Welcome to Electrified, it's your host Dylan Loomis. As Sawyer has pointed out, Tesla has finally begun paid advertising on the X platform. Now I'm seeing a lot of this sentiment in response to this news. We have Tyler saying what a waste of capital advertising here is literally transferring Tesla's cash into Elon's pockets. Every single person on this app knows what a Tesla is, they're not going to reach a single new person advertising here.
I'll admit on X, inside the Tesla bubble, it feels like everybody on the platform is hyper aware of both Tesla and Elon. But if you look at the actual numbers, I'm not sure that's the case. Before that, I have to give some credit where it's due for the creation of this meme. According to data from the end of last year, X is currently the 14th most popular social media platform in terms of active monthly users. X's AMU is coming in around 556 million.
Of that number, only 171.4 million actually follow Elon, which is roughly 30%. Even if you were to assume less than half of the active monthly users are potential Tesla customers, that roughly 200 million figure is still significantly larger than the between 5 and 6 million current Tesla owners. And that would be around 30 million people that don't follow Elon that could be potential Tesla customers, even if not now, then maybe in the future.
Honestly though, this most likely just boils down to return on investment. There's probably a chance that Elon is getting some sort of discount for advertising on X his own platform. Even a 10-20% haircut could make a pretty significant discount in terms of the ROI on this advertising effort. I'm not by any stretch trying to argue advertising on X is going to be the most effective thing to do for Tesla, but to argue that this is going to be a waste is certainly a bit aggressive.
I'd also add, just because people are generally aware of Elon and Tesla does not mean they know key details like you can get a Model Y starting around 36.4 thousand dollars. And to the questions, what about the majority of people who are not on X? Just know, when it comes to paid advertising, I used to do this professionally for a brief stint. It is literally all about testing. Tesla is already doing some of that testing on YouTube, so in the weeks ahead, I'm sure they're going to compare and contrast their ROIs on the ads as best as they can and go with the best option. It's a simple fact that Tesla will never figure out how to advertise optimally unless they test a bunch of different methods on all different platforms. You can't do it all at once. They need to do it bit by bit, which as far as we can tell is exactly what they're doing. Tesla needs time testing these ads and refining its messaging on platforms like X and YouTube before it would ever consider branching out into more traditional methods like television or Super Bowl advertising.
In another brand building move, the Cybertruck has officially arrived in Japan, and it sounds like it'll be there for most of February. Drive Tesla Canada is also reporting the Cybertruck is expected to arrive in Germany this spring. No specific dates yet, but the word is the Cybertruck will arrive at the largest Tesla delivery center in Europe in Holesgirdlingen. If I was a European, I'd be keeping my expectations very low in terms of potentially being able to buy the Cybertruck anytime in the next two years. Multiple Tesla executives have already said Cybertruck in China or Europe due to regulations would be very difficult without significant changes.
在另一项品牌建设举措中,Cybertruck已正式抵达日本,并且听说它会在大部分时间待在那里直到二月底。Drive Tesla Canada还报道说,预计Cybertruck将在今年春天抵达德国。虽然具体日期尚未确定,但有传言称Cybertruck将抵达德国最大的特斯拉交付中心Holesgirdlingen。如果我是一个欧洲人,我会对未来两年内有可能购买Cybertruck保持非常低的期望。多名特斯拉高管已经表示,由于法规的原因,Cybertruck在中国或欧洲销售将会非常困难,除非进行重大改变。
We got the Tesla China weekly insurance number, came in at 10,600 units, comparing it to the same week in quarter four. That number was 14,000. The breakdown for this week was 7,700 model-wise, 2,900 model threes. Through the first five weeks of the quarter, we are ahead of the Q4 and also the record quarter pace by 4,300 units, sitting at 45,7,000. Don't forget, we're going to have one more partial week for this data and then the Chinese New Year actually starts this year February 10th and celebrations last for seven days. We won't get into the details of this for obvious reasons, but in case you didn't know, Tesla does also do special holiday updates for the Chinese market as well.
This was a pretty extensive update. Choice hotels announced an agreement with Tesla to offer Tesla Universal wall connectors to participate in Radisson, Cambria comfort, country in and suites, quality in and other choice branded hotels across the US. Choice branded properties can add four or more charging stations for guests and the travelers can use the EV charging filter on choicehotels.com and the Choice Hotels mobile app.
这次是一次相当全面的更新。Choice酒店宣布与特斯拉达成协议,向美国各地的Radisson、Cambria comfort、country in and suites、quality in 和其他Choice品牌酒店提供特斯拉通用壁式充电器。Choice品牌的酒店可以为客人增加四个或更多的充电站,旅客可以在choicehotels.com和Choice Hotels手机应用上使用电动汽车充电过滤器。
Currently, 41% of choices Cambria Hotels offer EV charging and by the end of 2024 all are expected to be outfitted with at least one charging station. I was able to find at the end of 2023 there were 6,101 choice locations in the United States alone. Since this was a US only agreement, it's encouraging to see that most of their locations are indeed in the States. That agreement did say and other choice hotels, so total they have 22 distinct brands of hotels, not just the few they listed. Another choice name you may be familiar with, the Econo Lodge.
I'm guessing many of you got the email as I did Tesla is now offering a model 3 plus demo drives across the country, so if you're interested to reach out to your local showroom and see when that availability begins. McKinsey and Co just did a new study of over 1,600 customers spanning China, Germany and the United States. Nearly 60% of EV customers would switch brands to gain better vehicle connectivity. Based on everything I've seen online, it seems like some Chinese brands and Tesla are head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to in-car connectivity. Maybe Hyundai Kia are a close third, I'd be curious what you guys think.
I know this is a pretty small sample size, but I'd be pretty confident guessing that this is actually the case for the majority of people. McKinsey said the findings present both a challenge and an opportunity for legacy automakers in the US. On one hand, Chinese automakers are setting new standards in connectivity according to the survey. And Tesla has built a reputation for smoothly integrated software. If I'm on Tesla's advertising team, this is going right into the playbook.
From not a Tesla app in an upcoming Tesla software update, there will be a new feature called reminder to plug in at home. So if you normally charge your car to 80%, and you arrive home with 30% left and you forget to plug in, Tesla will send you a notification reminding you to plug in. The release notes say specifically, you'll get that notification when you park at home with less than half of your charge limit. The expectation is this feature will indeed be optional.
Jotet Meyer has not been able to travel to the lithium refinery in the past few months, so we haven't had an on-site update, but he was able to get some pictures from some other users and he puts together this quick informative video. Just want to show you a quick clip. We got some new images that show the state of construction of the main plant. Now this is the official rendering of how the plant will look when it is completed. It is broken into three main parts, the pyrometal, metallurgical part, the hydrometal orgical part, and the final processing section, as you can see by this image. And most of the pictures that we got that we're going to be looking at today are in this yellow section, which is part of the pyro and hydrometallurgical sections of the site.
Here's the first of the three photos. Great, nice, close-in shot. This shows some of the steel superstructure, the concrete bases, and the rotating kiln on the top and the rotating cooler. This is a critical part of processing the spodumene concentrate, which is the raw material that comes into the plant and eventually will create the lithium hydroxide for the battery cathode plant up at Giga, Texas. Now referring back to the render, I'm showing you that this is the first of two parallel processing parts of the plant. And we're looking at just the first of those two. The goal is to get this online soon. And then once the first half of the plant is operating, then they'll get the second half of the plant at a later date, probably later this year.
This wider angle shot is a great one to give us a good perspective on the steel superstructure, the rotary kiln, and cooler mounted on those really substantial concrete bases. Dyewa has downgraded Tesla stock. As always, though, I'm mostly just interested in their rationale. They said corporate governance concerns are aggravating already tough financial conditions in 2024. They said a reshuffling of the board might cause delays in decision making and limit investment time horizons.
Well, this is the trickiest part for Tesla because essentially anything the board does is compensation or major decisions can be challenged now by investors because, you know, Delaware said the board is an independent. And so it would be false and misleading to imply that they are. So they really need to get rid of three or four board members and replace them with truly independent board members that have no financial ties to Elon. And the problem with that is that Elon isn't going to want to deal with those people. And I learned this when I ran for the board a year ago, there's no desire from anybody at Tesla or within Elon circle to have an independent board. Elon controls the company 100%, even though he only owns 13% of the company.
But it's going to be very hard for the company to move forward with the current board. And this is, I think, one of the reasons the stock is selling off is because changes have to be made if there's going to be legally binding things happen. But Elon certainly isn't going to like those changes. So how does this all work itself out? And I think that's the challenge Tesla investors are facing.
So putting your disdain for Ross Gerber aside for a moment, does his argument have any basis in fact? I think we need to touch on this because I've seen more than a few people say what's the big deal? Why does Tesla need independent directors if they're succeeding as a company? The actual answer? A public companies board must comply with various SEC and stock exchange rules meant to guarantee board independence and competence. It's true, there are no specific minimum board size requirements for public companies, but because of the various committees that public companies will have, most companies choose to have at least six independent directors. Both the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ require that a majority of board members be independent.
In Tesla's case, they currently have eight board members, a majority would require at least five more than half. Things get a lot more granular quickly. For example, when it comes to the audit committee, SEC rules require public companies to have an audit committee comprised of at least three independent directors who meet the SEC's enhanced independent standards. Just know, those independent standards really are not black and white, and it's also not something that you figure out one time and then it stays that way forever as businesses grow and evolve, relationships grow and evolve. It's something that needs to be reviewed in an ongoing fashion.
To keep things simple for purposes of this video, of these eight Tesla directors listed, technically speaking, five of them would need to be independent for Tesla to move forward in a way where they shouldn't have to worry about their decisions being overturned by a judge based on lack of independence. I'd like to make it clear right now, this is not what I believe, if it was up to me, I'd probably be fine with Elon rolling with some of his buddies as long as the success of Tesla continues and all of the things we learn about the company are on track with where we want them to go. But as you've seen, it's not up to me, there are indeed rules in place.
My honest breakdown, Elon not independent, it's really his company. Ira Aaron Price, probably not independent, he was at Kimball's wedding and has been friends with Elon now for some time. Murdoch has been friends with Elon for decades, they've gone on multiple family vacations together and he was also at Kimball's wedding, so honestly, probably not independent. Strouble is actually a co-founder of Tesla who built a significant portion of his wealth through Tesla. Kimball is obviously Elon's family, so that leaves us with Robin, Joe Gebia, and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson that you could make a strong argument that are actually independent. Doing the math, that's 3 out of 8, that's not a majority and that's why Judge McCormick had some issues with the comp plan.
I'm gonna say it again because I know some of you are going to misconstrue what I'm saying. I love Tesla's current board, I think they've done an awesome job, I wouldn't really push back on anything, the success of the company is speaking for itself. Again, if it was up to me, I wouldn't want a bunch of adversaries on Tesla's board constantly disagreeing with Elon and trying to go a different direction. Ideally, you'd have a team of people working together with a common vision, working toward a common goal.
Part of the reason this is so important to understand, don't forget why Elon just said he wants 25% of the company, so his company can't be taken over by nefarious actors in the future. If Tesla doesn't appeal the Delaware verdict and the precedent stands that Tesla's board was actually found as not independent, you can start to see how that could raise some problems for Tesla in the future if nefarious actors try to take over the company. If the pressure to remove some of these non-independent board members gets loud enough and some more adversarial actors end up on Tesla's board, then I would argue Tesla would lose a bit of the magic they have with this group of 8 right now. We'll see how Tesla chooses to handle this going forward and look, I know this isn't the most enjoyable thing to talk about, I just want to do my best to make sure that everybody is educated and informed on the matter. I know and agree that most Tesla shareholders are on the same page, they support Tesla's board and the decisions they've made so far, but you have to think about a future hypothetical scenario where inequity compensation plan and amendments are not subject to shareholder approval, what if it was only subject to the company's compensation committee or a majority of the company's independent directors. This right here is how company takeovers happen, this is why I like Tesla's board as it is and I hope they can find a way to keep it as is and why I would love to see Elon get back to 25% ownership of Tesla so things like this are less likely.
Mercedes has now beat Tesla to market in the United States with an electric sprinter van. This vehicle will be built in America in Charleston, South Carolina, it'll have a 113 kWh battery pack and they're saying a range around 250 miles on the EPA cycle. The load capacity for the van, 2624 pounds. It should be noted this vehicle can also come in two other battery configurations, 56 or 81 kWh. The e-sprinter can be charged to 100% every night using LFP technology. For DC fast charging speeds it'll get up to 115 kW. It has a 10 inch touch display that does have Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. This vehicle will start at $71.8 thousand dollars.
The UAW says it signed up the majority of employees at VW's Tennessee plan. With that over 50% support under US law a company can voluntarily recognize and negotiate with a union once a majority of workers have signed union cards or they can refuse to do so. The UAW has said it will seek recognition once it has 70% of a plant signed up.
What's that they say asking you shall receive yesterday we said eventually Kyle Connor will get his hands on the 2025 Porsche Taycon and today here we are. It would hold full power from basically 3% to 47% and it would never hit a ledge it just ripped all the way up top and it's truly the benchmark. Truly the benchmark it adds more energy in 15 minutes through our 10% challenge than any other car I've tested and now there's a new one that can do way more. I mean the only benchmark is itself which is cool. Now in terms of of competitors in this segment, Lucid charges faster 351 kW I've seen on Lucid but the curve at least in the existing cars that I've had a chance to charge isn't great. And I know certain models like maybe the sapphire and the grand touring performance they have a little bit better curve. I don't think they have a curve like what you're about to see here with the Taycon though. I mean this is going to be totally mind blowing what you're about to watch.
You can see charging power ramping up we're at 290 kW right off the bat and it's ripping. But look at this five minutes we're at 25% we've added 30 kW in six minutes. It's unbelievable 320 kW charging that peak speed really happening in that 30 to 40% region peaking at 334 335 kW delivered basically it held 300 kW over 300 kW for 12 minutes maybe 11 minutes because it did take that first couple percent to shoot right up. But that's insane. That is unheard of. I mean we just read you know that's all you need a charging session for you should never really charge past 65% on a road trip it dips at 80% comes down but it's still doing 200 kW to high 70% and then it meanders its way up top. And by meandering I mean it's still doing 90 kW at 85% which for those of you who know electric cars is pretty rare. So an absolute monster charging curve but essentially the yellow line is what's being delivered from the charger to the car. There's a hard drop again at 62% in our test and then you know walks its way basically down from there.
The green line is what's going into the battery pack on the ticom. So we know that curve we just saw that curve it's a fat curve you get the peak and the plateau all in one. I mean you really can have your cake and eat it too. I've never truly seen anything like this. I have to admit it's kind of exciting seeing one of these legacy OEMs actually set the benchmark when it comes to charging speeds and now on a charging curve. Sure questions remain can the public charging infrastructure actually support charging speeds like this at scale. That's definitely to be determined. Maybe more importantly to the question I posed yesterday what about battery degradation over time charging at these speeds for that long. Portia's engineers are saying they've been buying back tycons that have over 185,000 miles on them and they're saying the batteries are lasting way longer than they were expecting with minimal degradation. So far looks like some excellent engineering from the Porsche team.
Lucid signed a deal with Saks 5th Avenue who will actually host test drives and do some marketing for Lucid. Lucid will also get a dedicated website on the Saks 5th Avenue webpage. Just a friendly reminder that not every Boston Dynamics video needs to be immediately compared to Tesla and Optimus. Boston Dynamics is not a great comp for what Tesla is working on. Although yes now Boston Dynamics and Atlas does indeed have some hands or claws as I would call them just wanted to remind everybody it's okay to just appreciate the technology and not get into this comparison debate all the time.
Toyota is investing in additional 1.3 billion dollars in Kentucky to build a battery assembly line. All they said was the investment would cover future electrification efforts perhaps for the busy 5x. The sales for this assembly plant will be sourced from their own factory in Liberty North Carolina which is supposed to be a $13 billion project. Zipping through Ford's Q4 earnings they did beat Wall Street expectations on the top and bottom line. Auto revenues came in $3 billion over expectations and they did forecast strong results for 2024. You can pause and read these numbers if you'd like to but I really want to focus on their model E division. Just so you know though overall in the fourth quarter they had a net loss of $526 million but there was a $1.7 billion non-cash accounting loss due to retiree benefits. Also for the whole business for the full year 2023 Ford's net income was $4.3 billion.
Shifting to their model E division full electric for the full year 2023 they lost $4.7 billion. Doing the math that means they lost about $38,000 on each full bev across 2023. For this year they're predicting to cut that number by $10,000 per vehicle taking that to $28,000 lost on each EV sold. In the fourth quarter 2022 model E lost $631 million. Fourth quarter last year it lost $1.57 billion. No surprise same story as GM Ford has a strong ice business that will hopefully subsidize their transition to EVs. Ford CFO said the customer insights were getting by being an early mover in electric pickups, SUVs and commercial vehicles are invaluable especially as we're developing next generation EVs that are going to surprise customers and be profitable within a year of launch. More than 290,000 blue crews equipped Ford and Lincoln vehicles are now on the road with customer use exceeding 2.3 million hours and 156 million hands free miles and counting.
Tesla stock closed the day at $185.10 up 2.23% on the day while the NASDAQ was only up 0.07%. It was a modestly higher volume day for Tesla stock trading about 12 million shares above the average 30 day volume. Of note today, Rivian, Lucid, Polestar and Ford were all up over 3.75% as high as 8.7% in the case of Lucid. I hope you guys have a wonderful day, you can find me on X linked below. Please like the video if you did and a huge thank you to all of my Patreon supporters.