The Xiaomi SU7 is an all-electric car made by Xiaomi. The podcast mentions a refreshed version, meaning there were updates to the car that they tested. It’s being discussed in terms of how it drives and what’s changed.
“Volume production” means the factory is making lots of trucks consistently, not just a few prototypes. It’s a sign the product is moving from testing toward real deliveries.
A production line is the factory workflow for building vehicles step-by-step. Instead of hand-building, it’s organized so trucks can be made repeatedly and efficiently.
Concept
geofactory
A “geofactory” here is basically Tesla’s big manufacturing plant area. The host is saying the Semi factory is located near Tesla’s main Texas production complex.
Concept
electric truck sector
This is the part of the market focused on electric trucks for hauling cargo. The hosts are comparing how different companies are doing and what makes Tesla’s truck stand out.
Volvo is referenced as a major player in Europe’s electric truck market, with “thousands of units” already sold. The host uses it to frame competitive pressure on Tesla in electric freight.
“Single charge” means from one full battery charge until the truck needs charging again. It’s how people compare how practical an EV is for long trips.
Range is how far an electric truck can go before it needs to recharge. The host is saying the Semi stands out because it can go a long distance on one charge.
Tesla Semi is an electric big-rig truck built by Tesla. The hosts talk about how many Tesla plans to make, what it might cost, and how it charges for long-distance routes.
A tri-motor system means the truck uses three electric motors. Using more than one motor can help the truck put power down smoothly and handle demanding driving better.
1.2 megawatt charging refers to extremely high charging power for the truck’s battery. Higher charging power can reduce charging time, which is critical for commercial trucking where downtime costs money.
A megacharger is a very powerful charging setup made for Tesla’s big electric trucks. It’s meant to help commercial fleets charge quickly and keep operating.
The base charger for Semi is Tesla’s more basic charging unit for the big electric truck. The hosts mention it in the context of what businesses can buy and install.
A Supercharger is Tesla’s fast-charging network for electric vehicles. Here, the hosts explain that businesses can buy and deploy a Supercharger setup at suitable locations, similar to how the megacharger is offered.
Megacharging posts are the individual high-power charging connectors/units that deliver power to vehicles. The segment notes each megacharger unit includes two megacharging posts, indicating how many trucks can be charged simultaneously.
V4 posts refers to Tesla’s Version 4 Supercharger hardware used for high-power charging. The hosts use it as a visual reference for what the megacharger posts look like.
Power electronics are the “electrical control” parts inside a charger. They take electricity from the grid and convert/control it so the EV can charge safely.
DC fast charging is a high-speed way to charge an EV. Instead of using slow charging at home, it pushes power quickly so you can add a lot of range in a short time.
The MCS connector is the plug/port used for very high-power charging on trucks. It’s meant to work across the charging network, not just one company’s equipment.
Term
microchargers standard connector
This phrase is about using a standard plug for truck charging. Standards help different trucks and charging stations work together more easily.
Term
Tesla connector now known as the Nax
The “Nax” is the name for Tesla’s charging plug that ended up becoming the common standard in North America. That matters because it helps more chargers and vehicles work together.
A proprietary connector is a company-specific charging plug. If it’s not shared as a standard, other brands may need adapters or can’t use the same chargers easily.
Cost of ownership means the total cost to keep and use a vehicle over time. It includes things like what you pay to charge it, not just what you pay to buy it.
A kilowatt-hour (kWh) is the amount of energy you’re buying when you charge an EV. If the price is per kWh, your total cost depends on how much energy you need for your trip.
It’s a charging station built to charge EVs much faster than a normal home-style charger. The hosts are saying the real-world prices didn’t match the earlier promises.
Sticker price is the price you first see advertised. The hosts are saying even if that upfront price is high, the ongoing costs might still make it cheaper overall.
Tesla Robotaxi is Tesla’s self-driving taxi idea. Instead of a human driver, the car handles the driving, and the episode talks about how Tesla is increasing the number of cars in service.
A supervised fleet means the self-driving cars are operating, but someone is watching or ready to step in if needed. It’s a safer, more controlled rollout stage.
Cumulative mileage is the total miles the cars have driven since they started. The host says it’s not the best way to tell if the service is really expanding right now.
The Robotaxi tracker is a tool or dataset that tries to track how many robotaxis are actually operating. The host uses it because Tesla doesn’t share all the details publicly.
Active fleet means the cars that are actually being used right now, not just counted in total. The speaker prefers looking at recent active usage to judge whether the network is really growing.
Unsupervised vehicles are cars that are driving on their own without a person watching closely. It’s a big deal because it’s harder to keep things safe when nobody is ready to take over.
“Ramping up” means Tesla is gradually increasing how much it’s using the system in the real world. The speaker is saying the numbers look like they’re growing steadily.
A robotaxi service is like a ride-hailing service, but the car is meant to drive itself. The idea is that Tesla can improve its driving software by learning from real-world robotaxi trips.
Concept
damage control
“Damage control” means trying to fix or limit the negative reaction after something goes wrong or upsets people. In this case, it’s about how Tesla handles backlash around FSD availability.
Tesla’s self-driving features depend on the car’s computer and sensors. “Hardware four” is a newer tier, and the hosts are saying those cars may get better self-driving updates than “hardware three.”
Tesla uses different “hardware” versions in different cars. That hardware affects what self-driving features the car can run, so owners with “hardware three” may not get the same capabilities as newer hardware.
FSD is Tesla’s self-driving software. “V14” means a particular update version, and “light” means it’s a simpler/less capable version than what some owners expected.
This is when a car is supposed to drive by itself without needing you to watch it. The big question is whether the system truly works without you taking over, or if you still have to be ready to help.
A hybrid uses two power sources—an engine and an electric motor. It’s not fully electric, but it can still use electricity to help drive.
Concept
electric first and then no gas generator
They’re talking about cars that run on electricity from a battery. Instead of using a gasoline engine to generate power when the battery runs low, the car just uses electricity.
The Volkswagen Jetta is a compact car (a sedan) meant for everyday driving. It’s usually chosen for practicality and ease of ownership. In the podcast, it’s mentioned as part of Volkswagen’s lineup when talking about different kinds of vehicles people can get.
They’re referencing the Ford Bronco, a rugged off-road SUV. The “electric Bronco” part is more of an idea or concept they’re wishing Ford would sell in the U.S.
An “off-road concept” refers to a vehicle concept focused on rough-terrain use—things like higher ground clearance, durable bodywork, and suspension geometry designed for trails. The hosts are treating it as a design/capability preview rather than a production car they can buy immediately.
They’re wondering if the vehicle was a concept—basically a prototype/show car. Concept cars often show what a company might build later, but they aren’t always for sale.
Concept
car models next to the cars
They’re talking about the marketing practice of putting people next to a car in photos. It can help show the car’s size and make the content more interesting.
A live stream is video that goes out in real time online. They’re saying the car company’s people are broadcasting themselves and talking to viewers as they watch.
CATL is a company that makes the batteries used in electric cars. The hosts are saying CATL is right next to car makers in China and moves quickly when new battery designs are ready.
Battery chemistry is what the battery is made of inside—its “recipe.” Different recipes can change how much energy it stores and how fast it can charge.
Battery swapping means the car doesn’t wait to charge. Instead, you pull into a station and the empty battery is replaced with a charged one, like a quick “battery change.”
Neo is mentioned as a company that’s well known for battery swapping. The point is that swapping isn’t new, and some companies have already been doing it.
A mid-cycle refresh is when a car gets updated partway through its “generation,” usually to keep it competitive. It can include changes under the hood and new features, not just cosmetic tweaks.
Electric cars can be wired to run at different voltages. A higher-voltage system (like 800 volts) can move charging power more efficiently, which often means faster charging and better efficiency.
EV charging is often measured by how long it takes to go from 10% battery to 80%. That range is used because it’s a fair comparison point between cars.
CLTC is a testing method used in China to estimate how far an EV can go on a charge. Different countries use different tests, so the numbers aren’t always directly comparable.
LFP is a type of EV battery chemistry. It’s generally considered safer and long-lasting, though it may not store as much energy per kilogram as some other battery types.
Radar helps the car “see” objects using radio waves. A millimeter-wave radar can work in fog or rain, and the “4D” idea means it can track objects with more information than just how far away they are.
Calibration is the car’s way of “learning” and setting up its sensors so the help features work properly. If calibration takes longer, it means the system isn’t fully ready yet.
They’re talking about Tesla cars and how some features and power can surprise drivers. In particular, they mention a Tesla Model S case where people weren’t expecting how fast and strong it felt.
This is a system that helps the car park itself. You still have to follow the on-screen steps, but the car does much of the steering and control for you.
They’re talking about a self-driving/driver-assist system that tries to do some of the same things as Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving.” It usually still needs the driver to pay attention and sometimes needs setup or calibration.
Torque is what makes the car pull strongly when you press the accelerator. With electric cars, that pulling force can show up immediately, so the car can feel very fast right away.
Bigger brakes help the car stop more strongly and handle heat better. That matters when the car is faster or harder to drive aggressively.
Term
high string steel
They’re talking about stronger steel used in the car’s body. Stronger steel can help the car stay rigid and protect people better without adding too much weight.
“Powered front” means the front trunk opens and closes with a motor. It’s easier because you don’t have to touch the dirty front area as much.
Term
10 percent
The host says the front structure is “bumped up by 10 percent,” implying an increase in stiffness/strength for crash protection. In practice, such changes can improve how the vehicle’s front end absorbs energy in a collision.
A heads-up display shows important driving info in your line of sight, usually near the windshield. That way you don’t have to look down at the dashboard as much.
The instrument cluster is the main screen or panel behind the steering wheel that shows things like speed and warnings. Here, they’re saying the car uses a different screen layout instead of a classic gauge cluster.
When a car has advanced driver assistance, it often shows what it’s “seeing” and what it plans to do. This segment is about the way that information is drawn on the screen while driving.
A driver assistant system is technology that helps you drive, like keeping you in your lane or managing parts of driving. It’s not supposed to replace the driver completely—you still have to watch and be ready to take over.
v14.3 is a particular software update version for Tesla’s advanced driving features. The host is pointing out that newer versions can improve how well the system works.
v14.2 is a specific software update for Tesla’s advanced driving features. The host is saying this particular update is one of the more capable ones.
Term
v13
v13 is an earlier Tesla software version for the advanced driving features. The host says China was using v13 in the demos, which helps explain why results may differ from the U.S.
Training data is the information the system learns from when it’s being developed. The host is saying regulations in China limited what data could be used, which can change how good the driving software is.
They’re saying the car drove itself and the person didn’t have to step in and take control. It’s basically a “hands-off” test, with only rare moments where they touched something.
The brake pedal is how you slow down or stop the car. The speaker is saying they almost had to use it because the car’s actions felt risky for a moment.
A red light is the signal that usually means “stop.” The speaker is explaining that driving behavior at red lights can differ by country/city, which matters for how a self-driving system handles intersections.
Brand
vla 2.0
VLA 2.0 is the name of an automated-driving system the speaker is testing. They’re saying it uses cameras and AI to drive without needing constant human correction.
It means the car is using cameras to “see” the road instead of other sensors. The goal is to let the software drive using camera images as its main input.
This means the software is designed to go from what the car sees to how it drives, in one integrated system. Instead of many separate “modules,” it’s one overall AI pipeline.
Instead of paying once, a subscription charges you every month to keep using the self-driving software. The hosts are arguing that long-term, it may get cheaper or bundled into the car price.
Huawei is a tech company that the hosts say is also working on car-driving assistance technology. They’re listing it as part of the competition in China.
BYD is referenced as having a competing product with similar autonomy-related capabilities. The discussion frames BYD as one of the major China-based challengers to Tesla’s lead.
These levels are a way to describe how “self-driving” a car is. Higher levels mean the car handles more of the driving, and the human has less responsibility to take over.
A manufacturing factory is where cars are actually built. Here, they’re talking about a new/expanded Rivian plant and how quickly it can start making vehicles.
This is a business agreement with Volkswagen. They’re saying that even though regular auto sales revenue dropped, money from the Volkswagen partnership helped balance things out.
A sodium battery is like a regular EV battery, but it uses sodium instead of lithium. People are interested because sodium can be cheaper, and some designs may last a long time.
Solid-state batteries use a solid material inside the battery instead of a liquid. The hope is that they can store more energy and be safer, but they’re still not everywhere yet.
Energy density means how much “energy” the battery can pack into its size or weight. Higher energy density usually helps a vehicle travel farther without making the battery bigger or heavier.
Stationary energy storage means batteries that stay in one place, like at a power station or on the grid. It’s a good fit for batteries that last a long time.
A “cycle” is basically one full round of using the battery—charging it and then using it. Saying “10,000 cycles” means the battery is expected to handle that many rounds before it gets noticeably worse.
Sodium batteries are a type of battery that uses sodium instead of lithium. The idea is that they could be cheaper and easier to make at large scale. The hosts are saying this one is already moving into real production, not just prototypes.
A gigawatt-hour (GWh) is a way to measure how much energy a big battery system can store. It’s often used for large grid-scale battery projects. The hosts mention 60 GWh to show the deal is very large.
Mass production means making something in very large numbers, not just a few prototypes. For batteries, that matters because it usually lowers cost and makes supply more dependable. The hosts are saying sodium batteries are getting to that stage.
The Tesla Cybertruck is Tesla’s electric pickup. The hosts use it as an example of how early promises about production numbers and pricing don’t always match what happens after real-world manufacturing starts. They’re saying the same kind of mismatch could happen with the Semi.
They’re saying electric cars are already a big part of what people buy in China. That’s important because it usually means charging is getting easier and more people are willing to switch.
They mean charging stations have to be built before lots of people can use electric trucks. If charging isn’t available where trucks need it, companies won’t buy as many trucks yet.
The Dodge Charger is a car focused on performance, with a sporty feel and strong acceleration. It’s offered in different versions, so some features may be available even on the basic trim. That’s why it can come up when people talk about what you can get for the money.
Distribution centers are warehouse-like places where shipments get organized and moved to the next stop. The idea is to start with companies that already have the setup to charge trucks there.
ACT Expo is a big event for the trucking and fleet industry. They’re saying more EV and charging news is likely to be announced soon.
Topic
global introduction on wednesday 6th of may
They’re pointing to a specific upcoming date when something new will be introduced worldwide. It’s mainly a heads-up for when to expect the announcement.
They mean the older, established car companies in the US. The question is whether they’ll keep committing to electric cars when the political and market situation changes.
GM (General Motors) is referenced as an example of a traditional automaker whose EV commitment is being questioned. The hosts are using GM as a case study for how big automakers respond when market conditions or politics change.
Car
diesel semi
A diesel semi is a traditional big truck that runs on diesel fuel. They’re comparing it to an electric semi to see which one costs less to run.
Term
economies of it
They mean the money math of running an EV truck versus a diesel truck. If electricity stays predictable and maintenance is cheaper, the EV can make financial sense over many years.
“Cyber cab” refers to Tesla’s planned autonomous ride-hailing vehicle concept tied to its robotaxi/robo-taxi ambitions. The hosts argue that the Cyber cab program doesn’t address the core safety concerns that have prevented large-scale deployment.
The MG Cyberster is an electric sports car that’s styled like a fun, open-top roadster. The hosts are using it as an example of the kind of EV that could sell well if the U.S. had more options like it.
The Porsche Boxster is a popular Porsche roadster. The discussion here is about the idea of an electric (EV) version of that car, and whether Porsche should have pushed it sooner.
Concept
r2 and r3 variants
The hosts are talking about different versions of a future Rivian vehicle—like smaller or different configurations. The point is that the company could build multiple related models instead of just one.
All-wheel drive means the car can send power to more than just the rear wheels. The hosts are saying Rivian plans to build different versions of the same model with different drivetrains in different places.
Sodium-ion batteries are a different type of battery chemistry than the lithium batteries most EVs use. The idea is that they could be cheaper or easier to source, but they may behave differently in terms of range and power.
Batteries can be made with different chemical recipes. “Mixed chemistries” means a pack uses more than one type to try to get the best overall trade-offs.
Sodium-ion batteries are like lithium-ion batteries, but they use sodium. They’re being explored because they could be cheaper, but they don’t behave exactly the same as lithium batteries.
The Tesla Model 3 is Tesla’s popular electric car. The discussion is saying that in China, other new EVs are improving quickly, so the Model 3 may not be the best buy at the moment.
The Tesla Model Y is Tesla’s electric SUV. The hosts are basically saying that in China, there are many competitive options, so it’s not automatically the best choice.
Level 2 means the car can help steer and control speed, but you still have to watch the road and be ready to take over right away. It’s not fully hands-free.
A “platform” is the basic vehicle foundation a company builds multiple models on. If the platform is flexible, the same base can support different body styles without starting from scratch.
They mention Rivian R1 because it’s an example of Rivian using its platform for more than one type of vehicle. The idea is: if they did it once, they might be able to do it again.
Car
Rivian R3s
Rivian R3s is one of Rivian’s upcoming vehicles they think could do really well. They’re basically saying Rivian already has other products coming that fit what customers want.
Car
Rivian R3x
Rivian R3x is another upcoming Rivian model mentioned with R3s. The hosts think the pair could be very popular because they match what people want from Rivian.
Gross margin is a way to tell whether a company is making money on each vehicle after paying the direct costs to build it. They’re saying Rivian needs to reach positive gross margin on the R2 soon, once they’re producing enough cars.
LIVE
We are live in the new episode of the electric podcast. I am Fred Hennberg, the host.
Nice to see you all. I'm joined by Seth Winshaw. How are we doing today, Seth?
I'm good.
All right. What are we talking about this week? Talking about I'm back. I'm back from
China. Crazy experience. We're going to talk a little bit about it later on the show. We're
going to talk about last week. I think I was just at the show, but then right after the
podcast, I spent a whole day at the show so I can talk to you. He's a little bit more
about it because he was not walking 20 kilometers through all these halls. It was insane. Then
I had my ExPang VLA 2.0 test drive that I'm going to discuss. I had the Xiaomi Su7 refresh
test drive. We're going to talk about the Rivian earnings. We're going to talk about
the Tesla-Semi production starting, RoboTaxiFleet, and Hardware 3 update. Let's start with
the Tesla-Semi. A decade in the making, it is finally in production again. We're starting
production and then I'm just kidding. That was just a little test program we're doing.
Now, so I guess Tesla, now they call it volume production. They call it first production
at scale on the production line, on the real production line, which is fair. I think that
is a true progress here. Tesla has this facility just outside of the main geofactory in Texas
where they build an entire new building and a new production line around the Tesla-Semi
truck. They've used everything they learned from the small scale and build production
that they did in 2022. They did a few units every year, making a lot of iterations. It
was obviously extremely delayed program, coming much higher prize than was originally announced.
Nonetheless, I think I'm still excited about it. I think there's plenty of competition already
in the electric truck sector. China sells already 200,000 electric trucks a year. Volvo in Europe,
that's also a big player now, thousands of units levered already. In North America, less so. There's
nothing quite like the Tesla-Semi in terms of actual range. Getting 500 miles on a single
charge, I don't think there's anything like that out there. If Tesla is good at something,
it's definitely as ramping up a vehicle program in terms of production and do it profitably,
actually achieving a certain level of profitability. Less so these last few years,
there's no doubt about it, but still it can do it. Maybe it can do it with the Tesla-Semi also.
Tesla announced that production has started. This production line is apparently capable of
making 50,000 trucks a year. I've tried to poke around to find what people are expecting this
year. Analysts are seeing between 5,000 and 50,000 units in 2026. I think that's way too optimistic,
to be honest, which I think the ramp up. If Tesla can build a thousand trucks this year,
I think that would be probably good. The price has still not been confirmed,
but we did report a few months ago, if you remember, we said we found some quotes
that Tesla is sending to customers for the 500-mile version, it's $290,000 US, which is almost
twice as much as the original price, but still the economy makes sense. The vehicle has an
800 kilowatt tri-motor system capable of 1.2 megawatt charging. The one thing that Tesla is not
talking about as much is the autopilot stuff. They say that it's going to be capable of some
level autonomy, but I think they are being a little bit cautious about that because they know that
when you talk about automating, truck driving, you upset part of your customer pool because
even though I think there's obviously that the bigger market is actually that the big fleet,
but the owner-operators are also part of the market and you don't necessarily want to
buy a truck that's going to make you obsolete in the near future.
With the Tesla Semi-Launch, Tesla also launched its megacharger for business and also a new
charger called the base charger for Semi. The four business stuff is the same thing that we
discussed a few weeks ago regarding the supercharger where we get actual pricing on this, a deploying
supercharger. Anyone that has a location where it would make sense to have a charging station can
buy a supercharger from Tesla and now it's the same thing with the megacharger and we actually
get a price on it at $188,000 for one megacharger which come with two posts of megacharging posts.
They look just like the V4 posts that you see right here and they are capable of 1.2 megawatts
of charging. That doesn't include installation, so obviously installation is going to be quite
expensive. I wouldn't be even shocked if it doubles the price of the project, but I still think
looking around it's hard to get actual pricing on these things, but looking around
it looks like Tesla still has a pretty significant advantage pricing wise when it comes to power
electronics and obviously charging infrastructures mainly consist of power electronics.
But then you have also the base charger which is limited to 125 kilowatt and this is sort of the
level, it's DC fast charging so it's not level 2, it's normally AC, but it's sort of the level 2
for trucks, for a big electric vehicle because if you just do a real AC charging solution it's
still going to take forever for you to charge. So the 125 DC fast charging is the overnight
charging for trucks and this is also like fairly cheap, $40,000 for a dual post system
and you have a DC 125 kilowatt DC charger on this. It would almost make sense to buy this for
like your own personal or small-scale DC fast charger for EVs, but I think it does. The problem
instead is it comes with the MCS connector so that the new microchargers standard connector for
trucks so you couldn't really use it on a... It's gotta be a adapter or something right?
I would assume but maybe not now because it's still like it's such a small market but yeah
eventually. But this is like the first time at least in North America because obviously you're
up in China, it's different, but that this is launching a charging station with a connector
that's already standard. Now obviously the Tesla won the sort of little standard war in North America
and the Tesla connector now known as the Nax is the standard but for a while Tesla was just doing
its own proprietary connector and then eventually that became the standard protocol but for the
mega charger Tesla is using the already standard practical MCS which other truck manufacturer
are using, other truck charging station operators are using. So this is quite obviously Tesla's
goal is to be interpretability where anyone can actually use these chargers which is good for
the industry because if the biggest... I would argue that the biggest impact this has had on the
EV industry especially in North America is through the supercharger network so if they can do something
similar with the mega charger network for electrifying the truck industry in North America
that would be massive. There's one thing I would like to note though that I found really
interesting. Do you remember a set in the 2017 presentation when Tesla talked about the mega
charger with the Tesla SMI and they tried to break down the cost of ownership of the Tesla
SMI by promising that they would have a mega charger network that would sell you electricity
at seven cents a kilowatt hour? Those are good old days. Yeah I remember precisely it was a decade
ago and I remember you and I looking at each other being like seven cents they're gonna sell
that seven cents like that's the main sense to us and I think even on the podcast after that we
talked about it we're like how can they like I guess like with like you have like solar for solar
farm maybe that's directly attached to the charging network and then you have the power
pack at the time at the time they were not mega packs even it was just the power packs
and that will control the load and then like we were training it but it was like how can you like
if you go to California right now and you try to get the fast charging station it's gonna charge
you like 50 cents a kilowatt hour like how do you break that down so much and we were right to
because right now so these you know mega charger for business is you buy the charging station you
install it and then you sell electricity to you buy electricity from your or produce it yourself
and then you sell it to these Tesla SMI owners and Tesla just like with the supercharger with
they charge 10 cents per kilowatt hour as a fee as a network fee and for this they start they charge
eight cents per kilowatt hour so it's lower than a supercharger network but still it's eight cents
per kilowatt it's one cents more per kilowatt hour than they were claiming that the entire cost of
charging would be 2017 on this so you haven't accounted for the cost of the actual electricity
before this this eight cents and you haven't accounted for the whatever cut that the owner
of the charging station is going to take so you would have to assume that it would be you know
several times that at least so I think I think this that was very delusional with that stuff
yeah obviously electric electricity is going to be a lot cheaper than diesel but but still like
the cost of your actual actually charging these things are going to affect
greatly did the overall cost of ownership
I still I still think it's going to be cheaper than diesel but even when I
can't think for the higher sticker price of $209,000 but you know every cent count
yep all right uh Tesla Robotaxi on supervised fleet finally showing some signs on ramping up
the uh the data on this is super hard to get by Tesla is not sharing anything more other than
cumulative mileage and things like that but we have the Robotaxi tracker that gives us the best
details on these so far and people like to have you know the cumulative fleet on this and like
use that as some kind of data which I think is completely useless I've been using this active
fleet so if you're being generous you can use like the 30-day tracking of the active fleet so
the vehicles that have been spotting the last 30 days and if you look at that chart here right now
if you are audio only right now I'm sorry but like it basically looks flat for the last you know
since the beginning of the year really so there hasn't been any meaningful growth in the network
this layer is operating about 150 vehicles most of them in the Bay Area which is basically you
know you were with FSD and then the unsupervised fleet was stuck at about 20 units and even then
they were operating about half the time not even that like a quarter of the time really
so no meaningful growth at all in the program and you know I
went before the program launch I was you know making some prediction and people call me a Tesla
hater for it for not believing that would happen but the truth is is like I my prediction was
way more optimistic in the inside now than what's happening that I thought this would have like a
hundred unsupervised vehicle operating by the end of the year in sure in small geofence area and some
you know cities without regulation in Texas and it turns out that it's even smarter than that but
finally a good news is that we see some ramping up of the unsupervised stuff so in the last few days
last two weeks there's been like consistent heading of new unsupervised vehicle to the fleet
and especially in the last two days there's been a big jump of like a big jump of like five units
but so it's better than nothing so now you have 25 unsupervised vehicles spotted in the last 30 days
of operation and yeah if you look at the active fleet it's roughly 20 vehicles like I said I thought
Tesla would be way higher than that at one point and and I was called a little bit too conservative
or pessimistic when it comes to that but at the very least it looks like consistent ramping rather
than basically a flat line since the launch last year so if this keeps going we could see Tesla
potentially you know being a little bit more you know willing to take some risk here which I'm not
saying it's the right approach because I do have a lot of issues with with how Tesla is approaching
this entire program and safety is still the bull neck even Elon confirmed that on the last earnings
call so but at the same time I do have to agree that the latest version of FSD is quite impressive
and that was derived from the robotaxi service so the I think if the limit especially the speed and
where they are operating these I think there's probably a way to do it without you know at
least killing anyone I think there's still going to be crashes and everything but it
could be relatively safe but at the same time where I was very generous in writing this article
like we're in my words like a meaning it's exactly this they're showing some signs of finally starting
to ramp up we're a year into the program we'll see but I'm keeping an eye on this in the next few
weeks to see if the trends continue if it was just like another little blip because there was a lot
of these little blips of like especially before earnings well now we're right after an earnings
so that has a little bit more value I think and last Tesla news I wanted to discuss this week is
Tesla trying to do some damage control with odd word three owners
so we've been we've been you know documenting this sort of trend that every time Tesla launches FSD
in the new market international market there's a big backlash where Tesla only launches on the
hardware four cars and now what has been happening in North America for a long time
where hardware three cars at least had FSD was just since I guess mid 2024
it's been slowly falling behind hardware four vehicles but at least you do have something
it's not nothing but for now for the people at the new markets with this is launching FSD
hardware three owners with bought FSD are like they get nothing compared to hardware four owners
so they get hit in the face with this pluralization now that way was it the bait and switch that I
get really screwed right now and which yeah you got screwed it's not about it but Tesla has realized
that now especially since the last effort since the launch in Europe where owners have been
organizing now and they're like yeah we need to address this and Tesla has responded they did
they did a post and to be honest I don't think their response had the impact that they wanted but
let me read you the response so following future rollout of FSD V14 light for hardware
three vehicles in the US future rollout in the US we plan our on expanding V14 light to
additional international market this update ensure that hardware three vehicles owner will
continue to benefit from ongoing software update since international rollout is subject to several
factors completion of technical verification regional adaptation and relevant regulatory
approval we can't provide definitive dates at the moment but we'll provide updates on a rolling
basis this is a lot of words to that let's say much to be honest what do you get out of that
statement so because for me like it's basically correct me if I'm wrong but they're basically
saying we're gonna launch the 14 light on hardware three vehicle in the US in the future after that
we will also launch it in international market after after that and after what when we don't
we don't know anyone tell you yeah and also like what exactly is v14 light gonna have like they can
just re-enable 12 as v14 light if they wanted to right technically yes I think people would
notice though because I think there's a you know fairly significant gap between v12 and v14 but
again it's v14 light so it's not v14 either right yeah I don't know yeah it's you know it's still
not if v14 is not what people bought which they bought unsupervised self-driving they
they're gonna not gonna be happy with 14 light because it's not gonna be as good as v14 which
is not unsupervised self-driving so you know I get it for the people that are subscribing to fsd
that's not you know that's not that big of a worry because you were buying whatever
capability is this month not what's gonna be in the future but for hardware three people where
you know subscription wasn't even a thing when they bought their car for the most part
you bought it thinking that he would support unsupervised self-driving and now what you're
getting from Tesla is you know a promise that in the future you will get a light version of
something that's not even unsupervised self-driving so it's such you know a poor response in my opinion
that I don't I don't see where Tesla is going with this like well I mean at some time I see it
like last time we talked about I think all these stuff is just this stuff is just stalling tactic
from Tesla is just try to push everything a little bit further down the road until more people upgrade
to order were three car other were four cars sorry because the because all the way three cars is
a liability for Tesla this one all right I did a big post on my my time at the Beijing to show
by the way you've you've been back for what a few days now how do you feel like like everybody
who goes to the like the Beijing and the Shanghai auto show comes back and is like oh we're screwed
like do you still feel that way I mean it depends on what you mean about we're we're screwed like
American and European car industry yeah everyone that depends on the American auto industry I think
it is true like long term definitely because that's what I wrote in this book I wrote that
what this makes it clear is that the future of the auto industry is electric because everything
was electric there and it's also Chinese because the the scale it's just so hard to explain the scale
to people so like if you're watching right now I posted like I posted this um this is the map of
the auto showcase this is a full this is not like a like a zoomed inversion on the right this there's
there's like two shows at the show it's like they have 17 halls one hall is like the thing that I
circle right now that this is one hall so in the one hall they were more
electric vehicle models than they are available ones in the US and there were 17 halls like that
and I kid you not other than like two or three all's more for like suppliers like a parts and
everything like that they were more EV models in each one of these than in all of the US combined
it's there were 1400 vehicles there you know over a thousand probably over 1200 were electric
you know a very few fully gas powered and a few hybrids and even then if you have a few hybrids
most of them were like ERVs too so like you know very much electric first and then no gas generator
in there 181 world premieres 71 concept vehicles so there was a bunch of concept but most of most
of the vehicles there were actually vehicles you could buy and look were they all good vehicles
no definitely not but they were enough of them that were great that it gets you thinking it gets
you thinking of like how do you compete with that because because because they are competing with
each other so most of them would probably not succeed but the the vehicle programs there that
will succeed are going to be so good so appealing internationally so not just in China compared
to you know American automakers and not just American automakers but most foreign automakers
that are not really competing in China which I think is a vast majority of them and other than Tesla
that Tesla has you know the same you know roughly the same vehicle programs that they
internationally they have in China so it could be the same thing but a lot like
another automakers like Toyota for example they bring a lot of their vehicles there that are
actually not even available in other markets so and they're having issues competing with the
Chinese brands too so I think the Chinese brands are just are just taking over it's you know you
have Audi's another good example like it's Audi by name there but it's just is it really Audi vehicles
and I'm not really you have the Volkswagen and the the Jetta stuff too there a lot of crazy
off-road vehicles you have this one here from the JC group it's some crazy this one was more of a
concept I think but they had some plenty of like ready to product production vehicles that are
off-road this year the Dreamy or that's like literally a vacuum electronics company that's
making cars now I think the bottom to maker and then the we'll put some more technology in there
you have Toyota there a lot of Toyota's available there electric not available elsewhere this is
I don't even know what that is oh that's a Lexus electric concept that's there that's still Toyota
and this is the Mike's show that's the basically like a Rolls Royce of China this this is one of
the rare ones that's actually available outside of China that's the spits the cyber
cyberster from MG crazy concept from Buick that's there the MW had a pretty nice lineup and
and BMW even though there is some China only market vehicles they are you know like that
study do sell things that are international as well so probably good this is one of the most
frustrating one the Bronco like a Bronco was sick like the electric Bronco super cool vehicle like
they should they should sell why in the world when they sell that here yeah I mean I guess it would
be much more expensive but like it's just still like the Bronco is not cheap either it is there's
a way to make it happen another crazy off-road concept here yeah so this one I think this one
is one that you can actually buy and it's other off-road vehicle they had some sick electric
bikes I really like this one the geometry on this one looks like really cool this was probably a
concept too though yeah that was strange so you know like the idea of like car
like models next to the cars like that's kind of a front-up on all these days in the western world
that you don't not there not not there but they do it a bit different so like I have some guy models
too I saw say that again that's a male models as well yeah it's a male models and it's not like
like bikini people and things like that like it's it's it's more like they are well dressed and
everything so they're still doing that there and it's more like for pictures like I guess some people
like it for a reference for pictures like to have someone next to the car too it can be useful like
personally I'm like yeah that's just like I feel like I'm taking a picture of you instead of the
picture of the car like get out of the way yeah yeah like yeah so this one here like I want to take
a picture of this vehicle and then every time I was taking a picture the woman in front was like
trying to get in the right angle for me I'm like sorry it's not well you have to make sure but
look the weirdest part of this is like you see this woman here she has this tripod with an iPhone
in front of her and she's just filming herself all the way through here so all the models have
a phone in front of them and they're filming themselves and some of them are just that like
you just you just see them and they have live stream on but yeah you had others like these
okay so you see all these people here they're a whole you know I guess hired by the car company
and they're all live streaming themselves with a chat and responding to their chat just non-stop it's
just non-stop like I cannot even understand what they're saying anyway it's Chinese but
they talk so fast and just like respond to everything on their chat and just I get and they're not
walking around the show or anything like they're not like oh I'm gonna I'm sure some of them
were but plenty of them were just hired by the company to just be there in the booth and just
talk non-stop with their chat it was strangest experience and there was like hundreds of these
people around so that the influencer economy is very real in China um yeah one of the reason
why they're dominating too is is this is like you had giant booth also not just photo makers but for
suppliers and the fact that the suppliers is right or right there in China all the biggest
battery automakers and battery makers in the world are right next to the to the automakers
they have a quick cycle you know when CATL you know CATL is a Tesla cost is a Tesla supplier also
but you know when when they come up with a new cell a new chemistry you know Tesla is not the
first buyer generally that well Tesla also likes you know to maintain their cost a little bit lower
but these these things they get into the new vehicle program so fast there and yeah they would
be why these you know battery maker and manufacturer but you had CATL there you had CLB there you had
Eve was there or EV you know I'll never know how they want to be pronounced they had a bunch of
them that I didn't know existed battery row was things like that like they had a big booth there
and they had showing the lineup of batteries CATL had a very cool one where they they had these
so they're doing a battery swapping station that is
it's you know Neo is probably the one that best known for the battery swapping
but now they're standardizing battery swapping and CATL is part of that and they had at their boot
this battery swapping station but all covered in glass so you could actually see the whole
process and it was it was actually very interesting to see
Tesla was missing from the show by the way Tesla was not there
even though China is a massive market for them but nope nowhere to be seen they weren't even like
you know like they they literally were not at the show yeah no booth I mean I walk the whole
show so unless I miss them but you know it's a giant giant place and um yeah I mean I literally
walked like 20 kilometers that day like to to to walk the whole show it was just it was huge
and and to be like to be honest not everything is good like I saw some great vehicle but also
I saw like we're gonna talk about the Xiaomi su7 for example I saw a dozen Xiaomi su7 copycat
like you know like because of this copy it's like they copy each other too yeah yeah because Xiaomi
the su7 is greatly inspired by the Porsche Taycan right and now great success on the in the Chinese
markets a bunch of that like a bunch of time I was literally like looking around I'm like
that's a that's a su7 and then I look up it's like well that's not the Xiaomi booth
then I go it's like no that's a CAIC uh new model that came out like looks just like it and it was
six others like that so that's obviously not sustainable but because this is happening and
they are all competing like that in each other's the best one that are going to survive are going
to be so competitive at the world stage while all the other markets we don't have that kind of
competition is just going to fall behind and yeah I mean I always think about like all right
let's look at Ford they got the Mustang Machi unchanged from what you know when it came out
like eight years ago mm-hmm f150 lightning e-transit that's like that's the same lineup for like six
years ago yeah you know like it's crazy like they they have not been iterating at all I mean I know
they have some stuff coming but you know Chevy like I went to the the New York auto show you know
like oh there's the bolt you know like uh like there's just not not much going on you know
comparatively and that's a good transition to meet us driving the next generation of the
Su-7 so the the iteration the speed of iteration is really what's impressive here so that's that's
a great like microcosm of the entire industry because of the Chinese auto industry and its speed
because Xiaomi wasn't an automaker four years ago didn't have anything on the market until two years
ago now they have two vehicles on the market both best-selling in their segment and the Su-7 was
just two years old is already getting a refresh which you know they called it a mid-cycle refresh
I think especially with the under the hood changes would qualify as a mid-cycle refresh
and they did it in two years while most automakers will do it in four years like it's the speed is
insane and so the changes we already discussed a little bit of the changes and you know you
can check out my video on youtube to get into all the details but now they uh they brought
everything to a 800 volts architecture already some of them were on a 800 volt but the standard
was 400 now it's 752 so almost 800 volt so you get more efficient you know a little bit faster
charging 12 minutes 10 to 80 percent down from 19 the bigger packs are at 15 minutes down from 20
extremely good charging time and that's the recurring thing in China is like the third
charging time is completely another level than in North America right now when it comes to electric
vehicles and and they have the crazy megawatt charging station to deliver them too so you know
there's no chicken and egg situation like chickens are here and the eggs are here and um yeah a little
bit more efficient a little bit higher range you 720 you gain 20 kilometers on the cltc standard
for a standard one the pro gets the biggest jump from 835 to 902 835 kilometers for the max version
which was the one that I was uh testing so now they all get the catl cells the base one was
previously a dyd cell that it's still a lfp cell for the base one but the the catl one
they also upgraded the motor to the new version six motors a little bit more power
they also have now standardized the nvidia tor orange chip i mean on all vehicles so they all
get orange prior than that it was just the top ones that were getting in and the base one was
getting a smaller one the uh so the the big change on the design is on the front end and
it's the entire air intake here that's been redesigned it's been mostly redesigned around this
new radar here so they have a new um 4d millimeter radar a much more high-defension radar radar
and uh that with that they have the you know new computer and they also still have the lidar i
still i'd are on top here so they have everything you have all the cameras they have the new radar
and then the new lidar and i didn't manage to test the you know the fsd competitor with with
xiaomi i'm hearing great things about it that's the top of the line and everything but uh literally
the car that they gave me was brand brand new like you know no kilometers on it at all so
they were still doing the calibration so in calibration is a little bit longer than with
tesla by the end of my test drive we had the automated parking feature unlocked but we still
needed to drive a little bit more and then go through the the process of uh accepting the um
i don't know how the um had system they call it their fsd competitor
the also big thing so the thing with this this u7 and i well that wasn't even the ultra that we
tested it was the max a ton of power for a relatively cheap price and so if you give people
that are not normally used to that kind of power you give access to them through the you know the
value of the vehicle and not everyone can control that kind of power so there was a lot of people
that were crashing these vehicles same thing happened in the early days of tesla first time
with the people like in a model s that had like 600 dollars power they're like what the hell like
super powerful and um and quick also a lot of torque so what they did is like they made
standard the wider tires now on the rear and bigger brakes all across the vehicles not
just for the higher end version so it gives a little bit more control to people also updated
safety with the new a little bit more powerful uh steel you know they already had a high string
steel but now it's bump up by 10 percent uh the front now is uh powered and actually powered so
it's a powered front which which is a nice little update because i do realize now that every time
i'm opening and using the front of my tesla and this is why i don't use it too often like i i only
use it if everything else is full is you know you end up with a bunch of fingerprints on uh
in the front and it's also like one of the dirtier part of the car like you know it's
the front end of your vehicle so it gets dirty so you dirty your hand for it so not having to touch
it close it and open it is uh it's pretty useful so it's a small but nice little upgrade um yeah
i mean my test drive i was very impressed by the vehicle like price wise that's the the thing that
changed it did increase the price especially for the standard one so you get 10 000 to 14 000 more
when but um it's uh so it still started 31 000 dollars equivalent of 31 000 dollars
which is still cheaper than the model three the base model three in in china
so i still i think you get more value for the price and uh yeah uh i was i was really impressed
they owned my main my main complaint about the refresh here and i do understand why they
don't didn't do it because it would be like a big change from inside the vehicle and this is a
mid-cycle refresh it's not a full new generation of it is the uh heads up this place situation
so the did i put that yeah so the in the we talked about this a few weeks ago said because of um
i think it's the the new ix tree that got it from BMW so i think i really think this is
going to be a big trend in the interior design right now of the auto industry is this display
in the back here that sits between the windshield and the dash so it serves it serves both as a
heads up display and as an instrument cluster so it replaced the instrument cluster and also
it's a passenger screen on the same time because you the passenger can enjoy it and i um the su 7
as an insane heads up display yeah the heads up display is so large it has the visualization
the driving so so Xiaomi as like tesla style autopilot visualization you have that in the heads
up display on top of the navigation on top of all the instrument cluster information so it's a lot
and it's huge and by the end of my drive you know i drove it for like an hour and a half going now
like three hours total maybe by after an hour and a half or something my eye started to adjust i was
looking too much at the heads up display but still it takes a lot of your field of view
and it was bothering me a little bit i i do think that this heads up display that's like
not really an heads up display it's just a normal display but at the end of the dash instead of
being a little bit forward is really the solution because having it all the way through like the
yu7 and and the ix tree it makes for a cleaner design of the dash because it's uniform there's no
the symmetry between both sides but also it's far enough that you you don't have to move your eyes
at all to see it so it's not like the instrument cluster closer to you where you still have to
you know move a little bit like that and it's also not too high like a true heads up display like an
augmented reality the heads up display that it's literally in your field of view so it's still
only in the yu7 it's not in the su7 so that's why i would probably if you if i had the option of
buying a xiaomi vehicle in canna but you know hopefully in the next few years maybe that's
going to be an option um i would go with a yu7 instead of the su7 but if you're more of a sit-in
person and also i'm it's more fun to drive than the the yu7 it's just like did they say anything
about when canadian availability would be yeah i asked them they didn't want to elaborate on that
and i don't think that really they are even considering it right now there is still very
much focus on 2027 launch in europe so that's that's really the first expansion that's going to be
right yeah i asked expand also because i didn't spend a few times i thought time would expand
and the same thing on that front but i did get to try the new vla 2.0 and uh it was a very high
opening it's uh you know i let the people think i'm a hating on fsd but my point on fsd has always
been the same if it was sold as a driver assistant system which it is and not you know something that's
about to become unsupervised self-driving it would be one of the most impressive product ever released
it's super good that what it does is just not what it is sold at and that's the main issue with
since the beginning with fsd but i've always been very impressed the actual product especially
the latest version v14.3 and v14.2 are both very impressive software but they're not alone anymore
and that's the big thing that came out with expand vla 2.0 is extremely close to fsd they're
catching up really fast i cannot tell you that it's as good yet uh there's been a bunch of
demonstration in china i was there with uh kim java the youtuber king java oh yeah yeah who's
who's a big tesla fan i think i'm thinking she's it's fair to say that you know you cannot clap
fire as a tesla eater whatsoever and she had the opportunity to do a side by side drive i recommend
that you go watch her video on youtube where she did on the same route she drove the fsd in china
and the expand vla 2.0 and to be fair in china fsd is v13 it's not v14 it's not as good as in the
us they were limited under training data you know for regulatory reason but you know it is v14 it's
still pretty pretty name good uh that's it it's v13 sorry i think i said v14 again um and they were
just as impressed by the vla 2.0 as they were by the the performance of v13 in guangzhou so for me
i tested it in beijing in beijing if you have never driven in beijing it is quite an experience
you know if i'm not being india might not be like vietnam like i don't know those are like next
level also but the drivers are extremely aggressive if you don't take your spot you won't go anywhere
you really have to squeeze in everything and you know if you're not an aggressive driver it can be
very uncomfortable uh so it's interesting to see how an automated system can can do in those in those
conditions and i did a whole 40 minute drive no intervention i did technically one intervention
when i did press the accelerator where you know just like fsdv 14 does all the time too it just
it was driving like 40 kilometers an hour in a 70 zone for some reason uh so i did press a little
bit and started there but no no intervention no disengagement and there was this uh from this picture
here and i posted my whole video on youtube if you want to check it out but there was one occasion
i was very close on pressing on the brake pedal because first of all you can turn on the on you
can make a right turn on the red light in in china or in beijing that's occur and you can do that in
canada too but in canada you uh you you you make a stop you you still stop at the red light and then
you look and then you go there they don't do that like if it's a red light it's just they go and then
they squeeze in whatever they can squeeze in so uh and that's not just expand vla it's just it's how
people drive so first of all i was already really alert when i see it goes on the red light
but then my um the expand employees next to me was like no worry that's good but then then
there were a lot of traffic coming in here and it was clearly trying to go right behind this
van even though there was more cars coming right behind it but it just it took its spot and we're
like right in there it just took its spot and and pretty good and there was a few other occasions
like that i was like close call but you know it was more about being aggressive than anything else
went around you know plenty of scooters and bicycles because there's a ton of that there
and and yeah vla 2.0 is like tesla is an end-to-end system so they uh they do vision only uh full
stack ai all the way through and you know there was always this idea that you know expand copy tesla
and even stole the autopilot uh source code they were cleared of that it was it was apparently an
issue with a tesla autopilot worker downloading the source code and then going to expand but then uh
tesla sued not expand but the employee itself and through the arbitration process they hired a
third party to look at the source code on each side and they determined that no expand was just
was not using tesla's technology at all so they've been clear of that but it is very similar
technology on just on paper and on performance you know honestly from my 40-minute drive which is
you know an anecdotal experience it's not enough data but it felt pretty much exactly like v4 team
it felt like an aggressive version of fsd in in beijing in beijing driving so yeah they're catching
up so this i think this idea that you know tesla is going to be the only one with this uh technology
i think should should dissipate quickly now because obviously it's not the case uh i think i think
also selling you know fsd subscription a hundred dollar a month is not something that's really
realistic uh in the long term because the expand is not selling this like this is included on their
you know higher trim vehicles so you don't even have to pay for it just include it in there um
and you you buy the car and you always have it so i just i i don't i think i think it's clear
it's going to be a lot of competition it's just right now it's mainly in china because you also
have Huawei that has this you have Xiaomi that has this you have BYD that has similar competing
product there varying degrees i think expand is probably the closest one to tesla there but you
know it's catching up quickly and then i think same thing is going to happen in other markets
you know Rivian has launched their competing product now and obviously i think they are
probably a year or two behind tesla but i think they're catching up fast too so i think the same
thing is going to happen in north america also this i think this eventually is going to be
like a standard feature inside of vehicle it's not going to be something that's you or if it's
going to be charged it's going to be like twenty dollars a month not a hundred i mean it seems like
it once you build it one time it's kind of commoditized exactly yeah i don't i don't see any other
way it's not it's not going to make sense on that if you if you take responsibility that's
something else if it's truly a level three level four level five and you take responsibility for
it and then the you know it's it's a sure fair now it's not level two then it's different but i you
know expand is not really talking about it they you know they're saying that that's their goal
obviously but that's not unlike tesla that is selling you that ahead of time they're not doing
that once you know if tesla gets there before they're well others yes they have an advantage but
i think it's going to be a short-lived advantage just the main problem when you talk about tesla
and you know autonomy being such a big part of the company now all right we just mentioned
rivian and also as a company product they had their earnings this week and they had a slight
beat the beat both on you know the loss was smaller than anticipated the revenue was a bit higher
but the the big headline you know that captured the earnings was updated plans for the georgia
manufacturing factory they increased the initial phase of production by 50 to up to 300 000 vehicles
per year before that it was 200 000 i think the facility overall can ramp up to higher than that
but that's the first phase of production i think they are very confident with the r2 situation
which starts production in in illinois but i'm going to shift to georgia after that
the you know it's kind of a situation like tesla with uh you know tesla freeman tesla texas
it's kind it's kind of a similar situation with rivian that they're doing now
i don't know if anything else was really interesting they did talk about the uber deal
now that they have investment from uber robotex on uber but
yeah so it was a revenue of 1.3 billion and they've been in some increase over
yas years same period last year
automotive revenue fell a little bit but that's being compensated through if you were regular
through credit but they have a revenue from the volkswagen deal that's helping so they lost on the
one point you know almost 1.4 billion they lost 400 million
compared to 540 million a year ago so still have 4.8 billion dollars in cash and cash and current
you know if they lose half a million dollar a year a quarter 4.8 billion in in pocket they
have a good two years before they are they need to be absolutely profitable
which sounds realistic at this point because you know r2 volume production of r2 is is when
they should be like start to be comfortably profitable and and that's you know on this
major setback i think that's very much achievable you know this time next year i would like to see
them at like you know 20 000 units yeah they don't need to burn through all their cash hopefully
that you know they they don't get close but and you know they could probably go back to the markets
and get a few more quarters and they have the volkswagen deal that it keeps helping them too so
it's not like i think it's very much achievable at this point until unless some kind of force major
event that's uh that that send them back i think i think it's very much doable yeah all right we
have one more news item to discuss before we jump into the comment section so if you guys have question
for us you can put them in the comment section right now and i get to it a few minutes it can be
about any topics in the ev world or something specific that we're discussing today we uh do
appreciate your question and your take so you can do that we're gonna discuss a little bit about
sodium battery so that was a big thing that was discussed in china to the sodium batteries solid
state and sodium are two of the main things that are being discussed right now you know solid state
kind of the higher hand of the market you know could you know push evs into new categories
new top performance while on the sodium side it's kind of uh it's seen as as lfp is kind of like
maturing into you know reaching its full potential in term of cost and performance
sodium is seen as potentially replacing that as you know potentially it's cheaper and higher
density all the while having a much longer longevity so naturally where it's being used first is
energy storage stationary energy storage because that's where it gets a lot of value for
its longevity because obviously in a car like if you can get 10 000 cycles in the battery in a car
it's like great but the car is going to fall apart by the time you reach like 8 000 cycles
you can not gonna not gonna have a car just gonna have a battery around it which is cool but then
it's like you need to think about that a little bit well 10 000 cycle and they're
star stationary storage it gets a lot of value over that time and it is interesting though like
they they're making batteries that are last longer than cars now like that's no longer a thing to
think about you know yeah exactly and this is going in cars too by the way that i can i don't want
i don't want to mislead you because satiel actually has deal to make that into first production cars
this year but now they just the big news this week was they signed a huge deal with uh i forget the
name of a hyper strong technology so they're a big operator of energy storage projects especially
in asia and they signed a 60 gigawatt hour supply deal for sodium batteries with them and with that
announcement satiel it was was clear that like this is you know this is a short-term deal i think
it's over three years and it's it shows that we are ready to go mainstream to go volume production
with sodium batteries these are going to get deploys in coming months the coming years this
is a real thing they're entering mass production with this so i think this is a big deal because
you know solid state was always you know technology of the future i think it's also now
happening like i think you know we're going to see by the end of the decade you know several
vehicle programs several product having real solid state batteries in them but i think you know
high volume and you know cost reductions and then it's going to take a while i don't i don't think
solid state is going to be a big part of the industry for you know probably another full decade
but sodium might come in faster than than we think because because it looks like it's already
you know in mass production right now it's already being deployed so i think this is a big deal it's
semi-really here or just one of one off and then crickets i think it's more here than it was what
do you think oh no it's here like if if you're gonna announce like volume production and you
can actually like it is on the production line at teslas then like hundreds of millions if not
billions on they're gonna produce them like it's gonna come out of the production line you know
same thing can happen as like a cyber truck for example you know you plan for half a million of
them a year at least a production of a quarter of a million of them a year but the price is much
higher than your original announced and then you know you get some adoption from early adopters first
but then maybe doesn't pan out like this is still a possibility with the teslas semi because they
it is much more expensive than the first announced but like the cyber truck it is in production right
now so they they can produce probably thousands of them over the next few months like i said if
they have a thousand of them i need another year i think i think that would be a success and then
you know a few thousand next year and so on but um yeah it's still something to look at to see
how the adoption rate is all right let's hope the stupid war at least boost EV sales oh yeah
so that's one thing in china that i should discuss like i was talking to a lot of people
there about like hey you guys are doing a great job and EV adoption already over 50 percent of
cars and everyone was like 50 percent like okay i mean you hold that at a job right now because
right now i don't know anyone that's not buying an EV right now if they're buying something because
with the price of gas and people are freaking out here because you know there's already rumors that
there's going to be shortages and everything especially if the war doesn't end soon so people
are like everyone wants an EV right now yeah i think semi might finally start shipping but buying
will probably be low until more infrastructure is deployed it's definitely going to be a ramp
yeah yeah but i think you know test is going to be smart at first they're not going to deliver them
to to you know long-haul trucking i think at first it's going to be more about people that have an
infrastructure distribution infrastructure and you just you can deploy those in the base charger
now that they have and you know other solution at those distribution centers so it is just going
to be one distribution to another and not not really have to uh to have to make a charger deploy
all right truck charging is about to get more flexible see it first at act i think we have an
ad here act expo next week or stay tuned for the global introduction on wednesday 6th of may act
yes all right there should be a few things announced at the act for sure next week yeah it's a it's a
big it's big for trucking question will the legacy domestic automaker stay committed to EVs forward
in GM looking wobbly that's what they usually do when the tide you know the winds change slightly
they're like no more EVs we're going this way and then no i might be naive or anything but i think
this is the last time they can do this right like yeah i think it's especially if if the
electoral people like the people the voting people in the US don't go nuts again in in in
november and in next next elections and everything but like let's say that you you get you know you
kick you kick out the circus for the next election cycle and um so because because they do follow the
policy the politics political win in the us uh those two automakers specifically um and then
after that so i'm sure that they then they're gonna go oh we're we're back on board with EVs if that
happens and everything but even if that doesn't happen within the next four years i think it's
gonna it's gonna look stupid if you're not like fully all really i know they're saying that they
are all in but like truly all in in all that you vehicle because the rest of the world has
moved on already and it's it's pretty clear so if the US is like alone especially if like
mexico is getting electrified and china and canada on top of it's gonna hfi you just get
stuck between the two and like i think it doesn't not gonna make any sense to
to not go fully all in on that you because test the semi cost 290k a diesel semi cost 100 to 200
that's a big difference don't you think most truckers will convert especially a long haul
because of 500 miles range in the us but australia diesel is nine to twelve dollars so australian
no i think for the average mileage per year um if you can control your electricity costs
you can justify roughly you know 100 000 higher purchase price it's uh it's achievable especially
if the you know the maintenance costs is also down i think i think the the economies of it
makes sense you know over a 10 year period is hundreds and hundreds of thousand dollars of
diesel that you buy yeah i mean i think truckers are particularly susceptible to like the the cost
of fuel so they and then you have to think like when it when it changes like these these spikes
happen again like if you have a big spike like that in they are EVs out there to drive like
they become so much more competitive instantly uh so it's uh people gonna think about that so i
think i think people gonna want to have them in their fleet just for that and uh and then as
they confirm the cost of ownership being lower over time they're gonna quickly now update their
fleet all right moving on uh roadster and robo taxi still nothing model sx canceled and there's
no stock anymore lol when gas prices go crazy luckily we have real suv equinox revian lucid
they will eat tesla cake i don't know i think it's also benefiting a lot from the the the fuel
increase like we see recovery now in europe thanks to that uh china i'm sure they're doing okay in
china too they're more competitive but i think gas prices helping them a lot but um yeah the
the robo taxi the cyber cab thing is is kind that that's i i still don't get it like you
you were supposed to have hundreds of robo taxi if not thousands of them as the end of last year in
operation using model wise and that is hasn't happened yet because safety is still a concern
the cyber cab doesn't solve the safety issue so it's kind of a useless vehicle program to
ramp up right now so i don't get it but for the roadster one thing like if the tesla semi gave
give us something it's give us hope for the roadster if after 10 years it gets into volume
production you know the roadster was announced at the same time so maybe maybe the roadster is finally
going to come wouldn't that be hilarious is if the first man you found out it's just being silly now
all right uh the v14 light statement seems like a delay tactic in the future doing a lot of work
especially for a company that's consistently missed on those commitments yeah i i don't like
that at all i would like to see more more details on that do do a clear timeline i i know it's hard
because you you haven't stick to any of the timelines when it comes you know you remember
like when tesla had these monthly fsd update that they were giving like the product roadmap
monthly update on product roadmap they did it for two months and then they were like oh we're not
doing that again because we keep keep missing all the timelines on there like maybe you should
do that you should go back to doing that and then just miss them but like update us on what's
happening because you have hundreds of thousands of people that bought fsd on all the worth week
vehicles that are completely left in the dark now other than this statement that they released this
week that is you know they see the least
all right that was from linkedin and we have another one i was never going to pay the full
price for fsd but i didn't have a decent reason to pay $90 for fsd subscription as long as the
fsd was limited to 12 on my hardware three teslas but x14 light is something yeah i mean what is
x14 light though like we don't know what it's going to be because you know personally if even if
v14 light is as good as v14 is right now which you know is not a given personally i don't think i
would pay a hundred dollars a month for that maybe like it was like yesterday i had to do an event
in kebec city and it was very cool we saw a bunch of construction equipment that was electric it was
not a fun event because it was like raining all day and i didn't get to try anything because it was
disgusting but still it was i saw some cool machines and then i drove back and i was super
tired because i'm still on chinese time and everything and i have to admit that i i got there
faster with fsd than i would have otherwise because i had to stop and take a nap and i would
probably have to stop and take a longer nap or like not go at all if i wasn't for fsd because i
was not feeling confident but so there's value in things like that it does like you can focus more
on the road and not being as tired from driving i do get home and i feel a little bit less tired
than i was if i you know simply driving all the way through but like i said a hundred dollars for
that and especially between 12 and 14 12 doesn't mean there's a pretty good job on the highways i
think right yeah i agree like i actually quite enjoyed 12 i wish it was obviously better and
i could read a book or something but it's not bad uh cyberster was a hoot test drove it last
summer here in finland is that because the mg one that uh oh yeah through the picture earlier
yeah and then we're gonna get some cabriolet some convertible electric now there's this
spider already cyberster story and then the densa unveiled their formula x1 to that uh
none of the z9 i think z9 densa z9 i think uh in in china and they confirmed by the confirm
that they're bringing it to europe too so you know europe's gonna get a couple of uh
you know convertible electric convertible which is somehow not a big thing yet all right bronco
e rev bev is sick and no range anxiety for americans lol you only need e rev if you tow a lot
um yeah after the cold sometimes but yeah uh bronco e rev is supposed to get up to 30
miles per gallon compared to 17 to 20 miles per gallon for the current bronco it's already a lot
better yeah it's already 50 it's a hybrid like you know you're gonna put all that break uh energy
back into the car and i'm sure it highly depends on how you use it to actually you can push it a
higher if you if you use it you know optimize it for the electric electric driving there's always
around it all right the mg cyberster it looks very cool i'm seeing sporty affordable ev convertibles
and i think they would sell well in the us if ev sports cars were available to purchase here i
agree but yeah the Porsche Boxster the ev Boxster that's supposed to come like that now they seem to
like put on the back burner like a lot of other things i think that would have been like a big
success but you know what do i know all right donut update uh yeah uh no not really uh yeah a big
zero big donut uh no the uh not like i wouldn't put too much stock in in that at one point you
know i don't think it's a fraud necessarily i know that there's the the lawsuit right now that's
going and everything i i think they were just way too optimistic about their production capacity
and and you know not realistic about hurdles that come with ramping up production they might
have an actual like technology that makes sense and everything but yeah they uh they went too big
too soon i think it's uh is people like to call fraud and everything but as far as i can tell like
i've defrauded anyone like i don't know maybe some investors i haven't heard of an actual investment
yet yeah uh just news uh yeah i agree that the windshield strip heads up display will be very
popular moving forward thanks for your take on this technology right yeah i guarantee you that's
going to be that's going to be something in the future you already saw it though while you seven
did it now i i extruded it i think yeah i think it was rj who mentioned building r2 and r3 variants
in georgia which gave me some hope for a small rivian truck yeah i kind of hope there was an r2
t i i feel like rivian but do you get the jump here from like the r2 r3s to
a small rim of variants like okay like a new version of it okay yeah i guess
i think it's different rams though i think like maybe they want to do like the r2s
they're doing the all-wheel drive r2s in illinois first and then they're gonna switch to the you
know rear wheel drive r2s in in georgia i think um yeah for me that's more how i was thinking like
yeah yeah yeah all right it's good to see cattle sodium ion battery offerings actually start
production especially in their free boy hybrid packs that use the sodium ion batteries together
with other battery chemistries yeah yeah i saw that he did that it's uh you know it's
interesting approach mixed chemistries all right carls got a uh a sad take rivian is trying to
bail itself out launching the r2 in this economy looks grim it'd be one thing if r1 was ramping
down because it was end of life but that ramp down is evaporating sales zero profits uh i i don't
think so like i mean the r2 is definitely going about the r2 like they need the r2 to work that's
true for sure yeah but i don't i think this economy is not that bad that a r2 could do fine in it
yeah it's cheaper you know yeah it's gonna do better than the r1s it's sure it's not the cheapest
vehicle i agree and it's not the best economy and maybe the timing is not perfect but i think it's
all achievable question how will tesla continue to compete in the china asia markets without new models
yep yeah i think i think tesla is is lucky right now in china that the the man for evs is
through the roof because of gas because when you look at the pace that things are improving from
chinese automakers like i said with the yu7 the su 7 next gen it's like i i don't see why you would
buy a mold 3 right now if you have access to that and same thing with the mold y with the yu7 and
then same thing for a bunch of other offering in the chinese market like from byd and from
it was z cura some really cool a little bit more iron hand too but still like in the price range
that tesla is operating right now there's so many options especially there's like a bunch of option to
like right below market that is almost as good as tesla basically but you're gonna pay like 50
thousand win less you know which is still like you know a few thousand dollars so it's such a
competitive market it's crazy but i think tesla is being helped right now quite a bit by the the
changes and tesla has not really updated its offering which doesn't seem to be the plan and
fsd is not unsupervised yet i don't i don't see how they compete long term yeah all right driving
exhausts batters driving drunk fsd is in the crutch i agree i agree no so my point is more like
it it takes a little bit less effort it's you don't you're not as tired when you drive with it
so i i can like you know i i knew i my hand my hand is always on the wheel or no you're ready to
take control of the wheel you normally like they aren't sort of on my knees with ready to i don't
see it right now but like they're resting on my knees and i'm ready to just grab the wheel like that
and i'm looking i'm looking i'm looking and like this is less than having to like you know steer
and um you know you can achieve similar result i i think too with you know just lane keeping
and like a good lane keeping and the acts of cruise control that's true but then you know i'm
i'm driving at a set speed on the highway and i'm also passing the cars and everything so i'm not
you know i'm not holding up traffic or anything like that so especially since the latest update
where like it goes back into the right lane and etc so it's just i don't i'm i'm a very good driver
i think and i especially like a very respectful on the road and always going back in the right
lane everything since tesla can do that fairly well i i see more value in the system for that
because it drives like i would drive and i just have to like stay attentive and be ready to take
control i think that that has a lot of value when you're you're you're i don't know if you if you're
falling asleep you should stop and then that's what i did by the way i was i was feeling myself
just like that i'm like oh no no no and i stopped the first place i could and i took a little a
quick nap like it's just even you've been like a 10-minute nap then you totally all right uh going
from tesla to rivian i'd say rivian's level two is where tesla was in 2019 it's a long time ago
good fewer bugs but you don't think that they're following tesla's arbitrary pricing annoying
those burned by tesla um i haven't driven rivian's self-driving in quite a bit but uh that's about
i should expect that that guy's probably right like i i would think it's probably similar to
otolpala 2019 2020 i wouldn't be surprised by that but here's the thing with software it's improving
so fast so don't be surprised if they catch up really quickly so and the difference between
like if they catch up they get to like 99 fsd like 99.9 fsd and tesla is at 99.99 fsd it's
still like the the value is still extremely similar like a lot of the value the true value
in automated driving is actually you know real level four where the where the the system takes
responsibility and everything and so if tesla is not there and rivian is just like one nine behind
the actual value proposition is still virtually the same so the the the price that it's commoditized
the whole thing and and then if rivian is charging $50 for it and tesla's gonna start $100 for it but
like guess what people are gonna go with the rivian one and that that's my main point
yeah all right uh last thing i think rj said something about variance of the platform not
the specific models if that yes the point would be do you think that the rivian could really do a
pickup on the r2 platform i don't know i don't know the answer to that personally
i mean they did one with the r1 platform in fact that was the like the r1 it was designed for that
the r1 s was that the variant instead of yeah so yeah but it was designed for that i think i think
rivian just sees a much bigger market for suvs than pickups let board do the pickup
yeah i would like to see it though and i think you're the same like it would be it would be good
if the if they do it i just i don't know if it's in the plan right now and they have the r3s also
their pocket like that's like in the lineup ready to go and i think the r3s the r3x and all that would
be a massive success i think i think people love that there's still not something quite like in the
market i think i think some things are coming out now but you know with the rivian brand and the more
like uh off-road capabilities and adventure focus i think i think it's such a you know a fun hot hat
so yeah i'm not too worried about rivian long term i think if they can you know achieve positive
gross margin on the r2 within the next 12 months with volume production i think after that they just
they have a formula and uh yeah i think i think i think you're gonna be just all right all right
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About this episode
Tesla Semi production and pricing take center stage, with the hosts weighing the new truck’s real-world rollout, charging economics, and how fleets might adopt it. They also dig into Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet size and the vague Hardware 3 FSD update, then pivot to China’s fast-moving EV scene: Xiaomi’s rapid SU7 refresh and Xpeng VLA 2.0’s surprisingly strong drive. Rivian’s earnings, cash runway, and the importance of the R2 round out the discussion.
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 Semi entering production, our Xpeng VLA 2.0 test drive, Rivian's earnings, and more.
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