Episode 553: Rivian Gets RAD

On this week's episode of Ride the Lightning, the Tesla and EV podcast, Rivian has announced

a new performance slash skunkworks division of the company that aims to deliver a lot more fun

to Rivian owners. Plus, Tesla reclaims the top sales spot in EV dominant Norway,

BYD has a battery breakthrough and more.

What's happening friends, alongside Daisy the Boxer and Lily the Silly Labrador,

my name is Ryan McCaffrey, welcome to Ride the Lightning, episode 553 it's your weekly Tesla and

EV podcast. And now that we're into March, here's how I wanted to start this week's podcast.

I thought I would circle back on something I talked about in January and hold myself

accountable. So remember when I floated a tip back in January that I had clearly stated I'd been

given by somebody that was an untested source, I hadn't been able to vouch for them, didn't have a

record with them, but that source said that the Model YL would be coming to the US in February.

Well, it's March, so clearly that didn't happen. However, what did happen in February as we all

know is the cancellation of the Model X and of course the Model S as well. And so I do still

think my source might end up being proved half correct. I do think the Model YL is coming to

the US, just obviously not as soon as that source thought. But really it would make perfect sense

for Tesla to announce the Model YL in early Q3, basically while the Model X's body is still warm,

just right after the last X has been built, presumably at about the end of Q2,

bring in the Model YL. It would leverage existing Model Y manufacturing capacity

and could almost certainly capture some of the lost Model X sales, and in fact, hopefully

even more sales from people that want a larger SUV with three rows of seating but can't afford

a Model X. So I guess what I'm saying here is, and I don't have any sources telling me anything

this time, but I do think that an early Q3 announcement of the Model YL coming to the

United States is highly likely. It just makes too much sense. It makes too much sense, so

I guess I'm making a mid-year prediction here. You know, I typically do all my predictions

right at New Year's, but that's what I think is going to happen, and you can feel free to hold

me to this in about, well, four months from now, really, so we'll see. Alright, well I believe

on last week's podcast, which I had recorded shortly before Tesla raised the price on that new

$60,000 all-wheel drive Cybertruck trim, that I think I said something along the lines of

my heart wants it to only go up to $65,000, but my brain thinks it'll go to $70,000,

and while as you all well know by now, my brain was right on that one. I know there are going to be

people out there that will defend this whole strategy from Tesla, saying that it's going to

make Tesla more money for the folks that are willing to pay the price while the wait time

for delivery on that version stretches into 2027, as I talked about last week. They'll say, hey,

that's just capitalism, that's just supply and demand, and you know what? I can't argue with that,

but it just sure doesn't feel great as a customer, you know, just to feel like you're a guinea pig

being experimented on with the pricing of this stuff. I mean, the reality is we won't really get any

data on how much that 10-day, now you could call it, introductory pricing on the standard

all-wheel drive Cybertruck move the needle for Tesla until Q3. That is when we'll find out some

real data. The new trim is supposed to begin delivering in June, which yes, is still Q2,

but only the tail end of it. So even if deliveries were to start on June 1st,

it's still only a third of the quarter. So that's what I mean when I say that Q3

will be when we see its effect. And we might really see, because when we get the Q3 numbers

at the beginning of October, the SNX will be gone by then, and thus they won't be lumped in

with the Cybertruck, although there will almost certainly still be in other vehicles category.

There's the three and y category, of course, and then the other vehicles category. So while SNX

will come out of the other vehicles category, Tesla will probably lump in the cyber cab with

other vehicles and possibly the Tesla Semi as well. While I made the Cybertruck's new price

point, or at least the new trim's price points, plural now, the subject of this week's Patreon

poll. And I want to thank the over 300 of you that kindly took the time to stop by my Patreon page

and vote in this week's poll. A friendly reminder, the Patreon poll is open to everybody. It's

totally free. You do not have to be supporting me. You don't have to be backing the podcast on

Patreon in order to participate in that poll. So you can stop by each week at Patreon.com

slash Tesla podcast, or just click the link in the episode description, and you will come to my

page and you'll see that new poll go up each week, typically on Tuesday evenings. So again,

this week's poll was simply, how do you feel about the base Cybertruck's new price point?

And I thought the results were interesting. 44% of poll respondents voted for $70,000 is too expensive

for what this trim offers. 28% said, I don't love it, but it's a heck of a lot more reasonable than

the previous $70,000 rear wheel drive Cybertruck. 12% went with no opinion, or just show me the

results. And then 10% said, I could tolerate $65,000, but $70,000 is pushing it, and just

6% of you voted $70,000 is still a fair price for what this trim offers. And that was probably

the thoughts on not voting for that were probably had a lot to do with the lack of air

suspension. That's the major feature, as I had detailed a couple episodes ago. That's the major

feature that's been removed and then the interior is stripped down a bit. So yeah, this would seem

to suggest, based on this small sample size of a little over 300 of you, that Tesla will not be

seeing a lot of orders at $70,000 now. And again, maybe they want that, which seems backwards

and counterintuitive, but if the wait time for that trim is now into next year, they might be

pricing it this way on purpose so that people either need to suck it up and pay more, or maybe

give Tesla more money, I don't know, but in any case, that is what you guys voted. So thank you

very much for making your voice heard on this week's Patreon poll. Now, an unfortunate plot twist

in this, what I would call a messy saga of the $60,000 Cybertruck, although to be clear,

what I'm about to talk about affects anyone buying a new Tesla right now. It does not simply apply

just to those $60,000 Cybertruck buyers. Tesla updated their website this past week and their

policy to now say that instead of simply ordering your new vehicle by March 31st in order to be

able to transfer FSD to your new car, you have to take delivery of it by March 31st, which obviously

for most people that ordered the $60,000 Cybertruck since deliveries on that don't begin till June,

that means nobody that ordered that trim at that price is going to be able to transfer their FSD

over to their new truck. Again, I don't want to keep harping on this. I feel like I'm just

complaining about this every week, but the back and forth on this is just not awesome.

I really don't enjoy criticizing Tesla's moves. I would rather be celebrating all of the fun

and cool stuff going on at Tesla and in the larger EV world, but I do feel like I've had

a number of reasons to be critical of Tesla recently. Again, clearly a number of people,

plenty of folks, ordered that $60,000 Cybertruck during that 10-day window and they ordered it

counting on being able to transfer their FSD as part of the big incentive to make that purchase

even if the truck wasn't going to be delivered until later this year or even early next year, so

it just hurts goodwill. And it, quite frankly, at least in my opinion, not everybody will agree,

it breaks trust with customers. And what's really unfortunate is that like the $60,000

price for 10 days situation, this FSD transfer thing was completely avoidable.

So I guess I'll close out this segment before I move along to more fun news this week.

I'll just say that if it seems like I've been more critical of Tesla lately,

it's because they've been doing a whole lot of consumer-unfriendly stuff that I think they deserve

to be called out for. You know, these things, these moves that they've been making may be good

for Tesla, but they're, in my opinion, not good for us, not good for current and future customers.

And if you're wondering, well, what do you, come on Ryan, like it's, you know, the Cybertruck thing,

okay, well, may I remind you, like this is what's gone on in the last, like literally the last month.

They've discontinued the Model S and the Model X.

They've removed basic autopilot from all new cars moving forward and not given anything

equivalent as a standard feature included with the car where practically,

so many new cars, I won't say practically all, but so many new cars, especially in the Model 3

and Model Y price category, do include some sort of auto-steer equivalent, some sort of

basic autopilot-like functionality. Now the 3s and the Ys, and this, and Cybertruck, for that matter,

in fairness, Cybertruck's never had it, but 3 and Y don't have that anymore, and the remaining Ss

and Xs will not have that anymore either. And then certainly the poorly communicated 10-day price

window for that $60,000 Cybertruck, and now this FSD policy change. That's four things in the past

month. That's an average of one a week. Tesla did not used to make what I would classify as

unforced errors like this. So I just wonder, what's going on over there lately? Is it all Elon?

Is it all on him? Was there somebody else there besides him who used to be

a person that this kind of stuff would run through and that person's gone? I don't know,

is it other managers in the company who didn't use to make these kinds of calls before,

but now are doing so and they're not doing a good job of it? Whatever it is, wherever the

buck stops, whatever the reasons for this, this series of consumer unfriendly decisions,

I sure hope it stops soon. Because historically, as you've heard me say plenty of times before,

this company's been better than this. They have typically traditionally, in my opinion,

done the right thing by the customer, but lately, they're not doing it.

All right, as I promised, here's some more fun news. Remember those Giga Berlin expansion

plans that were talked about last year? Well, now we've got a better idea of exactly what Tesla's

planning to do with that expanded capacity at Giga Berlin. Courtesy of a new conversation

between the Giga Berlin plant manager Andre Tehrig and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. It's a 23-minute

conversation that's been posted directly to the official Tesla manufacturing account on X,

which is at Giga factories, if you'd like to go check it out or go follow that account.

Here is a clip of that 23-minute conversation.

I find it a little interesting to say that Elon said if things go well,

they'll also build cybercabs and Optimus Robots in Berlin. Now, don't get me wrong,

I appreciate the cautious approach there rather than like old Elon from like 10 years ago would

have just said, oh yeah, we're building like he would have said it as a guaranteed fact when,

you know, he has since learned that sometimes things change, plans change. So I appreciate

the cautious approach, but given that the cybercab and Optimus are two huge keys to Tesla's success

over the next five or so years, Tesla's gonna have to build them at multiple facilities in order to

maximize production and minimize costs. Like in other words, for Tesla to achieve the goals that

has set out for itself, they're going to need to be at high enough production volumes on both of

those vehicles that they're gonna need to be building them, building each of those on multiple

continents. But presumably Optimus being built at Giga Berlin, that's probably further out,

I would imagine, since of course production hasn't even started on it quite yet on any continent,

and cybercab is gonna take a bit to ramp up in Texas first, plus there's arguably an even higher

regulatory hurdle that Tesla will have to clear in Europe before they can start selling the cybercab

over there. Now the nice thing is the cybercab is very much sized to be friendly to European roads,

unlike obviously the big one is literally the Cybertruck, which is too big for European roads,

even SNX are quite large vehicles, but cybercab will fit in literally just fine on European roads,

but yes, the regulatory piece is definitely part of it, plus just getting it ramped up and going

with the unboxed manufacturing process at Giga Texas first. But still, I wanted to play that

because I just think it's good to know what those next steps are for Giga Berlin in terms

of their upgraded production capacity. Before I continue with this week's Tesla and EV news,

I wanted to mention this week's lightning round mini episode over on Patreon. If you're kindly

supporting the podcast, supporting what I do here every single week over on my Patreon page,

found at patreon.com slash Tesla podcast. I hope you enjoyed this one. I put a lot of thought

into this one and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I made this week's lightning round

a three-point plan for how I would fix what I feel ails Tesla right now, circling back to what I

was talking about near the top of the podcast there about these recent missteps, these recent

consumer unfriendly things. Well, I put pen to paper, so to speak, and came up with three ways,

like real ways. I took the thought exercise very seriously, three ways that I think Tesla could

improve what's been ailing them lately. So if you're with me on Patreon, I hope you'll check

that out. If you're not already backing me on Patreon and you'd like to join at that most popular

tier, that's the $10 per month tier, that's the one that gets you access to those weekly

lightning round mini episodes. Again, you can head on over to my Patreon page at patreon.com

slash Tesla podcast. There are annual pledge options for all the tiers at which you get a

10% discount. So if you have it in the kindness of your heart to do a once a year pledge to

support for the whole year, I'll give you a 10% discount on that as a way to say thank you.

And there are also seven day trials as well. If you'd just like to test it out,

see what it's like over on Patreon, come join me. Come join me and the rest of the Patreon community.

In other Tesla news this week, Tesla reclaimed the top spot in Norway's auto market for the

month of February as EVs captured 98% of all new car registrations. I saw this story on Tesla

Roddy who wrote in part, the rebound follows a sharp January slump triggered by VAT rule changes,

value out of tax I believe is what that stands for, which prompted numerous car buyers to advance

their purchases into late 2025. As per data from the Norwegian Road Traffic Information Council,

7,127 new EVs were registered in February, representing a 98% market share. Fossil fuel

vehicles and hybrids accounted for just 2% of total new car registrations. Total new car sales,

excuse me, total new car registrations reached 7,272 units in February,

hinting at a rapid recovery after January sales fell nearly 75% year over year following VAT

adjustments. OFV director Geir Ing Stokey noted that similar patterns were observed after previous

VAT changes in 2022 with demand temporarily weakening before normalizing as noted in an

Alt-Om-L Bill report. We are now seeing signs that the market is returning to a more normal level

of activity which we also experienced after the VAT change in 2022. At that time, changes in demand

led to a week's start to 2023. We have seen the same pattern this year, he said. The Model Y

recorded 1,073 registrations, giving it a 14.8% market share for the month. Tesla also became

Norway's top-selling brand with 1,210 registrations, representing a 16.6% market share. Toyota followed

with 941 registrations while Volkswagen, Volvo, and Skoda rounded out the top 5 brands. Thank you

to Tesla Roddy there. Honestly, I wasn't actually mentioning this story because Tesla came out on

top. I mean hey, that's cool and all, but what really jumped out at me, and I know this will

not come as a surprise for anybody who's been following the worldwide EV scene for a while,

is that astounding 98% number. Let me emphasize what just happened in February.

98% of all new vehicle registrations in the entire country of Norway were electric cars.

That's just incredible. Truly they are living in the future. I mean I know there are still

gas-powered cars in that country, because remember, this is only new car registrations. Norway

roads and population centers must be so much quieter than ours, with all these EVs running around.

Not to mention the air quality. In fact, there was a story that I saw recently that I think I meant

to mention on the podcast, but then forgot to put it in my notes and thus never put it on the podcast.

A recent story I saw, and I'm just paraphrasing here, showed that EVs are making neighborhood

air cleaner, like markedly cleaner, in areas that have good EV adoption. So anyway, Bravo,

Norway, that is awesome stuff. Moving to other EV news this week, what I've actually made,

the headline story for this podcast, Rivian has unveiled the Rivian Adventure Department,

or RAD, which as a person born in 1980, I can very much appreciate the acronym RAD right there.

I use the word RAD quite a lot in the late 80s, as many of you who were around then probably did

too, so I appreciate it. RAD, the Rivian Adventure Department, a newly christened performance division

within the company. This story comes from Rivian's own blog. They write,

RAD is a team of Rivian designers, engineers, and adventure enthusiasts who spend their days

and nights exploring the limits of what a Rivian can do. They have one mission, finding the next

level of what's possible with our vehicles, bridging between where we find the extremes

and the features that end up in your driveway. RAD represents the living, breathing expression

of the passion that defines Rivian. That impulse to explore, to push limits, and to embrace the

adventure is not confined to one team. It is the very DNA of our entire company, from the designers

and engineers to our community of owners, said Jeff Hammond, chief design officer. He continues

saying, quote, the Rivian Adventure Department simply gives an official name and a powerful focus

to the transparent, open spirit that drives every vehicle we design and every mile we seek out.

It's a promise to never stop pushing the boundaries of adventure, end quote. What started as a way

for our engineers to fine tune driving dynamics at Rebell or Pikes, those are a couple of races

that were mentioned elsewhere in their blog, has evolved into a tool for you, what we call RAD

tuner. It allows Gen 2 quad motor owners to create their own drive modes in real time, adjusting

power output, torque bias, stability control, and brake regeneration to match the trail or road

ahead. These software updates are built on lessons learned from the edge delivered directly to you.

The presets you find in RAD tuner, like Desert Rally and Hill Climb, are built and tested in the

real world, our hardest proving ground. And then there's more here, so a little bit of detail

about Desert Rally. They mention, when we won the 2023 Rebell Rally, making history as the first EV

to do so, it wasn't just about the trophy. That victory gave birth to the Desert Rally drive mode,

a preset honed directly from the race data needed to conquer that terrain.

And then regarding Hill Climb, the aforementioned Pikes Peak, they say,

when we took the R1-T to Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, we weren't just chasing a record.

Our goal was to understand how to make an all-electric truck feel like a rally car at

14,000 feet elevation. We built a tool that allowed us to adjust stability control,

regeneration, and torque bias in real time. That tool was too fun to keep to ourselves,

so we refined it into RAD tuner, giving you the power to dial in your own driving dynamics.

Here's another quote. RAD is where we maximize the capability of our vehicles,

subjecting them to extreme conditions from the 14,000-foot ascent of Pikes Peak

to the barren deserts of the Rebell Rally. For us, the competition is only one element.

Vigorously validating every system, component, and algorithm is the other, said Luke Lynch,

the chief engineer of R1. He continues saying, quote,

the greatest outcome of developing the vehicles in these extreme environments

is a beautifully well-rounded vehicle. The cherry on top is translating those hard-won

lessons into features like the new RAD tuner that deliver next-level fun to our owners,

end quote. In the spirit of finding these new extremes, we are heading to the snow,

where RAD makes its official debut at the 2026 Fat Ice Race, the 2026 Fat Ice Race

in Big Sky, Montana. Not only are we showing off this team and our livery, we'll be competing in

the race itself with the new Quad R1S. The Fat Ice Race is a one-of-a-kind winter motorsport

festival that takes place in both Zelamze, Austria, and, for the first time in 2026,

in Big Sky, Montana. This unique event blends historic and modern car culture, design, music,

and community with racing on snow and ice, featuring vintage race cars, modern performance cars,

and even ski joring, which apparently is skiing towed by a car, for a vibrant lifestyle-focused

automotive spectacle. Amidst these vintage racers, specialized cars and automotive legends,

we are showcasing what the future of extreme adventure looks like, proven on the ice,

ready for the world. As a quick aside, you know what that reminds me of, because video games

are my day job? It kind of reminds me of the Horizon Festival in the Forza Horizon video games,

right? Any of my fellow gamers out there are probably nodding along right now, like, yes.

Anyway, so it's maybe not quite the RAD division here. RAD is maybe not quite like the M division

at BMW or the AMG division at Mercedes, but kind of an adventure-first twist on that.

I think that's really cool, quite frankly, and it is very much in the spirit of Rivian's brand.

Now, presumably down the road, we will get maybe a proper RAD version of each of Rivian's three

vehicles. In fact, maybe the R3X that they've already revealed for production near the end of

the decade, which, by the way, got a ton of buzz when it was first shown off. They had it at the

R2 unveiling, and they also, as like a one more thing, unveiled the R3, and specifically the R3X,

which was like a performance kind of rally-ish version of the... Now, the R3 is much smaller

than even the, you know, the R2 smaller than R1. R3 is quite a bit smaller, and R3 was arguably

stealing the show over the R2 with nothing against the R2 at all. Of course, now, plenty of focus,

plenty of hype, plenty of attention is on R2 because R3 is still a good ways out. It's still

probably two to three years away, but anyway, my point is to say that maybe that car, the R3X,

that has had so much buzz when it was first shown off, maybe that'll end up being called

the R3 Rad Edition or something like that. But regardless, as a performance enthusiast myself,

I applaud Rivian for dedicating resources to pushing the performance of its vehicles to these

new heights, and I really look forward to seeing what the Rad team comes up with. Alrighty, I've

two more stories for you this week in the other EV news department. This one also relates to Rivian,

but in fact Lucid as well. Washington State, we've got some news up there. Washington dealers

strike a compromise to let Rivian and Lucid sell EVs directly. I saw this one on Drive Tesla Canada.

They wrote, after years of stalled efforts and mounting political pressure, Washington State

lawmakers are suddenly moving with unexpected speed on Senate Bill 6354, legislation that would

allow Rivian and Lucid to sell vehicles directly to customers, similar to the exemption granted

to Tesla back in 2014. Under current state law, automakers must sell through franchise dealerships.

Tesla remains the lone exception. Rivian and Lucid operate showrooms in Washington,

but they are prohibited from completing vehicle sales at those locations. State Bill 6354 was

introduced on February 19th and quickly advanced out of the Senate Transportation Committee.

The proposal is the result of unexpected behind-the-scenes negotiations between the EV startups

and the Washington State Auto Dealers Association, a group that has historically

opposed direct sales. Quote, I think on balance it's a good compromise, said Senator Marco Leos,

chair of the Transportation Committee. The bill includes narrow eligibility criteria,

those that narrow criteria is as follows to qualify an automaker must,

1. Be a U.S. based company, 2. Exclusively manufacture battery electric vehicles,

3. Have at least 300 vehicles registered in Washington as of January 1st,

4. Operate at least one in-state service facility, and 5. Have never held a franchise

agreement with a dealer. So yes, that does seem pretty specifically targeted to Rivian and Lucid,

doesn't it? And I'll be honest, I actually was not aware that Tesla had an exception

in Washington State and that Rivian and Lucid were thus left out in the cold.

It's especially surprising to me because having been up to the Seattle area here and there over

the years because there's a lot of video game development that happens up there. In fact,

Microsoft of course is headquartered there, so Xbox is headquartered there, and Nintendo of America,

Nintendo's American operations are headquartered there as well. But anyway, having been up in the

Seattle area on a semi-regular basis over the years, there are so many Rivians just to my eyes

up in the Seattle area. I think I was saying this on a recent podcast with some other Rivian story,

presumably it was the R2, but in my anecdotal experience, Rivians up in the Seattle area

are like Teslas down here in the San Francisco Bay Area in that there are a disproportionately

large number of them. Not that there aren't Teslas in the Seattle area, there very very much are,

and not that there aren't Rivians here in my neck of the woods, there very very much are.

But it really seems like Rivian is a dominant EV force up there as Tesla is that here. But anyway,

I am very glad to hear that it looks like this bill will get through. Of course,

we shouldn't need a bill at all. Any automaker should be free to sell directly to consumers,

because as we've all learned, and most of us have experienced firsthand, these dealership and

franchising laws, they are archaic and they do exactly the opposite of what they were intended

to do when they were first passed decades ago. In most cases, many decades ago, they have outlived

their usefulness, and Tesla has been fighting them state by state, and I'm glad to see Rivian

and Lucid joining the fight now as well. And the final story I've got for this week's podcast

before we move along to your phone calls in the Ride the Lightning hotline, it's a big one. It's

from BYD who has officially revealed the next generation of its Blade Battery technology,

introducing dramatically faster charging speeds and improved energy density.

Saw this one on Drive Tesla Canada who wrote,

The new battery, unveiled alongside BYD's flash charging 2.0 system, is designed to support

ultra-high charging power of up to 1500 kilowatts, enabling EVs to replenish

significant range in just minutes. The V4 Superchargers for Tesla, if you have a Cybertruck,

peak at 500 kilowatts. According to the company, vehicles equipped with the updated battery

can charge from 10% to 70% in about 5 minutes, and from 20% to 97% in under 12 minutes,

even in extremely cold temperatures as low as negative 20 degrees Celsius or

negative 4 Fahrenheit. The second generation Blade Battery continues to use Lithium Iron

Phosphate, a technology BYD has championed for its safety, durability, and lower costs

compared to nickel-based batteries. BYD says the new cells offer about 5% higher energy density

compared to the original Blade Battery introduced in 2020. While that increase may appear modest on

paper, it translates into a noticeable improvement in driving range when applied across an entire

battery pack. For example, BYD says the Yang Wang's U7 equipped with a 150kWh battery pack

can deliver up to 1,006 kilometers of range on China's CLTC testing cycle.

Meanwhile, the Denza Z9 GT is rated for up to 644 miles under the same standard.

Because CLTC estimates tend to be more optimistic, those figures would likely translate to roughly

450 miles under the EPA test cycle. The company also says the battery maintains

improved durability, increasing the guaranteed capacity retention rate by 2.5% compared to the

previous generation. BYD is also backing the technology with a lifetime warranty on the

battery cells, signaling confidence in long-term reliability. BYD says it intends to deploy

20,000 flash charging stations by the end of 2026, including 2,000 installations along highways.

As of this week, the company says it had already completed more than 4,000 stations.

The second generation Blade Battery isn't just a concept. BYD says 10 production models will be

among the first to adopt the technology, including vehicles across its BYD, Denza, and Yang Wang brands.

What's super cool about this to me is that this is not just in a lab, which is most of the EV so-called

battery breakthroughs that you hear about are in a lab. They're not in the real world. Now,

I'm no battery engineer or chemist, but I do know that there's a massive difference between

a battery breakthrough that works in a lab and one that works in the real world in production

cars that are for sale to the public. And BYD has achieved that here. Now, for those of you

outside the United States, congratulations because you're going to get access to these cars before

too long. For those of us in the US, we're pretty much going to have to rely on Tesla to match or

exceed what BYD has pulled off here. And hopefully Tesla is going to do that. Because even though

Tesla is, by their own words, all in on autonomy and humanoid robots, both of those

focuses can still hugely benefit from better battery tech. Smaller batteries or longer range

batteries, or both, are extremely useful in either scenario. If you can put a smaller battery

in Optimus, that saves money, allows you to up your margins and hopefully pass along some of

that savings to the consumers. Same thing with the cars. Makes them smaller, makes them lighter,

makes them cheaper. If you've got more efficient, better batteries in them.

Now, if Tesla's got something up its sleeve, we might hear about it in just a couple weeks

if that Roadster Re-Reveal event is going to happen on April 1st. Now, as a quick side note

related to that, again, I'm recording this on March 6th, since Tesla typically sends out invites to

their events one to two weeks in advance, it means that if April 1st is going to be the day for the

episode after that, 555. Now, Elon has said before that the Roadster will get the most advanced

tech that Tesla has to offer, including the battery. And if the new Roadster is packing new

battery tech, well guess what, Tesla will probably want to shout from the rooftops about it at that

event. And understandably so, they should be super proud and happy if they've got

a killer new battery advancement that's going into the supercar. So stay tuned on that, but in

the meantime, I want to say bravo to BYD for meaningfully moving the needle forward for the EV

movement. Because a 20-97% charge in about 12 minutes, that's incredible. And 10-70% in about

5 minutes? That's just wild. I mean, you are nearly at parity with a gasoline refuel at that point.

And the thing that that does, not only does it obviously add convenience for owners of those

cars with those batteries in them, but it helps welcome new potential EV owners into the tent,

because that's still one of the big sticking points for a lot of people who don't want to

switch to an EV yet is, oh, it takes too long to recharge. So guess what, if it doesn't, if you're

on the road and it doesn't take long to recharge anymore, that's going to push more and more people

to go ahead and make the switch and get themselves an EV. All right, that's everything

I've got in this week's Tesla and EV news. Stick with me, though. Your Ride the Lightning hotline

calls are coming up next. Hi, this is Frans von Holthausen, and you're listening to Ride the

Lightning with Ryan McAfrey, the Tesla unofficial podcast. Before I get to your phone calls,

a quick mention from my friends at Accelerate Auto and their Xcare extended warranty option

for not just Teslas, but for all EVs. Again, whether people realize it or not, there's a

timing element to grabbing an extended warranty option that matters more than most people think.

So when it comes to EV coverage, it's not really about if you buy it. I mean, certainly it's your

choice whether you're going to get it or not, but it definitely matters when. So coverage is

generally more cost advantage 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. Again, the analogy I keep using here, think of it like tires.

You don't wait until your tires are just bald to plan your tire replacement. You're keeping an

eye on mileage, wear, timing, all that stuff. EV ownership works the same way. So Xcare helps

EV owners understand where they are now, what changes later, and when it makes sense to act.

And if you like, you can talk directly with Tesla and EV experts, not a generic call center,

by calling 844-755-4186. If you want to do everything online, go for it. Head on over to

Xcare.com. That's X-C-A-R-E.com. And if you end up choosing a service plan, an extended warranty

plan for your vehicle, during checkout, make sure to use the referral code Lightning for $100 off.

So again, you can speak to someone directly to answer any questions you might have at 844-755-4186,

or head on over to Xcare.com and use the referral code Lightning for $100 off.

It's time to hear from all of you in the Ride the Lightning Hotline, your chance to call and

leave a question, comment, or discussion topic, and potentially be featured on an upcoming episode.

So there are two easy ways to do that, if that sounds good to you.

You can either use your smartphone's built-in voice recording software,

record your question. I kindly ask that you keep it to 90 seconds or less,

so I can get to as many callers each week as possible. Or you can simply take that 90 second

or less message and call in and leave a message on the Ride the Lightning Hotline.

The number to call, it's toll-free, it's 1-888-989-8752. That number again, 1-888-989-TSLA.

And if you know someone special out there with an upcoming birthday, anniversary,

graduation, or some of their special occasion, you can give them a unique gift of recorded

voices from friends and family telling them why they are special. The recordings can be

broadcasted or, put onto a keepsake, visit LifeOnRecord.com to learn more.

First up this week is Daniel from Oklahoma.

We're going to get production of the CyberCab without a steering wheel or pedals,

meaning full autonomy within a month, and the next Optimus Robot will be revealed within the month.

Like those four things will completely blow everyone's mind. Anyway, I don't know,

I'm not going to record any of these things. Maybe don't use these. Anyway,

we'll love your podcast. Take care, Ryan. Bye.

You're absolutely right, Daniel. Thank you for calling in to remind us of all the fun stuff

that Tesla does have on the docket for the near future. And I would just like to respectfully

add one that you left out, the Tesla Semi official launch of the production version of that truck

with that slightly revised design that's going to be coming out of that new Tesla Semi factory

at Gigan, Nevada. I know Semi isn't a vehicle that any of us will be buying,

but still, it counts. Anyway, you are so right. There is a lot to look forward to in the next,

probably like 60 to 90 days. So bring it on, Tesla. We are ready. Next up here is John calling in with

a correction. Hi, Ryan. My name is John Tarr. I was just listening to the episode 552 and you said

that Tesla delivered on that middle Cybertruck, the all-wheel drive for the 49, 990 that they

had it at. Well, I was one of those four-year in the waiting people that was on that waiting list

with my $100 down and I didn't pull through on that one because of the price increase on the

trucks. Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that on that particular episode, you said that they

went ahead and they did that middle truck. They went ahead for $60,000. Well, it's not really

because for the 49, 990, you got to remember that all-wheel drive truck was with the air

suspension and you said on the podcast on episode 552 that they did follow through on that middle

truck. Well, not really because the air suspension is not on that $60,000 truck and the air suspension

was supposed to be on the truck, the all-wheel drive for 49, 990. I just wanted to let you know

about that because I thought that was important to know. I'm sure other people have caught that.

Anyways, no big deal. I want to thank you for your podcast. I appreciate everything you do

and it was great talking to you. Have a great day. Bye-bye now.

Tesla came closer than ever to delivering on the original promise of that $50,000 dual motor

300 mile range Cybertruck. That's what I should have said. I appreciate you listening and keeping

me honest, John. Thank you so much. Next is Jonathan from the UK who got to try FSD for the first time

and wanted to share his experience. Go ahead, Jonathan.

Hello, Ryan. This is Jonathan Hodges from the UK who has just tried FSD for the very first time,

driving a hired Cybertruck all the way from Washington DC down to Texas.

I found the Cybertruck a lovely comfortable vehicle to drive and isn't it great to have

that rear wheel steering. For FSD, well, it's really, really incredible. It's never once

did anything that I felt unsafe and it was amazing how it even avoided potholes on the highway,

did roundabouts, small roads, everything you would expect of a good driving system.

Its only weakness I found was finding its way out of parking lots. It sometimes could not seem to

work out where to go to exit and that is something that Tesla needs to address and also it doesn't

seem to recognize disabled spaces and occasionally I had to stop at parking in one of those.

But overall, I think they're 99% there and FSD is absolutely wonderful.

I can't wait for us to get it in the UK and Europe.

Jonathan, thank you for sharing your experience, which I think is fun to hear about because you're

a Tesla owner who knows all about the cars and all about FSD. You hear about it every week on this

podcast, but you've not been able to experience it for yourself and for you to go straight to

version 14 on a Cybertruck without having lived through the years of the FSD beta on hardware 3,

that at least for me, that's a really unique perspective and I'm thrilled to hear how impressed

you were with it and yes, sometimes it can find its way out of parking lots and it's like magic,

but when it can't and then it gets kind of frustrating, but I hope the UK gets FSD supervised

very soon. Next up, we go to another Jonathan. This one is in Atlanta.

Hey Ryan, thanks for taking my call again. It's Jonathan from Atlanta, obviously not a first

time caller and a longtime listener, but I just wanted to kind of give a PSA slash pro tip to

anybody replacing the tires on at least a Model Y and I would assume this would go for a Model

3 as well too, but I wanted a staggered setup and I got one the last time I replaced the tires.

I've got acceleration boost and an all-wheel drive Model Y and I got a 275 width tire on the back

and everything worked great. I don't remember the profile. I don't remember if it was 40 or 35,

but anyway, I had to have those tires replaced again and I went in and wanted a 275 again

and they replaced it with a profile that was R35 and come to find out my fronts are R40,

so the profile was different. I didn't even think about that until about five minutes into my drive

home and my traction control system started to go crazy. I drove immediately to Tesla.

Thank you to Tesla for having a service center right near me within like 15 minutes of discount

tire and they weren't sure what was going on. They looked at all of my warnings that were

going off and nothing would suggest that anything was going wrong, so I just again did a search of

Tesla forums and everything and thought, well, maybe it's the profile difference and when I got

out of my car and actually looked at the profile, it was dramatically difference between an R35 and

an R40 and that shouldn't be that much of a difference, but it looked different, so I took

it down to discount tire again and they apologized profusely. It was not only a different profile,

but it was also different tires, continental versus Michelin. I don't know if it's trend

pattern, whatever. They replaced it with an R40 Michelin tire. Actually, no, it was a good year EV

tire with the rear 255 R40, same width and profile as the front and immediately traction control system

fixed. Everything good to go. All is fine. I just wanted to give the heads up to anybody

with tire issues as I know you've had not this specific issue, but many other tire issues. Thanks,

man. Thank you for sharing your story, Jonathan. That was no doubt a bit stressful or at least

I know I'd have been pretty stressed out in that situation. It's surprising that Tesla wasn't able

to diagnose that immediately, but I'm glad that you found your answer and I'm even happier to hear

that the tire shop apologized and took care of you. I'm happy to play this clip for everybody

in case it happens to anybody else listening out there and learning from your experience can be

of use. So cheers, Jonathan. Appreciate the call as always. I've got time for one more call this

week. It comes from Kevin in nearby, to me, San Mateo. Hey, Ryan. This is Kevin from San Mateo.

I've been listening to your coverage of the Cybertruck 10 day pricing saga and I wanted to

offer a different lens on your bafflement over why they would do this. My theory is that we're

watching a masterclass in in market price testing. Most companies build models to predict the price

that resonates with customers. Tesla uses the order button to find one. They floated that 60k

price as a live experiment to find the price floor. The second they saw sales spike and that 2027

delivery estimate pop up. The experiment was over. Mission accomplished. Elon's We Are Tweet

about the 10 day window wasn't a mistake. It was the exit strategy for the test. Look at the result.

They found the floor, proved the demand was there and immediately jacked the price 10k higher.

But it gets better. By creating a 10 day panic and then showing the world a 14 month waitlist,

Dave successfully bootstrapped a narrative of insane demand that justifies the higher price to

the next wave of buyers. I've watched this pattern of in market experimentation for years.

It's a feature, not a bug. It's not that Tesla isn't worried about brand damage. It's that they

ruthlessly prioritize revenue over brand integrity and sadly overdoing the right thing for the customer.

We all know Tesla is a data driven company. So this is just another way that this is manifesting.

Unfortunately at the expense of customers and customer goodwill. Thanks for giving me a place

to vent, Ryan. Love the show. Keep up the great work. Thanks for calling in Kevin. You know,

just as a random aside, I used to live in San Mateo. I love that town. I used to hit up the

Amichis in downtown San Mateo on the regular before the San Francisco pizza scene blew up.

Anyway, back to the back to the topic at hand. I can't disagree with anything that you're saying.

And I think you summed it up pretty well at the end. They are ruthlessly prioritizing revenue,

perhaps over brand integrity, and perhaps overdoing the right thing for the customer.

Now plenty of people out there, again, like I was saying at the top, I don't need to repeat myself,

but you know, there are plenty of people that might go ahead and justify that. And again,

I couldn't necessarily disagree with that, but I am allowed to not like it. Because as I said

earlier on this very episode, and I've said plenty of times before, Tesla has historically done the

right thing by the customer. And I hope that they don't pull anything like this again in the

future, like say, I don't know, with the Model YL, although I guess I probably, I wouldn't expect

them to have any demand issues with that one if they do bring it stateside. Alright, that's all

the time I've got in this week's segment here for Ride the Lightning, or for the Ride the

Lightning Hotline, pardon me. If you have a question, comment, or discussion topic I would

love to hear from you, you can call in anytime using one of those two call-in methods that I

explained at the top of this segment. And now we move to the Soul of Adventure portion of the

podcast. What's going on with me and my car? Well, the Soul of Adventure is at immaculate

reflections right now, getting a couple little things going on. And as it so happened, the visit

proved to be timely because just yesterday, I dropped it off this morning at immaculate

reflections, yesterday I was out doing an errand, FSD on of course, because by the way, I'm very

proud to say I just crossed a thousand miles on version 14.2, you know, if you look in the autopilot

menu, it shows you your percentage of FSD use over how many miles. So thousand miles plus now of FSD,

and I just crossed 99% FSD usage. But one of those FSD miles yesterday, I came to, I was in a residential

area, not near my house at all, but so residential area, and you know, so 25 mile an hour speed limit,

nothing quick, but you know those, how sometimes at residential street intersections,

there'll be like a big dip down and then big dip back up for the middle of the intersection,

and then a dip down at the other side of it, and because there's like drainage channels or,

you know, water runoff things there. Well, that was the case here. And so I was keeping an eye on

FSD because, of course, I don't want to bottom out my car. Well, FSD seemed to recognize it,

and it slowed down noticeably, and I thought, okay, yeah, let's let's let this happen. It, and it

couldn't have been going more than five miles an hour, but it was like one mile per hour too much,

and it did scrape the underside of my front splitter, that front fascia of the car on the

the Model 3 performance. So I, you know, get it to Immaculate Reflections today,

and add it to the list of the little things, and thankfully, here's again, this is, this is literally

the fifth or sixth time that PPF has saved my original paint, and sure enough, I had,

you know, because the whole car is wrapped in PPF, especially the front end,

and Jeff at Immaculate Reflections, you know, he wraps the PPF underneath, you know, because you

don't want any seams showing, underneath, and he put it like all the way on, on, on the underside

of the painted area of the splitter. And so PPF absorbed all of that damage. Again, I'm not mad

at FSD because it seemed like it, it slowed down enough. It just, the car just happened to bottom

out there on, in the front end ever so slightly. So it was a bummer, and I took a look at the car

when I got home, and I was like, we'll see about this one, but yep, PPF saved me again. So the,

the, that PPF is being replaced right now. Actually, he finished it earlier today. It's just,

it's drying overnight here. I'll pick up the car tomorrow, and yay PPF. I am a, I am a walking

endorsement for, for Pete, for paint protection film. You will not find a bigger proponent of it

on a car that you care about than me. Time now for your pro tip of the week. It comes from Andrew

in Ottawa. Go ahead, Andrew. Hey Ryan, Andrew from Ottawa Calling. I hope everyone's doing well.

Calling with a response or pro tip in regards to FSD and wiper usage. Now, hopefully with the

recent announcement, there might be a, a upgrade to our terrible windshield wipers,

the number one complaint of all Tesla owners. But until then, what I personally do, I love the

suggestion about the voice commands to turn wipers off, but an alternative way to not

necessarily quiet the car or stop your music or podcast is to press the left scroll wheel in

until the menu comes up. And then I have it set to default stay on wiper mode. So I just

press and hold scroll down once to go from auto to off. And then the wipers are off. I hate that

that's the thing that we have to do, but that's what we got to do. Thanks. Take care. Bye. I will

happily take another road that leads to this same less annoying destination. Andrew, thank you very

much for calling in with that one. And if anybody else out there has a good Tesla or other EV pro

tip of the week, I'd love for you to call in with it so that I can learn from it and I can share it

with everybody and we can all learn from it. So to call in with a pro tip of the week, it's simple.

Just call in the same way that you would call in with a regular ride the lightning hotline call.

I gave you the easy call in instructions for that just a little while ago. Before I go,

I wanted to mention a few friends of ride the lightning. I'll start since I was mentioning

them a minute ago with immaculate reflections. I'm obviously a customer. I'm a long time customer.

If you're in or going to be in the greater San Francisco Bay area with your Tesla or another

car in your life that you love, treat yourself, treat that car to some detailing work at immaculate

reflections. Go to irdetailing.com. You'll see a contact button there in either the upper left

corner or the middle of the page. Click that and you can reach out to Jeff there and just

tell him what you're looking for. He will work with you on your budget and what you're after.

Maybe you want ceramic coating. Maybe you want paint protection film. Maybe you want paint correction.

Get that finished looking as good as you can. In my case, I'm having some more PPF done because

it did its job and saved my front splitter from yesterday's incident.

You can again reach out through irdetailing.com and make sure in your correspondence that you

mentioned that you are a ride the lightning listener. That way you will get the ride the

lightning listener discount. Also, don't forget about abstractocean.com. They make so many great

aftermarket Tesla accessories from lighting kits to the custom glass screen protectors,

just a million and one different things for your Tesla or other EV too because they also cover,

they've got Rivian products as well. My genuine encouragement is to just go there and take a

look. That's it. It doesn't cost you anything. Abstractocean.com. Click on whichever vehicle

you have at the top of the page and you'll see everything that's there. Anything that you like,

throw it in your online shopping cart and when you get to check out, use the coupon code RTL

podcast to get 15% off of your first order. That coupon code again RTL podcast. All one word,

no spaces. Next up, RPM Tesla. They offer over 1400 custom designed Tesla products that ensure

compatibility with Tesla warranties and safety systems. These products are designed in-house

including their steering wheel upgrades, their dashboards, their spoilers and their full carbon

fiber body kits. You can buy with confidence with RPM Tesla. They do not charge restocking fees or

require customers to pay for return shipping if you're dissatisfied with the product. Their

product return rate, they tell me is less than 3% which allows them to offer free returns,

zero restocking fees and lifetime warranties. RPM believes selling high quality products

and standing behind them fosters brand loyalty. They also have over 600 DIY installation videos

on YouTube so installing their products is simple and very detailed for all Tesla owners.

Visit RPMTesla.com and use the promo code RPMRTL for an additional 5-10% off your next order.

Yes, this will be combined with their current discounted sales prices. This exclusive promotion

is only available here on Ride the Lightning. Meanwhile, the Infinity Shield, this is the

garage door sensor that will prevent any hazards from ever happening because it creates a field

full of freaking lasers to quote 90s, the young people are like oh my god what is he doing right

now. Austin Powers, classic 90s comedy. Anyway, the Infinity Shield creates a shield of lasers in

your garage door opening whereas typically most of us just have that one sensor a couple inches

off the ground at the very bottom so it's not going to catch everything. The Infinity Shield

will. So it does not need to be aligned ever, it's easy to install yourself with no special tools

and it's compatible with all garage door openers. Get yours at infinity-shield.com or you can click

the link in the episode description and make sure to use the promo code RTL for a $35 discount.

Next up, don't forget about the snap plate. If you want or are legally required to have a front

license plate on your vehicle, I do very much recommend the snap plate available in two flavors,

regular and extra strength, then that's the snap plate plus is the extra strength version.

It's available for all the Teslas and a bunch of other EVs as well.

Get yours at everyamp.com slash RTL and when you get to check out with whichever one you end up

choosing, make sure to use the coupon code RTL for a nice little discount. Thank you to the

snap plate folks at everyamp for offering that coupon code to the ride the lightning listeners.

So when it's on, it's on there securely but if you ever want to take it off, it will come off

without leaving any unsightly hardware behind unlike Teslas front license plate mounting bracket

which comes with your car. Yeah, you don't have to pay for it but it uses automotive tape,

automotive adhesive to stick to the front of your car. So if you ever want to get it off,

good luck doing so without scratching the paint. Again, one more time everyamp.com slash RTL,

coupon code RTL and you can always click the link in the episode description as well.

Finally, my Patreon. I mentioned it earlier. I'm going to mention it one more time here. If

you feel it in your heart, you feel that I have earned your support, my hope is to earn it

at some point. Maybe you're a newer listener and now is not the time but maybe if you've been

listening for a while, you think, you know what Ryan? Yeah, you show up every week, you deliver a

good podcast. I mean, I hope you think that. I hope I do. I'm trying but you can support me on

Patreon. That's the bottom line here. For starting at just five bucks a month, for just five bucks

a month, you'd be helping me out a ton and the thank you for that five dollars a month

is you will get an ad free episode every week and you'll get that ad free episode early.

So it's a little double bonus there. If you step up to that most popular tier,

the $10 per month tier, you'll get the ad free early access and you'll get access to the entire

archive now of those 180 something lightning round mini episodes that I do every single

week over on Patreon, including again the one this week that's talking about that three point plan

that I would have for Tesla to fix what I feel ails them right now. So check it out,

Patreon.com slash Tesla podcast. You can follow this podcast on any of the big podcast services,

the benefit to doing that. A, it's free. B, it means that you don't have to remember to go

download a new episode. Your podcast service will do it for you if you're following this podcast.

So to do that, go on your favorite podcast service, whether that's Apple podcasts, Spotify,

YouTube podcasts, tune in, etc. And just search, ride the lightning Tesla. You should see this

podcast pop right up and click the follow button. That's it. Done. That's all you got to do.

Finally, you can follow me on X and or on Instagram. My username on both of those is

DMC underscore Ryan. And you can always email me about Tesla or EV related things at

Tesla podcast at gmail.com. Finally, I'd like to say hello and thank you to my top tier Patreon

backers. These are the extra generous folks. Big thanks. Also, you know what? I'm going to start

with the grandfathered in plaid level supporters this week. This tier is officially no more on my

Patreon, but these very kind folks continue to pledge at that level, continue to support me,

and I super appreciate it. So thank you to George Cassiopo, Logan Willis, Peter Chalet,

Eric Randolph, Dory and Steve Guberman, the Tesla owners club of Taiwan,

Ron Lee, Charlie Gillespie, Jeff Angwin, Chase Cabaneas, the Lydia family, Aaron Altshule, 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. Next up, the maximum

plaid tier, big hello and big thank you goes out to Jonathan Wales, Cameron Clark, Daniel Grummer,

Seth Capello, the Galpin family, Ryan from New York City, Darren Nicholl, Cos Barnes, Patrick

Wisnesky, Todd Badger, Joe Edgel, Kevin Yank, the Tesla owners club of San Joaquin Valley,

Will Steadman, Jeremy Harris, Chris Beech, Tom Mills, Cory O'Donnell, Aaron, John Cody, Joel

Sapp, Paul Casarino, Chris Osborn, KB, Adam Lavoie, Jason Chalukis, Travis Krenzel, Bruce

Otterstein, Tom Behan, Josh Pennington, John from Cream Ridge, New Jersey, who I just had in

and out burger with last night, had a great time meeting him while he was out here on business,

Dustin Hart, Derek Finley, Charles Clement, Damon Klein, Jeff Brown, Jerry Slinger, Kenneth Corbett,

Brian Bertoglio, Kim Bae, Troy Sievers, Chip Hooper, Matt Chinander, Robert Moran,

Rav, Christopher Mann, Michael Williams, Eric Harbert and Scott Sheper. And finally,

the Roadster in Space tier backers. Thank you to Pete White, Lyle Austin, Steve Radspinner,

Fernando Cordero, Lawton from Chicago, Sean Nydig, Neil Weaver, Jackson Wallace, Rolf and Jennifer

Evers, Howard Anthony Smith, Victoria Aia-Caveto, Tesla Hitchhiker 42, Carol Weston, Robert from

near Philly, American Home Contractors, Doug Carey, Michael Gallo and Tony Figueroa.

And that will wrap it up for this week's episode of Ride the Lightning, your weekly Tesla and EV

podcast for two snoozing doggos over here on the couch, Lily and Daisy. I'm Ryan McCaffrey,

happy electric motoring my friends and I'll see you back here next week.

Elon Musk, people don't like Elon Musk. The guy founded PayPal and Tesla and people are like,

yeah, but he's a troll and a bad dad. I'm like, so is mine. He did nothing to fight climate change.

Also, have you been in a Tesla? Have you been in a Tesla? My buddy let me drive his Tesla. I laughed

out loud at how fast it went. Been clinically depressed my entire life on dozens of medications

in a Tesla for 13 seconds cured forever.

I mean, I think a Tesla is the most fun thing you could possibly buy ever.

That's what it's meant to be. Our goal is to make it's not exactly a car. It's actually

a thing to maximize enjoyment. That's maximum fun.

Episode 553: Rivian Gets RAD

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