Welcome to Electrified, it's your host, Dylan Loomis. On this Veterans Day, I did want to take a second to thank any of you veterans out there, or those of you that have a family member that have served. On behalf of all Americans that are enjoying our freedoms, thanks to your sacrifices, we salute you. And just a reminder, Tesla does have a Veterans Career program where they welcome new Veteran employees each month. In Germany, they have a military transition program which aims to provide career opportunities at Gigabrelin for veterans.
Tesla has an employee resource group called Veterans at Tesla that supports employees and their families as they transition from the military into the Tesla workforce. And over the years, Tesla has participated in many military job fairs and they organize recruitment events specifically for veterans. So again, to all those who have served, thank you. The Australian Energy Regulator said increased energy storage capacity will be essential to manage daily and seasonal variations and output on the national electricity market. This coming as coal power is removed from the market and because of this, the energy storage market in Australia is booming, accompanied by lower costs and expanding opportunities.
Battery storage systems operating in the national electricity market stand to earn significant revenue from operating in frequency control markets. Remember to keep it simple anytime you hear frequency control, just think of balancing the supply and demand of electricity on specific grids. And we know battery storage is very well suited for this use case because they can respond to frequency deviations almost instantaneously. They're also versatile because they can provide up and down regulation, charging when there's excess power and discharging when there's a deficit.
And battery storage units can deliver precise amounts of power which allows for a better fine tuning of that frequency control. So it's clear battery storage leads to a more stable grid frequency, which reduces the risk of blackouts. Energy storage news said at the end of 2023, Australia's total cumulative installed battery storage capacity was just under 6 gigawatt hours. And projections for 2030 by the Australian Energy Market Operator forecast a need for at least 22 gigawatts of power, which if we assume a three hour duration on average, that would be 66 gigawatt hours of capacity translation.
There's a lot of battery storage growth expected in the Australian market in the years to come, a market where the Tesla megapacks have been doing very well. Some articles over the weekend were talking about NHTSA asking Tesla to revisit its communications when it comes to messaging about FSD. This is all stemming from a probe earlier this year back in May when NHTSA was looking into Tesla for accidents that happened in low visibility situations. You may remember Sun glare fog and airborne dust.
I'm sure a lot of you will remember earlier this year the official Tesla account on X actually reposted a user testimonial where he took FSD to the hospital as he was having a heart attack. In that video where we talked about it, I said it was questionable for Tesla to repost that because it may encourage other people to do the same where that person doesn't really have the capacity to actually supervise. And what do you know now that repost is part of this investigation into Tesla.
In short, the investigation will consider the adequacy of feedback or information the system provides to drivers to enable them to make a decision in real time when the capability of the system has been exceeded. The agency gave Tesla until December 18th to respond to the letter but the company can ask for an extension. There's growing speculation that this Trump presidency may have negative impacts for German brands that export large amounts of vehicles to the US. In 2023, about 400,000 cars were exported from Germany to the US and in the first half of this year, the US was the largest buyer of German car exports.
BMW may be in a strong position though because they produce about two thirds of their sales volume in their assembly plant in South Carolina. A BMW spokesperson said if a new administration would impose additional tariffs, this local footprint would put us in a stronger position in comparison with some of our European competitors. And the director for the center of automotive management said German automakers could expand their production in the United States in response to any tariffs.
Really wanted to drive the point home that tariffs are one of the biggest question marks out there right now for the auto industry but not just for cars coming from Mexico or from China, we can't forget about Europe as well. On X, Adon Guajardo, hope I pronounced that right, caught a nice video of the cyber cab driving around Giga, Texas, presumably doing some testing. So, a great catch there and a good reminder we could be less than 12 months away from Tesla actually launching unsupervised rides in California or Texas. And as I've said many times in the past, the market does start to price things in roughly 6 to 12 months out so at least part of this historic Tesla run could also be the market pricing in Tesla's transition to becoming an autonomous ride hail company. And look, the reasons for Tesla stocks soaring the past few weeks are certainly multifaceted, I just think that's one aspect that not enough people are talking about, we could be within that one year window.
The government of India is making efforts to revive interest in its EV import scheme by organizing a workshop for companies interested in importing premium EVs at lower import tariffs. The initiative aims to gather feedback and understand the reasons behind the limited interest in the scheme. The response to the scheme has been less enthusiastic than anticipated leading the government to engage with stakeholders once again. But I'll tell you why there's minimal interest, if you go back and actually look at the proposal, these companies are required to invest at least $500 million over 5 years. The companies would have to achieve at least 25% domestic value addition in the first 3 years and then increase that to 50% in 5 years, which you can think of like a local supply chain. And further, these companies can only import up to 8000 EVs every year at the lower tariff of 15%. So yes, the 15% tariff is a big reduction from the between 70 and 100% tariff based on the price of the vehicle, but there are clearly some limitations, restrictions, and requirements that these car companies are not on board with. And remember, the main company India is trying to win over with this policy is Tesla. It's no surprise investors are piling into bullish options bets on Tesla with the stock hitting its highest level in more than 2 years.
Tesla contracts were the most heavily traded options on individual stocks today with some 2.5 million contracts changing hands by noon, more than twice the usual pace. The chief strategist at Interactive Broker's, a company we worked with earlier this year said it's euphoric. Tesla is by far the most active option at our shop. Dan Ives raised his Tesla price target to $400 from 300 before saying Trump is a game changer for the autonomous and AI story for Tesla and Elon over the coming years. And because I know at least a few of you will be curious, the Tesla options with strike prices at 350 and 400 and set to expire on Friday were the two most actively traded contracts with combined volume of about 180,000. As it turns out, there's some reading between the lines that is necessary after this post from Kai Trump saying Elon achieving uncle status. Trump views AI how Trump views EVs how Trump views robotics how Trump views space is probably all going to take a decidedly pro Elon point of view. And therefore I think that explains why Tesla has has done so well that in the fact that it's been the dog of the max seven for most of 2024. So there was room to catch up.
Yeah, Andrew, I wouldn't look for you on must have a dot gov address. I wouldn't look for Elon must to be a technical part of the US government. But he is a massive part of shaping architecting this government. Interestingly enough, like his systems background like built Tesla built SpaceX. He legitimately helped the Republican ticket in Pennsylvania. He figured out they needed more transportation. They did it. He did his own rallies where he was treated like a rock star like Trump. He's intimately involved in shaping this government. And Andrew, I'm told that president, former President Trump, President Trump loves sparring with Elon. He loves the innovative thinking you've interviewed him on stage. You know him like he has quirky thinking. He's not afraid to talk out loud. And he's bringing a fresh eye to a problem that Trump has been thinking about for eight years, including for those in the wilderness. Elon Musk as an idea generator as an idea promoter, somebody who's gonna be a massive hand voice in shaping the new Washington.
Marlago has basically been brimming for the last two days. I'm told with two kinds of people, those angling for a job and those who are trying to influence Trump into hiring their picks. But one person has loomed over all of that. His name is Elon Musk. Multiple sources tell me tonight that Musk has been seen at Marlago nearly every single day since Donald Trump won, dining with him on the patio at times. Today they were seen on the golf course together. Musk has been in the room when world leaders have called Trump. And tonight we've learned he's also weighing in on staffing decisions, making clear his preference for certain roles even. While Musk himself is still not expected to take any kind of formal position inside Trump's administration, given how complicated it would be with his companies, what's becoming clearer tonight is that he doesn't really need to. With one source telling me, Elon Musk is having just as much influence from the outside. Just in case some of you were doubting if Elon would have any influence after the election. So far it seems to be a resounding yes that he does indeed.
For certain third party charging providers across Europe, Tesla is now showing in the UI the availability of stalls in real time. Unfortunately right now this third party charging program is only for China and Europe. But perhaps a sign of things to come in other regions in the future. Peter Rawlinson has in my opinion rightly criticized the quality of EV availability in the US. He said the experience of many Americans with EVs has been underwhelming. He said it's not perception, it's reality. He also dismissed hybrid technology calling them the worst of all worlds.
Over the weekend FSD12.5.6.3 it did start rolling out to customers, but don't worry because many of us are still stuck on 12.5.4.1 or 2. I want to clear something up real quick, I did mention RFK last weekend that I was a fan of one of his initiatives, but don't get it twisted. I do not support everything he says, just like I don't support everything that Elon says. Some of you were thinking I was a big conspiracy theorist when in reality all I said was that I support making America healthy again and that some organizations like the FDA should be overhauled. Just listen to the data. About 40% of US adults over the age of 20 are obese. An estimated 129 million people in the US have at least one major chronic disease.
I could go on and on, but I want my main message to be about prioritizing your own health. If you have days every now and then where you're tired or you have some brain fog, you may be lacking in certain key nutrients. So if you'd like to try a quick and easy solution for yourself to see if it works for you, that's why I've linked up with AG1, the sponsor of this video. AG1 is now on its 52nd iteration after continually doing its own third party research. Speaking of that research in an observational study, 97% of participants felt more energy after taking AG1 for just 30 days.
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A quick trip down memory lane back on April 20th earlier this year. Maybe Gary was participating in festivities. He said we were correct to reduce our Tesla position from 12.2% to 2.7% today because of our concern about deteriorating fundamentals. In hindsight, we should have sold our entire Tesla position rather than keeping a small percentage of it. He later clarified his average sell price over that time was $202. September 5th, this year Fred Lambert sells all of his Tesla shares. Also, in September, Ross Gerber said he's been dumping Tesla because no one wants the company's cars or robots.
The only point I wanted to make here as well is that just because somebody has a large following does not necessarily mean their takes are always going to be good. And obviously, everybody has the right to do whatever they want to with their own investments. But the problem is, in this case, they were all arguing that basically Tesla had no upside in the near term. And clearly, their thesis has been terribly wrong. But the main reason I'm sharing this is because I know there are actually more people out there than you may think that have listened to people like this and actually ended up selling their shares and are now kicking themselves. So be careful who you listen to and always make your own financial decisions.
A fun fact, Tesla has added $450 billion of market cap in one month. Tesla has now become the eighth biggest company in the world by market cap sitting at a $1.12 trillion valuation. And who can forget this one from Elon? He said, once Tesla fully solves autonomy and has optimists in volume production, anyone still holding a short position will be obliterated, even gates. And I shouldn't have to say it, but all of this recent Tesla stock move is before either of these events.
There were some headlines out there today about a terrible Tesla crash in which unfortunately four people passed away and part of the reason was they couldn't get out of the car because they said the door handle wasn't working, according to the one person that survived. The investigation is still ongoing, but I wanted to use that to remind everybody to always know about the manual door open override. Check the owner's manual for your vehicle, there will be one for the front doors and also one for the rear doors. You should not be driving your Tesla without you and your passengers knowing where those are.
Tesla stock closed the day at $350 on the nose up 8.96% while the NASDAQ was basically flat up 0.06%. The volume today was 125% above the average. Don't forget check out AG1 links below if you're interested, take advantage of that new bonus offer for as long as it lasts. 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.