Hey everybody Rob Maurer here and today we don't have a ton of Tesla news, we have a new hire running Gig and Nevada, we'll talk about that. We also have some rumors on Project Highland and a couple of interesting updates from GM including the new Cadillac Escalade IQ.
Looking at the stock, not a great day for Tesla today, down 3% closing at $242.19. Well the Nasdaq was also rough, down 1.2%. Alright so we'll get right into the Tesla news, we're going to start off with a story from yesterday, a little bit of an update on it. This was the Energy Hub VPP Virtual Power Plant program that Tesla has partnered with in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and for getting him a third state.
But the accountants on Twitter slash X getting a little bit more detail on this, we talked yesterday about not being sure about Tesla's split in this whole setup. And it sounds like they are going to be getting 20% with Tesla here saying that Tesla will pay the owner of the Powerwall 80% of the compensation earned by their participation in this Virtual Power Plant program. So interesting, that's actually a pretty good margin for Tesla, I mean it's 20% of the revenue being generated but for Tesla the costs of that are most likely negligible.
So it should be really really high margin revenue. If we look at the terms of this program, this was allowing owners to earn up to $1,500 per year, it was capped at that. So depending on how that cap works with Tesla's cut, that either means that Tesla is maxing out at $300 per year or $375 per year depending on the 1500s before Tesla's cut or after. So actually a pretty decent annual potential revenue for Tesla there.
If you think about 100,000 Powerwalls, I mean obviously this isn't what Tesla would have deployed in those specific markets. But if a program like this were to kind of roll out more broadly using this as sort of an economic basis for what we could see in the future, just as some context 100,000 Powerwalls under this type of a structure could generate $30 million per year maximum if all those Powerwalls were kind of hitting that peak.
Now obviously that's unknown, there could be any number below that peak threshold but still interesting to kind of see some of the economics behind that. And again, most of that revenue should be pretty high, easy recurring revenue for Tesla. So it's going to be difficult to kind of suss those things out from the financials but over time hopefully we get more of an impact from that and more a little bit more visibility into those types of things as well.
So thanks to the accountant for sharing some details on that. I believe just found from Tesla's site. All right, next we've got an update from Electric. So this is discovered by Electric today I believe first they've learned that Tesla has hired an executive named Michael Hildebrand for the head of Gigafactory Nevada expansion engineering and construction.
Of course Tesla made these announcements in part in tandem with the Tesla Semi and also they're going to be adding 4680 significant 4680 production at Kaganavatta as well. So we don't seem to have seen that construction work start yet but it seems like Hildebrand will be taking that on. He's got pretty extensive background in this type of project management.
Most recently at Eli Lilly for I believe 18 years if we look at his LinkedIn almost 19 years as the executive director of projects for the last year and a half prior to that director of projects prior to that parent tarot projects advisor. So again, a lengthy history of managing large scale projects as electric notes they let a $2 billion plus capital project previously.
So good to see that kind of experience stepping in here. Obviously Tesla can use any talent that they can get their hands on and it seems like he's got a pretty robust experience here. So exciting to see that and we'll keep an eye out for more updates on that Kaganavatta expansion project.
All right, next we've got a couple of rumors on projects, Highland. So you know, obviously we'll see what have these come to be. Some of them don't, maybe not all of them will come to fruition, but a couple of posts on X today with potentially some, you know, shots of what the new dashboard could be. This one can't really see a whole lot, but then the same user shared another one, which seems to have what appears to be or what is purported to be a new dash next to the current model three dash. So it's, you know, a little bit tough to figure out exactly what would be different from this, but most strikingly it would just be kind of the construction of this, you know, sort of more forward facing part of the dash. Seems to be in one piece or one set of housing compared to previously a couple of pieces. So and then obviously, you know, potentially different connection points here and things like that. So largely similar, but a couple of differences.
If we look at the current model three dash, you can see this would essentially be this part back here and back would be what we'd be looking at here. And then this new dash would seem to kind of connect these two parts into one, which could, you know, make things a little bit more simple for assembly type of purposes. And then comparing it to the model S because we have heard some rumors that, you know, the model three update might bring things in a little bit more alignment with a model S type of interior. This would be quite a bit different still. You can see the dash has the, you know, riser for the second screen, which if this is accurate, this does not appear to have in any way. So seems to be more in alignment with this sort of a look than what we see on the model S. So again, we'll see what, you know, it comes to be of that. And then from Tesla channel on Twitter, apparently Tesla's model three highland new wheel, no way of validating this, but I think it's a nice looking wheel if this is indeed what we do end up seeing.
All right, a couple more things on China. So Tesla Shanghai on X again, saying that Tesla has done their most recent software update in China. And as a part of that, they are now allowing users to opt in for data collection for autopilot improvements. So I'm actually kind of surprised that Tesla wasn't doing this already, but it does seem like they're, you know, now starting to collect this data. And hopefully then that could mean that things would be advancing in terms of their FSD capability and sort of rollout in China. But it is worth noting that Tesla has done this previously in Europe. And you know, obviously we don't have FSD in Europe yet. So it's not necessarily a sign that anything is necessarily imminent in China, you know, very soon.
All right, next we've got an update on the cyber truck. Just a quick quick video here of the cyber truck and a trailer. I don't remember the Instagram handle that this came from, but as he Robbins and junior posting this on Twitter, it looks like keynote's garage. So you can kind of see a little bit into the suspension. We don't get a whole lot here, but interesting to kind of see under there, maybe some other people can gain a little bit more insight from that. The rest is probably stuff that we have seen before, folded in mirrors, but just kind of gives a new perspective on the cyber truck that we haven't seen, especially, you know, kind of up there by the wheels. So like to pass those along, but you know, we're consistently getting a cyber truck updates every day now, which is, which is nice.
All right, next we've got sort of related to Tesla, sort of not, but just kind of an interesting update from S&P Global. They've decided to drop their ESG score or their ESG scale from their credit ratings. This is something that had previously negatively impacted Tesla. And Tesla was actually, although not necessarily directly related to the credit scores here. Tesla was dropped from the S&P ESG, S&P 500 ESG index. Now it's not as big of a deal as the S&P 500 in total. The assets under management is, you know, eight billion versus 15 trillion. So it's, it's pretty minuscule and not super meaningful for any waiting or benchmarking or things like that. But Tesla was dropped from that. They ended up returning recently, I think within the last month, but interesting to see S&P kind of, you know, steer away from these ESG ratings, at least within their credit scores. Now Elon's talked a lot about this, saying that they're kind of a joke and honestly they kind of have been, as we have seen from Tesla scores, you know, with Exxon on occasion, companies like Chevron having higher ESG scores than Tesla, which doesn't really seem to capture the intent of them, which I think, you know, whether they were well intended at the beginning or under a guise of well intentioned that suffered a bait. But I think the purported idea of it kind of makes sense, you know, ESG in general, but the execution of it just has really not, I don't think it has accomplished what's, you know, it's set out to accomplish. So I'm happy that they are making adjustments here. I wish that there were a way that this could be done in the way that it's supported, you know, supposed to be intended to be. But in the absence of that, it's probably better to not have it influencing things like that. So that's an interesting topic maybe for another day.
All right, we do have a couple of Tesla updates, promotional updates here. So we've got some new merchandise from Tesla, the cyber bear trucker hat, which I think looks really cool. It's the, you know, California engineering HQ commemoration is what they say here, which obviously this would be the, I don't know if it's like the California flag or just sort of state logo, but representing that as well as, you know, cyberized and Tesla style. And then Tesla has also started to post some more short type of videos on YouTube here. I'm sure they're, well, I'm not sure, but I would guess that they're posting these on other socials as well, like Tiktok or Instagram, but just kind of doing a couple of videos on, you know, some of the factory, the robots that they've got in the factory, then we could see the screen tilt that Model S and Model X have a couple demo videos of those. So just, you know, more promotional activity for Tesla, even though it may not necessarily count as advertising, we do see Tesla continuing to, I think, heighten their efforts in those areas.
And then the last couple of things from GM. So first we have an update from their CFO from the JP Morgan investor conference said that the, they're having production issues with the Cadillac Lyric. So far they have, you know, in July, they only built 1000 lyrics. And so far this year they've only delivered 2400, which compared to their targets from early 2022, they had said that they had expected to build, you know, 25,000, I believe last year. So obviously for them to only then deliver 2400 in the first six months this year, suggest that they are significantly behind their CFO attributing this to issues with assembling battery modules, which obviously would be the new Altium platform for GM. So not surprising. This is, I wouldn't necessarily like easily anticipated, but I guess easily anticipated that there would be some sort of issues with these types of ramps, especially with the complexity that I think GM has taken on both with the Altium pack and, you know, the, the versatility that they've tried to design into that, I think is adding complexity, which we talked about when they first announced it. And then just ramping up their, you know, sort of own battery production and things like that. So not surprising to see them having issues, but they are continuing to have pretty significant issues on this.
Nevertheless, they have announced the Cadillac Escalade IQ, which is a kind of a crazy beast of a vehicle here. I think, you know, the Escalade is, it serves serves a certain purpose. It's a big vehicle, kind of flashy. And I think that this sort of lives true to that. It's going to have a 450 mile range, at least, I don't know if it's going to be a sole configuration or if this would be one of them, but that's what they've announced today is a 450 mile range that is going to be coming from a 200 kilowatt hour pack. So a huge, huge pack here. I'm not sure how that can't remember at the top of my head what the Hummer pack is, but somewhat similar in size to that. And then they say it's going to have the capability of charging up to 100 miles of range in 10 minutes. So just doing the math on that with the battery pack size that we know there, that's roughly 44.44 kilowatt hours for doing that in 10 minutes. That's an average of about 266 kilowatts over that 10 minute time. So that would roughly be the rate of V3 superchargers, but doing it for that whole 10 minute period and then presumably they kind of have to taper it off a little bit and charging this whole 200 kilowatt hours would probably take quite a bit of time. So again, kind of a beast of a vehicle, beast of a pack there, they do say that this is going to be have up to 750 horsepower and the zero to 60 time on some trims with some options selected would be less than five seconds. And then just kind of a quick look at the vehicle and the exterior, kind of see some of this here. Let that play for a couple seconds. And then the interior is pretty interesting. They do have sort of the wraparound dash screen. So this is 55 inches. I don't personally think that there's a whole lot of benefit for this on the passenger side, I guess maybe you can control the media or things like that. But I feel like most of the time this would probably just end up being annoying more than anything else for the passenger, but you know, certainly looks expensive, I guess. So I think that's part of the appeal of the Escalade in the first place. So interesting. Overall, and I don't know if I've gotten any shots at the front here, but the front trunk is also pretty massive, pretty impressive. I'm sure we can find it. There we go. So massive, massive front trunk. I don't know how it compares volumetrically to something like the F-150 Lightning front trunk, but obviously, you know, significant capability there from, you know, loading capability there for the Escalade.
And then the last thing for today, just a quick heads up for something that's coming tomorrow, the California Public Utilities Commission is going to be voting on whether or not expansion for crews in Waymo would be allowed. What they're looking to do is potentially have the permit to operate their ride hailing services 24-7, be able to charge for all their rides, expand their service area, and add an unlimited number of Robotaxes. So we'll see. Keep an eye on that for tomorrow. Obviously, that could have implications for how things develop for other companies with their autonomous vehicle efforts as well. So somebody to keep an eye on tomorrow. All right. That'll wrap it up for today. As always, thank you for listening. Make sure you're subscribed and signed up for notifications. You can also find me on Twitter or X at Tesla podcast. And we'll see you tomorrow for the Thursday, August 10th episode of Tesla Daily. Thank you.