Episode 550: Rivian R2 Gets Glowing First Reviews
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Car
Ford F-150 Lightning
The Ford F-150 Lightning is an electric version of Ford's famous pickup truck. It's important because it shows that electric trucks can be just as useful and powerful as regular gas trucks.
Term
BEV
BEV means Battery Electric Vehicle, which is a car that only uses electricity and doesn't have a gas engine. It's important to know because many new cars are being made this way.
Car
Toyota Highlander
The Toyota Highlander EV is an electric version of the Highlander, which is a popular SUV. This shows that Toyota is taking steps to make more electric cars.
Term
FSD
FSD means Full Self-Driving, which is a feature from Tesla that helps their cars drive themselves. It makes driving easier by handling many tasks automatically.
Car
Tesla Cybertruck
The Cybertruck is a new electric truck from Tesla that looks very different from regular trucks. It's designed to be strong and useful for many types of work.
Car
Tesla Model S
The Tesla Model S is an electric car that looks like a luxury sedan. It's known for being fast and having smart technology that helps with driving.
Car
Tesla Model X
The Tesla Model X is an electric SUV known for its unique doors that open upwards and its high-tech features, including safety systems and autopilot.
Car
Cadillac SRX
The Cadillac SRX is a fancy SUV that was made by Cadillac. It's known for being comfortable and stylish, making it a good choice for people who want a nice vehicle.
Term
supercharger
A supercharger is a special station where electric cars can charge their batteries quickly, so they can drive longer distances without waiting too long.
Car
Tesla Model 3
The Model 3 is a popular electric car made by Tesla. It's known for being more affordable than other Tesla models and has a good driving range.
Car
Tesla Roadster
The Tesla Roadster is a super-fast electric car made by Tesla. It's important because it shows how electric cars can be really powerful and fun to drive, just like traditional sports cars.
Car
Rivian R2
The Rivian R2 is a new electric SUV that will be more affordable than Rivian's other models. It's important because it will give more people a chance to buy an electric SUV.
Concept
EV
EV means electric vehicle. These cars run on electricity instead of gas, making them better for the environment and often cheaper to drive.
Term
dual motors
Dual motors mean the car has two electric motors, which can help it go faster and have better control on the road. It's like having power in both the front and back of the car.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower tells you how powerful an engine is. The higher the horsepower, the faster and stronger the car can be.
Term
torque
Torque is the force that helps a car start moving and accelerate. More torque means better pulling power, especially when starting from a stop.
Term
zero to 60 time
Zero to 60 time shows how fast a car can go from a standstill to 60 miles per hour. It's a way to measure how quickly a car can speed up.
Car
Tesla Model Y
The Tesla Model Y is a small electric SUV that can carry more people and stuff than a regular car. It's popular because it has a lot of cool technology and can drive a long way on a single charge.
Car
Rivian R1S
The Rivian R1S is an electric SUV that is similar to the R1T truck but has more space for passengers and cargo. It's made for people who like to explore and go on adventures.
Car
Rivian R1T
The Rivian R1T is a new electric truck that can drive off-road and has many cool features. It's designed to be strong and high-tech, making it different from regular trucks.
Car
Tesla Model S Plaid
The Tesla Plaid is a super-fast version of Tesla's cars, built for speed and performance. It's designed to show how powerful electric cars can be.
Term
$45,000 version
The $45,000 version is the starting price for a specific model of the Tesla Model Y, making it more affordable for many buyers.
Car
Ford Mustang
The Ford Mustang is a classic American sports car that people love for its speed and cool looks. It's been around for a long time and is often seen as a symbol of freedom and fun driving.
Car
Chevrolet Equinox
The Chevrolet Equinox is a small SUV that has a lot of space for passengers and cargo. It's a good option for families because it's comfortable and has useful features.
Car
Volkswagen Id4
The Volkswagen ID.4 is a new electric SUV that has a lot of space and is good for the environment. It's important because it's one of the first electric SUVs from Volkswagen and is designed for everyday use.
Term
all-wheel drive
All-wheel drive means the car can send power to all four wheels at the same time. This helps the car grip the road better, especially in bad weather.
Term
fully electric car
A fully electric car is a car that runs only on electricity and doesn't use gas at all. It helps reduce pollution because it doesn't produce exhaust fumes.
Car
Ferrari Luce
The Ferrari Luce is a new electric car from Ferrari, a brand famous for fast sports cars. It's important because it's their first electric model, showing they are moving towards greener technology.
Concept
electric mobility
Electric mobility is about using electric cars and having the places to charge them. It's important for making transportation cleaner and better for the planet.
Term
instrument cluster
The instrument cluster is the part of the car in front of the driver that shows how fast you're going and other important information. It can have both digital and analog displays.
Term
launch mode
Launch mode helps cars start quickly from a stop. It makes sure the car uses the right amount of power to get moving fast without spinning the wheels.
Car
Porsche Taycan
The Porsche Taycan is a fancy electric car that goes really fast and handles well. It's important because it shows that electric cars can be just as exciting to drive as traditional sports cars.
Concept
electric vehicle
An electric vehicle is a type of car that runs on electricity instead of gasoline, making it more environmentally friendly.
Car
Lucid Air
The Lucid Air is a high-end electric car that is designed to be very comfortable and have a long driving range. It's important because it competes with other expensive electric cars and offers a lot of luxury.
Car
Toyota Prius
The Toyota Prius is a car that uses both gas and electricity to drive, which helps it save fuel. It's known for being very good on gas and is often seen as a green car that helps the environment.
Car
Bmw Ix
The BMW iX is a luxury electric SUV that has a lot of high-tech features and a comfortable interior. It's important because it shows how BMW is moving towards electric cars while still being fancy.
Car
Toyota Supra
The Toyota Supra is a fun sports car that people love for its speed and handling. It's been brought back recently, and many car fans are excited about it because it looks great and drives really well.
Car
Toyota GR GT
The Toyota GR GT is a new sports car that is designed for people who love to drive fast and have fun. It's part of Toyota's special line of cars that are made for racing and performance.
Car
Tesla Semi
The Tesla Semi is a big electric truck that is made for transporting goods. It's important because it can help reduce pollution and save money on fuel for companies that move products.
Car
Subaru Uncharted
The Subaru Uncharted is a new idea for a car that is made for adventure and off-roading. It's important because it shows Subaru's focus on making cars that are great for outdoor activities.
Car
Tesla Cybercab
The Tesla Cybercab is a planned self-driving taxi that will use the Tesla Cybertruck. It's important because it could change how we get around in cities by using electric cars.
LIVE
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,
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If you step up to that $10 tier,
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There's 180 of them now.
So there's so much extra fun evergreen content
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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.
About this episode
Rivian's R2 is making waves with glowing early reviews as it approaches its launch. This episode dives into the impressive specs of the R2, including its 655 horsepower and 0-60 time of 3.6 seconds, while also discussing its anticipated price point. Additionally, the show covers Ferrari's first full-B EV with a unique interior designed by Johnny Ive, and Toyota's commitment to electrification with the new Highlander EV. Listeners can also catch updates on Tesla's FSD transfer policy and new supercharger features.
all wheel drive
BEV
dual motors
electric mobility
EV
FSD
fully electric car
horsepower
instrument cluster
launch mode
BMW iX
Cadillac SRX
Chevrolet Equinox
Ferrari Luce
Ford F-150 Lightning
Ford Mustang
Lucid Air
Porsche Taycan
Rivian R1S
Rivian R1T
Rivian R2
Subaru Uncharted
Tesla Cybercab
Tesla Cybertruck
Tesla Model 3
Tesla Model S
Tesla Model X
Tesla Model Y
Tesla Roadster
Tesla Semi
Toyota GR GT
Toyota Highlander
Toyota Prius
Toyota Supra
Volkswagen ID.4
Original notes
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-BEV has a very unique interior designed by longtime Apple designer Jony Ive, Toyota gets a bit more serious about electrification with its just-announced Highlander EV, and more!
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Ride the Lightning: Tesla and EV Podcast
Ryan McCaffrey
0:00
103:37