Tesla’s longer, more luxurious Model YL launches in Australia and New Zealand, with a deep dive highlighting a stretched wheelbase, three-row six-seat layout, upgraded displays, cooled wireless charging, ventilated/heat seats, and added safety airbags. Charging news notes the last V3 supercharger cabinet is built as V4 ramps up for higher output and better non-Tesla accessibility. Elon teases the Roadster re-unveil as “late April/next month,” while Lucid confirms three cheaper midsize models and Honda/Volvo cut US EV plans. Wireless charging efficiency patents and US-made battery supply for Megapack round it out.
Tesla's longer and more luxurious Model Y L has launched in Australia and New Zealand, putting it one step closer to going global. Plus: Lucid announces not one but three new more affordable midsize vehicles, Tesla's V3 Superchargers have been retired, and more!
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Also, don't forget to leave a message on the Ride the Lightning hotline anytime with a question, comment, or discussion topic for next week's show! The toll-free number to call is 1-888-989-8752.
INTERESTED IN A FLEXIBLE EXTENDED WARRANTY FOR YOUR TESLA? Be a part of the future of transportation with XCare, the first extended warranty designed & built exclusively for EV owners, by EV owners. Use the code Lightning to get $100 off their "One-time Payment" option! Go to www.xcelerateauto.com/xcare to find the extended warranty policy that's right for you and your Tesla.
P.S. Get 15% off your first order of awesome aftermarket Tesla accessories at AbstractOcean.com by using the code RTLpodcast at checkout. Grab the SnapPlate front license plate bracket for any Tesla at https://everyamp.com/RTL/ (don't forget the coupon code RTL too!). Enhance your car with cool carbon-fiber upgrades from RPMTesla.com and use the promo code RPMRTL for 5-10% off your next purchase. And make your garage door foolproof with the Infinity Shield – get yours at https://www.infinity-shield.com and use the promo code RTL at checkout for a $35 discount.
"we did get an update on the next generation Tesla Roadster's upcoming re-reveal but unfortunately the update isn't that the invites went out this week for the event occurring on April 1st"
Tesla’s Roadster is an upcoming electric sports car. In this part, they’re talking about when Tesla plans to show it again and how those dates have changed.
The “Tesla Roadster” is Tesla’s next-generation electric sports car that the company has repeatedly teased and scheduled for reveal. The segment discusses updates around its re-reveal timing and how Elon Musk’s public statements have shifted.
"Thursday is also the day that they typically make changes to the design studio to the website so if they raise a price lower price add an option delete an option"
Tesla’s “Design Studio” is the online configurator where you choose a vehicle and options like trims, wheels, and paint. The host notes it’s where Tesla makes frequent updates to pricing and available choices.
"now presumably Tesla is either still trying to get the presumably crazy SpaceX cold gas thruster stuff dialed in for the quote-unquote most epic demo ever"
SpaceX is Elon Musk’s space company. The host is talking about it because Musk often mixes big tech announcements and demos across his companies.
SpaceX is Elon Musk’s aerospace company, and it’s mentioned here in connection with Tesla’s event planning. The host speculates Tesla may be timing a big demo around SpaceX technology.
Term
cold gas thruster
"now presumably Tesla is either still trying to get the presumably crazy SpaceX cold gas thruster stuff dialed in for the quote-unquote most epic demo ever"
A cold gas thruster pushes using stored gas. It’s like using pressurized air to create movement, without burning fuel.
A cold gas thruster uses compressed gas expelled through a nozzle to generate thrust, without combustion. The host is referencing “cold gas thruster stuff” as part of a demo, implying a propulsion/attitude-control technology rather than a traditional engine.
"I hope that once the cyber cab launch happens again supposedly next month if in fact there will be an event as historically tesla does launch events for vehicles when they're when they're actually entering full production uh I hope that at that event we hear about the wireless charging of the cyber cab"
Wireless charging lets you charge an EV without plugging in a cable. The host is saying Tesla may announce it for a future car, but we’ll only know for sure once it’s available in everyday use.
Wireless charging for EVs uses electromagnetic power transfer without plugging in a cable. The host is hoping Tesla will announce wireless charging for the “cyber cab,” and notes that real-world deployment will matter once cars are sold to the public.
"now here is that new deep dive video on the just launched in australia and new zealand model yl ... today we're looking at the all-new tesla model yl"
The Tesla Model Y is an electric SUV from Tesla. This episode segment is talking about the new Model Y that’s being launched in Australia and New Zealand and what’s different about it for families.
The Tesla Model Y is Tesla’s compact electric SUV. In this segment, the hosts discuss the newly launched Model Y for Australia and New Zealand and focus on how Tesla is packaging it as a family-oriented vehicle.
"we stretch the wheelbase by 150 millimeter and it actually gives us a chance to redesign and stretch the whole roofline"
Wheelbase is how far apart the front and rear wheels are. A longer wheelbase often means more space inside and can make the ride feel more comfortable.
Wheelbase is the distance between the front and rear axles. Stretching the wheelbase usually improves interior room and can help ride comfort and stability by changing how the vehicle’s weight and suspension geometry work.
"a new 16 inch front display and a wireless phone charger that now has active cooling"
This is the big screen you see in front of you while driving. It’s where you can view important driving info and control things in the car.
A large front display is the main in-cabin screen used for driving information and vehicle controls. A “16 inch” screen suggests a more prominent, tablet-like interface compared with smaller instrument clusters and center displays.
"it allows the second row seats to be these captain's chairs which give you a much more premium experience in the second row"
Captain’s chairs are separate seats in the middle row instead of a single bench. They usually feel more comfortable and make it easier for passengers to get in and out.
Captain’s chairs are individual seats (usually in the second row) separated by an aisle and often a center console. They’re commonly used in family vehicles to improve comfort, access, and the “premium” feel of the second row.
"we've added an additional HVAC vent so you have air conditioning and heat to the third row"
HVAC is the car’s heating and air-conditioning system. An extra vent means the back seats get more airflow for comfort.
HVAC stands for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. Adding an additional HVAC vent for the third row improves airflow distribution so rear passengers get more consistent cooling and heating.
"if basically if you've got a tesla built this decade you have a wireless phone charging pad built into your car and thus those of you that do have it have probably experienced the phone getting too hot to charge if it sits on that charging pad for too long"
This is the built-in spot in the car where you can set your phone to charge without plugging in a cable. If the phone sits there too long, it can get too hot, so the car may cool the system.
A wireless phone charging pad uses electromagnetic induction to transfer power from a pad in the car to a phone with a compatible receiver. The host notes a common issue: phones can overheat if left on the pad too long, so cooling is important.
"time to mention my friends at accelerate auto they sell that awesome x care extended warranty option"
They’re the company the host says helps sell an extended warranty for EVs. The point is that they specialize in EVs, not just warranties in general.
Accelerate Auto is mentioned as the seller of XCare extended warranty coverage. In this segment, they’re positioned as an EV-focused provider rather than a generic warranty call center.
"they sell that awesome x care extended warranty option not just for tesla's but for any evs and again timing matters if you're gonna purchase an extended warranty"
XCare is an extended warranty plan for EVs. The host’s main message is that it’s usually smarter to buy it before the original factory warranty ends.
XCare is presented as an extended warranty option specifically for EVs. The host emphasizes that timing matters because coverage pricing, eligibility, and available options can change with time and mileage.
"get yourself a hundred dollars off your policy purchase by using the referral code lightning at checkout if you're buying online otherwise if you're talking to somebody on the phone to to get your policy just mention the referral code lightning"
They’re giving you a code (“lightning”) that can save you money on the warranty. If you buy online, use it at checkout; if you call, tell them the code.
The host provides a referral code (“lightning”) to reduce the cost of the XCare policy. They explain that the discount is applied either online at checkout or by mentioning the code during a phone call.
"in other ev news as i mentioned at the top of the show lucid has taken the wraps off of the next major expansion of its lineup confirming three new midsize vehicles"
Lucid is a company that makes electric cars. Here they’re talking about Lucid planning to sell more affordable, midsize EVs.
Lucid is an electric-vehicle automaker known for high-efficiency powertrains and aerodynamic design. In this segment, the host discusses Lucid’s plans to expand beyond its current lineup with new midsize models.
"lucid says it is targeting starting prices below $50,000 opening the door to a much larger portion of the market"
“Starting prices below $50,000” is a key pricing milestone because it signals a shift from premium EV pricing toward mass-market affordability. For listeners, it’s an important clue that Lucid’s new architecture is intended to lower cost and expand demand.
"we are pleased to launch this new distribution strategy with wachenhut a partner that shares our ambition... wachenhut is a family-owned dealer group headquartered in in nagold germany"
Wachenhut is a German dealership group. Lucid is partnering with them so Lucid cars can be sold and serviced locally by people already set up for EVs.
Wachenhut is a family-owned dealer group headquartered in Nagold, Germany, with multiple locations in Baden-Württemberg. The key point here is that Lucid is using Wachenhut as a partner to handle distribution and support EVs with trained high-voltage technicians.
"if your b y d you're licking your chops right because any ev momentum that is lost or in in this case abandoned at other companies well that benefits them right now"
BYD is a big EV company from China. The speaker is saying BYD could take advantage of competitors stumbling, because BYD sells cars in more places around the world.
BYD is a major Chinese automaker known for producing a wide range of EVs and batteries. The speaker suggests that if other companies lose EV momentum, BYD could benefit because it sells vehicles in many markets outside the U.S.
"...because again i as i said on the initial response to the first caller i have run into this as well on my 2024 model 3 so thank you daniel..."
The Tesla Model 3 is Tesla’s electric sedan. The host says their 2024 Model 3 has the same door-lock behavior being discussed, so it’s not just one specific car.
The Tesla Model 3 is Tesla’s compact sedan. In this segment, the host mentions a 2024 Model 3 experiencing the same walk-away lock behavior, which helps confirm the feature affects multiple Tesla models.
"starting with abstract ocean dot com they've got i think it probably actually is thousands not hundreds there are so many aftermarket accessories lighting kits tempered glass gorilla glass screen protectors just all kinds of stuff for the interiors of your car"
Abstract Ocean sells aftermarket accessories for EVs. They’re the kind of place you’d buy things like screen protectors or lighting kits, and they make it easy to find products that fit your specific EV.
Abstract Ocean is an aftermarket accessories retailer that sells EV-specific add-ons. In this segment they mention items like lighting kits, tempered glass, and screen protectors, and they describe how to shop by the EV model on their site.
"there are so many aftermarket accessories lighting kits tempered glass gorilla glass screen protectors just all kinds of stuff for the interiors of your car the exterior of your car"
A lighting kit is a set of extra lights you add to your car. People use them to improve visibility or just change the look, and they’re usually made to fit a specific EV model.
A lighting kit is an aftermarket set of lights designed to add or upgrade exterior or interior lighting. These kits are often model-specific so the wiring, mounting points, and connectors match the vehicle.
"meanwhile rpm tesla they've got a ton of tesla accessories as well different stuff than what they've got over at abstract ocean in the sense that rpm tesla is more about uh enhanced visual enhancement stuff of wheel upgrades dashboard spoilers full carbon fiber body kits"
RPM Tesla sells aftermarket upgrades specifically for Teslas. They offer things like exterior styling parts and accessories, and they also provide installation help so it’s easier to fit the parts.
RPM Tesla is an aftermarket parts and accessories company focused on Tesla vehicles. In this segment they highlight products like wheel upgrades, dashboard items, spoilers, and carbon-fiber body kits, plus installation videos and return/warranty policies.
"dashboard spoilers full carbon fiber body kits and a whole bunch more you got to take a look at their website as well"
A carbon fiber body kit is a set of exterior parts made from lightweight, strong material. It’s often used to make the car look more aggressive and sometimes to improve airflow.
A full carbon fiber body kit is a set of exterior styling and aerodynamic parts made from carbon fiber. “Full” typically means multiple components (like front/rear pieces and side elements), and carbon fiber is chosen for its strength-to-weight and premium appearance.
"with them you're buying with confidence because they do not charge restocking fees or require customers to pay for return shipping for dissatisfaction"
A restocking fee is a penalty some stores charge when you return something. It can reduce how much money you get back.
Restocking fees are charges a retailer may apply when you return an item. They’re meant to cover handling and inventory costs, and they can make returns more expensive even if the product is unused.
"visit rpm tesla dot com and use the promo code rpm rtl for an additional five to ten percent off your next order yes this will be combined with their current discounted sales prices"
A promo code is a special code you enter at checkout to get a discount. It can stack with other sales depending on the store’s rules.
A promo code is a discount code applied at checkout to reduce the purchase price. In this segment, they mention using a code for additional savings and combining it with existing discounted sales.
"[4534.3s] infinity shield this is the garage door sensor product that will help ensure that you never have [4541.4s] a mishap in your garage..."
Infinity Dash Shield sells a device that helps prevent garage-door accidents. It uses lasers to detect when something is blocking the door so you don’t damage your car.
Infinity Dash Shield is a company that sells a garage-door safety product for vehicles. Their system uses a laser grid to detect obstacles in the path of a garage door, aiming to prevent damage when a car is partially in the garage.
"[4630.4s] that full coverage infinity shield the snap plate and the newer stronger snap plate plus is available [4637.7s] for all the teslas press plus a bunch of other evs as well..."
A snap plate is a license-plate holder that you can put on and take off quickly. It’s meant to be easy to remove for car shows or detailing.
A snap plate is a front license plate bracket that can be attached and removed quickly using a snap-on mechanism. In the segment, it’s positioned as a way to keep a clean look while still being able to comply with front plate requirements when needed.
"[4637.7s] plus is available for all the teslas press plus a bunch of other evs as well go to every amp dot com slash rtl [4646.4s] and use the coupon code rtl..."
Every Amp is a website that sells EV accessories. In this segment, they’re selling a front license plate bracket that’s easy to remove.
Every Amp is an aftermarket retailer referenced here for EV accessories. The host specifically mentions their snap-on front license plate bracket and provides a promo code for a discount.
"make an appointment at immaculate reflections and i promise you you will leave happy when your car is done maybe you want to do ceramic coating"
Immaculate Reflections is the detailing shop the speaker recommends for services like ceramic coating, paint correction, and paint protection film. The mention is tied to a real-world decision: choosing a professional installer to maximize coating/film longevity and finish quality.
"maybe you want to do ceramic coating so they don't have to worry about waxing for the next three to five plus years in my case it was seven years on the first ceramic coating"
Ceramic coating is a protective layer put on your car’s paint. It helps water bead off and can make washing easier, so you don’t have to wax as often.
Ceramic coating is a liquid polymer/ceramic layer applied to a car’s paint to add hydrophobic water beading and chemical/UV resistance. It’s often used to reduce the need for frequent waxing and to make the car easier to wash.
"maybe you'd like paint protection film on some of the car you know the front end maybe maybe all the the entire car whatever the case is"
Paint protection film is a clear protective layer that you stick onto the car’s paint. It helps prevent chips and scratches, especially on the front where debris hits most.
Paint protection film (PPF) is a clear, durable film applied to high-impact areas of a vehicle to protect against rock chips, scratches, and road debris. The speaker mentions applying it to the front end or potentially the entire car.
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On this week's episode of Ride the Lightning, the Tesla and EV podcast, Tesla's longer
and more luxurious Model YL has launched in Australia and New Zealand, putting it one
step closer to going global.
Plus, Lucid announces not one but three new, more affordable midsize vehicles, Tesla's
V3 superchargers have been retired and more.
What's happening friends, alongside both Daisy the Boxer and Lily the Silly Labrador
puppy who are both looking longingly out the window sitting on the couch cushions.
My name is Ryan McCaffrey, welcome to Ride the Lightning, it's your weekly Tesla and
EV podcast, publishing on March 22nd, 2026.
This is episode 555, which isn't just a palindrome, I don't know if there's a special
name for it, but it's like an ultimate palindrome where it's all the same number, just all the
same, 555, otherwise known as the first three digits of any phone number in any movie ever,
555.
And I hope you are doing well, I am having a fantastic day, in fact I'm having a great
week because we've had an extremely rare week of actual summer.
Now for those of you that aren't aware, San Francisco itself, which is where I live,
pretty much doesn't really get a traditional summer where it's warm out and you're wearing
shorts and a t-shirt and it tends to be chilly here all the time, even in July.
The old Mark Twain quote about the coldest winter he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco,
there is truth rooted in that.
But this week, weirdly, which was technically up until today as I'm recording, winter, actually
I don't even remember, spring either starts today or tomorrow, the 20th or the 21st.
But anyway, this week we have had just a freakishly warm week where it's been in the 80s all
week which means even at night it's been super nice, so that puts me in a good mood.
I like warm weather, not the hot weather that I had in Arizona for a long time.
That's a bridge too far for me, but man, this is just like more sort of traditional summer,
80 degrees, 80 something degree weather.
I've been having an excellent week and I hope you have been too.
I've got plenty to cover for you this week in the world of Tesla and EVs and I wanted
to start with a quick update from last week's episode and I want to thank listener Mark
as well as Marshall from Atlanta, Mark emailed in and Marshall called in and they both pointed
out a key piece of information about the launch edition Rivian R2, that performance edition
that I absolutely should have included last week but failed to do so, so I want to apologize for
that and that information is that the 2026 run of Rivian R2s will not include the AI chip
or the LiDAR hardware that are necessary to fully maximize the autonomy plus package
that that launch edition includes and before you ask, because of course it's the next logical
question, no it will not be upgradable later, you cannot retrofit those upgrades later, so
the hardware needed for where Rivian aims to go with autonomy is expected to start going into
R2s in early 2027, so again my apologies for omitting that because for any of you that are
considering purchasing a launch edition R2, that is a key piece of information to be factoring in,
so wanted to get that out there, apologies that it's one week late but definitely wanted to go
ahead and mention that, thank you again to Mark and Marshall. Also on a similar subject, while
I'm talking about little additions, little updates from last week, a friend of mine at Audi, a friend
of mine I've known for a long time, he reached out to me to very politely to his credit because he
could have been a little meaner about it but he's always super nice, he very politely reached out
to let me know that I probably should have given Audi a bit more credit last week for their embrace
of electrification, he gave me a statistic that he said is public and so that's why I'm gonna
mention it right now, he said that last year over 25% of Audi's new vehicle sales were EVs,
so I think that does merit an apology from me and a kudos to Audi because that's again,
we're talking about a legacy automaker that's got a reputation for being a driver's car and so
for a full quarter of their new car sales to be electric, to be pure EVs, that does suggest
that Audi's doing a pretty darn good job in offering some compelling EVs, whether it's
e-trons or the e-tron SUVs or the GT sedan etc. so I wanted to mention that as well.
Now moving along to this week's new topics, as always there are plenty of them, we did get an
update on the next generation Tesla Roadster's upcoming re-reveal but unfortunately the update
isn't that the invites went out this week for the event occurring on April 1st, that was what I
was hoping I would be able to say this week but that is not the case. Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted
on X in response to someone else posting about that day, there was a day earlier this week,
I don't exactly recall which day it was but one day earlier this week was the anniversary of the
original Roadster going into production, which of course was back in 2008 so I guess that would
make it the 18th anniversary of that and so Elon responded to that post saying quote,
new Roadster unveil probably in late April end quote, then a few hours later he responded to
somebody else on X who posted more or less the same thing, the same sentiment, not the exact words
but just mentioning the anniversary of the original Roadster entering production
and then this time Elon said very similarly quote, new Roadster unveil hopefully next month,
it will be a banger next level end quote, so the key words there of course are probably
in that first post and hopefully in that second post and as I've said I appreciate the qualifiers
rather than promises that then become easier to miss but I suppose it probably won't surprise
anybody listening at this point that the April 1st date that Elon gave out four months ago
at the annual shareholder meeting in early November did not end up happening.
I'll note that plenty of people online in the Tesla community pointed out that it would be a
very Elon Musk move to end up doing the Roadster Reveal on, you guessed it, 420 and I looked it up
that's a Monday this year and historically as I've pointed out before Tesla events have for the
last number of them actually been on Thursdays for whatever reason, just whether it's shareholder
meeting or the WeRobot event or the Cybertruck unveil or even the Cybertruck launch I believe
was a Thursday as well, it's just Thursdays tend to be Tesla's preferred day for this stuff for
whatever reason in fact Thursday is also the day that they typically make changes to the
design studio to the website so if they raise a price lower price add an option delete an option
add a new paint color whatever it is Thursday tends to be their day so anyhow 420 is a Monday
so it's it's possible like if it were a Sunday I would say no that's we can probably rule out
420 if it's a Sunday but you know Monday it could happen especially if Elon wants to just embrace
the 420 joke which is very much his sense of humor so it's not impossible and to be perfectly honest
I would love for it to happen on 420 because that would be sooner than late April 420 is still
still arguably in mid-April but at this point we'll just have to wait and see if it happens
in April at all now presumably Tesla is either still trying to get the presumably crazy SpaceX
cold gas thruster stuff dialed in for the quote-unquote most epic demo ever or as I very wildly
speculated last week and I want to emphasize that was pure speculation on my part that perhaps
Franz and his team need more time to get the cyberbin prototype the cyber SUV prototype ready
to be the one more thing surprise at the Roadster Reveal so time will tell we'll find out
sometime in the next couple months I hope and I went ahead and made this the subject of this week's
Patreon poll because you all know that I'm unhealthily obsessed with the new Tesla Roadster
because I have the extraordinary privilege of having one one of them it's a car I would never
have in in normal the course of normal life it's my station in life would never in a million years
allow me to have that car so since I was in the right place at the right time eight years ago
I'm obviously very much looking forward to the day when that car becomes real I know plenty of
people still believe it it will never become real and we'll see if they're right but uh there are
as I've been pointing out on recent episodes of the podcast there have been tangible signs that
this car is actually going to get made so anyway this week's Patreon poll which a reminder is open
to everybody you don't have to be backing me you don't have to be supporting me on Patreon
you just have to stop by my Patreon page each week to vote in each week's poll and the question
was simply do you think the Roadster re-reveal will happen in April now that we've gotten this
hopefully probably late April update for me long because you know again I cannot be relied upon as
as an unbiased opinion when it comes to Roadster things I do my best right to stay objective
to stay but I wanted to see what you guys thought here because I would vote yes in this poll even
though many of you would probably laugh at me for doing that like I can't believe you're falling
for it again Ryan and sure enough the majority of you that voted and it was just under 300 votes
in this one so again thank you to everybody that took the time to stop by and vote in the poll
57% of you voted no I think it'll get pushed back again to just 43% of you that voted yes
Elon probably can't resist doing it on 420 but I think it'll happen sometime in April
so there you go that was this week's Patreon poll be sure to check back this week for a new poll
question I don't know what it is yet because we'll see what the news topics are looking like
as I start to put together episode 556 this week all right next up here the Tesla charging team
noted a milestone this week posting on social on their x account that they have built their last
v3 supercharger cabinet on x they said quote gigafactory new york built their last v3 supercharger
cabinet marking the end to 15 000 plus v3 cabinets over seven years v4 cabinet line is ramping up
end quote so I'm really only mentioning this here to express my surprise that this hadn't
already happened like my honest question and I'm not trying to troll I'm not trying to be mean but
like I genuinely am curious here where have v3 cabinets been going in recent months because
every supercharger project that I've covered here on the podcast or every new station I've
seen here in my neck of the woods or quite frankly just from not even my neck of the woods I follow
the Tesla charging account on x and every time they open a new station they post they make a post to
honor it to note it and I feel like every single station that I've seen has been doing v4s so I had
I quite frankly thought that the v3s had already been retired but anyway the point now would be
here is to the v4s populating the globe so quickly that one day soon it will become
weird to even see a v3 or v2 supercharger the v4s as you all know are capable of the highest
output though for now you need a cyber truck to take full advantage of that although speaking
to the new roadster I would suspect that the new roadster will be able to also max out at 500
kilowatts on those v4 chargers and if in fact cyberbin is real as my more reliable source
had tipped me off about last week as I talked about on last week's podcast so if that cyberbin
rumor proves true then that vehicle will almost certainly also be able to take advantage of those
higher 500 kilowatt peak charging rates of the v4 cabinets because the cyberbin would presumably
be built on the same platform that the cyber truck is built on however more commonly than those two
cars uh even you know whether or not the vehicles can take advantage of the 500 kilowatt peak charging
rate uh what is going to matter to way way more people about the v4s is that the v4s if you've
not encountered one in the real world yet you you certainly will but the v4s are physically designed
and physically installed in the parking spot to be more convenient for non tesla evs to plug into
thereby making the v4s of in my opinion particular importance to the overall EV movement
speaking of charging though I hope that once the cyber cab launch happens again supposedly
next month if in fact there will be an event as historically tesla does launch events for vehicles
when they're when they're actually entering full production uh I hope that at that event
we hear about the wireless charging of the cyber cab I mean maybe we wouldn't if tesla is just going
to own all of the initial fleet and they're going to be charged on prototype versions of that wireless
charger uh in in you know inside secure tesla facilities but eventually as that car is sold
to the public which Elon in a not a direct bet with marquez brownlee but marquez said
if tesla delivers any cyber cabs to customers in 2026 I'll shave my head that's what he said
and then Elon uh responded to that on x saying that that they would deliver to to a customer like
a real regular person customer in 2026 so anyway we are eventually going to need to see those wireless
chargers deployed in the real world so we'll see if that's something we get to learn about in you
know the next month or so before I get into this week's main stories I wanted to mention
this week's lightning round mini episode over on my patreon for those of you who are kindly
supporting me at that most popular tier the patreon which is that $10 per month tier this
week's lightning round episode was about the well it was the march mailbag where I answered all of
your questions in that march edition of what I'm hoping will become the monthly mailbag this was
the third one now and I've been having a great time with it I really enjoy hearing from all of you
and and hearing your questions so the topics on this one included Elon's 10 million fsd subscriber
goal as part of his new pay package another topic was features from other evs that I would
love for tesla to steal the model yl came up how I was asked how many r2s that I think rivian will
sell this year and next and a whole bunch more it ended up being about half an hour maybe like
35 minutes it was a good meaty mini episode this week so if you'd like to hear that as well as the
other 184 yes this was the 185th lightning round if you join me on patreon support me over there at
patreon.com slash tesla podcast at that most popular $10 per month tier you will not only get
access to each week's new lightning round but you'll get access to the entire 185 mini episode
backlog the whole archive of them as well and you'll get the ad-free early access to each
episode as well which is the perk at the first tier which is the $5 per month tier so again
all the information about the rewards you get and all that stuff is found on my patreon page
at patreon.com slash tesla podcast I hope you'll check it out hopefully whether it's this week
next week next month my goal is to earn your patreon support next up this week is the headline
story about the model yl launching in australia and new zealand tesla has released a new deep dive
video on the model yl I saw this posted by our tesla tips your friend soya merit over on x and
I wanted to go ahead and play you the audio of this it's a four minute 17 second clip and the
reason I want to play it is because even without the visuals there's some good stuff in here I know
there's so much interest in this vehicle I've certainly been talking it up every chance I get
in terms of hopefully it's going to come here as I said at the top of last week's show my
reliable source a source that anyway has been reliable in the past told me that the model
yl is coming to the United States in September so we shall see if that proves out correct but for
now here is that new deep dive video on the just launched in australia and new zealand model yl
today we're looking at the all-new tesla model yl model yxls is a global safety leader the core
vision with this vehicle was to provide an ultimate family vehicle for tesla we work together with the
china team to conceptualize and develop this program in china to provide a vehicle that has
more interior space more of the utility utility for our customers we stretch the wheelbase by 150
millimeter and it actually gives us a chance to redesign and stretch the whole roofline to make it
looks more elegant and premium we have a larger cabin a longer wheelbase a longer we're overhang
a vehicle that is a little bit taller very practical for families giving a unique three-row
six-person experience interior space comfort and versatility was obviously the number one priority
for this vehicle in the first row seat we've added a thigh extender there's a button on the side of
the seat that allows you to extend the front of the seat forward to give you more support on the back
a new 16 inch front display and a wireless phone charger that now has active cooling that we've
integrated into the vehicle it allows the second row seats to be these captain's chairs which give
you a much more premium experience in the second row we have a deployable armrest it's a single
touch to raise it and a single touch to lower it and we have ventilation heat and cool in the seats
as well we've added an additional HVAC vent so you have air conditioning and heat to the third row
this vehicle has a premium audio experience we now have 19 speakers overall we wanted to design a
color space that would work towards the serene and calm and still very sophisticated and modern
for the exterior we introduced a whole new warm gray color palette
Tesla is that car that you feel very connected to you can have fun driving it it's precise it's
stable when you drive a bit faster it doesn't scare you be the best as love when it comes to the
comfort experience the rear tire on the vehicle has both a larger diameter and is wider which is
great for ride comfort for the people sitting in the back of the vehicle we also redesigned
the lower rear bodywork here which helps the overall aerodynamic efficiency of the vehicle
at the back of the vehicle we have this new spoiler it provides up to 100 kilograms of
downforce on the rear tires so we have this little extra brake here which helps separate
the air as it flows around the vehicle model l is the high level brake light
but hiding it within here it means we can take it out of the glass which gives more head room for
third row passengers as well as better rearward visibility for the driver model yl features
a larger tailgate than model y making it much more practical and usable for people loading stuff in
and out of the vehicle we've tried to make the trunk space super functional so to get the full
access of all the storage space in the car you can actually do our fold flat feature allows you to
fold flat from the trunk both the second and third row another aspect for design for family is
really safety across the world in all of the ratings agencies and we also apply our data driven
safety methodology to the model y and we've expanded on this vehicle here side crashes
further improved we have new curtain airbag with additional coverage of the rear window and belt
line to protect our second row occupants in case of offset impacts and side impacts and
roll overs and we've developed a new third row airbag to protect the third row occupant from
those similar accidents and as well
when we set out designing model yl we wanted to keep a lot of the spirits and great aspects of the
original model y so that has all of the true tesla dna in it whilst being an all-new product
what jumped out at me with this video is that i had not previously noticed that the third
brake light was relocated and integrated into the underside of the spoiler on the model yl
in order to free up more headroom in the third row that is pretty cool what a neat little change
that is over the other model wise uh one of the non-english parts that that if you that you'd
have captions for you'd have subtitles for uh in english if you were watching the video mentions
that the drag coefficient is actually lower on this car than on the new model three which is
pretty wild also in that video slash audio that i just played the cooling function on the wireless
phone charging pad that's pretty nice and i mentioned that specifically because i imagine
all of you that have that wireless charging pad built into your tesla which at this point is
probably most of you you'd have to have a let's see well 2018 for sure didn't have it uh because
our 2018 model three doesn't have it but if basically if you've got a tesla built this decade
you have a wireless phone charging pad built into your car and thus those of you that do have it
have probably experienced the phone getting too hot to charge if it sits on that charging pad for
too long so uh that is a nice feature as well that cooling built into that so this thing really
meaning the model yl really seems like just an even more awesome version of an already great vehicle
and i can't wait till it gets to the united states assuming that my source is correct and it's
going to be september now it obviously isn't quite in the same class as the r1s the rivian or
larger like full-size suv is it's still a mid-sized you know crossover suv just a bit longer but i
think it as i've said before it should fill some of that void that's going to be left behind by the
model x's retirement next this week a new tesla patent reveals an air suspension system
used to boost wireless charging efficiency saw this one on drive tesla canada who wrote
tesla has published a new patent that sheds light on how the company could significantly improve
wireless charging efficiency for future electric vehicles the filing outlines a system that uses
a vehicle's air suspension to automatically adjust its position during wireless charging
helping ensure optimal energy transfer between the ground pad and the vehicle the patent titled
dynamic adjustment for wireless charging coupling coefficients and first shared on x by
user seddy underscore park who i just mentioned in a in a patent thing for what the rooster seat
thing from what last week of the week before uh this patent was published this week march 12
2026 or i guess the the beginning of this week though tesla originally filed it in august of
2025 with priority dating back to september of 2024 the technology describes a closed loop system
that measures the magnetic alignment between a charging pad on the ground and a corresponding
receiver mounted on the vehicle wireless charging relies heavily on the alignment of two electromagnetic
coils when the coils are perfectly aligned power can transfer efficiently however even small
misalignments caused by uneven pavement or imperfect parking can reduce efficiency and
generate excess heat tesla's proposed solution allows the vehicle to correct those issues on its
own according to the patent the system first measures the magnetic relationship between the
charging pad and the vehicle coil using diagnostic signals from this data it calculates a value known
as the coupling coefficient a measurement that defines how efficiently power can be transferred
between the two coils if the value falls outside the optimal range the system automatically
pardon me automatically adjusts the vehicle's air suspension the car may lower raise or tilt
slightly in order to improve the alignment between the coils the process repeats until the
charging system detects that the coupling coefficient has reached the desired range
at which point wireless charging begins the patent also describes the possibility of small
vehicle movements to improve alignment if needed the system could instruct the car to move slightly
forward or backward to better position itself over the charging pad which i imagine you know
it's only going to be moving itself a matter of inches so it's not like the car is going to be
suddenly finding its way over to another parking spot you're going to wonder what what ghosts are
driving your car anyway to finish this story up they note tesla notes that this process could
rely on autonomous or semi-autonomous driving capabilities to make those adjustments well
i'll for my part this sounds very cool and also very much like something teslas absolutely going
to do something they are definitely going to use in their wireless charging systems and vehicles
or at least the ones that have an air suspension it's just it is a first principles problem
solving approach it's classic tesla if you ask me but this brings up my big question
does the cyber cab have an air suspension for this very reason and the reason that for me it's
very much in question is because the cyber cab is supposedly a 30 000 car so by that metric alone
you would absolutely not expect the cyber cab to have an air suspension but the cyber cab is
by a long shot the car that would most benefit from this patent given that it's supposedly built
entirely around wireless charging and in fact when i went to look into this
google's ai summary says that the cyber cab does have what an air suspension
citing the following it says quote early detailed views of the underbody showed a dedicated air
tank which park park win goon at hmg business research institute identified as part of this
specialized setup that was what the google ai summary said however i have to couch that a bit
by saying i could not find any actual links taking me directly to that information i'm not saying it
doesn't exist like the ai summary did link off to a couple things but none of them were from that
quote from the person at hmg business research institute so just kind of just want to add that
asterisk asterisk there because we know that ai is not perfect right when you search something it's
it's not always giving you a hundred percent correct or factual information so i don't want to
sit here and confidently pass that info along to all of you as if it's fact just yet because i don't
i don't suddenly want to start i don't want to be the person that starts a game of telephone
that says oh the cyber cabs got an air suspension when maybe it might actually not so i just just
want to be a little overly cautious there that said plenty of people on social media when i was
again trying to dig into this are already out there assuming that the cyber cab has an air
suspension specifically because of this patent but then again you know what assuming does so i guess
i guess we will find out soon enough given that again we should have a launch event coming up
for this thing in about another month or so and we're hopefully all going to be able to start
riding around in these vehicles ourselves in that same time at least probably in austin
to start with and before i get to the other ev news i've got one more tesla news story for you
and it's a good news story tesla has been named by the united states government in a four point
three billion dollar battery deal that will yield american made cells i saw this story on tesla
roddy who wrote the u.s department of the interior named tesla as the stakeholder in the lg energy
solutions blockbuster four point three billion dollar battery supply agreement tesla and lg
are expanding their partnership to build an lfp prismatic battery cell manufacturing facility
in lansing michigan launching production next year in 2027 the announcement made as part of the
indio pacific energy security summit results ends months of speculation quote american made
cells will power tesla's mega pack three energy storage systems produced in houston creating a
robust domestic battery supply chain notes a press release on the u.s department of the interior
website tesla has long utilized china's contemporary amperix technology that would be catl the world's
largest lfp battery maker as one of its primary suppliers that relationship made financial sense
for years considering that the chinese lfp cells were cheap abundant and reliable but with escalated
tariffs on chinese imports and an increasingly growing tesla energy business that's particularly
reliant on lfp cells for products including its mega pack battery storage units designed for
utilities and large-scale commercial projects deliveries are set to begin in 2027 and run through
mid 2030 and as grid storage demand accelerates reliable us made battery supply is no longer a
future ambition it is becoming a core requirement of the country's energy strategy thank you to
tesla roddy for that story well as you heard there it seems like this will not necessarily
directly affect us at the consumer level since these cells are not being targeted for cars or
for home power walls instead it's for the grid scale stuff like the mega pack and the newer
mega block presumably as well but hey it's still as the article notes a good thing for the clean
energy movement because it should help insulate both these cells and the products that they are
going into a little bit from any political policy that may come along no matter who's in power
and certainly true to tesla's statement from years back remember you've heard it a few times
over the years with tesla saying that they want as many cells as they can get from everyone well
guess what they'll now have this lfp plant with lg in michigan they'll have the gigafactory gigafactory
one in reno uh gigafactory nevada with panasonic and they'll have the 4680 plant down in austin and
not battery cells but they'll have the ai5 chip fabs in texas with samsung so it is in tesla's
best interest to be friends with everybody and have large-scale projects going with everyone
just in case at any point in time for any reason anything gets weird with any of them
like they have a financial issue with their company or a leadership change or or anything
along those lines this is tesla kind of casting a wide net here making sure they don't have all
their eggs in one basket and we've reached the midpoint or so of the podcast which means it's
time to mention my friends at accelerate auto they sell that awesome x care extended warranty option
not just for tesla's but for any evs and again timing matters if you're gonna purchase an extended
warranty when it comes to ev coverage it's not really it's not as much about if you buy that
extended warranty it's more about 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
x care is here to help ev owners understand where they are now what changes later if you wait till
down the road to to think about that extended warranty option when it makes sense to act etc
you can talk directly with their tesla and ev experts rather than a generic call center you
will get a human being if you call them up ask me how i know i've called them up and i've talked to
them and again i'm a two-time customer now i had a three-year policy on our 2018 model three
performance that went into effect i got it pretty pretty shortly after the factory warranty expired
and then i went ahead and did another three year after that three year was up and i really
appreciate having the peace of mind because you know it's the cars are great but it's the thing
where if like on a model s if a if one of the self-presenting door handles goes well guess what
your warranty just paid for itself if the anything happened to my screen my center screen in my model
three it would pay for itself let's just you know again there's a million different reasons why you
might find an extended warranty be a good idea and really of course it comes down to if you plan to
keep your car past the factory warranty you're probably going to at least think about doing
an extended warranty and if you do i strongly advise you to consider xcare and i'm saying that
as a satisfied two-time xcare customer here so get yourself a hundred dollars off your policy
purchase by using the referral code lightning at checkout if you're buying online otherwise if
you're talking to somebody on the phone to to get your policy just mention the referral code
lightning and they'll give you that a hundred dollars off so the website is xcare.com that's
x c a r e dot com and the toll the actually i don't know if it's toll free but the phone number
you can call doesn't it doesn't even matter anymore right because we all have cell phones
we don't pay extra for long distance calls so i think that i think i just showed my age there
like you don't even i'm old enough to remember when calls outside of your area cost extra money
per minute anyway their phone number where you can call and reach a human being to talk through
any questions you may have about xcare it's 1-844-755-4186 in other ev news as i mentioned at the
top of the show lucid has taken the wraps off of the next major expansion of its lineup confirming
three new midsize vehicles that will play a central role in the company's push
into a more affordable segment of the ev market saw this one on drive tesla canada so a tip of the
cap to them oh lily we can't start with the squeak toy we can't start with the squeak toy not during
the podcast i gotta hang out of this i got now i have i have it now where's the squeak where's the
i don't even know where oh there there it is found it okay mine now pups
anyway thank you drive tesla canada who notes during its investor day event in new york the
ev maker revealed that its upcoming midsize platform will support at least three vehicles
the first two are now officially named the lucid cosmos and lucid earth while a third model is
still unnamed but will lean more heavily into off-road capability and adventure focused design
for lucid this expansion is about more than just adding new name plates the company's built its
reputation on high-end electric vehicles with industry leading range high performance and
impressive efficiency but its lineup has so far remained limited and expensive with the new midsize
architecture lucid says it is targeting starting prices below $50,000 opening the door to a much
larger portion of the market lucid says the cosmos is aimed at buyers who want quote exceptional
efficiency space and performance and quote based on the teaser images shown it appears to be the
sleeker and more style driven of the group with a lower roof line and a more urban focused design
the earth meanwhile looks like a smaller interpretation of the gravity
combining lucid's familiar aerodynamic styling with a more conventional suv silhouette the third
model remains the biggest mystery but the company indicated it will target customers who want something
more rugged and meant to appeal to outdoor oriented buyers underneath all three models will be lucid's
new midsize platform and a next generation electric drive unit called atlas lucid says atlas is
smaller lighter and less complex than its existing drive units with matching front and rear housings
and mounts that are designed to simplify manufacturing and reduce costs lucid also said
efficiency remains the centerpiece of the entire program by building smaller lighter and more
integrated vehicles the company believes it can deliver strong range and performance using
smaller battery packs which is critical for keeping costs down in the midsize segment
so you know they may have been announced but if you're wondering we still don't know what they
look like lucid hasn't fully revealed the exteriors or for that matter the interiors of any of these
three presumably midsize suvs presumably they're all suvs i mean based on the name alone i could see
the cosmos maybe possibly being a sedan as sort of the the model three to the air's model s but
then again the market does seem very heavily biased in favor of wanting suvs so it may just be that
all three are suvs plus as you heard it's aimed at buyers who want exceptional efficiency space
and performance so space would maybe seem to rule out a uh a sedan but then again tell that to the
model s which has a ton of space thanks to its hatchback but anyway the earth as noted there
is almost certainly a midsize crossover suv and the third car same thing given that it's aimed
at off-roaders you know for lucid i just i wish them nothing but the best it best it's the same
thing with rivian i i want the all i want all of these ev only startups to succeed i mean again i
want the legacy automakers to succeed at building evs as well unfortunately i'm going to have some
bad news in that department after i get done talking about lucid but um but the thing with lucid is
i don't think it's necessarily hyperbolic to say that the long-term viability of that company
probably depends upon these three vehicles being successful at least this platform being
successful both in terms of sales obviously uh we want to see you want to see the success there
but also in terms of lucid being able to build them profitably right it's the same huge challenge
that rivian is staring down right now with the r2 as they are about to enter production i mean lucid
has the added challenge of an extremely aggressive timeline for a company that just barely got the
gravity out the door like four months ago so i'm not sure if their saudi financial backers
have the patience for for the production gauntlet that lucid's facing here but i hope they do i hope
they do i mean it would be awesome to have a healthy and competitive rivian in the more affordable
ev market with the r2 and a healthy and competitive lucid in the more affordable ev market with the
cosmos the earth and a third car so uh we shall see what happens there over the coming well i guess
to start with the rest of the year the next step isn't production the next step is actually just
revealing the three vehicles and showing us what they look like now speaking of lucid the company
has announced that it's uh signed its first retail partnership in europe marking a shift in how the
luxury electric vehicle manufacturer plans to expand its presence across the continent
one more tip of the cap to drive tesla canada here they write lucid confirmed it signed an agreement
with german automotive retail group wachenhut which will begin selling and servicing lucid's in
germany later this month the move represents the start of a new hybrid distribution strategy
that combines lucid's existing direct-to-consumer approach with partnerships through established
dealer networks under the agreement wachenhut will launch lucid sales and service operations
at its bottom bottom facility beginning on march 30th a second location in stuttgart is expected
to follow later this summer additional wachenhut sites across the region will also help support
after sales service and maintenance expanding support for lucid owners in germany lucid previously
relied exclusively on direct sales in europe operating company-owned lucid studios in cities
such as munich francfort dusseldorf and homberg these locations allow customers to explore the
brand and purchase vehicles online while lucid service centers and mobile service teams handle
maintenance and repairs the new hybrid model keeps legacy excuse me keeps key aspects of lucid
sales strategy under company control while leveraging local partners to grow more quickly lucid will
continue managing brand positioning and vehicle pricing while retail partners like wachenhut will
oversee regional sales and service operations quote we are entering the next phase of lucid's
journey in europe and we are pleased to launch this new distribution strategy with wachenhut
a partner that shares our ambition to actively drive lucid's growth in one of our most important
markets germany said laurence hamilton the president in europe at lucid he continues quote
with two award-winning vehicles available now is the right moment blah blah blah you know this is
not a great quote anyway wachenhut is a family-owned dealer group headquartered in in nagold germany
with roots dating back to 1948 the company operates 11 locations across baden-vertemberg and represents
several premium this this story by the way is really testing by high school german it's it's
making me try to remember how to pronounce everything correctly and hopefully i'm doing a so-so job
out there that's uh i'm just i'm doing my best i promise you anyway uh the company operates 11
locations and represents several premium automotive brands its facilities are already equipped to
handle evs and staffed with certified high voltage technicians making it well positioned
to support lucid's growing lineup well i'll tell you this sounds like a smart strategy at least on
the surface which is obviously all i can see sitting here because it allows lucid to expand
its footprint in europe or at least in germany a lot more quickly than building out and staffing
up its own owned and operated facilities in that country so i wonder if that's a model that they
might aim to replicate here in the us with existing dealership networks if it proves to be successful
in germany i mean i don't think it's out of the question to for that to work here particularly
when we have we still have a number of states that have these archaic uh in my opinion unfair to
customers dealer protection franchise protection laws in some states that prevent lucid prevent
tesla prevent rivian from selling direct to consumers in some states so maybe this model
can be applied to in in certain situations here in the us now when my dream car from my youth
that i was lucky enough to own for a while when delorean motor company was gearing up to sell cars
ahead of the dmc 12's launch back in 1981 you didn't find very many purely delorean dealers
instead they were sold at dealerships that also sold other cars be they catalanx or what have you
now granted back then nobody even thought about going direct to consumer because really back in
early 80s there wouldn't have been any infrastructure for it like say the internet to make a direct to
to consumer sales model work but my point is that i do hope this works out for lucid and i hope it
enables them to scale more quickly and offer support to their existing customers more quickly
than it than they would if they were keeping everything completely in house
all right uh two more stories i hate to end on bad news but these are the these are both
worth noting this week i have two ev cancellation stories to tell you about the first one's from
honda which involves gm because it's a gm honda partnership the prologue ev is going away later
this year saw this on gm authority dot com who writes the brief tenure of the honda prologue
as the brand's sole ev in the us will conclude later this year with general motors slated to end
production of the crossover at its ramos ariz pa plant in december according to automotive news
honda will not commission a second generation of the battery electric model effectively pulling
the plug and no pun intended i guess on the nameplate just two years after its market debut
the news is unsurprising following the announcement last fall that the acura zdx would be discontinued
after just one model year gm builds the prologue for honda under a shared platform agreement
utilizing the bev three platform to power the midsize utility vehicle however as honda pivots
its north american strategy away from evs and back toward traditional and hybrid powertrains
the prologue finds itself on borrowed time side note this isn't going to end well for honda
honda's made great cars for decades this is not a good move on their part i know i'm biased as an
ev owner and an ev fan on an ev podcast here but this is this is a this might be their their
blackberry moment where they're like and now you know what evs forget it the the market doesn't
want those right now so i mean hey i i don't want to doom and gloom too bad they could they
could certainly restart an ev program if they have a little bit more of a long-term vision and or
the short-term market picks up for evs but this seems like not a great idea right now but i guess
time will tell on that anyway getting back to gm authority's story let me find where i left off
here ah the automaker confirmed on uh march 12th that it's canceling plans for three upcoming us
built evs including the zero series suv and the aforementioned acura rsx while writing down
billions in associated costs the move leaves the honda prologue as an orphaned product with no
direct replacement in the pipeline the decision blindsided some members of the supply chain
an executive at a tier one supplier to honda's ev program speaking on the condition of anonymity
told automotive news that his company had already installed equipment and started building parts
for the now defunct rsx quote equipments on the ground it's running it's making product the
executive said we're trying to figure out how much we've got sunk in this end quote honda
acknowledged the impact in a memo to suppliers stating it would backfill the lost volume by
immediately accelerating production of gasoline and hybrid models sales data supports the pivot
after moving nearly 39 000 units in 2025 honda prologue volume collapsed 74
percent through the first part of 2026 following the elimination of the federal tax credit honda
now anticipates selling just 17 900 examples this year before production lines down for good
well yes it is true that it's tough out there right now for evs and by out there i mean
in the united states europe and china are not really having any such problems
and for my part in my little my little corner of the world here i do see a decent number of
prologue evs around here but obviously california is overrepresented in the overall figures for
these things so i'll tell i'll say this if your b y d you're licking your chops right because any
ev momentum that is lost or in in this case abandoned at other companies well that benefits
them right now that they sell their cars almost everywhere in the world other than the us and
i suppose you could look at the cancellation of the prologue ev as good news for tesla and rivian as
well with specific regard to the model y and the r2 respectfully but as i've said before i don't
really look at it that way honda offering a good ev suv which by all accounts the prologue is
that would only help convince more people out there to make the switch from a gas car to an
electric car there are plenty of honda loyalists out there who would have felt comfortable making
the leap to a honda ev but might not feel comfortable jumping brands for something totally new
which as we all know any ev really is it's a paradigm shift you are definitely learning
a new language when you're switching from a gas car to a pure battery electric vehicle so
rest in peace soon i guess to the prologue ev it will sadly join the model s and model x in this
year's 2026 ev graveyard and uh unfortunately this next car that i'm going to tell you about the last
story i have for you this week will also join it in the ev well at least the us ev graveyard
the drive dot com reports that the volvo ex 30 is dead in the united states the most affordable
electric volvo in the us is about to die the drive can confirm us volvo dealers were informed
this week that the ex 30 will be pulled from the market after the 2026 model year in both standard
and cross country form all orders in the system will be produced with production winding down for
the us pardon me after the summer of all those spokesperson confirmed that dealers were informed
of the decision which cited quote a thorough evaluation of our business and operational
strategies and is a direct response to shifting market conditions and financial factors end quote
dealers have until well today as i'm recording this march 20th to place ex 30 and ex 30 cross
country orders volvo said the new ex 60 and ex 90 electric suvs will continue in the us
with the ex 60 set to launch later this year and the 90 having just received enhancements for 2026
the volvo ex 30 will continue to be available in other markets globally including canada and
mexico when asked if the ex 30 will return to the us market a volvo spokesperson told the drive
quote we are always evaluating every aspect of our business including our product offering
and will continue to monitor market conditions in line with our standard practice and quote
which is one of the most pr statements i've ever heard and i do this for a living
i'm very good at translating pr speak that was uh that person just said nothing which is fine i mean
it's not like you know it's not like they're gonna say no it's never coming back because maybe they
maybe in two years if there's a government change that they decide yep okay we're we're coming back
to the us with the ex 30 or you know or there's not a change and they and they decide no it's never
so you know they don't want to give it a definitive answer i totally get that but i guess i don't have
much to add here on top of what i just said about the uh the honda prologue except i will add this
just anecdotally a neighbor friend of mine really wanted this car the ex 30 not so much for its price
although that certainly factored in but for its size for the fact that it was a smaller ev
uh it's smaller than the model y i'm meaning shorter which they parked their car on the
street they don't have a garage so the the length of the car was a very important consideration for
them and they had been waiting for it they had they even at one point went to the volvo dealer
and then they they effectively couldn't get the car because the local local can't speak for everybody
but the local dealerships here in san francisco were marking it up this was this i guess this was
at sort of the peak of uh this was before the tax credit went away so there was still a much um
more substantial hunger for any and all evs but again any ev going away in any market is bad
certainly it's just it's the us ev market is looking not great right now including tesla
with s and x going away because s and x basically were only available in in north america but
yeah it's it's it's a little grim here right now uh it just is it's it's not awesome at the moment
and i hope i hope this is just a temporary dip and that and that we're gonna come out of this
ev wise in the us but again like volvo just like honda has a great reputation volvo has that very
good reputation of being a safe car so again there are folks out there like my neighbor
who would have felt comfortable enough with a volvo ev to make that leap from gas to electric
but night might not quite be willing to do so for a tesla or a rivian or a ford or a volkswagen so
sadly another one bites the dust here in the us market all right that is everything i've got for
you in another busy week of tesla and ev news stick with me though your ride the lightning
hotline phone calls are coming up next this is bill daniels the voice of night industries 2000
or kit you're listening to ride the lightning the tesla unofficial podcast happy electric
motoring welcome to the ride the lightning hotline segment of the podcast this is where you can
potentially be featured on an upcoming episode by calling in with your tesla or ev questions
comments or discussion topics so how do you do it well there are two easy ways to call in either
use your smartphones built-in voice recording software just record your question i kindly ask
that you keep it to 90 seconds or less so i can get to as many calls each week as possible then
email that file to me at my podcast email address which is tesla podcast at gmail.com
or you can take that same 90 second or less question and call in and leave a message anytime
on the ride the lightning hotline that toll free number is 1-888-989-8752 that number again
1-888-989-T-S-L-A and 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 life on record.com to learn more
first up this week speaking of the Model YL our headline story
here is a listener who has actually lived with one for five days here's Ryan from Melbourne Australia
hey Ryan absolutely love listening to your show every week i have just had the pleasure of trying
out the new Model YL for five days here in Australia putting it through its paces with
our family and just trying to work out who it would appeal to and it took me a few days but
i did come to realise that this car is just incredibly well thought out tesla have done
an amazing job including on the price here it's very compelling so yeah it really impressed me
and i just wanted to call in and share that with your audience because i know everyone in the US
is eagerly awaiting whether they will you know bring the YL to your market which surely given
how good this car is and how well i think it's already selling here in Australia and New Zealand
that it's on its way so yeah fingers crossed for you guys in the meantime i'm probably gonna need
to be ordering one for our family hope all's well talk to you soon bye fellow Ryan i appreciate
you calling in thank you so much how cool that you got to review it for your youtube channel
which by the way if anybody out there wants to watch it i did watch the whole thing it's an
excellent review it's a very family focused review which i think is quite perfect since this variant
of the Model Y is no doubt particularly aimed at families you can find it by searching Ryan's Model
Y that's the name of his channel and then from there you will quite easily find his Model YL
video so thank you Ryan for that so glad you got such good extended amount of time five days
with the car you really got to live with it that is awesome next up is Santi from Spain with a feature
idea hello Ryan this is Santi from Spain um i think one of the features that could be improved
uh in the in the car could be the the charging scheduling so for example i normally charge my
car at night and i put full amps for the night but on weekends i can also charge at lower rates
so but i don't want to charge at full amps during the weekends so as not to interfere with the rest
of the electronics of my house so i would love to be able to shadow to schedule uh during the night
at full amps like i'll do right now but during the weekend uh with lower amps so i don't get out
of electricity uh in the weekends uh thank you for the podcast sorry for my english and thank you
you bye bye Santi your english is fantastic and i'll tell you this it's a heck of a lot better
than my spanish i promise you that i appreciate your suggestion here our teslas already give us
so much control over how and when we charge that this would be another nice optional detail to be
able to customize so thank you for the excellent suggestion i am happy to put this out into the
world here on ride the lightning and hopefully help get it heard by the right folks at tesla
thank you very much for your call i do appreciate it i've got time for one more call this week
it comes from nelson in texas with another feature request hey ryan how are you this is
nelson from kelene texas just a random thought i had uh my wife is driving my car right now
and i asked her when she parked oh did you use fsc the whole way uh we have a 2025 model 3
oh with the lias fsc hardware on it or software today and one thing i kind of wish that i could
see was when i checked the app is that if the car is on the fsc if it had like a little blow
icon or whatever how it has when you're driving and has a little under the low i think that'd be
a little cool submission that tesla could include uh but thanks love the podcast this is a great
suggestion nelson i am happy to co-sign this one here on the podcast i think it'd be even more
useful as autonomy continues to improve and becomes more commonly and frequently used as well
thank you for calling in with this one appreciate you sending it and again hopefully we get the
right folks at tesla to hear it if any of you out there would like to call in again with a
discussion topic question comment etc there are two easy ways to do it and i gave you those two
easy ways at the top of this segment so refer back to that as for what's going on with me and
my cars this week well both are quite dusty uh and as the good weather continues to to bless
my neck of the woods i am intending to wash them both this weekend and hopefully get out and do
some driving uh just enjoying the good weather even though the heat wave's over it's still
forecasted to be in the low 70s this weekend so i most certainly cannot complain and it'd be good
to get out and do some driving once the cars are all nice and sparkling clean all right time for
a pro tip of the week it comes from daniel in bellingham washington hey ryan i have a response
and possible pro tip for the chivalrous gentleman from episode 547 i think that's the right episode
he was complaining about the walk away lock feature triggering between exiting the front
driver's side door and opening the outside of the passenger side door for his significant other
and through a little bit of trial and error i found that if you walk around the front side
of the vehicle then it will trigger a walk away lock before you can make it from one side to the
other but if you walk around the back side of the vehicle it gives you a little bit more time so i
can almost always make it from one side to the other to grab my bag i'm not as simple as that
gentleman it works for my model i juniper uh reminds me very if you have another kind of tesla but
i figure it's worth a shot all right thank you have a great day daniel i really really appreciate
you testing this out and then calling in with it seriously thank you thank you for running the
experiment getting us some reliable data on this i am happy to pass this along to everybody out there
myself included because again i as i said on the initial response to the first caller i have run
into this as well on my 2024 model 3 so thank you daniel if anybody else out there has a good tesla
or ev pro tip of the week that you'd like to share with me and your fellow tesla and ev owners
and enthusiasts i'd love it if you would call in and share it the way to call in again mentioned
the two easy calling methods at the top of the previous ride the lighting hotline segment so
you can refer back to that or just check the episode description for those instructions as well
before i go i want to mention a few friends of ride the lightning that can hopefully be useful
to you at some point starting with abstract ocean dot com they've got i think it probably actually is
thousands not hundreds there are so many aftermarket accessories lighting kits tempered glass
gorilla glass screen protectors just all kinds of stuff for the interiors of your car the exterior
of your car just a ton of great accessories you got to go check it out see if anything catches your
all you got to do is go to abstract ocean dot com click on whichever ev you have at the top of the
page then that then it will show you all of the products available take take anything you like
put it in your online shopping cart and then use the coupon code rtl podcast at checkout to get 15
percent off of your first order that coupon code again is rtl podcast all one word with no spaces
meanwhile rpm tesla they've got a ton of tesla accessories as well different stuff than what
they've got over at abstract ocean in the sense that rpm tesla is more about uh
enhanced visual enhancement stuff of wheel upgrades dashboard spoilers full carbon fiber
body kits and a whole bunch more you got to take a look at their website as well rpm tesla dot com
and with them you're buying with confidence because they do not charge restocking fees or
require customers to pay for return shipping for dissatisfaction why well their product return
rates less than three percent which certainly speaks well of their products and thus allows
them to offer free returns zero restocking fees and lifetime warranties rpm tesla believes selling
high quality products and standing behind them fosters brand loyalty they've also got tons
literally hundreds of installation videos so installing their products is simple and detailed
for everybody visit rpm tesla dot com and use the promo code rpm rtl for an additional
five to ten percent off your next order yes this will be combined with their current
discounted sales prices this exclusive promotions only available on ride the lightning thank you
to rpm tesla for extending that generosity to the ride the lightning audience how about the
infinity shield this is the garage door sensor product that will help ensure that you never have
a mishap in your garage the traditional garage door sensor as you all know is one little laser
that sits a couple inches off the ground so if say your car is between if the the wheels are between
the uh you know halfway in and halfway out of your garage your garage door sensors not going to
have any idea that there's something blocking same thing if your car is say all the way in the garage
but your your rear liftgate is up your traditional garage door sensor can't see that either so get
yourself an infinity shield uh at infinity dash shield dot com use the promo code rtl at check
out for a thirty five dollar discount this so what is the infinity shield it is a full laser grid
instead of just one laser a couple inches off the ground it's 25 beams they go across they go
diagonally it is awesome check them out at infinity dash shield dot com and again use that promo code
rtl at check out for a thirty five dollar discount make sure that you never have hopefully you've
never had one but make sure that you will definitely never have one ever because you've got yourself
that full coverage infinity shield the snap plate and the newer stronger snap plate plus is available
for all the teslas press plus a bunch of other evs as well go to every amp dot com slash rtl
and use the coupon code rtl for a nice discount this is a front license plate bracket that snaps
on and off in seconds but it's a nice clean minimalist design blends really well with the
front end of your car you can take it off if you're going to a car show you know cars and coffee
something like that put it on if you're going to be at a parking meter somewhere you don't want the
the parking enforcement people to come around and ticket you you can take it off if you're
detailing the car at home whatever it is you can have faith that the the snap plate is going to look
good and be removable if you ever want to take it off unlike the front license plate bracket that
comes with your tesla so to get yours again go to every amp dot com slash rtl and make sure to
use the coupon code rtl when you've got everything you like in your shopping cart there as well
immaculate reflections if you're in or going to be in the greater san francisco bay area with a car
that you love whether it's your tesla other ev or some other fun vehicle in your garage
make an appointment at immaculate reflections and i promise you you will leave happy when your car
is done maybe you want to do ceramic coating so they don't have to worry about waxing for the
next three to five plus years in my case it was seven years on the first ceramic coating
second coats on there now and of course my newer model three performance that ceramic coating is
only a year and a couple months old so should have plenty of life left in that as well maybe you
want to do paint correction to have your paint finish perfected as much as possible take all
those little swirls and imperfections little minor scratches and whatnot take them right out a
professional knows that knows what they're doing like immaculate reflections will have your paint
finish looking better than new maybe you'd like paint protection film on some of the car you know
the front end maybe maybe all the the entire car whatever the case is reach out to immaculate
reflections through the website which is irdetailing.com you'll see a contact button in either the
middle of the home page or the upper left corner of the home page when you click that and get in
touch with Jeff the owner there just mention you know you can talk about what you're let
him know what your budget is what services you're looking to do Jeff will work with you figure out
what's going to work best for you and your budget and that's when you want to mention that you're
a ride the lightning listener and he'll kindly extend you that ride the lightning listener
discount so again check him out on his website irdetailing.com you can also find him on Instagram
his handle is immaculate underscore reflections or he's got a he's on a yelp page to yelp.com
slash immaculate reflections meanwhile my patreon page is found at patreon.com slash tesla podcast
if you feel that this is the time the time has come where i have earned your support because
i know i've got to earn it that's why i'm here a week in week out every week on time 555 weeks
and counting really proud of that really grateful to be able to do that as well and again you know
i i love doing this it is super fun for me i wouldn't still be doing it 10 years on if it wasn't fun
for me but a lot does go into this podcast a lot of time lots of research lots of recording editing
lots of love and care and attention so if you can spare five bucks a month to back me on patreon
you'd be making a huge difference in my life and my family's life and in return as a thank you
you will get an ad free episode every week and you'll get early access to that ad free episode
as well if you step up to the ten dollar per month tier which is the most popular one you'll get the
early access ad free and you'll get all 185 and counting of those lightning round mini episodes
so check it out patreon.com slash tesla podcast we've also got an open discussion
there as well kind of like basically like a sort of a discord channel
where we've got a nice active discussion going about all things tesla all things ev related
so come on in and join the patreon uh finally you can find this podcast you can follow it
specifically on all the big podcast services apple podcasts spotify tune in youtube podcasts
all you got to do is search ride the lightning tesla on any of those this podcast should pop
right up click the follow button and that's it you're done now you'll get a push notification on
your device whenever there's a new episode which for this podcast is every sunday at 9am eastern
6am pacific you can follow me on x as well as instagram i have the same username on both
and that username is dmc underscore ryan you can also email me anytime about tesla or ev
hello and thank you to the top tier patreon backers these folks are extra generous supporting the
podcast at these two maximum plaid and roadster in space tiers they get lots of little perks and
bonuses for that which includes getting a shout out at the end of each week's show they also have
a standing invite to each month's patreon zoom hangout we always have a great time at those
i guess we won't be talking about the roadster reveal at the april hangout since we tend to do
them early in the month but hopefully the may hangout will finally be the one and i anticipate
whatever that does happen that's gonna be a fun hangout because everybody in there knows
how long i've been waiting how long we've all been waiting to see what the heck's going on with
that car anyway uh let me go ahead now and say thank you and hello to those top tier backers
i'll start with the roadster in space tier thank you too pete white lile austin steve radspinner
fernando cordero laughton from chicago shawn nightig neal weaver jackson wallace ralf and
evers howard anthony smith victoria aya coveto tesla hitchhiker 42 carol weston
robert from near philly american home contractors dug carry michael gallo and tony figaroa
next up the maximum plaid big thanks to jonathan wales cameron clark daniel grummer
seth capello the galpin family ryan from new york city darin nickle cos Barnes patrick
wasneski todd badger joe edgel kevin yank the tesla owners club of sandwalking valley will
stedman jeremy harris chris beach tom mills choreo donnell aron john codie joel sap paul
caserino chris osborne kb adam lavoy jason chelukas travis krenzel bruce otterstein
tom bhan josh pennington john from cream ridge new jersey dustin hart derek finley charles clament
daemon cline jeff brown jerry slinger kenneth corbett brian bertoglio kim bae
troy sievers chip hooper mat chenander robert moran rav christopher man michael williams
eric harbert and scott shepherd and finally the grandfathered in plaid tear this plaid that
tear is no more but these kind folks very generously continue to support me at that
tear and so they get all the perks and bonuses that come with it including this shout out each week
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 erin 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 and that will wrap it up for episode 555 the palindromatic episode here for this uh
well the next couple months of ride the lightning i hope you've enjoyed this one i've had a lot of
fun recording this one after working all week to prepare it thank you all so much for your time
your attention those are limited quantity things nobody ever gets more of them we all only have
the same 24 hours each day so thank you for taking some of your valuable time to spend it with me
talking about all things tesla and ev 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
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 it's not exactly a car it's actually
a thing to maximize enjoyment it's maximum fun
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