Hey everybody Rob Merr here and today we've got some new details on the Cyber Truck from Elon Musk's appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast today. We've also got a little bit of new information on Gigamexico Tesla energy and a few other items as well. Alright, looking at the stock, better day for Tesla today, finishing up 1.75% closing above $200 a share at $200.84, the NASDAQ up about a half a percent on the day today.
First off, just kind of relevant to the stock, we did get a new form 4 filed from Tesla today, this discloses sale of stock. So this is from Drew Buguino, Tesla's SVP of Powertrain Engineering. This is for 10,500 shares that are being first acquired and then disposed of through the exercise of an option. So 10,500 shares, it's a lot, but for Drew he does have significantly more than that from this option. And most importantly with this, this is part of a plan that was put in place in November 1st and November of 2021. So nothing new, we've seen these sales from Drew over the period of time. And of course, this was already pre planned back in 2021. So a long time ago, nothing too major there. But of course, whenever we see those form 4s, that is always a little bit potentially nerve racking to open based off of what we had seen with Elon selling before. But just wanted to walk through that quickly.
And then getting into the Cybertruck news. So Elon Musk again on the Joe Rogan podcast, which was video based as well. They actually went out and shot an arrow at the Cybertruck. They were talking about the bullet resistance or bulletproof nature of it. So Joe wanted to try it out with one of his arrows. He said this was a 545 gram weight or yeah, 545 grain. That's what it was. 545 grain weight arrow, which is actually pretty heavy duty. And they gave it a shot here. So we'll see the video you can kind of see this looks almost photoshopped. The arrow kind of exploding or shattering here. But you can see the frame on this video pausing it there. And then I'll just quickly play the video so everyone can see that if they didn't happen to watch the podcast.
Unfortunately, this was, you know, two and a half hour discussion, not a whole lot of there. You can see the arrow, just the small dent there. Not a whole lot of time spent on Tesla related items. The Cybertruck was the focus of that part of the conversation. They did talk a little bit about, you know, some of the other things, but mostly relating to COVID or X or just kind of other topics that they wanted to discuss. More of just a friendly conversation than anything relating to, you know, specific business things that we'd mostly be focused on. But nevertheless, interesting to see that. And I did take notes on the part of the discussion relevant to Cybertruck. I was like to get exact quotes.
So most of these are what those are. Joe asked about how many Cybertruck's Tesla would be producing each month. Elon said, quote, we're aiming to be making about 2000 or sorry, 200,000 a year at following production, maybe a little bit more. And asked about the weight. He said it depends on the configuration, but it's about, I don't know, 7,000 pounds, six, depending on their different versions, but six, 7,000 pounds.
So some couple of details there on production. Of course, we've heard this before sort of in this ballpark, we've heard 250,000. So that kind of fits with this on the recent earnings release Tesla listed the capacity as greater than 125,000. So this is going to take time for Tesla to ramp up, of course, the volume production. But again, Elon kind of staying consistent with a figure in that range. I would imagine that Tesla has initial plans for that level. If the Cybertruck costs are good and they can get prices down, then I would imagine that this would probably be something that they would consider increasing over time. I think they just want to get through this first stage and see how things go. And of course, Elon has made comments on the macro environment too.
And then on the weight, kind of interestingly here, 7,000 pounds, 6,000 pounds, we're not getting an exact figure there. This was roughly what we'd expected previously, maybe a little bit heavier based on the vehicle identification number decoder that we had recently walked through. So for the Cybertruck, that specified a couple of different gross vehicle weight rating classes here, class G and class H, which run from 8,000 up to 10,000 pounds maximally. Previously, this does include the payload. So at the Cybertruck unveiling event, Tesla had said that the payload would be 3,500 pounds. So if you subtract that out of the gross vehicle weight rating, it would have given us somewhere in between maybe 5,500 to 6,500 pounds.
So we're a little bit close to that here with Elon's comments, maybe a little bit heavier, that could imply that at least on some of the configurations, as Elon said, there are different versions, but at least for some of the configurations, we could see a payload of capacity that is a little bit lower than 3,500 pounds. I don't know how critical that sort of capacity is for people, so it may not make sense to fully design around that, but we may see that be a little bit lower based on what Elon's comment was here. I don't want to overreact to it though, of course, just an off a cuff discussion that they were having there.
And then perhaps most excitingly, they talked about the performance in terms of acceleration and said that they're aiming to get the 0 to 60 below three seconds for the quote unquote beast mode version of the Cybertruck.
So Elon has referred to a performance version before, I would imagine that that is kind of what Tesla is calling this version now, this beast mode version.
So I think it's unlikely that we'd see a plaid and if anything, I think they'll call this performance version this, which would be a little bit different for Tesla, but I think very fitting for this type of vehicle.
They talked about the bulletproof nature of it, so you can read those quotes there.
Tesla's going to do a demonstration with three different types of guns there.
They talked about the optionality for bulletproof glass. Some people may interpret that as Tesla offering that option. That was not my takeaway.
I took it away as though it could be done, but it would be something that would have to be done after market.
He said that it would be too thick for the windows to roll down in that case, so you could do it, but probably just let make a ton of sense unless you have a very specific need for that, which hopefully not many people do.
And then he also commented on just the durability and things like that, especially for off-roading said that the bottom of the Cybertruck is completely flat and it has the best clear height of any vehicle.
Now any vehicle there that's pretty broad.
I would imagine that he's referring to any vehicle in its class is probably the better way to interpret that, but that was the direct quote there.
So I'm sure we're all aware of the completely fat, flat nature of it on the bottom, but with the air suspension that we should see on the Cybertruck that we've kind of seen the adjustability of when it's set at high should be really good clearance.
So exciting to see that.
So not a whole lot new, but some interesting new information there ahead of the unveiling a little bit less than a month from now, or the delivery event, I guess, and hopefully the unveiling of some specs alongside that.
All right, next we've got a quick update on Kickin' Mexico.
So although we are kind of expecting this to be delayed or slowed down a little bit, the Secretary of Economy for the State of New Way, Billyone, did comment and said that Tesla is coming. Tesla's working.
Tesla in some way has already started construction just like the government of New Way, Billy one. We are doing it at the same time.
They already have all their federal and state permits.
So this is something that we've seen be a hindrance in places like Gigabra Lynn, although I think Tesla just got some additional clearance there.
But good news that this is kind of in place.
So when Tesla is ready to go more full throttle to use, I think the words that Elon used, this hopefully will not be such an impediment like we have seen at some other times.
So even if it is a little bit slower, and even if this isn't the constraining factor right now, good to have that sort of thing in place.
Nice update there in Gigabra Mexico.
And then we've also got an update on a lawsuit against Tesla related to an autopilot crash.
Always unfortunate to read about these, but this was from a 2019 crash.
The jury did come to a verdict today, nine to three vote.
Found Tesla was not liable for wrongdoing in this case.
So a win for Tesla.
I don't know if this will go to appeal, but because there are, as Reuters points out, there are lawsuits of this variety.
This is apparently the first major one that has been decided and decided in Tesla's favor.
So potentially sets up a good precedent for other lawsuits of this variety.
So I think a positive there for Tesla.
And then we've also got an update on a battery pack or a megapack fire back in 2022 from PG&E.
This was at the Moss Landing substation.
So on the 730 megawatt hour battery project there.
There was a fire one megapack was impacted by it.
We covered this at the time.
They've now released the findings of an independent investigation of this incident.
And basically they found that the problem was due to equipment installation where specifically there was an improperly installed vent shield, which dislodged on umbrella valve on the top of the megapack.
So that caused some water to get in, which eventually led to the fire, the safety systems in the megapack, then of course reacted properly and fired and spread and all of those good things.
So good to have some insight on that.
And I think knowing that it's an installation issue probably better than alternatives where something more internally could be causing a fire.
So positive update there, I think from PG&E on that.
We do have an update from Toyota in contrast to what we heard from them yesterday. Hopefully a little bit better update here. They announced that they are investing a new $8 billion in their North Carolina battery plant, which they are working on. So this is not a new plant. It's been previously announced, but they are announcing the increase of investment here. They say that this will add approximately 3000 jobs, bringing the total investment up to about $14 billion for this factory.
Notably though, this will be for pure battery electric vehicles, as well as plug-in hybrids, as well as hybrid vehicles that are not plug-in, just normal hybrids. So kind of a mix, but you can see looks like 10 BEV slash PAHV battery lines to four lines for hybrids. And they say that through 2030, this should scale up to production of more than 30 gigawatt hours annually. So a pretty big investment for this factory for, I think, not like that's a small amount, but it's something that would be comparable to sort of the initial stage of gig in Nevada in terms of battery output there. So good to see the additional investment, but obviously this is going to be over a pretty long period of time for Toyota.
Then we also got pricing for the Chevy Equinox EV that is upcoming here pretty soon. It is going to begin at just under $35,000, but more realistically, the launch version the vehicle is going to begin at just under $49,000. They say that over time, they'll release the cheaper versions. It sounds like those would still be the same battery pack capacity. I don't know how they plan to necessarily get down to that. They said that all versions are going to be released sometime in calendar year 2024, but I suppose that that is next year's problem for them, as that would be quite a big difference from the initial starting price on this launch version. So we'll keep an eye on that, but the range, as you can see there, goes from the announced $35,000 up to about $52,000.
And then just a quick update on SpaceX, the Federal Aviation Administration has completed their safety review for the next test flight for Starship. It's exciting, although we're still waiting on the Fish and Wildlife service to complete their review. Unfortunately, so as long as that is still ongoing, SpaceX will not be able to launch quite yet. Hopefully, though, with the FAA being done, that will mean that there's a little bit more urgency as if there wasn't hopefully enough already, but hopefully some additional urgency for the Fish and Wildlife service to complete their review and get us to another Starship test flight soon.
And then just a quick reminder for tomorrow, we will have the FOMC meeting decision, industry decision, and commentary following the meeting during market tomorrow, midday. Obviously, the market largely expecting rates to continue to stay paused. Small expectation for a decline. I don't think really much, obviously, not many people expecting that. Probably with this, probably tomorrow will be more determined based off of the commentary as we have tended to see over quite a few meetings from Fed Chair Powell. So we'll see what he says. I would expect that he'll continue to reiterate it's more now about how long they're going to stay at high rates, still leave the door open for further increases. I think they're just kind of at a holding pattern right now, so I don't expect anything too major from the commentary, but the market loves to find one little detail in there and kind of react to those things. So, someone to keep an eye on for tomorrow.
But that our episode for today. So as always, thank you for listening. Make sure you're subscribed and signed up for notifications. You can also find me on X at Tesla podcast. And we'll see you tomorrow for the Wednesday, November 1st episode of Tesla Daily. Thank you.