Tesla Space #50: ⚡ tougher than a bag of nails

X OF THE WEEK

Well, this one wasn’t easy to find. Elon’s feed is nearly all politics right now. But I got it!

This was actually one of two crazy accidents with Cybertruck in Mexico. It’s pretty wild everyone survived this one…

TESLA, GLOBALLY

I happened to play something like an actual journalist this week and reported on two news before anyone else in the world. First up, the one that did quite the numbers on Friday and earned us a shoutout from Teslarati, DriveTeslaCa, and other outlets:

Tesla and Uber partner to give drivers $2,000 to buy a Tesla Model 3 or Y (link):

• $1,000 in Tesla Credits upon taking delivery

• + $1,000 in cash from Uber after completing 100 trips.

The Tesla Credits can be used toward Supercharging, a new Tesla vehicle, service appointments or select Tesla Shop or upgrade purchases. Just for your info, Tesla Tequila is excluded though.

The incentive is available after verifying eligibility with Uber through their system, find the button on Tesla’s fresh tesla.com/uber website

The 100 trips need to be completed before February 15, 2025, and the deal is not available for used vehicles. Interestingly the offer is stackable with the Tesla Military Purchase Program, but is not stackable with other Tesla promotions, including its Refer and Earn Program.

This is also not the first time Tesla partnered with Uber — just this September, the two companies officially launched Uber integration for easier navigation and convenience for drivers on its platform. And back in January this year, Axios reported that Uber is offering drivers incentives of up to $2,000 on its side for the Model 3 & Y.

The second piece I reported on is from yesterday, as Tesla launched the Third-Party Business Tokens, expanding Tesla's B2B "Tesla for Business" (T4B) platform. (link)

Remember her, from the Olympics?

Kim “Main Character Energy” Ye-ji is now the official ambassador of Tesla brand in Korea (above on the next image).

Now, I’ve got an idea for the next ambassador in Turkey (below):

Quick bites:

• Elon appeared on Joe Rogan yesterday for a 2h40m chat (watch here).

• Watch tip: Alpharetta, Georgia police department pitching local council members on why Model Y makes sense for patrol and admin use.

• The factory is the product — here’s the “birthing tunnel” of Giga Texas, through which freshly born Cybertrucks will roll out autonomously.

• 🇺🇸 It's now been two years since Tesla Insurance expanded to a new state. Currently, Tesla insurance is available in 12 US states.

• 🇨🇦 Tesla is now offering a record-low loan rate of 0% APR in Canada for new Model 3 and Model Y finance orders with the purchase of FSD (Supervised).

• 🇯🇵 Tesla launched 0% promotion in Japan

• ARK Invest analysts say the Tesla driverless ride-hailing plans could unlock $11 trillion in revenue potential, exceeding the total addressable market that ride-hailing companies Uber and LYFT target today.

THE VEHICLES

Official (pretty much): Cybertruck will be the best-selling EV pickup truck in 2024, in its first year of production. Why am I so sure? Well,

Ford pauses the F-150 Lightning production from the 18th of November to the 6th of January. Reportedly due to weak demand - Ford says “We continue to adjust production for an optimal mix of sales growth and profitability.”

And by the end of the third quarter, Cybertruck sales were already surpassing F-150⚡️ sales in the US: 28,250 Cybertrucks and 22,807 had been sold.

What else is wild in this picture is that Cybertruck has already achieved a positive gross margin for the first time, in Q3. None of the other electric pickups have gotten to that yet, even being ~three years on the roads already.

Just last week, Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, said that he has been driving the Xiaomi SU7 EV in Chicago for six months now, and he doesn't want to give it up! They flew in one from Shanghai to study it. From the Fully Charged interview: (video on my X | on LinkedIn). Why I tell you this is because of another gem that the @cybertruck account dropped on X, on the response from Jim:

🇨🇦 Oh, and Cybertruck deliveries started in Canada today.

Juniper inbound

Looks like we might’ve been right on the Model Y Juniper production and some details last week — a recent sighting in Shanghai (above) already suggests — yet does not confirm, of course — that it has a front light bar, same seats as the Model 3, rear indirect light bar for daylight, and additional lights added for testing under covers. Here’s the latest render from Dominic for a Desert Gold version of the MY Juniper:

Quick bites:

• Lars Moravy says adaptive Tesla matrix headlights update with selective high beam pixel dimming will be launched soon in the US.

• Cybertruck is now added to Tesla’s referral program in the US (user of code gets $1k off, like with Model S&X. Model 3&Y get $500 off.)

• Watch tip: Russell Brand shows off Tesla’s features “These Tesla's are no joke, man!”

• Watch tip: the Tesla Model 3 is the only vehicle that aced a drill-and-crash truck safety test from Dongchedi.

SOFTWARE

Tesla AI released a very detailed overview of what they plan on releasing next. “We are targeting a wide release with v13.3 with most of the above improvements for AI4 vehicles around Thanksgiving!”

Tesla’s recent update 2024.44 goes to employee testing, with features like:

• Cold Weather Improvements: “Battery Preconditions have been improved to provide better Supercharging, as well as better automatic windshield defogging before, during, and after Supercharging”

• Trailer Friendly Superchargers: “You can now see if a Supercharger has trailer-compatible spaces. Tap a Supercharger location pin on the map to see if it is trailer-friendly. If your vehicle is in Tow Mode, trailer-friendly Supercharger locations will appear at the top of the list.”

• Blind Spot Warning While Parked: “If you try to open a door while an approaching object is detected in your blind spot (e.g. a cyclist or other vehicle), the blind spot warning light will flash, an audio warning will sound, and the door will not open on the first press of the bottom. Wait, and then press the button again to override the warning.”

• Improved battery energy estimation for better accuracy during your drives.

• Navigation voiceovers are now available in Czech.

• Battle for Polytopia has received the Aquarion Rework Update.

Meanwhile, the previous update 2024.38.4, released among other features (like Free Spotify) a new “Powertrain Endurance” setting for Track Mode, improving thermal management by limiting power as speed increases.

What we’re really waiting for is the holiday update, which will likely be the 2024.44.25

Tesla is also rolling out a new feature in their app that allows you to select an "area of concern" for service.

SUPERCHARGING

Powered by Sunshine

Tesla announced its largest Supercharger site being built by mid-2025:

• 168-stall Supercharger in Lost Hills, CA

• Only 1.5 MW grid service, ahead of a future expansion

• 11 MW of ground mount solar & canopies, on 30 acres of land

• 10 Tesla Megapacks with 39 MWh of storage

Harris Ranch CA was one of the first locations to open in October 2012, featuring a single stall 90kW Supercharger. It even showcased battery swap pilots in 2014. Today it's 98 stalls of 250kW Supercharging strong, with @Tesla_Megapack and covered with solar canopies. Here’s the first Supercharger at Harris Ranch, and on the right is the instructions seen on the site in February 2013:

But wait! There’s more!
Tesla is planning to build a second 168-stall Supercharger, an hour north of the one above, also with solar canopies and battery storage!

Quick bites:

• Fun facts: the recently opened Dunedin, New Zealand location is now the southernmost Tesla Supercharger in the world. Honningsvåg, Norway opened just over 3 years ago and remains the northernmost location.

• Watch tip: “How we make Mobile Powerwall Units”, by Tesla Energy

• 🇸🇪 To celebrate 10 years of Tesla Charging in the country, charging at Superchargers in Sweden will be free for the whole of 6th of November (also for non-Teslas).

Tesla just built its 10,000th Megapack. Drew Baglino comments:

“Quite a makeover accomplished by the Lathrop Energy Manufacturing team: converting a former JC Penny warehouse to the largest utility battery manufacturing plant in the world!”

WHAT OUR READERS DRIVE

My favorite section right here. The 7th and 8th submission from our readers showing what y’all drive!

#7 comes from David in Arizona, US 🇺🇸 

“SUNENRG Tesla seen in the wild in Tucson, AZ. Named for the energy source, it is charged with solar-produced electricity via Tesla's Charge On Solar feature, with the critters contributing their share, too.”

#8 comes from Brand from Australia 🇦🇺:

“I love my Tesla S 90D which has completed 100,000 klms after eight years. It was ordered on 1 Dec 2015 and delivery completed on 1 March 2016. It was probably one of the first few Teslas delivered to Canberra, ACT, Australia.

It still goes great. I would love for Tesla to recommence building RHDrive Model S again. I would line up for a Model S Plaid.”

Great shares, thank you guys!

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