betting each other

how ugly they could make the car

and still get it approved by management,

and somebody won, I don't know, but anyway,

the point is, I like the look of the Highlander EV

that they just announced.

It's a little bit like the BMW IX,

but in my opinion, it's got a nicer front end

than that BMW IX does.

Here's an excerpt on it from Toyota's press release.

They write,

It will also have an available fixed glass panoramic roof

that will be the largest in the Toyota lineup,

adding an open, bright feeling to the cabin.

The 2027 Highlander will have a battery electric powertrain

standard and be available in two grades,

the well-appointed XLE or the top of the line limited.

The XLE will be available in front or all-wheel drive.

The XLE front-wheel drive models

will have a 77 kilowatt hour battery standard.

XLE models will have a choice of the 77 kilowatt hour

or a 95.8 kilowatt hour battery.

The limited grade will have all-wheel drive

and 95.8 kilowatt hour standard.

The automaker says that the front-wheel drive version

can travel 287 miles on a charge,

while the all-wheel drive XLE with the same battery

achieves 270 miles, upgrading to the larger battery

provides a 320 mile range estimate

for both the all-wheel drive XLE and limited.

All-wheel drive equipped models

will also have features like multi-terrain select

and crawl control.

All grades will have the latest in safety and entertainment,

blah, blah, blah, let's see here,

designed to provide a comfortable space

for the whole crew.

The 2027 Highlander has a spacious interior

with three-row seating for up to seven

when equipped with an available bench seat.

Its cabin has an elevated feel

with standard soft techs, trim seating,

soft touch materials on the dash and doors

and customizable interior lighting to set the mood.

Heated front seats come standard

with ventilated front seats

and heated second-row seats available.

When extra space is required,

the third-row folds flat for a rear cargo area

with more than 45 cubic feet of storage.

At the forefront of technology,

I'm gonna just read what this is their words,

at the forefront of technology,

the new Highlander can also serve

as a mobile power source with vehicle-to-load technology

that is legitimately good.

It's got V2L, a first for a Toyota model

sold in the United States.

This technology can potentially power appliances

like at a tailgate party

or serve as a power backup at home in case of an outage.

See, this is what I've been talking about

that I wish Tesla would offer this on all of their cars,

all including the Model Ys,

because you tell people that it can back up your home

in case of a power outage,

that is a selling point, that is awesome.

Anyway, kudos to Toyota there.

Specs-wise, Toyota says spacious three-row SUV

was seating for up to seven,

over 45 cubic feet of rear storage,

with third-row folded flat, blah, blah, blah.

Let's see, assembled in the US

at Toyota Motor Manufacturing in Kentucky.

Battery modules assembled

at the newly opened Toyota Battery Manufacturing

North Carolina Battery Plant, two grades,

blah, blah, blah, went over all that already.

Equipped with North American charging standard port

for wide access to thousands of DC fast charging stations

in the US.

Powerful drive with up to 338 combined system horsepower

and 323 pound-feet of torque.

So the Rivian blows, the R2 blows the doors off of this

in the power department,

but that is probably not why you're buying a Toyota.

You're not necessarily looking for high performance.

You're looking for reliability, right?

You want something that's just gonna be dependable for you.

Now, crucially, Toyota says, quote,

sales of the new Highlander are expected to begin

late 2026, continuing into early 2027.

MSRP, the manufacturer's suggested retail price,

will be announced closer to the on sale date.

So that will obviously be a key, like with the Rivian,

but at least we know the Rivian's base price.

We don't know anything about the price

for the Highlander here.

That will be a key part of the equation.

If they can price it competitively,

they might have something here.

And I really mean that because as longtime listeners know,

I have been extremely hard on Toyota

on this podcast over the years.

For in my opinion, I feel they have stuck their heads

in the sand when it comes to electric vehicles

while continuing to milk their hybrid synergy drive

for as long as they can and pushing hydrogen fuel cell.

I was talking about the Mariah a couple of minutes ago,

which here's the thing about the hydrogen fuel cell

that Toyota's got.

I honestly believe that they know it's doomed to fail,

but they're doing it just so that they can say,

well, look, people don't want this.

We're gonna go back to hybrids.

People don't want these alternative fuel vehicles.

They want hybrids, so we're gonna keep making those.

That's my opinion on hydrogen.

I don't think for a minute that Toyota actually believes

that hydrogen's gonna take off.

Anyway, this Highlander is, if you'll pardon me here,

it's boring, but I actually mean that as a compliment.

I think that's a good thing because people like Toyota's

boring but reliable cars.

Now, I don't mean, seriously, I don't mean any offense

to anybody out there who has a Toyota,

but by and large, they're not exciting cars.

When the first thing, let's play a game,

let's play a brain exercise here.

The first thing that you think of,

the first word that comes to mind when I say Toyota

is probably for 80 out of 100 of you, reliability, right?

And that's, they've earned that reputation.

Good for them.

Yes, the Supra is fun.

I love that they brought it back.

And they do get credit there.

And yes, they did just unveil the GR GT,

a legit Supra car, which is on the cover

of Forza Horizon 6, the upcoming open world driving game.

But their bread and butter is boring,

reliable, efficient cars.

Side note, in my opinion, I've probably said this before,

but maybe not in many years.

And hopefully there's a receipt of me saying this

at some point in the past, but Toyota should have offered

a full battery electric Prius years ago.

They could have gotten in there

when Chevy was still introducing the Bolt

and Tesla was still introducing the Model 3.

Instead, they kept their heads in the sand

and what happened, Tesla ate the Prius's lunch.

I looked this up just to back up my memory here

and Prius sales peaked in 2012

at 236,000 units in the US alone.

That's a lot of cars.

But 2012, hmm, what went into general production

right around that time?

Huh, that sales would have peaked, oh right, the Model S.

Prius owners that could afford a Model S

started ditching their Prii for Teslas.

And then in 2017, Prius sales had slid to 108,000 units

in the US that year, right as the Model 3 entered the picture.

By 2022, Prius sales in the US were down to 28,000.

That is called falling off of a cliff

because what happened,

seemingly all Prius customers, they went electric,

they went elsewhere, a lot of them to Tesla,

some of them elsewhere, those customers

that wanted efficiency above all else

because that's what a Prius is, they went electric.

Toyota could have had those people

and kept them in the Toyota family.

So my point in that little diversion,

that little aside, is to say that hopefully

Toyota is learning with this Highlander EV.

Now, is it already too late?

Maybe, I hope not.

I mean, the Model Y has been out for, as of next month,

six years now, GM, Ford, Volkswagen and others

have been in the EV SUV space for some time.

But I really, really do wish Toyota well

with the Highlander EV.

Cause if it does well, maybe it will finally convince them

to get serious about going electric,

stop with the hydrogen fuel cell nonsense,

and they'll start making more desirable, more EVs

and more desirable EVs.

As I always say, it's good to have

not just more options, but more good options.

And now I've got a couple of Tesla news stories

for you to round up this week's total news package.

Starting with this one, Tesla reveals final production specs

for the Tesla Semi ahead of the first deliveries.

Saw this one on Drive Tesla Canada,

who wrote, one of the most important announcements

is confirmation that the Tesla Semi

will come in two variants, standard range and long range,

capable of traveling 325 miles and 500 miles respectively,

even while carrying the maximum legal gross combination weight

of 82,000 pounds permitted on US highways

without special permits.

One of the most significant changes

between the prototype and production model

is the shift to a tri-motor configuration.

When Tesla first unveiled the Semi in 2017,

the prototype used four motors,

two on each rear axle derived from the Model 3.

This setup was designed to maximize redundancy and torque.

However, as we've known for some time,

the production version now uses three independent motors

on the rear axles,

likely based on Tesla's high performance plaid architecture.

This tri-motor system enables

a more efficient operating strategy.

One motor can handle steady highway cruising,

while the additional motors engage only when needed

for acceleration hill climbs or heavy loads.

The result is reduced complexity,

lower weight and improved efficiency

without compromising the truck's ability

to haul full payloads.

Tesla lists total drive power at up to 800 kilowatts,

equivalent to roughly 1,073 horsepower,

far exceeding conventional diesel semi trucks.

Both versions of the Semi can recover

up to 60% of their range in 30 minutes of mega charging.

For the long range model,

that translates to approximately 300 miles of driving range

added during a half hour charging session.

The long range version supports peak charging speeds

of up to 1.2 megawatts or 1,200 kilowatts,

as shown in a recently released video.

While Tesla previously claimed the Semi

could add 400 miles of range in 30 minutes,

the updated figures likely reflect

real world thermal management

and charging curve limitations

associated with megawatt level charging.

Tesla's also disclosed curb weights for the first time,

addressing one of the most important aspects

of electric trucking.

The standard range model weighs less than 20,000 pounds,

while the long range version comes in

at approximately 23,000 pounds,

in line with many typical diesel class eight trucks.

Efficiency is rated at just 1.7 kilowatt hours per mile,

even under maximum load conditions

and important metric that directly impacts

operating costs for fleet operators.

Both Semi trims include support

for electric power takeoff systems,

delivering up to 25 kilowatts,

allowing the truck to power refrigeration units

and auxiliary equipment without diesel engines.

Thank you to Drive Tesla Canada for that one.

Well, awesomely, those two range specs

are pretty well right in line

with what Tesla originally announced way back in 2017,

when they unveiled those first two prototypes.

In fact, the standard range is slightly better

all these years later.

It had originally been pegged at 300 miles

and it's landed on 325.

The long range was announced at 500

and Tesla is delivering 500.

I mean, I know I've expressed my uncertainty

about whether or not Tesla will see the demand

that they expect on two of their next big upcoming products,

the Cyber Cab and the Optimus,

but the other big product on their roadmap

is one that I have zero reservations about the demand for

and that is the Tesla Semi.

Once that dedicated Semi factory opens at Gigantavada

and the production ramp is complete,

which yes, we'll take some time,

that factory as we've been told

will be capable of up to 50,000 semi trucks

per year manufactured.

And I honestly have no doubt

that Tesla will see that level of demand

probably for years to come.

And it quite simply comes down to the economics.

If the cost to operate and maintain the Tesla Semi

is cheaper than the cost to operate and maintain

Class 8 diesel trucks on the road right now, that's it.

That's all that matters to these fleet operators.

Companies will switch to the Tesla in this situation.

If that proves to be the case.

I'm not saying they will drop their entire diesel fleets

right away, that probably wouldn't be

the smartest financial move for them.

Over time, I imagine they'll just cycle out the diesel trucks

as they need to be replaced

and replace them with Tesla Semis

instead of just getting another diesel truck.

For a little bit of context here, I Googled this

and here's what came up.

Class 8 diesel semi truck sales in the US,

if you're curious how many of them

get sold a year as I was,

generally range between 200 and 300 plus

thousand units annually,

heavily influenced by freight demand and economic cycles.

In 2022, sales reached over 309,000 units

with forecasts for 24 and 25,

projecting similar though slightly lower levels

around 300,000 units,

indicating a strong ongoing market

for heavy duty diesel powered freight trucks.

And that's just the US.

The Tesla semi can and will absolutely be a global vehicle

like the Model Y is.

So that is why I say that I'm extremely confident

that the Tesla semi is not going to have a problem

producing, having demand for,

and delivering 50,000 Tesla semi trucks per year

once they're fully ramped up in Nevada.

And that semi factory should be opening and operating

fairly soon, hopefully in the next quarter or so.

And finally this week,

Tesla has overtaken Toyota

to become France's most reliable car brand in 2025

per a new nationwide reliability ranking

published by Auto Plus Magazine.

I saw this on Tesla Roddy who writes,

Tesla ranked first overall

in Auto Plus's 2025 reliability study,

surpassing long time benchmark Toyota

across all powertrain types,

including gasoline, hybrid and electric vehicles.

The ranking evaluated early problems reported in 2025

on vehicles registered in France

since January 1st, 2018,

with fewer than 150,000 kilometers on the odometer.

This marked Tesla's first appearance

in the magazine's reliability rankings,

which was enabled by the company's growing vehicle population

in the French market.

According to the publication,

Tesla vehicles showed no recurring major defects

beyond isolated suspension arm issues,

the upper control arms,

which are covered under the company's four year

or 80,000 kilometer warranty.

Other reported issues were described as minor,

including occasional screen glitches

and door handle concerns.

Well, seeing this from one publication in one territory,

it's nice, don't get me wrong, it's nice.

When it starts to consistently show up

in territories all over the world,

that's when it starts to get real.

Like say, for instance,

with Tesla's safety ratings, right?

Over the years, we've seen it over and over

and it's become a real thing now.

Like it started with NHTSA here in the US,

giving Tesla extremely high safety ratings

on each of its vehicles,

but then as time went on

and Tesla's went more and more global

into more and more markets,

that safety ranking, safety rating,

became a global thing.

Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and so on,

all gave Tesla just hugely glowing safety reports.

And so Tesla's safety reputation

has become pretty iron clad

and indisputable over the years.

With regard to reliability,

I would say with a measured,

just looking at this fairly,

that Tesla is getting there.

It's nice to see this one from France,

which I will concede and happily acknowledge

it follows the Consumer Reports Award

that I mentioned just on last week's,

I think it was either last week or the week before,

on a recent podcast.

So that Consumer Reports thing just happened here in the US.

So Tesla is continuing to build its case

and build its momentum in the reliability department.

And that's great to see.

Especially by the way,

since this French report really is only factoring in

the Gen 1 Model Y,

since the survey took place last year,

but the new Model Y, the Junipers,

only started rolling out early last year

and the survey covers vehicles going back to 2018,

which basically means all Gen 1 Model Ys

because those went on sale in 2020.

In fact, I don't even know what year they got to France,

whether that was later in 2020

or maybe not till 2021.

But anyway, presumably the results

should be even better next time

as the Junipers start to get rolled

into this survey as well.

And that was what the Consumer Reports piece

that I told you about had focused on.

So Tesla has been building high volume cars now

for almost seven years,

starting with the Model 3 once that ramped up.

And it's just fantastic to see them improve

and evolve on these higher volume cars

in this very, very crucial metric.

I was already talking earlier in this podcast

about the Highlander EV,

about how first thing you think of

when you think of Toyota, it's reliability

and that's why people buy in large,

that's why people buy them

and that's who Tesla beat in this French rating here.

So it's great to see Tesla just continue

to build their reputation for reliability over time.

All right, that's everything I've got for you

in the world of EV and Tesla news,

but I have the Ride the Lightning hotline calls

queued up and ready to go.

Now, if you're a new listener,

the Ride the Lightning hotline is the part of the podcast

where you have a chance to call in

and maybe be featured here on the podcast.

If you've got a Tesla or EV question, comment

or discussion topic, I welcome and encourage you to call in.

So how do you do that?

Well, there are two ways.

One, use your smartphone's built-in voice recording software,

record your question.

I kindly ask that you keep that call to 90 seconds or less.

Then send that recording over to me via email.

My email address is teslapodcastatgmail.com

and then just send that over.

The other way is to call in and leave a message.

Again, if you're gonna call in,

please try to keep it to 90 seconds or less.

Leave a message on the Ride the Lightning hotline.

It's a toll-free number, you can call it anytime

and that number is 1-888-989-TSLA-1888-989-8752.

By the way, if you know someone special out there

with an upcoming birthday anniversary graduation

or some other special occasion,

you can give them a unique gift of recorded voices

from friends and family telling them why they're special.

The recordings can be podcasted like I do with them

or put onto a keepsake, visit lifeonrecord.com

to learn more.

Hey, Ryan, this is Jerry from Capel.

I've got a 2022 Model S

and I'm trying to make a decision

as to whether or not to upgrade to FSD.

I currently have the enhanced autopilot,

so I think I could do that for $2,000.

However, I don't really think that is that wise

of a financial decision if I'm going to be stuck

with hardware three, which is what my 2022 Model S has.

Do you think they're gonna upgrade those to hardware four?

I sure have my doubts since Elon's talking about level five

and level six in the most recent earnings call.

I plan to keep the car for a long time

and $2,000 wouldn't break the bank,

but if I'm going to be getting a dumbed down version of FSD,

I'm not sure it's even worth it.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Say hi to the dogs

and I appreciate what you're doing.

As always, keep up the great work.

Hi, Jerry, it's good of you to call in.

You probably already heard my initial thought on this,

which was where I was telling the story

of advising my cousin, Zach,

who also has a hardware three car to not do it.

In his case, he was staring down the full $8,000.

In your case, since you already have enhanced autopilot,

it's quote unquote only $2,000,

still a lot of money, but a lot less than $8,000,

does that change the equation for me?

Man, I could go either way on that

because like you, I am skeptical

that Tesla will upgrade the cars at all in the end.

As I've said, I think they're probably gonna wait us out

as long as they can.

And I think there's a good chance

that maybe Tesla ends up just offering everybody

with a paid for hardware three FSD car,

a credit for the amount that they paid,

whether it was 8,000, 10,000, 12,000, 15,000,

on a future car, instead of bringing those cars

into service, tearing them open,

and retrofitting new hardware.

We already know, courtesy of our white hat

hacker friend, Green the Only,

that hardware four is not a drop-in

plug and play replacement for hardware three,

so that complicates the potential upgrade pads for Tesla.

Don't get me wrong, I hope an upgrade happens,

and I hope it happens soon,

but Tesla's already told us

that they're not gonna revisit this

until unsupervised is out there.

And while there is very clear and awesome progress

being made on AI4 and FSD,

we just don't know when unsupervised

will actually roll out to paying customers like ourselves.

Cyber cab will come first.

So honestly, Jerry, with 2,000 instead of 8,000,

I would say if you plan to keep the car

for at least a few more years, three years, five years,

maybe, yeah, I guess, but I'm not like,

definitely you should absolutely do it,

but yeah, 8,000 again, it would be a polite,

my recommendation would be no,

just like I told my cousin Zach,

but you've already got enhanced autopilot,

you've got the option to upgrade to FSD for just for 2,000.

If you're gonna hang onto the car,

I would probably, if it were me, I would probably do it,

if I'm being honest, if I'm keeping the car

for at least three to five more years.

And you've got a 2022, so odds are,

you're hopefully, you're probably gonna be keeping that

for a little while.

So I realized that I am airing this call

and responding to this call on an episode

that's publishing after the FSD deadline,

but I still wanted to put this out there

for anybody that may have been thinking about this,

and obviously, you've made your decision

one way or the other.

I did email Jerry and gave him a private response,

well, I gave him the same response, in time,

like I gave him some, gave it to him

before the deadline passed, so Jerry,

if you wanna email me back, let me know what you decide.

I'd be curious, so thank you so much for calling in.

Next up this week, let's hear from Carter.

Hi, Ryan, this is Carter Boswell, longtime listener.

I had a 2018 Model 3 that I put 250,000 miles on.

Anyway, I bought a new Y, I really love it.

Quick question, I have it a bit going with a friend.

He claims that Tesla is still going to produce the Model 2,

and I said, I'm not so sure about that.

Can you clarify that for your listeners?

Thanks very much, enjoy the podcast.

Hey, Carter, well, I'm not sure if I qualify

as an official arbiter in your debate here,

but the answer that I would give

is that the Model 2 is definitely not happening for now.

There was a little, little pregnant pause there on purpose.

For now, I may have said this last week,

but in the possible scenario,

not that I'm rooting for it at all,

but in the possible scenario

that the cyber cab doesn't see the demand

that Elon thinks it will, remember,

he's expecting demand for one and a half million of them

or more per year once the production ramp's completed.

But he also expected a quarter million cyber trucks per year,

and it's instead been one-tenth of that.

So all I'm saying is,

what if the same thing happens to the cyber cab?

For whatever reason, if that happens,

and again, to be clear,

I am sure as heck not rooting for that,

but for better or for worse,

Tesla's heading into uncharted territory here

with the cyber cab.

So if things don't go like Elon and Tesla

think they're gonna go,

then Tesla could allocate production resources

and that super speedy, unboxed manufacturing process

to go ahead and build Model 2s

and sell themselves a whole bunch of cars guaranteed

if the cyber cab does not see the demand

that they think it will.

Provided, of course, that a Model 2 is priced right,

and by right, I mean under 30 grand.

So the answer for now, Carter,

to try and settle it with your friend is no.

There will not be a Model 2,

but I think there is a reasonable scenario,

like a reasonable chance that it could happen.

But for now, it's no.

Hope that helps settle your bet there.

Next, Pete from Wisconsin responding to caller Matthew

about Rivian and their LiDAR usage in FSD,

in their autonomous suite.

Matthew mentioned LiDAR to achieve level five autonomy.

Now, when my Tesla encounters heavy rain

and poor visibility, it just slows down,

which I think is an appropriate response.

Now, let's imagine Rivian came out

with level five autonomy tomorrow

and there was super dense fog

and everyone on the highway was going 25 miles per hour.

They all have their hazard lights on.

What do you imagine the Rivian doing?

Just flying through the fog and weaving through everybody

because I don't think anyone's gonna tolerate that.

You're gonna have to go slow because everyone's going slow.

Now, if you sit in a hardware for Tesla

and you look at the dash cam,

you have those six camera angles, all really high quality.

That's basically like a high quality car simulator.

If you were to sit at a desk

with six computer monitors and a steering wheel,

you could drive a simulator like that all day.

If it were hooked up to a real car,

you could drive it around your whole city safely.

The challenge for creating the first generation

of autonomous vehicles, which are autonomous vehicles

that will mostly share the droid with human drivers,

the challenge isn't trying to create a better eyeball.

The eyeballs on the Teslas are already great.

The challenge is trying to create a car's brain.

So if Rivian beats Tesla to autonomy,

LiDAR will have nothing to do with it.

Pete, I really appreciate your call truly here

because I love the way that you explained that.

And to be honest with you,

I never really thought about the idea of the fact

that you'd have to match speed with other cars

according to the weather conditions

because you're right, you gotta be safe.

You're not gonna have one car flying through bad weather

around all the other traffic,

even if it can theoretically do so more safely.

I suppose the genuine concern with the vision-only system

comes from situations where the cameras

would be blinded entirely or blinded enough

to effectively be unusable.

There have been sightings recently of cybercabs

and Model Y robotaxies with washer jets

hooked up to the repeater cameras on the front fenders

and the rear cameras.

So that to me suggests that Tesla is at least evaluating

whether or not that might be,

let's call it a support system

that they need to bake into the hardware suite

moving forward in order to help combat

the adverse weather conditions scenarios

that are going to be very real, right?

For a million different reasons

and a million different scenarios,

but you make a great, great point

about building a brain versus building an eyeball.

So Pete, thank you again for calling in,

really appreciate it.

Final call this week that I've got time for

comes from Joe in Frisco, Texas,

talking about the reactions to the discontinuation

of Model S and Model X.

Go ahead, Joe.

Hey, Ryan, this is Joe in Frisco, Texas

and listening to the episode with the extended number

of call-ins about, you know,

reacting to the S and X discontinuation.

And while I certainly understand the kind of emotion

and major reaction and whatnot,

it did strike me that people are getting really worked up

about something that hasn't happened

and something that essentially nobody is saying

is going to happen.

For example, I heard comments like,

they're not making cars anymore,

they're not going to make cars anymore.

Whoa, they never said that.

Like the future of autonomous is a vision and a tagline.

They're obviously still making cars.

The only cars that they canceled were the S and the X,

of course, which are, as we know,

a tiny sliver of their sales.

And they said they did so in order to make

manufacturing capacity for optimists.

So, I mean, for the people that are having

such strong reactions, I get somewhat, I get it,

but if you're not an S or an X owner,

or we're intending to be one very soon,

then, you know, maybe just everybody

take a little bit of a deep breath

and don't panic here.

So I think we all agree that sole autonomy,

if it ever happens, is a long, long way away.

And Tesla knows that.

They've even talked about how such a small percentage

of Tesla owners have even tried FSD.

So they're not dumb,

and they don't have their head in the sand.

And I think we can all just, again,

relax a little bit.

Thanks.

Thanks, Joe.

Your points are well taken.

I think the shock of it definitely has something

to do with the reactions, myself very much included.

Particularly when talking about the Model S,

since that is such an historically significant car,

not just for Tesla, but if I may,

and as I said at the time on that episode,

for all of automotive history.

And something that I think I managed to forget

when I was reacting to this a couple of episodes ago,

was that the Plaid Drive train, at least,

will live on, not just, in fact, in the Cyber Beast,

but also in the Tesla Semi,

even though none of us are gonna be owning Tesla Semi's,

but Plaid at least will live on,

so there will be some sort of legacy of it in the fleet.

But I do understand the frustration

from many Tesla fans,

whether they're Model S or X owners or not,

in Tesla putting more effort into keeping,

or not, I should say, not putting more effort

into keeping those cars more on the cutting edge, right?

Because then, the thing is, you can make the argument

that the demise of SNX

kinda became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So if Tesla had put in steer by wire

and 500 kilowatt peak charging into those cars two years ago,

when they unveiled that tech in the Cybertruck,

and they'd done a more substantial exterior refresh,

maybe sales wouldn't have dwindled to the point

where they felt like retiring the cars

was the most prudent decision to make.

So I think it kinda became a chicken and egg scenario,

I suppose, and you can make an argument

for either the chicken or the egg,

but, and the decision's made, so it's done,

but again though, your point is well taken

that the three in the Y are definitely not going anywhere.

The Tesla sells over one and a half million

of those two cars combined per year.

And also to your point, that if more people try FSD

as it evolves and see what it can do for them,

it might lead to plenty more Model 3 and Model Y sales.

That's what Tesla's banking on,

they told us so very directly.

Joe, thanks again for your call, I really appreciate it.

If anybody else out there has a call,

a question, comment, or discussion topic

that you'd like to call in with,

please feel free to reach out,

I gave you the two easy call-in methods for that

at the top of this segment.

Moving along now to what's going on with me and my cars,

well as I said at the, I guess I was gonna mention it

in the plug coming up in a little bit,

I'll just mention it right here anyway,

I got the spirit of adventure back

from Immaculate Reflections

with a brand new, fresh ceramic coating on there.

So it should be good to go for the next five-ish years.

I mean, it ended up being seven the first time.

It's living outside now under a cover,

so realistically maybe it's not gonna get seven years

out of the ceramic coating.

But anyway, many years to come,

I'm protected with that ceramic coating,

don't have to worry about waxing the car

because it's all, it's got that ceramic coat.

UV rays are not gonna be a problem on my paint finish,

so that feels good.

I'll give you an entertainment recommendation for this week.

I was watching and very much enjoying

a new documentary on HBO Max by Judd Apatow,

and it's called Mel Brooks, the 99-year-old man.

And I've certainly enjoyed Mel Brooks's movies

over the years, even though I guess I'm on the younger side

relative to his very long career,

Spaceballs being my favorite Mel Brooks movie,

and Spaceballs obviously being the movie

that that would be clearly Elon's favorite Mel Brooks movie,

given that multiple Tesla speed modes,

and in fact, cars are named directly after stuff

from a Mel Brooks movie.

That would be the plaid, of course,

the Model S and Model X plaid.

So yeah, it's a two-part documentary,

so it's a total of three-ish hours long.

It's, I really enjoyed it.

So Mel Brooks, and he's, by the way,

he's still very much alive and well.

He's clearly sharp as a tack,

which gosh, we could all only hope to be so lucky.

99 and to be completely mentally and physically

in great health.

Spaceballs too, if you hadn't heard this.

Spaceballs too is shot and done.

It was spearheaded by Josh Gad,

but Mel Brooks is in it,

so he's clearly reprising his role

as at least probably yogurt,

maybe President Scroob as well,

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

But Spaceballs too is done and in the can,

and it's coming out next year, 2027,

when Mel Brooks turns 100.

So anyway, I'm looking for,

I'm a little, I'm nervous

because the first is such a classic,

and the track record of classic comedies

getting sequels decades later is not great.

Dumb and Dumber is my personal favorite comedy of all time.

I was just the exact right.

I was 14 when it came out.

I laughed hysterically at it with my friends

when we went and saw it,

and I still watch that movie and I still crack up.

Dumb and Dumber 2,

which was like made 20 years later was terrible.

I just kind of pretend it doesn't exist.

Anchorman 2 is pretty bleh.

Happy Gilmore 2,

I wouldn't say Happy Gilmore 2 was bad

in the way that Dumb and Dumber 2 was bad,

but Happy Gilmore 2 I thought was pretty just bleh also.

So yeah, it's not, with classic comedies,

doing the decades later sequel

has not historically gone well,

but Spaceballs 2 did get Rick Moranis out of retirement,

or at least, maybe not formal,

Rick Moranis doesn't do many movies anymore,

and he did Spaceballs 2,

so I'm looking forward to seeing it next year.

But anyway, in the meantime,

if you're interested, check out the Mel Brooks,

the 99-year-old man,

two-part documentary on HBO Max.

Here's your Tesla pro tip of the week.

It's from Drew in Ojai, California.

This one's for Cybertruck owners.

Hi Ryan, this is Drew calling from Ojai, California.

I have a potential pro tip for Cybertruck owners.

I tow a lot with my Cybertruck,

and very often we're towing when we start to charge.

You're unable to get to that one or two spots

that allows you to charge the vehicle

without unhooking the trailer,

so sometimes you unhook the trailer.

Always bring chalk so you can do this.

So what I'll do though with Cybertruck

is I'll go behind the Cybertruck,

I'll put it in high, this lifts the trailer up

high off the ground, using this suspension on high,

and I lower the landing gear until it touches the ground.

I then unhook all the little bits,

and then I lower the Cybertruck into low mode,

or even entry mode, and that will pull the ball

out of the coupler, and then I can go charge the truck

and then bring it back, put it in the same position

using the camera, and then I just simply put it in high

again and it hooks itself right back up into the coupler

without ever having to physically happen to lower

or raise the heavy trailer with the landing gear,

so it saves a lot of effort and time.

Anyways, thank you so much for your show,

I really appreciate it, and happy much of muttering.

Drew, I absolutely love this tip.

What a smart way to utilize the Cybertruck's air suspension.

Thank you very, very much for calling in

with this one, I think you're gonna get a lot

of appreciation from your fellow Cybertruck owners

out there for this tip, so enjoy that truck.

Thank you so much for calling in

and sharing that with all of us.

If anybody else out there has a good Tesla

or just general EV or other EV specific

for a different EV, pro tip of the week,

please feel free to call in and share it,

and I'm happy to share it with everybody

so we can all grow our collective EV knowledge base.

That's what it's all about, helping each other out,

that's what we're here for.

So, if you wanna call in with a pro tip of the week,

you just call in the same way that you call in

with a regular ride to lightning hotline call,

and I gave you the two easy call in methods for that

just a few minutes ago.

And before I go this week, I wanna mention

some friends of ride to lightning

that hopefully can be of use to you

at some point sooner or later.

I'll start with my old friends at abstractocean.com,

so many great aftermarket Tesla accessories.

They've got hundreds upon hundreds,

maybe even thousands of them

if I were to go in and count everything,

but check it out for yourself, abstractocean.com,

click on whichever EV you have,

whether it's a Tesla or something else,

because they've got products for lots of stuff.

They've got a lot of lighting kits

for both interior lighting and exterior lighting

in multiple colors.

They've got the puddle lights with the Tesla logos, et cetera.

They've got the tempered glass screen protectors,

custom fit for your EVs, center touchscreen,

all that and so much more at abstractocean.com,

pile everything you like into your online shopping cart,

then use the coupon code RTLpodcast at checkout

to get 15% off of your first order.

That coupon code again is RTLpodcast,

all one word, no spaces.

Then some newer friends,

speaking of awesome accessories

in a totally different kind of accessory category,

RPM Tesla.

They've been around a long, long time,

longer in fact than this podcast has,

which is saying something.

They specialize in OEM style Tesla upgrades

focusing on carbon fiber interior enhancements

and functional accessories

that integrate seamlessly with factory designs.

In turn, they are all about compatibility,

meaning their accessories do not compromise

Tesla's design language, their safety systems,

or their functionality.

They design a ton of their stuff in-house,

like all their steering wheel upgrades

for the Yoke and for the round grip,

and they prioritize quality over speed

with the creation of these products

so you're not getting cheap junk.

They offer over 1500 Tesla accessories

ranging from cup holders to full carbon fiber body kits

and everything in between.

Shop with confidence thanks to free returns,

no restocking fees and lifetime warranties.

Check them out at rpmtesla.com

and use the promo code RTLpodplus,

then the symbol plus RTLpodplus for 10% extra

off of your next order.

Yes, 10% extra combined

with their current discounted sales prices.

Check them out rpmtesla.com.

Meanwhile, Infinity Shield.

I first mentioned these guys last week.

I actually have my Infinity Shield

in the box got delivered this week.

I'm looking forward to installing it this weekend.

As I was telling you that last week at this part of the show,

there was a moment shortly after I got my first Model 3

where long story short,

I did manage to drop the garage.

Drop is a strong word,

but the garage door slowly lowered

and did touch the roof of my car.

As I was going to back out,

I'm very lucky that I got away

with literally just a small scratch on the roof glass.

But if I had had the Infinity Shield back then,

it never would have happened.

Well, I've got the Infinity Shield now.

So most garages like mine

only have a single beam sensor six inches off the floor.

That's how it detects objects.

So if you're say between the wheels,

if the wheels are not in the sensor path,

which is what happened to me,

your garage door will just keep moving.

And that can be bad as it was in that instance

for me those years back.

So this is a leading cause of damaged car hatches,

bumpers and garage doors.

Again, ask me how I know.

So the Infinity Shield is the world's first full coverage

garage door sensor utilizing 25 beams.

Yes, two dozen plus beams.

If you were to, I guess, see it in,

it's invisible obviously, but if you could see it,

it would look like the laser sensors surrounding

a big giant diamond in a heist movie.

So it detects protruding bumpers,

open hatches or anything else in the way of the garage door.

It's easy to install yourself with no special tools.

It does not need to be aligned ever

and it's compatible with all garage door openers.

It's really a heck of a piece of engineering.

Get yours at infinity-shield.com

and use promo code RTL at checkout

for a nice $35 discount.

How about snap plate?

That's the front license plate mounting bracket

that I recommend rather than the one

that Tesla gives you with your car.

The snap plate is strong.

It's minimalist.

It's just the one you wanna use

because it doesn't stick to the front of your car with tape.

Yes, actual automotive adhesive.

That's how Teslas work.

I don't like that as somebody that values the look

and integrity of the front end of my car

because if you ever wanna take it off,

good luck doing so without scratching the paint.

The snap plate and the newer, stronger snap plate

plus available for all the Teslas and many other EVs

are a nice minimal design.

They snap on and off in seconds, but when they're on,

they're on very securely.

It won't get in the way of your grille, your radiator,

your autopilot suite, your front bumper camera

if your Tesla has one, and more importantly, your paint.

So you can take it off if you're maybe going to cars

and coffee or something with your car

or you're detailing it, put it back on

if you're gonna be parking at a parking meter.

You don't want the meter made to get you.

Get yours at everyamp.com slash RTL

and use the coupon code RTL at checkout

for a nice discount on the snap plate.

Immaculate reflections, I just got back from there last

weekend, my, well my wife's 2018 Model 3 Performance

got a fresh coat of ceramic coating.

So now it's good to go for the next

oh five-ish, five to seven years.

And boy does it, it came back looking, well immaculate.

I hate to use the pun, but it's really true.

The car looked phenomenal.

It's since been rained on.

We've had some rain here this week, but man,

it is so nice to have it all cleaned up, all detailed up,

have that ceramic coating on there to protect it,

protect it against the sun's harmful UV rays here

for the next number of years.

So if you're in or gonna be in

the Greater San Francisco Bay Area,

if you wanna get a ceramic coating done on your car,

maybe you wanna do paint protection film on the front end

or all the key areas or even the entire car,

maybe you wanna have paint correction service done

to get your paint finish looking as good

as it possibly can.

Whatever the case may be, again, if you are in

or going to be in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area,

reach out to Immaculate Reflections ahead of time

to book an appointment, cause he does get busy.

When I was there last weekend,

he had, I would say six or so cars at the shop

other than mine.

So he's busy, he's a professional

and he's really good at what he does.

So there's definitely, you can't just walk in,

you gotta make an appointment, but it's well worth it.

Go to irdetailing.com and here's the fun part.

When you reach out to Jeff, that's the owner's name,

and you work out whatever it is you wanna have done,

whatever professional detailing services,

just make sure to mention up front

that you're a Ride the Lightning listener

and you will have the same Ride the Lightning listener

discount that he was nice enough to give me.

I'm not really a listener, I'm a speaker of Ride the Lightning,

but I took advantage of the Ride the Lightning listener

discount myself, as you can do if you have any services done

at Immaculate Reflections.

So again, check him out irdetailing.com.

The Patreon, I mentioned it earlier in the podcast,

but I wanted to give it a little bit more

of a mention here, patreon.com slash TeslaPodcast,

or just click the link in the episode description.

That is the way that you can support the podcast

if you so choose, and if you're not familiar with Patreon,

it's been around a good, gosh, 10 plus years now.

Patreon is kinda like a Kickstarter,

except you're not just funding one project once,

it's you're supporting a creator in an ongoing way.

Granted, it's month to month,

you're not committing to anything long term.

You can pledge for one month, pledge for six,

whatever you wanna do, there's no strings attached there.

But the idea is, if there's an author you like,

a poet you like, a musician you like,

a podcaster, hint hint, that you might like,

and you wanna support what they're doing,

you can do that on patreon.com slash TeslaPodcast.

It's of course fully secure, fully safe.

You can just head on over there

to see all the different support tiers,

and all the little gifts and bonuses

that I offer at each tier,

and they stack up the higher you go.

That's my way of saying thank you

at each successive tier upwards

that you go on the Patreon.

So all the tiers get ad-free access to the podcast

and early access to that ad-free as well.

The most popular tier, which is the $10 per month tier,

gets the ad-free, the early access,

and all of those 180, I think it is,

lightning round mini episodes

with new ones coming each and every single week.

So if you can pledge on patreon.com slash TeslaPodcast,

I would be humbled and grateful for your support.

You can follow this podcast totally for free.

It's just a convenience for you.

If you wanna follow me on any of the big podcast services

like Apple Podcasts or Spotify or TuneIn

or YouTube Podcasts,

just go to whatever one of those services you like,

search for Ride the Lightning Tesla.

You should see this podcast pop right up,

and then click the follow button and you're done.

So what does that do for you?

It means every time there's a new episode,

which is every Sunday at 9 a.m. Eastern, 6 a.m. Pacific,

you will get a push notification on your device

reminding you of that new episode.

The referral program has returned,

as I think I mentioned last week,

or at least, I guess it's, well, I should rephrase that.

My referrals got reset.

I had very awesomely maxed out before.

You guys all used all 10 of my referrals

that you can have in a given year.

Mine have reset, so if you're buying a Model 3 or a Model Y,

you can buy it with my referral link

to get three months of FSD supervised for free.

The Cybertruck Model S and Model X,

the latter of two being around for a short time more,

if you order with my referral link,

you can get $1,000 off those cars.

So if any of that sounds good,

if you're planning to buy a Tesla,

you don't have to use my referral link, by all means,

just make sure you use somebody's.

But if you wanna use mine,

it's just type this into a browser,

either on a desktop or mobile device,

ts.la slash ryan73014,

and that will take you to the referral page landing page,

then you just click on whichever car you wanna order,

configure it, order it,

and when you submit that order,

the referral bonus, whether it's the three months of FSD

or the $1,000 off, will be baked into your order.

Finally, if you'd like to follow me on social media,

I'm on X as well as Instagram,

with the same username on either one,

and that username is dmc underscore ryan.

You can also email me anytime,

teslapodcast at gmail.com.

Finally, I'd like to say hello and thank you

to the top tier Patreon supporters

who get their names shouted out

at the end of each week's episode,

as one of their numerous perks

for being at this level of the Patreon.

I will start with the maximum plaid backers.

We had an awesome conversation last week

for our February monthly hangout.

No surprise, the conversation was dominated

by the discontinuation, the cancellation

of the Model S and the Model X.

We had a really good time,

really great discussion as well.

So thank you to all the maximum plaid backers,

Jonathan Wales, Cameron Clark, Daniel Grummer,

Seth Capello, The Galpin Family,

Ryan from New York City, Darren Nicol,

Cos Barnes, Patrick Wisnesky, Gil Cabrera,

Todd Badger, Joe Edgel, Kevin Yank,

The Tesla Owners Club of San Joaquin Valley,

Will Steadman, Jeremy Harris, Chris Beach,

Tom Mills, Cory O'Donnell, Aaron, John Cody,

Joel Sap, Paul Casarino, Chris Osborne, 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 Klein, Jeff Brown, Jerry Slinger,

Kenneth Corbett, Brian Bertoglio, Kim Bae,

Troy Severs, Chip Hooper, Matt Shenander,

Robert Moran, Rav, Christopher Mann,

Michael Williams and Eric Harbert.

The Roadster in Space tier backers.

Always great to talk to these folks one-on-one each month.

That's the extra bonus perk they get

for being at the tippy top of the Patreon tiers.

Thank you to Pete White, Lyle Austin, Steve Radspinner,

Fernando Cordero, Lawton from Chicago,

Sean Nightig, Neil Weaver, Jackson Wallace,

Rolf and Jennifer Evers, Howard Anthony Smith,

Victoria Ayacaveto, Tesla Hitchhiker 42,

Carol Weston, Robert from near Philly,

American Home Contractors, Doug Carey,

Michael Gallo and Tony Figueroa.

And last but most certainly not least,

the grandfathered in plaid tier supporters.

They are George Cascioppo, Logan Willis,

Peter Chalet, Eric Randolph, Dory and Steve Guberman,

the Tesla Owners Club of Taiwan, Ron Lee,

Charlie Gillespie, Jeff Angwin, Chase Cabanillas,

the Lydia family, Aaron Altul, Jared Brown,

Jamie Dalton, Mike and Barbara from Louisville, Matt Nixon,

the Tesla Owners Club of Wisconsin, Ish,

not Elon Musk in quotes,

Peter and the Bear Boys of Colorado.

That will wrap it up for episode 550,

I guess a little mini milestone this week, right?

A 50, ends in 50, so episode 550.

Man, that is a lot of episodes.

But there's so many more to go.

There's so much more Tesla and EV fun to be had.

It was kind of, it was interesting this week

just having a non-Tesla be the headline topic.

But I thought the Rivian R2 was well deserving.

That I thought was the biggest story of the week,

the first reviews.

And then getting to talk about Ferrari on an EV podcast,

sign me up for more of that please.

That was fun.

And then good to see Toyota getting a little more serious,

at least in my humble opinion,

because they, as I was saying earlier,

I think they've largely not been serious about EVs,

full battery electric vehicles up until now.

So I wish them well with the Highlander.

That'll wrap it up on behalf of Daisy the Boxer to my left

and chewing a, I think it's a deer antler back there.

She's on the floor just having fun with

trying to just chew on that,

which of course she can't really,

because it's just, it's not gonna wear down.

It's a deer antler.

Anyway, that's Lily the silly Labrador behind me.

Hopefully you haven't been able to hear that chomping

this entire time.

Anyway, that'll wrap it up.

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 were 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 550: Rivian R2 Gets Glowing First Reviews

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