Shigeshang Hai has achieved the 2 million cars produced milestone. Now to recap, this factory started construction January 2019. First production vehicles rolled off the line December 2019, so were almost 4 years later to hit this mark a few months shy. Not too bad for a muddy field. And in case anybody's new, this plant is wholly owned and operated by Tesla, no joint venture with any Chinese company, which was actually the first time the Chinese government has ever allowed that.
Speaking of that diesel train at Giga Berlin, my guy Brian did point out the NEB, which is a German company, actually owns and operates the train. Right now, Tesla only owns the tracks. So for now, it seems like Tesla doesn't even have the option to electrify that train.
Looking at the configurator for the Model S and X, the Yoke option is now $1,000 of up from $250 previously. Now I can't confirm these, but I have heard of some rumors out there that service centers have mentioned an upgraded Yoke steering wheel with more premium materials that was going to be available between September and October of this year. So it could be that, or it could just be that the Yoke has not been as popular as Tesla was expecting, so raising the price of it would dissuade more buyers from choosing that option, which of course would streamline manufacturing if indeed most SNX vehicles are being built with the round wheel. And let us not forget how things have come full circle here. Fred had asked any chance of a normal steering wheel option when Tesla was talking about the Yoke and Elon Musk said no back in 2021. Some people have said the ability to change your mind is actually a superpower.
This night, Sawyer reported that McDonald's partnered up with Tesla to create a cyber spoon that they would sell for $4 and only 50,000 units would be made. At the time, Elon said, fake news as far as I know. But fast forward and we got some more pictures that Tesla posted on their official Weibo account. And now Elon later has said in that case, I'll definitely have some. It comes in this cylindrical cyber design case that says cyber spoon on it and the spoon itself has don't panic. Here is an action shot for you. I am still wondering why Tesla China is leaning into the cyber vibes as there's been no indication the cyber truck will make it to that market. Either way, there you have it. Maybe a few of these will pop up on eBay eventually.
Now we have some Tesla suppliers saying they're not expecting Tesla to begin production at the gigamexico plant until 2026 or 2027. The report cited an anonymous Chinese supplier saying they and several other Chinese companies made delay plans to launch their operations near the still unbuilt Tesla factory. The source said two or three months ago, there was a lot of rush, lots of pressure to look for a location, but one month later, they told us to wait. Additionally, Danish engineering consultancy Ramble, taking into account the permitting process suggested the site would only be ready for construction in 2027. Now I'll just say it, this one seems completely off base and detached from any sort of expectations we've heard so far. I would be very hard pressed to believe Tesla would be okay with not starting construction of the factory for another four years. So I would just say this is nothing official and clearly things are subject to change week to week and month to month so as always we'll just keep watching. And look, the truth is if things get too out of hand, Tesla has countries all around the world clamoring for their business so if they have to call an audible, it certainly would not be ideal but it's not out of the question.
We got some new images from Ray for Tesla. This is the new Model 3 being checked out by this gentleman William Lee, who is indeed the CEO of Neo and I heard he was on the phone with his board of directors saying that they're in big trouble. Just kidding, I made that part up but this is indeed William Lee checking out the new Model 3. A beautiful site, Fueleconomy.gov now officially listing the Model X long range as fully qualifying for the $7,500 credit. Sadly still no Model S.
This year's Detroit Auto Show will be the 13th through the 24th and for the first time in 8 years, Tesla will be a part of it. Tesla will be one of the companies showing off their EVs on the new powering Michigan EV experience indoor track ride along activation. And outside Ford and Tesla will offer street course ride and drives. Go ahead and pause to take a look at the schedule if you're in the area. I believe the last time Tesla was at the Detroit Auto Show was back in 2015 then in 2016 they had to explain why they were not there. The reason they gave was because they still couldn't sell their cars directly in Michigan so why would they go market them there.
The latest update I could find from law.umichigan.edu was that Michigan still explicitly bans direct sales but Tesla and the state reached a settlement to allow Tesla to deliver vehicles to customers in Michigan provided the legal title transfer be done out of state. If any of you in Michigan have more accurate or up to date information please let us know in the comments.
For now 8 days away from a possible 3 company strike for these UAW negotiations and we have an Axios reporter saying if that happens Tesla would be the winner if there is a big strike. Tesla would also be a winner if the automakers have to agree to huge pay increases because Tesla is not unionized. It feels like a certainty at the very least the automakers will be paying higher wages and will see what else. But if the workers for GM's to Lantis in Ford all go on strike at the same time yes that would be beneficial for Tesla.
Indonesia's Luhud Panjaitin is now telling us that he's not expecting Tesla to set up shop in Indonesia anytime soon. He said I said fine we're doing okay if you can't invest in Indonesia for a moment no problem. The reason he gave Elon was concerned about the global economic outlook and over supply in the EV industry. This is part of why I love covering the daily news because over the last 6 months if you've been paying attention reading between the lines there have been so many fears of oversupply not just now from Elon but from many other automakers as well.
Elon is set to visit Indonesia next month in October but that talk is supposed to be for Starlink. I don't want to get over my skis here but I do want to say let's pay close attention to Elon and what Tesla is doing over the next few weeks potentially behind the scenes gearing for an economic slowdown.
In some much more exciting news from Benchmark the global weighted average price for lithium ion sales has dropped below $100 per kilowatt hour for the first time in two years. The latest price $98.2 per kilowatt hour down 33% from March last year. We've long heard that for EVs to reach price parity with ice vehicles we need battery pack prices around $100 per kilowatt hour. That would correspond to a sell price of around $80 per kilowatt hour. Dating back to December of last year this is exactly the trend we want to see.
Benchmarks cathode and anode indices have fallen 41.9 and 17.6% respectively this year. And in China we actually have nickel based sales that are more affordable than LFP equivalents. And they said falling sell prices are of particular concern for companies investing in sell production outside of China which we've heard a ton of announcements for in the last year. But for the automakers like Tesla this is awesome news from a cost of goods sold standpoint.
From energy storage news the EU has introduced new rules including requirements for carbon footprint labeling, health and safety labels, ethical sourcing and minimal levels of resource recovery and use of recycled content as well as limiting potentially harmful or scarce materials. Essentially creating a digital passport for batteries which will attach QR codes to materials and components for more transparency through the supply chain. This will be implemented in phases but it is already indeed in force. And these new rules will apply to all manufacturers, producers, importers and distributors extending to all batteries sold within the block. And it's only a matter of time until Tesla's 4680 production and a new megapack factory in the EU actually show up.
In India they have an organization called the Central Electric Authority that did some forecasts on the amount of battery energy storage they would need. Well now all three of their prior forecasts will be blown out of the water by the CEA's latest modeling. The updated figures by 2047 India could need 1,840 gigawatt hours or 1.8 terawatt hours of battery energy storage systems. The government is very committed to adopting these energy storage systems and who is set up to be a provider of a lot of that capacity, Tesla. Just over the next decade they are saying they will need 411 gigawatt hours of energy storage which was up from the prior forecast of about 108 gigawatt hours. So when we think about Tesla and India, do not forget about the energy storage side.
And because battery cells are the single most significant cost component in an energy storage system, if we see the average global prices of those cell costs coming down, Tesla will be able to offer their megapacks at even more affordable prices. Or they will be able to capture even higher margins.
For some context, total installed battery storage capacity in the US reached 12.6 gigawatts by the end of the second quarter. And remember if there is no H that means power, not capacity, usually capacity is about 3x the power number. 1.9 gigawatts was added during the second quarter, 18% higher than Q1. That means by the end of June the United States has reached 36.9000 megawatt hours of energy storage capacity. This is the equivalent of about 9200 Tesla megapacks.
A Rivian Forum member found this on the Rivian website and it says the manual Tano will be purchasable in the gear shop later this year and they will be adding the powered Tano to the gear shop in early 2024.
Mercedes CEO said the first of Mercedes own charging stations in China will launch in Chengdu this October, followed by further stations in cities like Beijing and Shenzhen. Their goal is 10,000 fast charging points in North America, Europe and China by 2030.
Weimo Robotaxes reported 35 more crashes in San Francisco than cruise since the beginning of 2022, but cruise had far more incidents involving injuries. Of cruises, 68 collision reports, 14 involved injuries, meaning around 20% of their crash incidents since 2022 involved injuries. The vast majority of crash incidents cruise reported to regulators involved a situation in which the cruise car was not at fault because it was legally stopped, rear ended or had the right of way, according to a company spokesperson. Weimo on the other hand recorded just two incidents in which injuries were reported in the same period. In total, since 2022, Weimo has reported 103 collisions and cruise 68.
GM's design page on Instagram posted this picture of a Buick crossover EV, not sure what it's supposed to be, but next year Buick is supposed to release their first fully electric vehicle.
From E.E. news, House Republicans are still probing forward for more information on their deal with CATL. They're asking forward to share a copy of the agreement that Ford signed with CATL by September 18. Their concern is this partnership could allow China to expand control over the US vehicle supply chains and jeopardize national security. But a spokesperson for Ford said Ford alone is building the plant and will own and run the facility. CATL will not own any part of the plant and Ford is licensing CATL's battery cell tech to use in the United States and will contract with them for specific services. Nothing more. Remember this factory is supposed to be for LFP cells for Ford to use in the F-150 Lightning and the Mach-E.
Ford did show off their upcoming electric explorer that's set to go into production summer of 2024, but the delay is not because of regulations like we heard before. Ford said the new reason for the delay is they're waiting for a new generation of Volkswagen battery technology to be available because this is being built on VW's M.E.B. platform. Ford also filed a patent for a fixed or removable feature, basically a light strip that would be something like this that could be for an electric vehicle like the Mustang Mach-E, but it doesn't have to be just for EVs. Here's a better look. And they mentioned features like the light strip blinking green once an EV's battery is fully charged and you can choose different colors and different things like pulsing, chasing or fading, potentially for tailgate parties and other uses.
We are going to get our first EV maker coming to market with a cell phone and yes Tesla is in the title but nope it's not from them it's from Polestar. Polestar plans to launch a smartphone in December in China with the launch of the Polestar 4. This stems from a joint venture created in June between Polestar and Xing Zhi Meizu, a Chinese smartphone maker. Thomas Ingenloth said where you have an opportunity to link these two worlds without any border then you can really have a seamless transition. He was complaining about still having problems like getting an SMS displayed in a vehicle and they said this cell phone will be a premium device.
This Meizu company has its own operating system dubbed fly me and they're now making an operating system for Polestar cars based on that. This will allow Polestar to bundle software, apps, services and features like remotely controlling or turning on the car with a phone. The real question is how many customers are really going to ditch their main personal cell phone to have one just so they can integrate it with their vehicle. This really highlights the gap of how far ahead Tesla is when it comes to its mobile app and how much it can control through the mobile app and how well certain things integrate with the car. Sure it's not perfect and there are always features people will want but relative to the competition per the usual there are many steps ahead.
Something to keep an eye on in Kentucky that hopefully doesn't roll out across the country starting in January next year, anyone who installs the publicly available EV charger will have to quantify the amount of electricity dispensed even if it has no separate meter and pay a monthly usage tax to the state. This of course to capture revenue from EV drivers who otherwise would not contribute to Kentucky road funding. The problem is EV drivers already do contribute because they have a flat fee for EV registrations in Kentucky. As you can see right here so this is kind of like a double taxation.
The German Chancellor just said in the coming weeks we'll see Germany become the first country in Europe to introduce a law requiring operators of 80% of all service stations to provide fast charging options with at least 150 kilowatts for EVs. And separately with this I think you just have to chuckle at the Munich show there were some protesters clamming on top of cars at BMW and Mercedes stands holding signs saying the party is over and shouting the future is being destroyed. So people protesting that EVs are destroying the future. As I guess Elon would say oh the irony.
This one gang was a key figure about 20 years ago in convincing China to make a mad dash for electric vehicles. Now the same person is saying that the future will be hydrogen inclusive. In some regions plug in hybrid and hydrogen cars could even be more prevalent than fully electric models. Now he did mention this would be especially true in China's commercial vehicle fleet. And BMW CEO has said for us talking about zero emission vehicles always means talking about hydrogen as well. This one gang is not a nobody so we'll have to watch and see what automakers start spending more time focusing on hydrogen.
Looking at Ford's EV sales in the United States for August the Mach-E is up to 5,033 units up 61% year over year and the F-150 lightning 1,018 down 57% year over year. So far this year Ford sold around 39,000 all electric vehicles in the United States up about 6.5% from last year. Looking at the red bars for this year since the factory shutdowns in Q1 they've been seeing a steady uptick in EV sales in the States. After today though the Mach-E still only sits just over 23,000 units and the F-150 lightning 11,000.
There was this article out there by Mozilla going around talking about how cars have the worst habits for customer privacy of any type of product. And in their rankings they had Tesla ranked dead last. I just needed to say I think Tesla specifically this report is totally nonsense. For example they said Tesla got dinged for untrustworthy AI because of their autopilot system being involved in some accidents. More importantly though they talk about these companies collecting data you're not even aware of, selling your data and doing all types of shady practices. But I'll put this blog post from Tesla below if you want to read it. Tesla doesn't do any of that and what they do do they're very upfront about. At any time you can get a copy of your data and they say we do not sell your personal info to anyone for any purpose period.
Walter Isaacson had a piece in time about Elon and mostly AI but there is something I wanted to point out. They said Tesla has 160 billion frames per day of video that Tesla received and processed from the cameras on its cars.
Replying to Farzad using that excerpt Elon said managing that data is extremely difficult. We ignore don't store at all or delete almost all of it. The training videos that matter are rare ones like weird and busy intersections so less than 1% of all videos.
Tesla is limited by AI training compute and video plus dojo fix it.
特斯拉受限于人工智能训练计算、视频以及道场修复问题。
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