Welcome to Electrified, it's your host Dylan Loomis. First up today, Energy.gov said the national average driving distance is 19.9 miles per day. This from a 2021 National Household Travel Survey. Regardless of MSA, which is Metropolitan Statistical Area, or it's just the population density of that location, everybody was under 25 miles per day. And the orange line, they say level 2 charging provides approximately 25 miles of range per one hour of charging. So, a driver can easily get more miles from an hour of level 2 charging while their EV is parked than the average person drives in a day. Personally, I think this is a great statistic to keep in the back of your mind the next time somebody brings up the talking point that EVs don't go far enough. A quick aside, my throat's pretty goofed up today could be allergies, not really sure, so just apologizing in advance if it's tough to listen to today.
New plans have been unveiled for what would be the biggest wind project on Australia's main grid, a 5 gigawatt proposal for North Queensland. This coming from Australian developer Renewable Energy Partners, or REP, this will come back in a moment. This project will go in stages, but they're hoping to get the first 2 gigawatt stage up and running by the end of the decade at a cost of around $5 billion. Right now, the biggest operating wind project in Australia is 536 megawatts, and when looking at those under construction, the biggest is 1.33 gigawatts. So, this new plan is roughly 3.8 times bigger than the current biggest project that's under construction. Why I think this project is more interesting, because this region already hosts a 59 megawatt Kennedy Energy Park project. Connecting some dots, Kennedy Energy Park is already using 4 Tesla power packs. As we've seen over the past few weeks, Tesla megapacks are popping up regularly across different parts of Australia, and this REP company has already been working with Acacia Energy. It just so happens, Acacia Energy was established in 2021 in part by former Tesla execs. Acacia is also developing the Brendale Battery Storage project, which, yes, will incorporate Tesla megapack technology. In this region, with that Kennedy project, there's already a blueprint to combine wind, solar, and battery storage. It's always great to see major renewable energy projects, even if they're standalone, but in this case, I have a feeling this will open the door for more opportunities for the Tesla megapack.
Then, in the States, in Fresno County, California, there are now plans for a 20 gigawatt solar, 20 gigawatt storage plan for challenged land. This solar plus storage project is called the Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan. If they pull this off, this would cover 1-6th of California's electricity requirements in 2035. They've already signed an MOU for 400 megawatts of solar and battery storage, looking at a commercial operation date between 2028 and 2030. Again, it looks like this build out will take a decade plus, but major plans are in the works. To put the size of that into context, this article was written in March of this year listing the world's biggest solar farms. Number one, the Xinjiang solar farm in China had a capacity of 5 gigawatts. The rest after that were all under 2.8 gigawatts. Obviously, based on that data, this 20 gigawatt project planned for California would be the biggest in the world by multiples. Something to keep an eye on in the auto market across Europe, some leasing companies are threatening to quit the business altogether if regulators force them to go EV too fast. That's because the lower resale values are forcing them to raise the prices on EV leases. If the residual values are lower than the company is expecting at the end of the lease, then that company takes a financial hit and in turn is forced to increase the price of the lease. The CEO of one of these main leasing companies said, if we're pushed very, very hard that everything has to be electric too soon, my shareholders will say we don't want the risk and we'd be out of the market. But we're not talking about 2% lease rates here like we do with Tesla, and Europe 60% of new cars of all fuel types are leased. When it comes to EVs, the proportion is even higher at 80%. Across 16 different European countries, 60% of new EVs go to corporate fleets and commercial buyers, and those buyers almost exclusively use leases and about half of the remaining sales to private buyers are also leases. In markets with no EV subsidies for private buyers like Britain and Belgium, individuals accounted for just 23% and 8% respectively of new EV purchases last year. Translation, leasing is a huge deal across Europe. In many of these countries, EV subsidies have been cut, and now prices on these leases are being raised.
Alexander suggested that Elon should invite Trump to gigatexis to increase his understanding of EVs and Tesla's products and services. To which Elon said, good idea, he's a big fan of manufacturing in America and Tesla's have the most American content of any cars. Which Elon amplified by sharing another post from Sawyer. For inquiring minds, it was just highlighting data that we talked about earlier this year. On the cars 2024 American made index, the Model Y was number 1, the Model S was 4, the Model X number 9, and the Model 3 number 21. And Ford and GM are not nearly as American made as most of the public still thinks.
There was a new study put out by the International Council on Clean Transportation. We've shared a few studies like this in the past, but the main takeaway here, most emissions associated with BEV sedans are in the manufacturing stage. But those higher manufacturing emissions for 2024 Model Year BEV sedans are paid off after about 15,200 miles of driving. If somebody brings up emissions from making EVs, you can simply reply to them by saying, well, after driving it for one year, all of those higher emissions are paid off or offset.
Sure, the one year number may be rounding up slightly to get up to that 15,200 miles. Most people drive a little bit less than that each year, but I still think it's fair. On the SUV side for Model Year 2024 vehicles looking at their chart, you can see BEVs charging on 100% renewables and BEVs with an average grid mix come in significantly lower when it comes to the estimated lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions for the lifetime of the vehicle. If you like being armed with data, I'll have this report below. After Elon's conversation last night, the UAW has now filed complaints or sued both Trump and Elon, alleging that they both advocated for firing striking workers. These unfair labor practices charges were filed with the National Labor Relations Board.
Here's the comment there being sued over. And I'd be happy to help out on such a commission if it were formed. You're the greatest cutter. I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in and you just say, you want to quit? They go on strike day. I won't mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, that's okay. You're all gone. You're all gone. So every one of you is gone and you are the greatest. You would be very good. Oh, you would love it. Well, if you have to help out. Come to your own conclusions, but to me, it seemed like a playful, joking kind of comment, not like they were really truly advocating for firing striking workers.
It's obvious Sean Fane has no love for Trump or Elon. He said, they want working class people to sit down and shut up and they laugh about it openly. It's disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable from these two clowns. I can at least speak on behalf of Elon saying that he absolutely cares about working class people. Elon loves the retail investor and always has.
The overarching reason Elon is not a fan of unions is because they largely slow down progress. Not to mention, the UAW has been embroiled in scandals and embezzling now for years. Replying to the news, Elon said the last two UAW presidents went to prison for bribery and corruption and based on recent news, it looks like this guy will join them. This guy being Sean Fane and he's likely referring to the recent allegations that Sean Fane retaliated against a VP who refused to act on orders that would have benefited his partner and sister.
There are also current allegations about more embezzling. New York just announced $200 million in funding for school districts and operators to switch to electric school buses. This is the second round of funding from a $4.2 billion project announced in 2022. During the first round, more than 75 school districts applied for funding for some 350 electric buses.
The state of New York mandates that all school buses on the road must be zero emission by 2035 and from 2027 all new school buses purchased must be ZEV. The weekly Tesla China number came in at $15,500. Comparing that to the same weekend quarter two, that number was $9,800. Thus quarter over quarter, Tesla China is now up 42.8% and year over year, they're up 19.9%.
It's also the first time in a while this metric is at least somewhat relevant, the remaining record pace. If Tesla could do over 14,700 units per week for the next seven weeks, they would set a new record quarter. Let me be clear though, I'm not predicting that or expecting that as we do have some strong incentives that we'll be falling off at the end of this month unless they're extended. Either way, at least domestically when it comes to Tesla and China, they're doing very well so far I've always loved the saying adversity either makes you or breaks you. Choose wisely.
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If you'd like, you can get a one-year supply of Vitamin D3K2, which many people lack and that leads to fatigue, and five travel packs at drinkag1.com. I'm sure many of you have seen this already, but I know some of you are not on X. Sawyer's mom moved into a retirement community and the local fire official was just asking the residents if anybody owned a Tesla. She raised her hand and then the fire official said Teslas are catching fire left and right and should be parked near garage exits. And it's no surprise that even Sawyer's mom was prepared for the FUD and she pushed back against it. It's just crazy to me that we have people in positions of power like a local fire official that are still completely lost in the sauce when it comes to basic data.
Rivian is doing its best Tesla impersonation with their new Connect Plus software package. Apple Music, Audible, YouTube, Spotify title TuneIn, but they're also offering a vehicle hotspot for up to eight devices using the onboard LTE, which right now is not a feature that Tesla offers. There are some other features too, but right now customers get two months of a free trial and then after that it's $14.99 per month or $149.99 per year. You can knock Rivian for copying Tesla if you want to, but I would not because as I always say, success leaves clues.
On the Tesla careers page, there's a new job posting for 25 guns, their engineering task force, which historically has largely been geared towards Giga Berlin. Some of you OGs will remember we first learned about Tesla's 25 guns back in 2020 when there was an email address 25gunsattesle.com that was accepting job applications. The role you'll be working on tough, critical path projects and exciting challenges that do require immediate attention. It's for people that enjoy solving hard problems that have a maniacal sense of urgency to roll up their sleeves and to get things done. You gotta love the what you'll bring.
They say a minimum five years working experience like you would expect or a clear display of excellence and outstanding achievements when experience is missing. I don't at all want to disrespect Seal Team 6 because I actually grew up watching those videos and documentaries. But if you're not familiar with 25 guns, just think something like Seal Team 6, a special group of the best of the best. And to anybody watching who has ever risked your life or served in any capacity, I won't lie if I had one question to ask on a quarterly call, one of them might be what is the one project that your 25 guns team is working on most recently. Those are the type of questions I think Elon and the team would actually respect.
We shared some clips of Tesla's diner, supercharger location in Hollywood yesterday and there was also a job posting for a Tesla diner experience specialist but they're already no longer accepting applications. Again, I think there's an outside chance this would open later this year but I'm expecting quarter one 2025. This one isn't really news, it just happens to be one of the cooler looking Cybertrucks that I've seen. The black wrap with the mountains in the cage make it look pretty sweet in my book. If nothing else, maybe some inspiration for future Cybertruck owners.
In a stunning development, VW has pushed back the launch of its Trinity flagship EV, the one that was supposed to come with level 4 self-driving. This one is now delayed to the early 2030s. Instead, they may pull forward a golf EV. One reason they gave, so they could use their current EV platforms for a longer period of time, allowing their investment cost to be better amortized. Their NAB platform is supposed to be upgraded in 2026 and their PPE platform in the next three years in partnership with Rivian. They also said this move is a reaction to the slowdown of the EV market. VW said it needs to make significant cost cuts and reduce production capacity to revive margins. According to industry players, the average dealership profitability industry-wide dropped 30% in the first half of this year with Nissan and Stellantis dealers taking the biggest hits.
So far, Nissan has been a laggard when it comes to hybrids and hybrid or plug-in hybrid models accounted for 29% of Toyota sales last year in the US. I know some people are rooting for dealerships to fail thanks to all of the anti-competitive antics lately, so figured you would like this about 25,000 Cadillac lyrics have been recalled, but they're already fixing this with you guessed it in OTA update. The problem was a software fault that caused the anti-lock braking system to falsely activate. A quick reminder because this vehicle is somewhat of a cultural phenomenon, the Volkswagen ID buzz is set to hit US markets sometime later this year.
The autonomous Chinese company WeRide is moving forward to file an IPO in the US looking for a valuation of just over $5 billion. The company holds permits to operate autonomously in China, the UAE, and Singapore. It also has permits to test with a driver and without a driver in California, and it's actively testing in San Jose. The company also offers advanced driver assistance systems and plans to sell them to OEMs. Their revenue for the first half of this year was $20.7 million. As you can see, their setup looks a lot like cruises. Zickers 007 sedan is set to begin deliveries next week in the Chinese market, but there they only have 500 ultra-fast charging stations, and they plan to double that by the end of this year. That's relevant because they said this new battery in this vehicle is going to be able to charge 10% to 80% in just 10.5 minutes. It's a new LFP battery that's supposed to have the same charging performance even at 14 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you go to the video they shared, which I'm sure was in ideal conditions, at one point it got up to 457 kilowatts. It didn't stay there very long, but it was over 350 kilowatts for most of this video. We'll wait to see a real-world charging curve, but you love to see advancements like this because it does put some more pressure on Tesla. I did want to share a few high-level takeaways from the Trump and Elon conversation, so if you're not interested in hearing about that, no worries at all. That would be a good time to click off the video, just looking out for everybody out there.
One, even if you vehemently disagree with what Elon is doing, I really think he's just doing what he believes is best for the country as a whole, not just what's best for Tesla, and for me I actually respect that. Two, I actually think Elon may have won over a large group of Trump supporters last night by specifically not talking his Tesla book too much, and by also not vilifying oil and gas. Many of us have known Elon has held that stands for years, but I'm pretty sure the millions of people that will now hear this conversation didn't all know that.
Third, when it comes to policies, I really don't think it's worth reading in between the lines too much, because as we know, on both sides, no matter what any politician says, what they can actually get done in office is oftentimes very different. Sadly, over the next few weeks, there's going to be plenty of this rhetoric again on both sides catering to their bases, trying to win votes, and then whoever actually wins will start to find out how the policies actually take shape. But on that front, I think Elon developing a friendship with Trump where Trump actually really does respect Elon and actually admires what he's done with Tesla to me seems like a major upgrade from Elon and Tesla's relationship with the current administration.
Now obviously that's not the be-all and all being buddy-buddy, because if the tax credits are removed for Tesla, that will severely limit Tesla's profitability. But even if Trump wins, there's no guarantee that actually happens, despite whatever he says on the campaign trail. I also don't really think it was the right forum for Elon to push back too hard on anything that Trump said, because don't forget, he can always do that in a private conversation behind closed doors. As Elon said, they talked offline the day before the interview and I'm sure they'll talk offline many times again too.
Like Elon said, when conversations or interviews turn adversarial, that person can no longer be themselves. So I understand the knee jerk reaction to want Elon to maybe push back more on certain talking points, but the way I see it, I just think Elon is playing the long game. I'd also note he did actually push back on a few talking points and he did so respectfully. I won't lie, maybe the one thing I would be most excited about is Elon actually serving on a hypothetical government efficiency commission. I mean honestly, what taxpayer would not want the government to more efficiently and better spend their hard-earned money.
When you really look at the data, I think both sides would largely agree that the government is a wildly inefficient spender and allocator of capital. Having Elon help to clean that all up and maybe get us toward getting out of this $35 trillion in debt would be a wonderful thing for the country and future generations. And on that point, through this developing relationship between Elon and Trump, again, if Trump is elected, Elon could easily turn into an unofficial advisor of sorts for Trump and his administration. Now, could Trump kick Elon to the curb after he were to win the election hypothetically? Absolutely, but would I argue that's likely to happen? I would not go that far.
And hey, I agree, anything is possible, but at least for now, Trump and Elon seem to be on good terms and as I've been saying all along, no matter who's the president, I think Tesla will be just fine. Not that things may not change materially, it's just that Tesla is clearly the most adaptable automaker out there. One may say the most agile. So if you're stressed out, I would encourage you to go run some hills, touch some grass, take some deep breaths, it's all going to be okay. Tesla stock closed today at $207.83 up 5.24% while the NASDAQ was up 2.43%. It was a lower volume day for Tesla, trading about 39 million shares below the average volume the past 30 days.
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