A slow news week in the EV world leads to an in-depth discussion on Tesla's potential investment in xAI, exploring the implications of Elon Musk's control over both companies. The hosts debate the risks and rewards of this investment amid ongoing lawsuits regarding fiduciary duties. Additionally, Norway celebrates reaching its goal of 100% electric vehicle sales, while GM reassesses its EV plans due to changing market conditions. The episode also covers Aptera's rocky public debut and Kia's production ramp-up in Europe, providing a comprehensive overview of current trends in the electric vehicle landscape.
In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Tesla investing in xAI, Norway going 100% EV, Aptera going public, and more.
As a reminder, we’ll have an accompanying post, like this one, on the site with an embedded link to the live stream. Head to the YouTube channel to get your questions and comments in.
After the show ends at around 5 p.m. ET, the video will be archived on YouTube and the audio on all your favorite podcast apps:
We now have a Patreon if you want to help us avoid more ads and invest more in our content. We have some awesome gifts for our Patreons and more coming.
Here are a few of the articles that we will discuss during the podcast:
"...buyers for its on sold Cybertruck. And that's SpaceX and XCI..."
SpaceX is a company that builds rockets and spacecraft. It was started by Elon Musk to help send things into space and make space travel more affordable.
SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is a private aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company founded by Elon Musk. It is known for developing the Falcon rockets and the Starship spacecraft.
"...buyers for its on sold Cybertruck. And that's SpaceX and XCI..."
XCI is another company that works on technology and transportation projects. It's connected to Elon Musk and is involved in some interesting new developments.
XCI is a private company associated with Elon Musk, involved in various technology and transportation projects. Its specific focus and operations may vary, but it is linked to innovative ventures.
"...But it's I guess it depends on how the incentives go. I mean, I'm sure there's some, you know, like Porsche fanatics that really won a 911..."
Incentives are special deals or discounts that make it cheaper to buy electric cars. They can help people save money when they decide to go electric.
Incentives refer to financial benefits or discounts offered by governments or manufacturers to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles (EVs). These can include tax credits, rebates, or lower registration fees.
"...But it's I guess it depends on how the incentives go. I mean, I'm sure there's some, you know, like Porsche fanatics that really won a 911 or you know, some guy who goes out on the tundra and needs..."
The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car that many people love for its speed and unique shape. It's known for being fun to drive and has been around for a long time.
The Porsche 911 is a high-performance sports car known for its distinctive design and rear-engine layout. It's a favorite among enthusiasts for its driving dynamics and iconic status in the automotive world.
"...n a 911 or you know, some guy who goes out on the tundra and needs, you know, 700 miles of range. I don't ..."
The Toyota Tundra is a big truck that can carry heavy loads and drive on rough roads. People like it because it's tough and can be used for work or outdoor adventures.
The Toyota Tundra is a full-size pickup truck known for its durability and off-road capabilities. It is significant for its strong performance and reliability, making it a popular choice among truck enthusiasts and those needing a vehicle for heavy-duty tasks.
The Chevrolet Blazer is a midsize SUV that looks sporty and has a lot of room inside. It's a good option for those who want something stylish and functional.
The Chevrolet Blazer is a midsize SUV that combines sporty styling with practicality. It offers a range of powerful engines and advanced technology features.
The Chevrolet Equinox is a small SUV that offers a lot of space and good gas mileage. It's a good choice for people who need a practical vehicle.
The Chevrolet Equinox is a compact SUV known for its spacious interior and fuel efficiency. It's popular among families and individuals looking for a versatile vehicle.
"...miles of range...depends on your needs I think..."
'Miles of range' means how far a car can drive before it needs to be charged again. For electric cars, this is really important because it tells you how long you can go without stopping to recharge.
'Miles of range' refers to the distance a vehicle can travel on a single charge or tank of fuel. For electric vehicles, this is a crucial factor as it determines how far you can go before needing to recharge.
The Chevrolet Bolt is a small electric car that is popular because it's affordable and can drive a long distance on a single charge. It's a good choice for people who want to save money on gas and help the environment.
The Chevrolet Bolt is an all-electric subcompact car known for its affordability and range. It has gained popularity as a practical choice for electric vehicle (EV) buyers looking for a budget-friendly option with decent performance.
"...if I needed more range or quicker charging..."
Charging is how you put energy back into an electric car's battery. You can do this at home or at special stations, and some chargers work faster than others.
Charging refers to the process of replenishing the energy stored in an electric vehicle's battery. This can be done at home or at public charging stations, and the speed of charging can vary based on the type of charger used.
"...that's the bragged about a million mile battery life"
'Million mile battery life' means that the battery in an electric car is designed to last for a very long time, up to one million miles. This is important because it shows how reliable and long-lasting the battery can be.
The term 'million mile battery life' refers to the lifespan of an electric vehicle's battery, indicating it can last for one million miles before significant degradation occurs. This is a significant selling point for manufacturers, as it suggests durability and long-term value for consumers.
"...into eliminating the stranglehold their dealers have on them..."
Dealer markup is when car dealerships charge more than the price set by the manufacturer. This can make buying a car more expensive than expected.
Dealer markup refers to the practice where dealerships increase the price of a vehicle above the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) to maximize profit. This can lead to frustration for buyers who feel they are paying more than necessary.
"...maybe I'd buy a bolt and said they're torpedoing their feature by scaling back on electrification..."
Electrification means using electricity to power cars instead of just gasoline. It includes electric cars and hybrids that use both electricity and gas.
Electrification refers to the process of incorporating electric power into vehicles, which can include electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid models. This shift is crucial for reducing emissions and improving fuel efficiency.
The Tesla Cybertruck is a new kind of truck that runs on electricity instead of gas. It looks very different from regular trucks and is designed to be strong and efficient for both work and everyday use.
The Tesla Cybertruck is an all-electric pickup truck that stands out with its futuristic design and robust performance. It has garnered attention for its unique appearance and advanced technology, including impressive towing capacity and electric range.
Select text to request an explanation
And we are live for an episode of Electric Podcast.
I am Fred Lambert, your host, and as usual, I'm joined by Seth Wynch, how are you doing today,
Seth?
I'm good.
All right.
So kind of a slow news week in the EV world this week, it was not that much to talk about.
So what is going to happen is going to give us more time to talk to you guys.
So I'm going to repeat it when we've been live a little bit longer, there's more
people coming in.
But if you have questions for us or any topics you want to take on in the EV world or renewable
energy world, you can put it in the comment section.
I want to get to it at the second half of the show.
But still a few things I want to talk about.
So when there's a slow news week, I do like to do some more in-depth reporting on things
I think are going to be impactful.
And this one was an interesting one here.
As everyone is focused on Elon's pay package on the vote for Tesla shareholders in two to
three weeks now, first week of November, everyone is focused on that big number, a trillion dollar
package.
But there's something else that's happening and I think could be as impactful, even potentially
even more impactful depending on how it plays out.
And that's the vote on Tesla investing into XAI.
And so I did a little report on it where I share like the pros and cons, the good, the bad,
the ugly about this proposed deal.
And I want to get into it a little bit here.
So it's kind of a follow up on this other report that I posted earlier this year about
basically the timeline on Elon's obsession with controlling AI, controlling the future
of AI, controlling the possible like AI God that's going to come out of this whole, this
whole thing, if you believe it.
And it's a clear like the timeline, like just to make it short, basically, Elon starts
open AI, try to gain complete control of open AI through trying to have it merge with
Tesla and it doesn't happen.
Adam Altman gets his way instead and partners with Microsoft.
So Elon exits himself from open AI and cites a conflict of interest with Tesla because
Tesla is now launching a bigger effort to get into the artificial intelligence world.
So now it is focused on AI is at Tesla.
But then what happens is that he screws up in 2022 and buys Twitter for a ridiculous
amount of money, which he himself admitted was a mistake, was too much money.
And he had to sell a lot of his Tesla stocks to make that happen, leading in him having
somewhat less control over Tesla, like on paper, he has less control, he has like his
minerry stake has gotten much smaller.
But we all know if you've been following Tesla that in practice, he has complete
control over the company.
But still it gives him an excuse to worry about a, if something happens with AI, if Tesla
is the one to deliver AGI, I might have full control over it.
So what he does is he starts a private company called XAI to develop AGI and now puts all
his efforts in artificial intelligence towards that, which creates a bunch of problems
for Tesla, obviously, because it's technically a breach of fiduciary duty.
There was resource funneling between XAI and Tesla from a public company towards a
private company, a public company that he has control over as chief executive.
A lot of problems comes with it.
Tesla is getting sued while, I mean, him specifically Elon and the boards are getting
sued over it for breach of fiduciary duty.
And it's a, it's a whole mess.
Meanwhile, this is happening.
While now there is a shareholder proposal to get Tesla to invent an undisclosed amount,
an amount in form deemed appropriate by the board.
And it's on the ballot right now for the Tisha Shorter meeting on November 6.
And in short, the shareholders that are proposing this are giving a blank slate to
an obviously captured board by Elon to invest for Tesla to use its treasury.
It's a decent size, like $36, $37 billion treasury to invest in his own private company,
which is, you know, unprecedented situation.
Normally, you would think is no way it's going to pass.
But because of what the Tisha Shorter base is these days, it actually might.
And so what that might look like is the question.
I should mention, by the way, the board is plainly not is the only shareholders proposal
that the board is not making a recommendation.
All the other shoulder proposal they're recommending to vote against.
But this one, they're not making any recommendation, which I would, it's seen
by most people as a vote for, obviously, because everybody else is against.
But I think they're just staying away from it because of the old legal situation
right now around it and the fact that they're being sued.
I mean, they are literally doing shareholders to vote against a proposal
that would have an audit to avoid this little contributing to child labor.
But this one, they were like, oh, this one, you guys do what you will with it.
So what good came out of this?
Well, obviously it's an investment.
So an investment you want to return on investment.
And there is a potential return on investment, I guess, from this.
However, is this how big it is?
It's like Tesla is kind of getting a little bit late into XCI
because as the latest report states, it's currently valued at $200 billion.
So a major, major company.
So Tesla is getting a little bit late to the game.
But let's say that XCI develops, you know, the best AI out there for now,
or even the AGI at some point, there is real potential for return on investment here.
So that's probably the only good though.
Some people have mentioned the transfer of technology between XCI and Tesla.
But the problem with that is like, Tesla has already integrated
GROC into its vehicles and Tesla has not invested in XCI.
So you don't really need an investment to have a partnership on technology.
And virtually all of the automakers have integrated LMS into their vehicles.
So it's not like this is just catching up at this point and using GROC
because you want to see you above, suppose that.
Now the bad sticking on the return on investment stuff, again,
coming in a little bit late at $200 billion and arguably overvalued with
open AI is reportedly valued at $500 billion.
So, you know, twice as much as XCI, but it has reportedly between 700 and
$800 million weekly user compared to XCI is $30 million.
So it's like not even in the same ballpark here while the valuation
are, you know, relatively close.
So that's a problem.
And again, on the other side of the good that I said,
it was like the only real shot at getting a return on investment for Tesla
here would be to break XCI to actually deliver the AGI because for everything
else for all the other revenues and everything AI, like the LNMs, the AI
agents, the all of all of that is XCI is way behind the competition on that
front, not just in performance, I think, but like in actual like revenues,
like they're not, they're not getting any money from that.
So it's a gamble on somehow out of all the other well-funded, well-staffed AI
company out there, XCI is going to be the one to deliver, you know, so it's
a crazy bet, but, you know, it could still happen.
Now, where things get a little bit crazy is that that's not going to be
XCI's last investment round.
So they are reportedly trying to raise between $10 and $20 billion right now
at that $200 billion valuation and between 20, up until 2025, I think
they launched in 2023, so for the first two years, they raised about $14
billion, which is a lot for a new startup, and they burned through
about $10 billion of that in two years, and the burn rate has
accelerated in the last year or so, and right now it's estimated to
be about $10 billion a year, so what they are raising right now,
they would technically burn through within the next year, so they would
have to do that kind of fundraising basically every year until they
get sustainable, which, you know, there's no, no one sees that
happening in the foreseeable future, like it's years and years and years
away, so now you have to attach Tesla to that, we don't have any kind
of, you know, these shareholders are giving a blank check to the
board to do whatever they want, but we get an idea from SpaceX, you
know, normally Elon doesn't like to, to dip into SpaceX money, it's
like, that's how it's private company that they have a lot of
control over, but SpaceX is reportedly investing $2 billion in
XCI in the current round, so let's say Tesla does the same
thing and invest about $2 billion, and they would, just to
maintain their investment going forward, they would have to do
that every year when XCI raises money, that's all of Tesla's
current earning, annual earnings, that's basically the right there
earning at, it's, it's, it's that bad, especially starting next
year, I mean, so that's the really the bad stuff, the ugly
stuff is, is next level. First of all, I, the, the main thing
that is probably the craziest part about this whole thing is
that the shareholders were suing Tesla over the breach of
fiduciary duty or asking that Musk for feet is going to
Musk for feet is for fit for feet. Perfect for fit is his take in
XCI to Tesla because he started a company as a breach of fiduciary
duty, funnel resources from Tesla to to his private company XCI,
and, and therefore, it's illegal to do that. And they have a
strong case because he did do that. He did do all that. So
technically, there's, there's a chance that, you know, Tesla
would end up with XCI even without an investment. So that's
the craziest part. But I think that the real ugly, though, is
that at the current state, okay, maybe like there's a
long shot, maybe XCI develops a GI maybe. But right now, with
XCI, what Grog mainly does is deliver AI slop throughout the
internet produced by fossil fuel energy, specifically natural
gas generators added cluster in in Memphis. So Tesla with Tesla
was mission is to accelerate the advance of renewable energy to
electric transport and energy storage and solar would be
investing in a company burning gas to create AI slop, which is
pretty wild. It's completely against its mission. And it's,
you know, it's like 98%. Yeah, yeah, there's a good 2% that's
actually useful.
Mean,
X premiums. So I do I do have access to Grog. And not all the
time I do this, but a lot of the time, you know, since you
know, it's a big part of my job that you know, AI's are
becoming somewhat useful for a job. I do like to every every
few days, when I have a query that I want to put to AI, I'll put
it through all the eyes that I have, which is like Jim and I
charge it and Grog through through the premium X access. And
so I get an idea of like which one I think like perform the
best. And Grog is quite consistently the worst at it. And
then and then you look at what Elon post on X about Grog and
it's all just like is any AI girlfriend stuff, which is very
controversial and all the quick AI videos based on nothing that
like no one wants to really see it's, it's sad. I don't know so
I don't know how this vote is gonna go but I would assume
that it's gonna it's gonna pass. It's gonna pass because I
think the investor base at Tesla right now mostly consists
of digital gamblers that are they just want a crazy return
they want this crazy hope that this is gonna solve for self
driving and a self humanitarian robots. And that Elon is a
super genius that can't miss. So of course he's gonna be the
one to bring AI, the AI AI God to life through X AI. So it's
gonna work. But in, in practice, this is gonna attach
itself to like a company that has an insane burn rate that
Tesla cannot say like it's not it's not solar city level.
It's, it's, it's crazy to have all the money money that these
companies are earning. So solar city. And it's, it's orders of
magnitude bigger than solar city. But it was funny or not
funny. But what's ironic is that solar city was generating
electricity from the sun, clean energy. And this is just
burning gas, burning, you know, it's it's the opposite.
Yeah, it was mission aligned. At least this is not mission
aligned. This is even musk align. Right. And another example
that one of my problem with Tesla is like, I don't feel like I
don't want to be invested in Tesla alone, because I don't
feel like I'm invested in a mission and feel like I'm just
investing in Elon Musk and his promises, which is not not
something I'm interested in that much. Speaking of self
dealing, we got some news to that Tesla has found some
buyers for it's on sold cyber truck. And that's SpaceX and XCI
Elon's private company. So XCI was spotted taking deliveries of
a few truckloads of of cyber truck this weekend at their
headquarters. So they apparently are changing
their fleet to that. And SpaceX is getting even more of them
they got hundreds of trucks over the last two weeks. West
Morales, the cyber truck lead engineer confirmed that
SpaceX is currently changing its support fleet from
ice pickup trucks to to cyber trucks. They didn't sell how many
but you know, apparently they keep coming with truckloads, it
could be over 1000 easily. So so they found an actual buyer for
this that's like as volume. And you know, it makes sense. I
think like, apparently, he's also said that Tesla is also
changing its service fleet to cyber truck. That's something
that I've been saying like for a while, that should be the
case that when like six, seven months into the cyber
truck being released, when it started to be clear that, you
know, they were tough to sell, especially in Canada, they were
a bunch of them in inventory. And my service, my Tesla
service technician came by in a mall ass. And I'm like, dude,
it's like a small ass is filled with tools and everything. I'm
like, why don't you have a cyber truck? It's like, I
know, I mean, I'm saying the same thing. So glad to see
Tesla is actually making a move on that front. I could see
like a full like decked out system of tools and even some
space for spare parts in there. And then a good setup.
All right, we have a few more news item to discuss before we
jump into the comment section. So as I said earlier, it's a
slow news week. So not that much to talk about but means
more time to talk to you guys. So if you guys have any
questions for us, any topics in the EV world or in the
renewable energy world that you would like or take on. So
question comments, you can put them in the comment section
right now we're live on YouTube, Facebook on x and we're
going to be able to take the question in just a few minutes.
All right, here. Yeah, Norway, Norway announced mission
accomplished on its goal to go 100% electric. So that comes
with a change in the incentive structure, which, you know,
Norway, we always use Norway as like the example that you can
go all electric nationwide. Obviously, we know that Norway is
a really specific situation. It's a very wealthy country. Funny
enough, a lot of the wealth come from oils. And they go
electric first that classic drug dealer mentality that like I
don't get high on my own supply thing. They embody that
when it comes to fossil fuels. But they're they're planned, we
praise their plan a lot for you're not they didn't just go
with electric vehicle incentive, which they are, you know,
these purchase taxes that and that are not applied on EVs,
which was a big deal. While they are very high taxes on
gasoline vehicles, that was not just like incentive on the EV
but like let's tax the vehicles that are more polluting,
which makes sense. And there's also there was like a two V
lane parking kind of incentive to that they were they were
quite well those two with the if it makes sense for for the
specific place. And it helped Norway become by far the
leader in EV adoption per capita. In last year, they were
at 88.9% all electric, they were like all already over 90
when it comes when you had plug in hybrids. And this
year they are consistently hitting like 95 97%. So you're
literally end up having a few hundred gasoline car sold
every month. So it's really just a fraction. So this this
week, finance minister, Jan Stoltenberg said we we have
had a goal that all new passenger cars should be
electric by 2025. And we can say that the goal has been
achieved. So they even they were not like officially at
100%. Which we can let it slide. Obviously, it's a it's a
pretty decent. They're like, All right, we achieved it. So now
what happens now we need to cut the incentives. So what they
announce is that currently the current they're doing a phase
out. So the current there's no that being applied on EVs that
start below 500,000 origin Corona, which is about 49,000
USD. So all the EVs that are below that don't have that those
that do are over, they want to reduce that to 300,000 origin
Corona, which is about $30,000 USD. So that would that would
make it so that a lot of EVs now would have that and a lot of
the cheaper vehicles would still be exempt. But that would just
be for 2026, 2027, it would end completely. But the, the, they
would increase the density by how much though they would
increase the taxes on gasoline vehicles too. So even though you
would start having taxes on EVs, it would still be lower than
the taxes on gasoline vehicles. I think it's a pretty decent
approach. However, there's some pushback obviously from the EV
Association in Norway, we won't want a little bit an extended
phase out, which I think could make sense to like, we're
talking about 2026 and 2027, we're right away with full
taxes, maybe, maybe the due 2026, as they say for for the
prices, and then or maybe you got 40,000 USD instead of 30,000
USD. And then 2027 you go 30,000 USD and then 2028 you go you go
with the higher taxes on on gas versus EV. I think that would
work, because obviously now they are at roughly 100% new
vehicle car sales being electric. But these I think they are
at 40% or so of the existing fleet being electric, which is
still impressive as hell, like we're, we're nowhere close to
that in everywhere else in the world. I mean, I would
assume we're at the less than 5% in America. So it's, but you
still need to keep that going to get the momentum to go all
electric as soon as possible. So you need that 100% to all
basically. So now 2026, I think it would still probably
old because of people will just go with the lower price
EVs. But then in 2027, the market becomes a lot more
competitive obviously with with gas and vehicles. The biggest
advantage that they have is like all the network all the
distribution network in Norway has shifted to electric
vehicles. So now it would be wouldn't be impossible obviously
for especially for the legacy of the makers that have both IC
and EV sales to just change their mix. But it will not be
exactly easy either. So I think it's gonna be interesting to
watch I think the next few years, right? To see like how it
holds up in Norway.
Yeah, I mean, you would think once you went EV, you wouldn't
really want to go back. But it's I guess it depends on how the
incentives go. I mean, I'm sure there's some, you know, like
Porsche fanatics that really won a 911 or you know, some guy
who goes out on the tundra and needs, you know, 700
miles of range. I don't know.
Yeah, we're gonna get a good idea of like what was the really
impact of the incentive, how the old over time? Is it is just
the incentive or as the mindset of the consumers really
shifted through that period of time? I think there's a little
bit about so I wouldn't be surprised that if there's a
little bit of a pullback, especially in 2027. But I think
the goal would be that the pullback is no more than like 5%
let's say.
Right, they should keep a really close eye on it. They don't
want to, you know, they don't want to lose. Also, you know,
you have to wonder what the state of, you know, gasoline
service stations are there?
Mm hmm. They close. Yeah, I mean, we've talked about how
they're closing. Is there even enough to sustain gas cars
there? I mean, yeah, but like if if they go back to let's say
90% new car rate being electric, it's still it's still lowers
over time the current complete fleet of vehicles in Norway. So
I think it's clear that the demand is like keep going down
for petroleum in Norway. But yeah, it's something to watch is
gonna be fascinating to watch a full transition.
They're kind of like the canary in the coal mine sort of
Yeah, but in a good way. Yeah, and they were the canary
the coal mine for all new car cells being electric. And now
they are in carry the coal mine for the entire fleet existing
fleet being electric, which is even crazier. So that's Norway.
Meanwhile, if we go to the US, things are not as cool,
because the tax credit has gone away and the market is
cooling down. And now as we expected, we were starting to
see the first automakers pulling back on their EV plans
a little bit. And GM is one of the first that has commented this
week on what's going to happen. And the one they want to be
clear that it's not like a complete rollback and everything
they just said, they said that the policy changes have caused
us to reassess our EV capacity and manufacturing footprint. So
that's a red flag is like, all right, what's gonna happen?
They, they want to specify that they are not changing any of
the production plan, the capacity for Chevy GMC Cadillac. So
that's their old lineup, basically of EVs right now. So
what exists as an electric vehicle? Keep going. But they
said they're doing a strategic re-earnment that will cost
at least 1.6 billion. So for the plans that they had in
place to keep growing their EV production, it sounds like
this is being rearranged to adjust the capacity down in the next
few years. Bad move, probably, I would assume, because you know,
you see, you see what's happening elsewhere, you see
what's happening in Europe, you see what's happening in China.
And it's like, all right, how long are you bidding that the
US is not going to follow through with that? Policy wise
in the next three years is probably a good bet. But after
that, though, you got to be ready for some change, I think
hopefully. So GM is one of the first to press the break on EV
production following the removal of the tax credit.
All right.
You remember, Jim did this the last time Trump got elected, they
pulled back their EV plans, and that put them back, they
pushed them back, you know, the GM was kind of ahead of the
crowd, as far as legacy automakers, and then they pulled
back on the first Trump administration. And then all of
a sudden they're behind and they're just catching up to
Ford and they passed Ford recently. And they were doing
great. And now they're going to pull back again, which is kind
of just frustrating.
Yeah, the Americans to make her a little bit or more like
wish you all showed that they will, they will go like
they're kind of that may I guess American politics is
invented into those companies. So they just gonna follow
where the wind blows. But you see a lot of of the other
way around with the legacy automakers that are not
American, like the Honda and the Hyundai of this world
and everything. For them, they when they look at the
American market, which are huge is a huge market for them.
They are more about like, all right, like we, we just
want consistency, we just don't want to have to change
our plans like that and everything like the, it's
true, the reality of the US market is like the AV
demand is not as high as in other markets. So you want
to see if you if you have an ice lineup, you might as
well sell it. But it's capitalist world after
all. But for them is like we cannot get our plans to
get our because obviously, like making a car electric or
not is is an endeavor that that is years and years
of the making until we can reach production volume
production specifically. So you need to be sure of
like, what are going to what's going to be the
demand there? What's going to be the incentive in
place to create that demand? What's going to be the
regulation? So you in Europe, you know, your
opinion as is its problems, but at least it's
like a cohesive group together. China is, you
know, one track mine kind of thing. And if they
go one way, you know, they get they're going
to go that way. But the US is like every four years
is just switch around, switch around, switch
around. So it's like, it's hard to be consistent.
And unless you are a company like obviously, like
Tesla, like Rivian, like Lucid that you just
you're all electric anyway. So you're like, all
right, just you go that way. But yeah, it's
a it's becoming problematic. Yep.
All right, after we've been giving you a few
updates every week, last two weeks, because
they are on the way to get to to to go
public. And they did go public yesterday. And
basically, exactly what we said was going to
happen last week happened, the stock crashed
over four million cells, I think it crashed
like 60 70% the first day. I didn't check
until I didn't check this afternoon, but it
was like down 20% this morning.
Oh, it close. It closed 27%. It's basically
trading around $6 a share right now and it
opened at 27. So it's it's a significant
crash, valuing the company at $185 million
dollars right now. So so it's going to be
hard to raise money now just before they
went public. So that was the two days
before they went public, the 14th, they
announced that they secured access to
$75 million of financing to what they
call that they call that committed
equity financing. So basically, they found
this company called New Circle Capital,
which I couldn't find a lot about. It looks
like a very small but Bootsy firm that
they can sell share at a discount on the
current market to to them open on the
market. So basically, I think it's a 4%
discount. So they can sell the share
4% discount and then New Circle Capital
can turn around and try to sell them on
the market. That's not a bad deal. If if
the like we said last week, the price
needs to hold, but the price is not
holding. So now at $185 million
dollar valuation, if they want to raise
$75 million of that, that's like a third
of the money, the third of the company.
So it's a third of dilution, 30%
dilution to raise that money. Now it's
they don't have to do it all at once. They
can gradually do it as they need the
money. So maybe there's a chance we
still see Aptera reach production. It's
still a possibility because I think with
$75 million or so they could, but at
this point the problem is like it would
be crazy dilution on the market and
the stock would keep crashing. So
unless there's a momentum shift and
you can in the stock gain some value,
I think Aptera is in trouble.
Yep.
All right. We have one more news item
before we jump into the comment section
and talk to you guys. I see that a few
of you already put some question on
there. Appreciate it.
All right. In Europe, Kia has
laid out its plans for production ramp
and it's we're talking about volume
production here. So the EV3 has
already had quite a bit of success
in Europe and now the EV2 and EV4
are ramping up and they have some
actually decent production commitment
here for the EV2. They are aiming now
for 100,000 units to be produced at
the plant that they have in Slovakia
and the EV4, it's 80,000 but if you
had a few of the other like
configuration like the FASBAC
and it should be around 100,000 also.
So those are specifically for the
European market, if I understand
correctly. Adding to the EV3 lineup
it's, you know, Kia is aiming to be
like a very like a volume EV
producer in Europe which is super
cool to see. We have a Kia ad on the
Kia article, that's cool.
Good job. All right, yeah.
Let's jump into the comment section.
All right, Skeptic, we're all going to pay
when this AI bubble pops. So much money
and energy being burned. So these tech
pros can make funny videos.
Yeah, I mean it's
it is a bit concerning to me. I was
just this thing this afternoon to
Andrew Caperdy, you know, who's a
very respected person in the AI world
and a Tesla's former head of AI and
an autopilot. And he himself, he didn't
go as far as saying, yeah, it's a big
bubble and everything, but he did
he did say that like a lot of the
agentic
AIs that are being launched right now
are not actually useful. They're not
and I agree with him. I think I tried
a few of them, see if I could get
actual value out of them. And a lot
of them are not, it's not quite
there yet. There's something missing
and and a lot of money is getting
you see it every day. There's a new
startup getting tens if not hundreds
of millions. So you have the private
equity sector
getting nuts on that, which you know a
lot of it might not pan out.
And then you have the public sector
and the public money
getting into the billions and hundreds
of billions of dollars in door
secular deal
that, you know, NVIDIA invests in
open AI, open AI, buy chips when
NVIDIA and then same thing with AMD
and then the Oracle deal plays into
that and like it's all our circular
stuff that
makes a ton of sense
if it all works out.
But
it's a big but, it's a big bet. And
another thing I'm a little bit
concerned about and I'm trying to
do a little more research on this
when I'm trying to see how all these
companies amortize their GPUs
because it's, you know, these things if
you're used them like crazy, which is
the goal here, you know, one of them
sitting in the giant data center not
being used,
they burn out relatively fast
and
do they burn out or do they just become obsolete?
Sorry?
Do they burn out? Like do they physically
burn out or do they become obsolete?
Like
both, like you're using too much
energy for them at some point versus
the new ones and
and I see some
some
some companies are
being very conservative and they do
they amortize them over one year which
which would make sense that the rate
that they're improving
so if they do become obsolete
within a year or two
makes sense to amortize that fast
but a lot of companies are doing it
like five or six years too that they
think they're gonna
get some value
obviously if they
you know
graph it
where a lot of the value does go away
after the first year and then you
have like very low value
but they're not doing it exactly like that
so I think
I think there's gonna be a lot of
permanent charges
when it comes to that
over the next
a few years
and
and also like
the energy
just the energy that's going towards that
it's like
who's gonna pay for that
because
they much prefer like
the rate payers
are gonna be
are gonna be holding this
the the the the
a lot of the of that back I think and it's
it is a bit worrying
especially if you've been watching the
energy rates in the U.S.
recently
it's
in the last five years or so
they've been going up like crazy
and it's just
it's just the beginning of this right now
like you you you've
hear all of the announcement
of the JNN SN3rds
it's uh
it's just the beginning
yep
all right
moving on
skeptic I read that
that every single video someone generated
on SOAR 2 cost open AI $5
the videos generate almost no revenue
and are seen by almost no people
that uh
I believe it's in $5
sounds like a lot
because I I've heard it was around
a little bit more than a half a kilowatt hour
for
a five seconds video
I guess they did
increase the
length of the videos that you can make now so
yeah
maybe not five dollars
but a few dollars for sure
all right Altman
showed his AI unprofitability
desperation this week
announcing they will encourage
its use for adult activities
yeah I saw that
that'll be interesting
he's following up on Elon with this
yeah
I would
like is it gonna
generate
like
I think the word he used was erotica
oh okay
so I don't know what counts as erotica these days but
not sure I want to know
good job guys
we did it
yeah
all right
question would you buy the bulb
over the equinox and blazer
that's a great question
no
it depends on your needs
the bolt is the smallest of those
and the least expensive
equinox and blazer
both a little bit bigger
a little bit
more range
I think equinox and blazer
both have over 300
miles of range
depends on your needs I think
it's sort of
I am a bolt owner
I love the bolt
but
if I needed more range
or quicker charging
even the new bolt has
not quite as fast at charging
I think the equinox is kind of the sweet spot
at the moment to be honest
yeah
never got my eye on the blazer much
but the equinox
does make sense I think
the blazer SS was quite a
little speedy ride
they took us down to North Carolina for that
that was fun
all right any news about the mysterious
Powerwall 2 replacements
that could be a very costly liability
of the planet
is to lie about the known fire risk
yeah yeah I keep
I keep trying to get like a full
like second source on this
because I have one source
that doesn't want to go public
with it
and I'm keeping an eye on the
recall notice
because I feel like
you kind of need a recall notice
or in the U.S.
like they did in Australia
because it's the same product
but no news on that front
keeping an eye on it
all right
nice shirt Fred
that's the Montreal Expose
yeah
they just got the documentary
out on Netflix
I haven't seen it yet
but that part is really good
yeah
all right I gotta check that out
I was a big expert
gonna explain how he stole the
Expose from us
and then turn them into the
nationals right
isn't that what happened
mm-hmm yeah
washington's
all right what do you guys
think about the environmental
impact of AI
I heard it's not that much worse
than the other tech we already
use
if so this is a different
perspective
but I also heard that the data
centers destroy water quality
yeah you need a lot of water
to to cool these these GPUs
so there's a way to make it
not to lose too much water
as part of the process
but not everyone is being
super efficient
and
but not not as much
not as much as some other tech
I mean data centers have been
around for a long time
and they've been growing
because the internet needs
are increasing all the time
so it's not exactly new
there's also the bitcoin
mining stuff that increased
the energy demand quite a bit
but but I don't like
I don't think it's nothing
compared to what is happening
right now with AI
it's just a drop in the bucket
all right question
have you guys seen any
car manufacturers
describe efforts to make their
cars have much longer life
cycles
that's the bragged about a
million mile battery life
but I'm talking about
rust and crash damage
I mean GM had that zero
deaths zero emissions
zero
something else
Honda Honda are also the same
December yeah
but yeah that's kind of a rarity
all right
I wish GM would put some effort
into eliminating the stranglehold
their dealers have on them
and maybe I'd buy a bolt
and said they're torpedoing
their feature by scaling back
on electrification
it is frustrating to buy
a car from GM
I can
I agree with that
from several automakers
it's difficult
yeah
at the price it was necessary
lost to get a solid stock price
it was pretty obvious that
people who had lost faith
in Abterra would dump their
stock at a loss
the stock has stabilized
around six dollars
yeah but like I said
now at six dollars you have
a hundred and eighty five
million dollar valuation
and you need to raise about
you know at least 60 million
just to uh
to get to production
so that's that's a third of
your valuation
so it's a
you know 30 percent dilution
it's it's
doesn't sound like a good investment
just to get to production
and then you know what happens
after that
is the production sustainable
does the Abterra make sense
in uh
I know I want to see the car
on the road
like don't get me wrong
I really want to see it on the road
but
does the car make sense
you know when you can buy a
bolt for 30 000
dollars like just
there there is some questions
to be answered for sure
and new circle capital
committed to buying 75 million
in stock
production
basically what I just said
yep
uh for should buy Abterra
for putting the car all
surely with no
it's eco bonafide
it's unmistakable looks
and better value
and get out sell
cyber truck
and rebrand eb cars
is actually sustainable
uh
I don't think
that's going to happen
yeah I mean
what what I could like
well I'd like to see more
and I know Abterra is already
doing some of that with
you know with
some some trailer
companies and everything
but um
they uh
if they could license
their solar technology
because it's not
it's not as easy as people
think there's just like
put solar panel in the car
and they work like the
the optimization of the solar
because of uh
you know it's not
as easy as a as a rooftop
where you can just angle
the panel directly
and optimize for that
you have you know
shade that will
cover the panels
more often than not
because of uh
it's a moving
target
and if they
there's someone to make hers
that you know
would have vehicles
that would make sense with
maybe
maybe do a roof
not a roofed up but a
tunnel cover for pickup
trucks for
for electric pickup trucks
with
with that
I think that
that would be cool
so you know
for it for the
lightning
you could
you could do that
and you know
add that as an option
for the lightning
I think some people
would buy that
and would be pretty cool
maybe do that
GM with the bolt
you know
is a very efficient vehicle
so
the more efficient
the more it makes sense
so I think could
you could see some partnership
like that
all right
the opening price
Raptera stock was
lappable for a company
with this sales
oh
let's move on
with 50,000
Raptera pre-orders
there's potentially
$2 billion
coming when production begins
Dean McManus
it's clearly on
yeah but Dean
like it's
it's a $75
reservation
fundable deposit
it's
we've seen it
with the Cybertruck
it's it's not
you know obviously
Cybertruck
completely different product
and everything
and Tesla had
its own issues with that
it's
not a great
show of commitment
that you
you want to order
so I don't
and you know
when
the bulk of Raptera's
order
it's because
they haven't gone
much that much
since the the first day
they got like 40,000
pretty quickly
or 36,000
pretty quickly
that was like
three or four years ago
and the AV market
has changed quite a bit
since then
so I
I don't know
like a lot of these people
have probably already ordered
another car
that the
and you don't want the actor
anymore
all right Carl says
the GPUs used for AI
are burning out
before obsolescence
heatsink paste dries out
one part starts faulting
in the whole
unit becomes trash
no positive
but believe
it's an issue
not positive
I'm gonna have to trust
Carl on this
because I don't have
actual data
but I know that
a lot of our companies
are
amortizing their
their GPUs
over way too long
of a period of time
yeah
and he says wait
so Australians
get a fire risk
we call
if so
that's the story
we didn't report on that
yeah we
we did that start already
and in that story
I made it clear
it's like
all right
why is it just
in Australia
that recall
makes no sense
right
so
that's why we've been
trying to do a follow-up
for a while
and just like
trying to get more
information
but they've been fires
other places in Australia
it's not just Australia
it's not clear
why
they did it
in Australia
like if
there's something sad
about the
situation in the U.S.
right now where
you know
especially you see it
with
with the financial scams
and crypto scams
and the
SEC
but it's
getting into safety
to a certain degree
also now is just
there's
I think people
don't see
they like the police
is not around
or at least not for
the right reasons
so they
the things they can
they think they can
get away with things
in the U.S.
that
my lady
cannot get away
in other countries
that
you know
have stronger regulations
if it's that
you know
I'm not saying it is
but if it is
it's
it would be
pretty sad
all right
well that's it
for us this week
I hope that
everyone enjoyed the show
we're going to see you
same time
same place
next week
have a fun one
have a great weekend
stay safe out there
bye bye
Request an explanation for:
8 cars
Scroll for more
8 cars featured
Request an Explanation
Heard something you'd like explained? We'll add it to this episode.
Sign in to request explanations for terms you heard.
Want to learn more?
Browse our glossary for plain-English explanations of automotive terms, jargon, and concepts.
See something that's not quite right? Our annotations are AI-generated and can sometimes miss the mark.
Click the flag icon on any annotation to suggest a correction.
