Electrek Oct 17, 2025

Tesla investing in xAI, Norway 100% EV, Aptera goes public, and more

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Company

SpaceX

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.

Company

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.

Concept

incentives

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.

Car

Porsche 911

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.

Car

Toyota Tundra

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.

Car

Kia EV3

The Kia EV3 is a type of electric car made by Kia that is becoming popular in Europe.

Car

Kia EV2

The Kia EV2 is another electric car from Kia that is being produced more as demand increases in Europe.

Car

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

0:00

46:15

Tesla investing in xAI, Norway 100% EV, Aptera goes public, and more

SpaceX

XCI

incentives

Porsche 911

Toyota Tundra

Kia EV3

Kia EV2

Kia EV4

Chevrolet Blazer

Chevrolet Equinox

miles of range

Chevrolet Bolt

charging

million mile battery life

dealer markup

electrification

Tesla Cybertruck

About this episode

Original notes