Welcome to Electrified, it's your host Dylan Loomis, so on last week that sore throat I had on Tuesday turned out to be the beginning of COVID. I was not able to go on that trip with my family, and still today I'm quite fatigued. Hence why I won't be on camera today, but thank you all for your patience and hopefully sometime this week I'll be feeling 100% again and the channel will be back to normal. If anyone's interested, Tesla's hiring for a data collection operator for the Tesla bought for the night shift in Palo Alto, effectively somebody to wear the motion tracker suit and the VR headset. I wouldn't read too far into it, but in the role they talked about carrying up to 30 pounds and walking up and down stairs.
When it comes to the Cybertruck wheels, there are two options in the configurator right now, the 25 inch Cyber wheel and cover, and then you have the 20 inch core wheel and cover. The smaller core wheels are all season tires with an estimated 340 miles of range, and the bigger Cyber wheels are of course all terrain tires with 318 miles of range. A user on the Cybertruck Owners Club forum just took delivery of the smaller Cyber wheel and he said driving home consumption was 304 watt hours per mile. This is around 370 miles on a full charge with mixed city driving and about half on the freeway.
And there's not a lot of detail, but he said his next trip was 285 watt hours per mile, which works out to about 400 miles of range. He shared this picture right after delivery with those new core wheels and the new wheel caps. Responding to that report on the forum, Wes, a Cybertruck engineer said hopefully unsurprising all season tires are more efficient than all terrains. These are a custom construction which balances handling and efficiency while also reducing road noise highly recommend. With winter right around the corner, Wes also said yes, they're aiming to get a three peak winter package available on the Tesla shop soon.
If you ever see this logo on any tires out there, that means it's a three peak mountain snowflake tire, which really just means they're supposed to be the best in severe winter conditions. Sounds like Tesla will have an option like this in the shop, not necessarily on the configurator here in the next few weeks. Unplugged performance also just recently announced their new sting outfit for the Cybertruck. They did say this was engineered for both government and civilian use. This was done in partnership with our committee's defense, who is a recognized leader for government defense applications.
On X, Gear Musk did share a video of a Cybertruck that apparently I don't think it was doctored had a green license plate in China specifically in Tianjin. No, the Cybertruck is not officially available for order in China and we can't forget Elon did say getting Cybertruck road legal in China would be very difficult. Just wanted to say I would not take this as a sign that the Cybertruck will be available for order in the Chinese market anytime soon. There was a similar situation in India as they just celebrated their 78th Independence Day and one Indian entrepreneur had a Cybertruck wrapped to celebrate the event.
There were some reports out there that Elon gifted a Cybertruck to a Russian warlord and there was some video of him driving it around but Elon later denied those reports that he gifted the truck. And if you missed it, the Cybertruck was again the best selling vehicle in the US over $100,000 in July making it two months in a row with that title. And the $700 Cybertruck cooler is now officially out of stock. Piper Sandler analyst just hosted two events. One was a trip to Tesla's Lathrop Factory and the other was a webinar with Elias Martinez who created the FSD community tracker.
有报道称,Elon 送了一辆Cybertruck给一个俄罗斯的军阀,还有视频显示他开着这辆车,但Elon后来否认了赠送这辆车的报道。值得注意的是,Cybertruck在7月份再次成为美国售价超过10万美元的最畅销车辆,这已经是连续两个月获得这一称号了。此外,售价700美元的Cybertruck冷却器现在已经正式售罄。Piper Sandler 的分析师刚刚主持了两场活动,一场是参观特斯拉位于Lathrop的工厂,另一场是与创建了FSD社区追踪器的 Elias Martinez 举办的网络研讨会。
The takeaways were quite underwhelming honestly but they did say as battery tech matures hardware could become a commodity and Tesla will not be able to compete solely on price. Honestly though given the Chinese dominance here we're effectively there already and that's why things like Tesla's auto bidder and its fully integrated software with Opticaster in virtual machine mode are what really separate Tesla from the rest. Points 5 through 8 were all things we already know. They said Tesla currently imports LFP cells and did not comment on potential in-house production using CATL machines.
However I do think the expectation still should be that Tesla will begin making LFP cells in Nevada using these CATL machines sometime in the next year. They said Tesla energy's long-term gross margin target does align with other segments at around 20%. Unfortunately though they didn't say if this was coming directly from somebody at Tesla or that's just their assumption based on what they saw. When it comes to the portion on the FSD community tracker I'm not going to spend time here they did say over the last six months 107 users have submitted data which as I've been saying is just a ridiculously small sample size.
They did say it's challenging to use those absolute numbers to draw direct comparisons between FSD and Waymo but you don't need a webinar to know that comparing Tesla's FSD which drives anywhere around the country to Waymo which drives on very specific streets in specific cities only is a fool's errand. Not to mention it was only in the last week or two when Waymo was actually opened up to operate on the expressway in San Francisco.
For what it's worth having a quick look at the dashboard for that community data you can look at the yellow line on the left which is City Miles and we're looking at the miles to critical disengagement. On branch 12.3 it was 128 miles and for version 12.5 it's actually come down to 126 miles.
The list of countries that has permanently or temporarily band X is continually growing and it's almost like there's a concerted global effort to stifle free speech. Luckily there are still ways to fight back but I've seen way too many people mistakenly saying that a VPN is only for when you're traveling. Here's why in 2024 in my book a VPN like Surfshark is in must own territory even if you don't travel at all.
They do sponsor the channel but even the FTC has said that many internet service providers collect and share far more data about their customers than many consumers expect including access to all their internet traffic and real-time location data. Surfshark will block all of this data from your ISP and a VPN can also help you avoid bandwidth throttling you may not be aware of plus you can access blocked websites. Surfshark also has a strict no logs policy and operates on RAM only servers so no data is being stored in physical hard drives and yes this policy has been audited by Deloitte and of course Surfshark still has the clean web feature that blocks ads malware and trackers.
For less than a cup of coffee per month Surfshark is a no brainer in my book so if you'd like to support the channel and take your privacy back for your family you can enter coupon code electrified for an extra four months free at surfshark.com slash electrified linked below or by using the QR code on the screen. It was interesting this post from Bloomberg reporter Ashley Vance went viral over the weekend when really all she said was a source said that Tesla has a massive edge on the bridge between AI and the physical world. It's almost like the Tesla community has been banging the drum about Tesla's real world AI now for months.
She said the source thinks others building humanoid bots don't have a great first customer whereas Tesla can test on its own factories first before it sends robots to customers. Everybody else doesn't have factories Tesla does the source said I think it'll be extremely important when the physical part of AI starts to kick in being able to bridge the AI into the physical world will be extremely massive. I think none of the other companies will be able to follow and fairness maybe there is some truth to the world needing to hear this from somebody other than Elon.
I'm sure most of you have seen the new gray interior textile for the Mexican market and the base rear wheel drive model three. It's just standard fabric which yes is something we may see on the upcoming Robo taxi. The interior lighting is just white not multicolor there's no heating or ventilation for the seats the steering wheel is not heated and for this trim again just in the Mexican market it does not have a rear screen. The sound system has less speakers and one less amp and the acoustic glass is only for the front windows. As we saw with the Cybertruck prices in Mexico are indeed a bit higher so this is a move to help combat that.
In an interview with Reuters Trump just said he would consider ending the $7,500 tax credit for EVs calling it ridiculous. He said tax credits and tax incentives are not generally a very good thing. He also said if he was elected he would tap Elon for a cabinet or advisory role if Elon would do it. Friendly reminder Trump was president from 2017 to 2020 and the explicit fossil fuel subsidies were 400 billion, 600 billion, 600 billion and 500 billion per year respectively. Basically explicit fossil fuel subsidies directly reduce the price of fossil fuels and on the other hand the implicit subsidies are the costs that taxpayers or insurance companies are paying for the air pollution and the climate impacts experienced because of the fossil fuels. Hence why I read the numbers for the explicit subsidies only.
So if you want to take him away for EVs let's take him away for fossil fuels as well. On this cabinet or advisory role I've been saying all along even if it's never an official position I think this is a role that Elon will assume in the event Trump does win. There's a Reddit user that's been reporting on these fields that are supposedly housing thousands of unsold Teslas. Well in his latest round of photos you can see most of these vehicles except for maybe 40 of them that are on the other side of this lot in this image have been moved or sold or taken to delivery centers so as I've been expecting this is mostly a nothing burger story. Tesla app update said version 4.36.0 has been decompiled and they said there is more summon stuff in the code but it's more confusing than ever and they're seeing limitations with when it can be used. Their guest's expectation is that Tesla may roll out a limited version of smart summon but either way there's still a lot of work being done on that front and they think it may be related to the Robotaxy event. Remember that four year investigation by NHTSA on the Model S and X suspension system? Well that has finally been closed. After all that time the evaluation is closed without a manufacturer action. Conclusion no instance has shown that a failure of the four link in this manner prevented the controllability of the vehicle in testing and reported failures. Who could forget back in December when Reuters reported tens of thousands of owners had experienced premature failures of suspension or steering part since 2016. Yep so much for that one as this report is officially closed. In case you missed it legacy SNX vehicles with MCU1 have actually been getting supervised FSD. Just more evidence Tesla is doing whatever it can to not leave any customers behind. Not that they never will but this is clearly a strong sign that they're at least doing what they can. We already know there's a lot of software optimization that needs to happen for hardware 3 to get supervised FSD so I'd imagine there was a fair amount for MCU1 as well.
Local news in California is reporting a Tesla semi-fire that started very early this morning just off the highway. Sadly in this six minute clip they said nothing about what caused the Tesla semi to go off the road nor anything about what caused this fire. Because the Tesla's truck's battery is what caught fire and officials say the toxic fumes they're very dangerous to breathe. This is a toxic situation and that fire chief also tells me there are Tesla engineers on scene advising how to battle this kind of electric vehicle battery fire they're trying to determine how much of a charge that battery has could be anywhere from six to twelve hours. And what do we know about the cause of this? We understand it's just was the semi and there wasn't a load that was being carried so just the cab. The driver was not injured it's still under investigation exactly what happened on what caused the crash but for unknown reasons he veered off the roadway and went into the trees and that's when the truck caught on fire. With the road closure thanks to the accident I'm sure this will be all over the local news unfortunately but hopefully we get some answers in the days ahead.
US firm Natron Energy has just announced plans for a sodium ion gigafactory in North Carolina. It'll be an edge cone county with an eventual production capacity of 24 gigawatt hours. The capacity will primarily go to the energy storage market. It was actually earlier this year we learned that Natron Energy already started making sodium ion batteries at a factory in Michigan.
In Arizona Tucson Electric has just announced plans for an 800 megawatt hour battery storage project. They're aiming to commission this project dubbed Road Runner Reserve 2 in early 2026. This follows Road Runner Reserve 1 a project set to come online in 2025 and it's also 800 megawatt hours. Both projects will be built by engineering and procurement firm DEPCON and they will use lithium iron phosphate batteries.
Going to DEPCON's website they're very big on American made and they said we believe in prioritizing the purchase of American made equipment from domestic manufacturers. A little bit more digging and you find that DEPCON's chief engineer Rob Reiner said that they've worked with Tesla on a recent solar plus storage project. He said the fully integrated design of the megapack including cells and vertors HVAC and controls meant it required virtually no field assembly which differentiated Tesla from many of its competitors.
There's nothing yet officially saying who the battery supplier will be for these two Road Runner projects in Arizona but these projects will get their energy from a local solar project which as we just read is a blueprint that DEPCON has already worked with Tesla on. So there's at least a chance that Tesla is in line for a new 1.6 gigawatt hour contract across these two projects. Again though I want to be clear that's all just speculation on my part.
A local report said that LG has begun reassigning some personnel from its O-Chang energy plant in South Korea. It sounds like 102 workers will be reassigned to the 4680 project. That's because those test lines are scheduled for mass production by the end of this month. This mass production of the 4680 presumably for Tesla is scheduled to begin in late quarter three or early quarter four.
They said we've been conducting reassignments frequently due to the discontinuation of certain EV models or expansion of production lines but since the second half of last year the surplus workers have increased due to the EV chasm. LG has halted some of its battery production lines as automakers postpone battery delivery dates or delay EV development schedules due to increased inventory caused by slowing demand for EVs.
In a sense you could read this as the industry slowdown from legacy OEMs is leading to more battery engineers opening up availability for the 4680 line. On LinkedIn the IHK Austria Brandenburg put a very positive post together talking about Gigabrelin. Think of this like a chamber of commerce. They said Gigabrelin is the largest training company has the most employees from the most nations, the lowest water consumption per vehicle produced in the industry, the location with the most charging stations is Brandenburg.
Their representatives recently got a tour and they said fascination for modern production quickly set in. There may be protesters that are against Gigabrelin but by and large the government and government agencies are very supportive of Gigabrelin. Ford just filed a new patent for an adaptive regenerative braking system they could use in future EVs. Basically the patent aims to adjust the level of regenerative braking based on what the driver is attempting to do so if you think about ice vehicles on the highway when you let off the accelerator the vehicles can still coast.
Something Ford may be looking to mimic on the EV side. GM said today they're laying off more than 1000 salaried employees at its software and service units worldwide. They said as we build GM's future we must simplify for speed and excellence make bold choices and prioritize the investments that will have the greatest impact. GM said about half of these cuts will be in the US.
In a new blog post Waymo has introduced its new sixth generation driver. They said we've significantly reduced the cost of our system while delivering even more resolution range compute and enabling more capabilities. With 13 cameras, four LIDAR, six radar and an array of external audio receivers our new sensor suite is optimized for greater performance at a significantly reduced cost without compromising safety.
We've been able to reduce the number of sensors while maintaining our safety critical redundancies. We can swap out various sensing components to match the specific conditions of each operating environment like adjusting sensor cleaning for vehicles and colder climates. Our current system allows us to provide safe and reliable service to riders in the cities where we operate even in extreme heat fog rain and hail.
Our sixth gen sensor suite already has thousands of miles of real world driving experience and our systems performance and simulation shows promising indications that we're on track to begin operating without a human behind the wheel in about half the time. This is the vehicle in partnership with Zieker that we've been talking about the past few weeks.
Tesla stock closed the day at $222.72 up 3.05% while the Nasdaq was up 1.39%. It was a quiet volume day for Tesla trading about 27 million shares below the average volume the past 30 days. Again thank you guys for bearing with me as of late.
Don't forget check out Surfshark linked below if you're interested. Thank you in advance if you do. Hope you guys have a wonderful day. Please like the video if you did you can find me on X linked below and a huge thank you to all of my patreon supporters.