Welcome to Electrified. It's your host Dylan Umsk, quick shout out to my newest patrons Chuck H. Stephen W. Nicholas H. Roger B. and Jan H. Thank you for choosing to support the channel. On the Elon and Zuckerberg fight, Elon said the exact date for that fight is in flux. Elon's getting an MRI of his neck and upper back today. Monday, he may require surgery before the fight can happen. He'll know this week.
Going back in archives last month, Elon said he might need an operation to strengthen the titanium plate, holding his C5 and C6 vertebrae together. This right here is where your C5 and C6 are located. Elon added the fight will be live streamed on X. All proceeds will go to charity for veterans. Look, the reality is none of us know the extent to which this fight is actually going to be a real fight, versus just an exhibition where there's an understanding that they're not going to hurt each other. So the cause is great, but I'll just say it in the event this turns out to be the former. This seems like a pretty unwise decision from Elon.
Elon said he's lifting throughout the day, getting ready for the fight. He doesn't have time to work out, so he just brings weights to work. And when he was pushed, what's the reason for the fight, he said it's a civilized form of war, men love war. Then to top it all off, replying to a long post from Tesla economics, talking about how Elon should reconsider and maybe not do this fight. Elon said nobody lives forever. August 26th is out there as a date for this fight, potentially, but Elon has to wait and see the results of this MRI.
I have to say it though, the more I think about this whole fight and try to understand why Elon is doing this, nothing really makes sense to me if you want to raise money for charity, there are a million other ways to do it. But as most of us know, Elon's going to do what Elon wants to do, so hopefully this whole thing comes and goes and nobody gets hurt and we can all move on and put it in the past.
I'm sure many of you have seen this already, but in an 8k from Tesla, they have appointed a Vibov Tunisia as the new chief financial officer in addition to his current role as chief accounting officer, of course succeeding Zachary Kirkhorn. They said Zach stepped down as of Friday August 4th after 13 years with the company, the last 4 years of which he served as the CFO. And they said Zach will continue to serve Tesla through the end of the year to support a seamless transition. Unfortunately though the reality is we have no idea to what extent Zach will still be with the company, he could pack his bags and be gone next week and we just won't know.
I'm not going to read it, suppose if you like, but here's the boilerplate comments Zach made on this decision on LinkedIn. About 4 years ago on a Tesla conference call, they announced that the then CFO Deepakahouja was going to be leaving Tesla and the stock dropped about 4% on the news. I'm sharing this as a reminder because when that happened there were plenty of people freaking out saying it was the end of Tesla, what's going on, we can't trust this new guy, what happened, what's wrong with the company. And most people including Wall Street were very skeptical of this young guy Zach Kirkhorn and fast forward to today and we know he did an incredible job while with the company.
No disrespect at all to Zach, he helped lead Tesla through a very challenging time, but the reality is there are plenty of brilliant minds out there that can take Tesla from here to the next chapter that aren't named Zach Kirkhorn. And sure, the truth is there could have been a lot more of this where Zach and Elon disagree on certain things and over time it just comes to a head and it's time for them to go separate ways. Is this move unexpected? Yes, is it odd the way Tesla announced it? Yes, but at the end of the day, Zach being CFO for 4 or 5 years is not at all out of the ordinary, it's fairly typical in the tech industry to have turnover in a high stress role like this. And let me be clear, Zach stepping down does not at all have to signal that something terrible lies ahead for Tesla that just is not necessarily the case. It could be, but it doesn't have to be.
Let's not forget, working for Elon is stressful and Zach has sold about $49 million worth of Tesla stock during his tenure as CFO and he still holds around $550 million worth of shares in stock options that have vested but have not been exercised.
A new vehicle launch at a company like Tesla is undoubtedly stressful and Tesla hasn't done it in about 3 years. So with Cybertruck, semi next year, hopefully Roadster, the more affordable vehicle, the van, all of these vehicles over the next few years, maybe behind closed doors Zach realized that he was never going to actually be the CEO and he didn't want to go through the arduous task of launching all of these new products and he just said, you know what, my time has come.
And the new CFO, Vibov Tanesha is a 45 year old who was appointed as the director for Tesla's Indian arm, India Motors and energy private limited back in January 2021. Taking a look at his LinkedIn page, he's been the chief accounting officer for the last four years or so around the same time that Zach was serving as the CFO so they've definitely been working closely together. Before working at Tesla, he spent one year at SolarCity and was at PWC for almost 17 years, which happens to be Tesla's auditing firm, not at all, to be little Zach's importance to Tesla.
新任首席财务官Vibov Tanesha是一位45岁的人,他于2021年1月被任命为特斯拉在印度的子公司India Motors and Energy Private Limited的董事。查看他的领英页面,可以看出他在过去四年左右担任首席会计官,大约是在扎克担任首席财务官的同一时间,所以他们肯定一直在密切合作。在加入特斯拉之前,他在SolarCity工作了一年,并在普华永道工作了近17年,这恰好是特斯拉的审计公司,这并不是贬低扎克在特斯拉的重要性。
But at the end of the day, this really isn't that big of a deal. It's just next man up. And that's one of the things that makes Tesla great. They have so much incredible talent at the company. And honestly, sometimes a fresh perspective, somebody in that role who is maybe a bit more excited to be there, maybe less burnt out than Zach could mean great things, new ideas. So we'll see how it plays out.
In case you haven't already seen it, here's a photo of the Cybertruck Frank on a pre production version. Maybe not as deep as some were hoping, but don't forget it's going to be very wide. It looks like it'll be pretty easy to set things down. The big question is still will the front open and close automatically? I would certainly hope that it does. And just remember, they had to ensure this vehicle would fit in a standard garage with over a six foot bed that is bigger than the F150 lightning that comes in around five and a half feet.
We also got some video footage from Joe Tettmeyer of the Cybertruck charging at Gigatexas. And it's hard to tell if it's out of necessity of the cable reaching the port, but the Cybertruck back is much closer to the stall than the Model Y right next to it. And as Gregor truck astutely pointed out on X, the Cybertruck may have been doing some towing testing with his bed, looking like it's loaded with some plates right beside it.
Just to put it on your radar on Tesla's website, they are saying that you could get a tax credit up to $4,000 for a used Tesla vehicle under $25,000 if you meet certain criteria. Tesla says for this year, the used vehicles must be Model 2021 year or older. I'll put this below in case any of you are maybe looking for a used Model 3 and you find one under $25,000, this could sweeten the deal a bit more.
Pepsi dropped a new video talking about its use of the Tesla semis in the real world with glowing reviews. So typically on an average day, a driver might stop between 8 to 12 destinations along the route. The unique thing is that those tractors for the most part sit idle overnight. So a majority of those routes are done from very early morning into the afternoon. In terms of the transport side of the business, these are much longer routes. So out of our 21 assets of Tesla's semi that we have here, three of them are dedicated to the long haul over the road routes. The routes may change or may vary between let's call it 250 miles up to 450 miles.
So we have been aggressive to push the limit and demonstrate that we are able to achieve a very high range with a fully loaded tractor with that fleet. Region is a huge benefit for us I think overall when it comes to the transformation to electric. We've seen very strong efficiencies and performance based off the region of the Tesla semis. For example, going across Donors Pass and back from here to Nevada, we're able to on the trip back actually zero out in terms of state of charge improving due to regenerative braking, which for us is massive. That extends range for us in a way that is invaluable.
In terms of the region, the efficiency of the tractor and the routes that we're taking as well as the drivers that have been enabled for the past several months, we've been able to stay below 1.7 kilowatt hours per mile. And remember, the Tesla semi has three motors. The front axle, not pictured, does not have any motors and you're looking at the back two rear axles. The first one of which is the highway drive unit with one motor and then you have two motors on the back which are really for acceleration and torque. So depending on the circumstance, the two rear motors are automatically and seamlessly engaged or disengaged mechanically from the drive axle to minimize energy losses.
And Eric on X shared some images of another mega charger this one in Las Vegas, specifically the South Eastern Ave location. But notice how all of this is still sitting on a pallet, presumably not a permanent location at least in this setup.
So this early test fleet partnership between Tesla and Pepsi seems to be going very well for both sides. Elon also said bizarrely government funding is still being directed to hydrogen trucks. It is idiotic. In case you want to watch Elon's full interview with PG&E, I'll include a link below. It was about a half hour long. They really just talked about a lot of high level stuff. Nothing really Tesla specific, but it's down there if you're interested.
I'm not going to dive in because only a few of you are actually in Colorado, but Colorado residents can soon qualify for up to $26,500 in discounts for new EVs. That is pretty wild. And even if you're not in Colorado, maybe you know somebody there and you can send them this page that will be below if they're not already considering an EV.
The Prime Minister of Malaysia has been impressed with how fast Tesla has set up its HQ in the country. He told the civil service to shed their old ways in getting things done by taking note of the efficiency shown by Elon's Tesla. He said half a month ago Elon gave his commitment. Ten days ago he sent his regional chief to meet me and tell me they're buying a huge building in cybergia and they want me to officiate the opening. All this in weeks, but we are slow. That's why I tell our civil servants we can't be set in our old ways. So Tesla is moving quickly in Malaysia and in the process, impressing the leaders of the country.
And in response to Tesla setting up shop in Malaysia, some folks in their neighboring country in Indonesia have said the country's giant nickel reserves in Indonesia may not be as large of a draw as hoped. And now some folks are wondering if something may be lacking with Indonesia's offer trying to bring Tesla to the region. But officials from Indonesia have been trying to calm those fears saying that Tesla setting up shop in Malaysia was not a sign that Indonesia was being overlooked. One official said Tesla's investment in Malaysia is not an EV factory but for sales and distribution so we're not too worried about that. What we are targeting are EV factories. For Malaysia, it only invests in distribution and charging networks.
An economic researcher in Jakarta has said there are still many issues Indonesia has not complied with enough, especially the ESG aspects of its nickel mining sector. Now we know ESG is a scam but what he's getting at are some of the working conditions and some of the stigma around the nickel sector in the region. And there are also some questions on how serious Indonesia is with the renewable transition given their lack of green energy right now and that may have reduced investor appetite. But honestly, most of this article is speculation, just some things to keep in mind.
Replying to whole Mars, Elon just said I think we may have figured out some aspects of AGI artificial general intelligence. The car has a mind, not an enormous mind but a mind nonetheless. To keep us all grounded, this is an awfully general statement and don't gloss over the key operative words we may have figured out some aspects of AGI.
We have green the only who said it looks like the Model Y hardware 4 infotainment side is somewhat crippled compared to hardware 3. It has half as much RAM and half as much storage, 8 gigs and 128 gigs respectively. Given current requirements for steam, that crosses steam out even though it's not officially supported anyway.
If true, green speculation as to why Tesla would do this, less RAM and smaller non-volatile memory expresses are cheaper. I'll definitely be looking out for more information on this. The concern is that maybe over time with less memory, things may be a bit more laggy because right now with the new hardware 4 Model Y cars, most of the consumer responses have been it's very snappy when it comes to the user interface and infotainment.
But with less RAM and storage over time as more data accumulates when the car goes to sleep and wakes up, maybe that snappiness goes away but again that's just a guess.
And per the usual for legacy, the dealer will set the final price.
照常规办事,对于传统品牌来说,经销商将确定最终价格。
This process sounds a lot more like building a house than it does buying a car but I'm sure for a very small group of people that's exactly what they want.
这个过程听起来更像是建房子而不是买车,但我确信有一小部分人正是这样希望的。
And yes, this process should generate high profit margins for GM but only making what a couple hundred a year if that is it really going to move the needle? You could certainly argue no.
Toyota and two partners in China are setting up a joint venture aimed at bringing EV self-driving vehicles to the market. They're linking up with Pony.ai but no timeline or estimate on the number of vehicles expected to be deployed has been released.
Pony.ai is actually based in Fremont and in July of this year they received a driverless test permit in Shanghai's Pudong District among the first batch of three companies to receive the permit.
Lucid cut the prices of its air luxury sedans by as much as $12.4 thousand dollars as part of an offer and they said it will be while supplies last without saying how many supplies are available.
It'll be built on the SLV1 platform which stands for simple light volume and this car is supposed to start at $29,000 to be built in the United States meaning it'll qualify for credits which if they can pull it off would mean a $22,000 cost to the consumer again in mid 2025.
They're also building an in-house supercomputer they're calling the Fisker blade that should be in this vehicle.
他们还在建造一台被称为“Fisker blade”的内部超级电脑,它应该在这辆车上使用。
They also rolled out this Fisker Alaska their daily driver pickup truck.
他们还推出了这款Fisker Alaska,这是他们日常使用的皮卡车。
This will be on an FT31 platform it's actually just a modified version of their Fisker ocean platform.
这将是在FT31平台上进行的,其实只是他们Fisker Ocean平台的一个改进版本。
It's going to have a 4.5 foot bed but it'll have a Houdini trunk to extend it to 7.5 feet and then actually 9.6 feet to the edge of the tailgate when it's down.
It's expected to have about 230 miles of range it'll start at $45,000 and again after incentives come down to around $37,000 once again supposed to come in 2025.
And this Houdini trunk on the Fisker pair is actually pretty cool for tight spaces it basically just slides down right in itself to open up the storage space.
But of course Fisker still has a lot to prove through the first half of this year they've only made about 1000 of their Fisker oceans and their initial goal was about 1700.
So the presentation was cool they talked about a lot of great technology but again production is the hard part.
所以演示很棒,他们谈到了很多厉害的技术,但是生产才是最困难的部分。
You can find me on X at Dylan Loomis 22 hope you guys have a wonderful day please like the video if you did and a huge thank you to all of my patreon supporters.