Hey everybody Rob Maurer here and today we've got some big and exciting news on charging infrastructure. We've also got updates on the Model X, Cyber Truck, Project Highland and a couple other items as well. Not a bad day for the stock, all things considered, the NASDAQ down about 9.0% of a percent, Tesla down just 2.0% of a percent, closing at $251.49. Alright, so the big news for today, Major Hotel Chain Brand Hilton has announced that they have partnered with Tesla to install up to 20,000 Tesla Universal Wall Connectors at 2,000 hotels across North America. Hilton notes that this will become the largest EV charging infrastructure for any hospitality company. So remember the Universal Wall Connector, this is a product that Tesla just released a few weeks ago, this is the one that has sort of the magic dock type connector that will have both NASDAQ and a J1772 adapter. These retail for $595 a piece, so we're talking about $12 million worth of wall connectors here though of course, Hilton may have a discount or an arrangement worked out with Tesla to bear some of those costs as well.
Now you may have noticed that they did say up to 20,000, that's always a little bit of a red flag, but they do say later on in the announcement that there will be at least six chargers at each of these selected 2,000 hotels. So that's at least 12,000, I would expect that they do actually scale this all the way up to that full 20,000 unit number. So this is really exciting and great news for Tesla customers, for other EV customers, not only to have a significant number of chargers available at a couple thousand new properties here, that's big in and of itself, but it's also pretty indicative of a trend in the hospitality business in general for Hilton to want to go ahead with this. And it's also going to put competitive pressure on others in the hospitality business to match or exceed this to compete for those customers.
In the announcement, Hilton says that quote, in 2023, the website's EV charging search attribute had the fastest volume of growth to date jumping from fourth to second highest in converting searches to stays and quote. So their data is showing that this is something that is important to their customers, that customers are choosing their stay decisions based off of definitely something that I look for. It's just a really convenient way to cut out a supercharging stop on a long trip. And now with this significantly expanded coverage, it's just going to make things even easier to plan for. And for Hilton, it's going to make customers probably return because they know that there's a high likelihood of their property having a charger. So again, that puts on competitive pressure. And as EVs grow, that competitive pressure is only going to grow each year. So I think it's a very exciting announcement. And it's also exciting from Tesla's perspective to be the one providing this infrastructure, even though this is a universal connector. So it's got the adapter built in. I do think it continues to help push an ACS forward. And it also helps Tesla continue to increase their supply chain for charging. So I'm excited about it both as a customer and on the business side. I wouldn't be surprised if this continues to expand with Hilton. They have about 7,300 properties worldwide. Obviously, not all of those in North America, but this would be a little bit less than a third of their total portfolio. Finally on this, a nice quote from Rebecca Tenuchi, Tesla senior director of charging infrastructure. You may remember her from Investor Day. She said, quote, to ensure electric vehicle adoption at scale, our joint industry goal must be to vastly improve upon the traditional gasoline vehicle ownership experience, not just meet it. Things like this go a long way towards meeting that goal. And hopefully it's just the beginning of projects like this that we see over time.
Next up, we do have a bit more charging news. Honda has announced that they will officially be adopting an ACS in 2025 for their EVs in North America. I would imagine that this would also apply to Acura. Obviously, the efforts from Honda and Acura in EVs so far has been pretty underwhelming. But another one joining forces. If this sounds kind of familiar, it's because a few weeks ago, an executive vice president of Honda had basically said that they would be adopting an ACS due to their close partnership with GM for EV development.
Alright, next we've got some news on the Model S and Model X. Of course, we just recently had the very significant price cuts, 16% to 19% or so. Now the estimated delivery window for the Model X in the United States has gone from September to October, now to October to November. So that probably reflects positively on the order rate the Tesla has seen since cutting the X price below that $80,000 federal tax credit cap.
The S, although obviously benefiting from the price cuts, didn't move below the threshold for sedans, that's $55,000. So for some customers at least, depending on the configuration and ability to be eligible for the tax credit, it is a bigger change for the X. There are still some X vehicles available in inventory, so it's not like Tesla is completely sold out for this quarter.
But orders moving in the right direction, though as always, the question remains what the order rate will be after the initial spike from the price changes. Tesla has also updated the referral program for the Model S and Model X. Previously, you could earn $1,000 off your order from using a referral link that has now dropped to $500 and the referrer now generates 10,000 credits per referral rather than 20,000. So a little bit of a cost reduction on the referral program for the S and the X.
The other update that we've got on the referral program, Tesla has now removed the Cybertruck Delivery Event Invitation from the referral program awards. It could suggest that the invite list is now full, but in the initial description of this referral prize, Tesla did say to check back frequently because they would in the future release more invitations. However, if more invitations were to come, I kind of would have expected them to leave that up and show it as temporarily sold out or something like that. So maybe they are all gone now. We'll just kind of have to wait and see if that does return at some point.
Next we've got two quick updates on the Highland Model 3. First is that the owners manual has now been published in these markets where it's available. So people can start digging through this and let us know if they spot any changes. One that has been seen already is the blind spot indicator, which is a new feature for the Model 3. It's been added to the A-pillar area. So pretty close to the side view mirror, but actually on the interior of the vehicle, most of the time you see the blind spot indicator actually on the side view mirror. So I'm not sure if this would be more preferred for the driver. Maybe neutral, maybe worse, we'll have to wait and see what people think of it. But better than nothing for those that want that feature, although of course there are other ways in a Tesla to check your blind spot.
接下来,我们有两个关于Highland Model 3的快速更新。第一是在这些市场上现已发布了所有者手册。因此,人们可以开始仔细研究它,并让我们知道他们是否发现了任何变化。其中一个已经看到的变化是盲点指示器,这是Model 3的一个新功能。它被添加到A柱区域,靠近侧视镜,但实际上位于车辆内部。大多数情况下,我们可以在侧视镜上看到盲点指示器,所以不确定这对驾驶员来说是否更好。也许中立,也许更糟糕,我们将等待并看看人们对此的看法。但对于那些想要这个功能的人来说,还是比没有好的,尽管当然在特斯拉上还有其他方法来检查你的盲点。
The other update is Tesla analysts Shanghai clarified a little bit on that rumor that we had heard yesterday about production capacity reaching 1200 units per day for the Highland Model 3 next week. They said that production capacity for the new Model 3 this week is 600 units per day, starting next week will be 1200 units per day. That is the production plan. So again, just a rumor, either of those numbers would be excellent at this stage and production capacity doesn't necessarily mean production rate, but it would be very exciting if those numbers are even in the realm of possibility.
Next just a quick update on FSD visualizations from Green the Only on X. He is saying that Tesla has added a classification system for police vehicles, which although may not be activated yet once Tesla does activate it would allow the visualization to distinctly visualize police vehicles. Apparently, the assets for those visualizations have been there for a while, but haven't been used yet. So that would be a nice change if so, but not sure how much effort Tesla is putting into that with the changes that will come with version 12.
接下来,我给大家快速介绍一下来自Green the Only关于FSD可视化的最新消息。他说特斯拉已经为警车添加了分类系统,虽然可能尚未激活,但一旦特斯拉激活,可视化系统就能够清晰地展示警车。显然,这些可视化的资源已经存在一段时间了,但尚未被使用。如果实现了这一改变,那将是一个很好的改进,但不确定特斯拉在版本12带来的其他改变中会花多少精力在此上面。
Alright, last couple of things here. We've got another Fremont drone flyover from Met God in the wilderness. Looks like there are now 376 megapacks sitting on site. If I remember correctly, this is around double the number that we had had in a previous drone flyover a few weeks ago. So the stack is growing. This is now about $600 million worth of megapacks, about 1.5 gigawatt hours. It's a bit less than half a quarter's worth over the last couple of quarters.
Alright, lastly today, we are now one week away from the UAW contract expiration for GM Ford and Stellantis. Negotiations continue with GM having presented the UAW with an offer. Obviously, the UAW probably not going to take the first offer, but it looks like it was for a 10% increase in hourly wages. Not sure of the full details, but UAW President John Fain said the offer was insulting and that GM quote, doesn't care or isn't listening when we say we need economic justice at GM by 11.59pm on September 14th. The clock is ticking, stop wasting our members time, tick tock. Well, he certainly knows how to get a good quote out there. We'll keep an eye on how this progresses over the next week.
Alright, that is it for today then. As always, thank you for listening. Make sure you subscribe and sign up for notifications. You can also find me on X at Tesla Podcast. And we'll see you tomorrow for the Friday, September 8th episode of Tesla Daily. Thank you.