Tesla Semi price, Toyota Highlander EV, Rivian R2, Ferrari Luce, and more

Hi, this is Fred Lambert for the

Electric Podcast. Um, I'm sorry I'm not

doing the episode live this week because

we just tried to do it through

Streamyard and uh it just completely

bugged out. Um, I'm in Mexico right now.

I'm testing out the BYD Shark and

everything was working well. We were

going live with Seth. I was talking to

him for the podcast and I have good

internet connection here, but for some

reason when we got into StreamYard, it

was just bunging out. So, I'm just going

to pre-record the show, me talking about

the biggest articles of the week. And

unfortunately, we won't be able to do

the back and forth with set or the um

question and answers at the end of the

show. But hopefully, if you're a fan of

the podcast, you still get the you know,

a little bit of the taste of the show

this week through this this live

recording of me going through the the

biggest articles of the week. Starting

with Tesla sales numbers uh in the US

and China. Want to do that. Last week on

the show uh we we talked about the uh

the European result down roughly 30%.

Now we have the US and Chinese result

which are you know more of the same in

the US. It looks like it's down 17% in

January. And uh the important thing to

note here just like Europe last week is

that we're comparing these versus the

Model Y refresh of 20 uh 25. So back

then Tesla was production constraint uh

constrained but we also assumed that it

was likely demand constraint and that

the production constraint was just

hiding the demand issues and now we know

that for a fact because there's no

production issues whatsoever right now

and demand is even down further than it

was when Tesla had the production contra

issue. So I think that's a clearly a

significant problem for Tesla that need

to be addressed and um the US was

Tesla's last stronghold major stronghold

where you didn't have too much of demand

issues at this point we're seeing 17%

down uh of course is also the end of the

tax credit but that happened in Q at the

end of Q3 of last year so things are

accelerating right now for Tesla's

domain issues as for China which is the

biggest EV market in the world biggest

auto market in the period. Uh 45% down

versus last year when Tesla had uh the

Model Y refresh. We're down to just

18,500 units in January 2025 uh for

domestic sales. Tesla's wholesales are

up uh which includes export. So, you

know, they're still strunging out a lot

of cars, but they have to export them

because the Chinese market is having a

harder time to absorb them. So, these

cars are going to go to, you know,

Korea. uh they're going to go to some of

them to Europe and again Europe was down

30% too. So it's just not a good look

for Tesla at this point. We we've been

sounding the alarm for a long time that

the demand issues at Tesla are real but

at this point it looks like it looks

even like Tesla could be losing money

this quarter unless there's a big

reversal of the demand issues in the

next uh you know four or five weeks u by

the end of the quarter really. Next news

I want to discuss is we had a big scoop

this week at electric. We got a quote on

the Tesla semi long range. So Tesla

released new information uh everything

basically except the price. So Tesla

released the specs of the two trims

that's going to be a Tesla semi. We kind

of already know knew that that was going

to be the case. It's going to be a

standard range and then the long range.

Uh but Tesla only said 300 miles for the

standard range. Now we know it's going

to be 325 miles of range. Uh the long

range is 500 miles like originally

announced. Uh but now we also have the

curb weight and the total weight

capacity. So, for those of who don't

know, a diesel class 8 truck normally

has a 80,000 lb capacity. Uh, but you

get 2,000 extra pound if you have a

battery electric class 8. Uh, just

because the batteries are generally a

little bit heavier and that gives a

little bit more room to have more load

capacity because, you know, trucking

companies will make money by moving as

much capacity as possible. So, uh, we

have, um, an extra 2,000 lb, so 82,000

lb capacity. Uh, so the tractor then

takes uh away some of the capacity. For

the standard range one, that's 20,000

lb. So you have 62,000 lbs capacity

including a trailer and 23,000 for the

500 mile range one uh due to the bigger

battery pack. Uh the

efficiency is 1.7 kilowatt hour per

mile. So we already knew that three

motors of uh 800 kilowatt of total

power.

So we most of that we already knew the

the biggest the biggest update is the

weight. It's 325 miles for the standard

range. And now the scoop is we actually

have a price. So Tesla has not announced

any pricing yet still other than the

original $180,000 price for the

longrange version. $150,000 for a

standard range. We knew that was not

accurate anymore because that was a

decade ago at this point. The test SMI

program has been delayed quite a bit to

say the least, but it is finally going

to production in the next few months.

Volume production by the end of the

year. Uh we cannot wait. It's actually

one of the few Tesla vehicle program

that I'm still excited about. And um and

yet now we have a quote for Tesla Smi

customer for a long range customer at

$290,000.

So a 60% price increase. Even if you

account for inflation, it would be

closer to 240. So know inflation is not

the only thing that accounts for for

this price increase. So it has increased

in general.

Now it's still a lot cheaper than the

average class A truck in uh in the US uh

California specifically which is

$435,000.

So Tesla is you know both has a higher

range and a lower price here. So it will

compete with that. But you don't really

want to compete with other battery

electric class A because if you take

that market right now, you take, you

know, a few hundred sales a year. It's

it's really nothing. You want to be able

to compete with diesel trucks. And

competing with that, you know, the

average diesel truck class 8 is roughly

$180,000

to $200,000 fully equipped. So Tesla is

much more expensive than that. However,

if you account for uh electricity rates

of roughly 18 cents per kilowatt hour,

you could pay the difference back uh

between a class A diesel and the SSMI

long range in roughly 4 years at the

current diesel cost,

assuming similar maintenance cost and

everything, which could actually be much

lower for for battery electric trucks.

uh maybe the tires could be a little bit

more expensive, but other than that, uh

it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

So Tesla could have a real a real winner

product here on their hand at at that

price. Um that said, we still need

that's that that's definitely for local

distribution. If you can charge the Chro

overnight at, you know, off peak rates

and distri use it just you know the full

capacity 500 miles in a day and then

charge overnight.

Tesla's a winner product for long haul

trucking though. Uh Tesla still has to

deploy the mega charger station and also

control the cost of charging there

because at the fast chargers you're

going to have peak demand chargers is

going to increase the cost way above 18

cents per kilowatt hour. So that's going

to make the uh equation the economy

financial of the Tesla a lot less

competitive. Uh so this this is still a

problem to be solved but for local

distribution Tesla's a winner product.

Also we kind of feel vindicated here at

electric because uh if you remember last

year we did report that Tesla semi was

delayed into 2026 which we now know for

a fact because we are in 2026 and the

vehicle is still not in production.

Though we we do think it's going to be

in production quite soon.

But also, we said at the time that there

was a dramatic price increase for the

the DS SMI uh above the original

$180,000 price. And now we can confirm

it that it's actually a 60% price

increase, which I think accounts for

dramatic. And back then, uh so that was

in April 2025 when we first reported

that, uh Dan Priestley, who was the head

of the Tesla Semi program at Tesla, told

us uh sort of gave like a half denial of

a report, like not a vague denial of it.

and uh and that's that was simply not

true. It it was wrong to to deny it

because we we were quite accurate in our

reporting. So, it's another example that

you should be careful uh when Tesla

denies a media report. It's not always

true. Moving on from the Tesla Smi, we

have quite a nice little update on the

Cybert truck vehicle to grid is being

piloted now in Texas. So, you can earn

money from your Cybert truck battery

pack. So, this is, you know, through the

power share program at Tesla. So, you

already have access to

uh V2 home um V V2H vehicle to home by

directional charging that was already

launched. But the vehicle to grid so be

able to discharge your vehicle's battery

and send it back to the grid and earn

money for it. That was not available

yet. But now the program is launching in

Texas for select u owner Cybert truck

owner. So you need to have the

powershare installed obviously. Uh so

you have to have the actual hardware

installed and then uh you need to be a

customer of Center Point Energy or

Encourse which are two of the largest uh

electric utilities in Texas in the uh

Houston and Dallas metropolitan area. So

if you um are eligible if you have all

that you can potentially send some

electricity back into the grid and be

paid for it. I don't know how

financially viable that will be but you

know it's being piloted right now and we

are quite hyped longterm on vehicle to

to grid but uh for now it's still very

much a pilot program.

Uh moving on from the cybert truck the

power wall 3P has been launched this

week well announced uh not quite

launched but no it's we we don't expect

anything quite special about it. 3 P is

for P wall 3 which was launched last

year but P is for phase. So we have

three phase. So the European uh market

is going to be able to enjoy a more

seamless integration with the power

wall. prior to that because you know

they use a three-phase system here which

is which is more efficient more um

um more powerful and more efficient and

easier to install often time too lot of

advantages but Tesla wasn't didn't

design the power wall for that so in

order to integrate it you had to do

literally a three power wall

installation to get your three-phase so

now Tesla has updated its inverter to

have a three first inverter integrated

into the power wall now called power

wall 3P P uh so basically u a European

customer going to be able to buy the

power wall. Now uh Tesla is starting by

taking reservation in Germany.

So uh you can enjoy a power wall there

but it's going to be competitive for

Tesla because there's already plenty of

solution there that was already

integrating the uh read three phase.

Sorry if there's some background noise

right now. Um, okay.

Moving on. We have the Toyota Highland

Dury EV that was fully unveiled this

week. So, this was teased for a while

and uh uh look like a killer product on

their hand. Oh, damn.

I'm going to wait a second.

Okay, I think. Okay. Um, yeah, it's the

first three row electric SUV from

Toyota, the 2027 Islander EV with up to

320 miles of range. Uh, 77 kWh battery

pack for the standard uh, which going to

give you uh,

uh, 287 miles of range. So, still pretty

decent. To get the 320, you need the

95.8 kWh battery pack. Uh, plenty of

option for four-wheel drive. Oh, okay.

Uh and also all-wheel drive. Um

good looking truck too. We can see here

with the two-tone uh looking sleek.

338 horsepower

um for the all-wheel drive. 20 221 for

the four-wheel drive. Uh multi-turn

select crawl control option to optimize

traction.

What else? What else? Uh

we have some interior pictures here that

you can see from the electric article

too if you want to check it out. All

corly Android Auto is going to be

available. Uh 45 cubic feet of rear

cargo space. Pretty good

being I recommend you go check out the

pictures because it does look pretty

nice. uh big upgrade versus the BZ and

it's closer to the language that we see

in the CHR. That's uh you know big

improvement for Toyota in terms of their

all electric uh vehicle effort. 10 to

80% fast charging in just 30 minutes. Uh

heads up display available.

Um what else? What else? Uh vehicle to

load uh is going to be made available.

So you're going to have some charge

capacity in the back.

And uh do we have a pricing? Uh expected

to be priced at about $50,000. So this

is going to be like a Kia EV9 competitor

which starts actually a little bit

higher at uh $55,000.

Do you have any

moving on from Toyota, we have some

Rivian news this week. So, first off,

I'm going to go through this pretty

fast, but u the earnings came out and

they surprised quite a bit. The revenue

was actually up 20% on this because uh

they had a higher revenue and a higher

uh gross profit. Not quite profit just

yet, but gross profit already um

came in and most of that is obviously

because of uh

um the software revenue mostly through

the partnership with Volkswagen.

In term of guidance for 226,

uh just don't want to get it wrong here,

but I think it's uh yeah, targeting

between 62 and 67,000 deliveries. So,

don't expect an insane amount of R2

deliveries. Uh I think they are leaving

some room to surprise us here with, you

know, if the if the production ramp goes

smoothly, maybe we can see a beat here.

But uh I I think Riven is being quite

conservative here with with their with

their production at 67,000

on the upside too because 62 on the

lower side. Speaking of the R2, we saw

plenty of Ardu this week. Uh there were

a few lucky YouTubers that were able to

get access to uh the first vehicle. So

we saw Zach from Jerig Everything. We

saw motor trend then we saw MKBHD that

could access the vehicle and it um it

you know they were able to give like

first drive impression. They didn't

Yeah, I don't I don't know about their

you know PR for the vehicle roll out.

They're like this is this normally

something that you the first drive you

do when the vehicle becomes available

but they kind of limited what they could

share uh with them. Uh but they were

actually able to drive them. So, uh,

Doug Demorro, the YouTuber, uh, I who

actually scores all of his vehicles, uh,

was gave him gave, uh, Riven the best

score for electric vehicle tested for

him. So, that's, uh, good news for Riven

on that front. But, um, pretty limited

in term of, uh, first drive release that

they did, but it did give us a little

bit more specs on the Riven R2,

including, uh, the RV uh, the

architecture is limited to 400 volt, so

they're not going to 800 volt with it.

Uh, 87.4 4 kWh battery pack, uh, dual

motor allhe drive. We know that. Uh, 656

horsepower, 609 foot pounds per foot of

u torque, 0 to 60 and 3.6. Again, very

good. uh no max charge rate though they

do say uh fast charging 10 to 80% 30

minutes which is uh what most people are

quoting these days but we expect to have

a little bit more information on the R2

in the coming weeks as deliveries to

employees are expected to start you know

the next month or two and then uh later

in Q2 probably the first uh um customer

deliveries towards June probably

Ferrari had a a little bit also

releasing their first electric vehicle a

little bit at a time, a little bit like

uh like Rivian with the R2. Uh we uh we

went to Italy

last year and saw the powertrain, all

the technology behind the Ferrari uh

Electica it was called at the time, but

we knew that was a placeholder.

I actually I was there. I was the the

quarter. I saw all the powertrain stuff,

but I never saw the car, never saw the

interior or anything like that. They

didn't want to show any of that. Uh so

this week was another part of the

unveiling ahead of the full unveiling

later this year. I think uh Q2

we saw some of the interior and also get

the official name for it which going to

be the fairy loose uh apparently means

light in um Italian uh but can also mean

electricity. So light in the sense of

like light from electricity kind of.

And in term of the design, um I

personally like it quite a bit from what

we saw from the interior. And obviously

the the big headline is that the design

is from Johnny Hives uh the famous Apple

designer this new new design company

called Love Form Love from

and uh it's uh very much analog base.

So, there is a touchcreen, but it's

there's buttons everywhere and like nice

physical button that, you know, I didn't

get to play with it. Obviously, I'm just

seeing pictures, but it's um they they

look satisfying just from the look. I'm

sure that they're going to be satisfying

to to use. Uh the um the steering wheel

is very old school racing steering wheel

style. The instrument cluster is

actually attached to the steering wheel

column. So when you when you turn around

with the steering wheel, this the the

instrument cluster is going to follow

you. So you know when you're driving

normally you're driving like that, but

when you're driving aggressively, you're

driving a little bit like and then

you're going to be able to follow it a

little bit. So that's I think that's

cool. Um it's not for everyone. I saw

that all the different uh

reaction to the loose interior and very

much split, very polarizing. A lot of

people love it, myself included. A lot

of people hate it. Uh I I think I think

everyone needs to give it a chance.

There's a center console which with a

screen, but the screen is much smaller.

Physical switches much like a airplane

switches a little bit, which I like. Uh

the center display can be is on the

swivel can be put towards the driver or

towards the passenger. I think that's

cool, too. Um sleek interior with

recycled aluminum. um solid billet

precision mill Corning fusion 5 glass.

Uh

yeah, the the full unveiling of the

interior and the exterior is coming in

May 226. So we also got an information

from the unveiling of the interior

partial interior unveiling this week.

All right, one more piece of news and

then we're done.

Very important one though and I would

recommend anyone who hasn't read the uh

Jaime's article on this this week. The

uh EPA has penalized its illegal dirty

hair plant to hike fuel cost by 76 cents

per gallon despite public outcry. So

this is uh the big Trump move this week

that's been going on for for months

really ever since he was elected. Uh

he's been trying to deregulate

uh the fossil fuel emissions

and uh we're talking about more

specifically here is the EPA's end

finding. So the EPA's regulation of

greenhouse gases was based on this

finding that some specific gas more

specifically the or obviously carbon

dioxide methane sulfurex fluoride

hydrofluorocarbons

nitrous oxide and perfluorocarbon

are harmful to humans which they are

because if you're lock inside of a tight

room and uh emit those gas you're not

going to get out of that room. Uh now

obviously the atmosphere is a much

bigger room but same principles apply

and um yeah the the these findings are

the basis of the APA regulating these uh

greenhouse gases and um yet

sorry

the way that the Trump administration

has been trying to deregulate the um the

emission of those greenhouse gases is by

removing those findings like saying that

those findings were wrong and that

actually these greenhouse gases are not

a problem and therefore we don't need to

regulate them and uh those rules were

made official this week. Uh now there's

going to be most likely not a lot of um

uh court battles over this, but um it's

going to be an uphill battle. And uh now

the travel administration is opening the

door for companies to not follow the the

EPA rules uh anymore. And um this this

create kind of a messy situation where

you either they're going to fall back on

state rules uh or or are they going to

you know it's going to be a

free-for-all. So uh it's going to be

pretty messy situation going forward.

And I I really encourage you to go read

Jaime's article because he goes into

very great very details about this. Uh

it's on the net. it's EPA finalized

illegal dirty airplane to hide fuel cost

and um because most likely than not it's

going to increase fuel cost also. So the

the idea behind this obviously is that

they don't believe in climate change.

They don't believe in greenhouse gases

being harmful to humans. But um their

their logic is also that you know these

regulation increase fuel costs for

people which is not even the case

really. And um if uh you know people

that are you know that that like this um

trend from the Trump administration

these efforts I would suggest that you

send them this article because it's uh

it goes into details of why this is just

as dumb as an idea as I get from from

all perspective not just from an

environmental perspective but also from

a financial perspective and uh it's

going to slow down innovation in

reunable energy which are taking over

the um energy landscape globally.

and was also in the US until Trump uh

slow it down quite a bit last year. So,

it's just going to make the US um a

lagger in this very important field.

All right, that's uh that's pretty much

it for my articles that I wanted to

discuss this week. Again, I do apologize

for the format of the podcast. I know

it's not ideal, but um uh next week, I'm

still in Mexico next week. I'm driving

the BYD short right now, which I'm going

to I'm excited to talk to you about. Uh,

and I'm going to try to get another BYD

car next week, too, that I'm going to be

reviewing for Electric. I'm going to try

to be able to do the podcast regularly

next week. Uh, if I can, it's going to

just be the week after that. I'm going

to be back in Quebec. But, u,

hopefully next week we're going to be

okay to be back on schedule. All right,

have a good one, guys. Bye-bye.

Tesla Semi price, Toyota Highlander EV, Rivian R2, Ferrari Luce, and more

About this episode

Byd Shark 6

Tesla Model Y

tax credit

electric vehicle (EV) market

Tesla Semi

curb weight

weight capacity

Class 8 truck

load capacity

battery pack

kilowatt hour per mile

fast chargers

CenterPoint Energy

Powerwall 3

three-phase electrical system

three-phase inverter

Toyota Highland

four-wheel drive

all-wheel drive

horsepower

Android Auto

cargo space

Toyota Chr

fast charging

heads-up display

Kia EV9

Rivian

torque

analog base design

touchscreen

instrument cluster

EPA

greenhouse gases

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