Welcome to Electrified, it's your host, Dylan Loomis. First up today, let's take a look at year to date global EV sales from RoMotion. This data includes full EVs and plug-in hybrids, and with that in mind, global EV sales hit 1.1 million for the month of April this year, which was up 21% year over year. Thus, year to date, global EV sales are 4.3 million units. The Chinese EV market has grown by 30% so far in 2024. In Europe, it's grown 8% and in the USA in Canada, it's grown by 7%.
This chart does not break it down specifically, but as we've been highlighting much of that growth has been driven by hybrids, not full EVs. One other trend I would highlight, if you were to remove the dark portion of these bars, which is sales in China, that leaves the EU, North America, and the rest of the world, and if you were just comparing those bars for the last year or so, they've been fairly static.
So while it's true that all regions are indeed positive through the first four months of the year to keep up with the pace from last year, we will need to see stronger sales throughout the rest of this year. Tesla has launched two new promotional offers in China, a zero down payment or a zero interest offer. Both of these will expire at the end of June.
I went ahead and translated the image and for the zero percent interest, which is also for a limited time, it appears as though that requires a roughly $11,000 down payment to get that offer. Reading the fine print, you cannot combine both. Shifting to the United States, Tesla has increased the price of the Model 3 performance by $1,000. It now sits at $54.9,000.
However, both interior options black and white are included, so you can have either and still qualify for the tax credit. But now choosing any paint color other than the stealth gray means you would disqualify yourself from the credit. I'm also hearing that customers are having their delivery dates for the Model 3 performance pushed back because they're struggling to get final EPA approval. Good news for the battery energy storage market in Australia as they're about to implement some key reforms.
The changes are part of ongoing reforms to the national electricity market to take into account these newly emerging technologies. Part of that will be the ability of battery storage projects to register as a single unit rather than two. The two main improvements, one, it should smooth the process for connections for new batteries, which is typically a long process, and it should create greater clarity for the market to see how much storage is actually available and more flexibility for big batteries to provide crucial market services.
To date, best projects have had two identities, one as a generator for when they're dispatching into the grid and another as a customer or load when they're charging. That was largely thanks to the incumbent system that just was not set up for bidirectional energy flows. To date, that has meant added costs, a lack of visibility and a lack of flexibility, particularly when it comes to participating in the ancillary services market. The hope is that these new reforms actually go live in early June.
Simply put, the process of connecting these battery storage projects to the grid is going to become a lot easier. And then once they're connected, the projects will be able to operate at their full capacity with less hurdles to do so. Just in case you have not been following along Tesla's mega pack has been playing an outsized role in Australia's transition to a more sustainable grid.
We have Edward Ludlow from Bloomberg putting out this article today and I think it's a perfect encapsulation of part of the problem with our society and reading headlines only. In this case, there will likely be tens of thousands if not more people that just see this headline but don't read the article because Bloomberg is a paid source. And with only the headline, your takeaway is going to be negative.
Tesla's FSD struggled soon after leaving my driveway. However, if you actually read the article, there were definitely some positive takeaways. His conclusion? I have not yet decided if I'm going to pay the $99 a month for FSD. I did find the experience interesting, informative, and fun. I learned a lot both about the technology's progress and its limitations. I just feel compelled to periodically share reminders to be careful about how you allow your thoughts to form just based on headlines alone.
All of those articles you see, but don't actually read this one was pretty interesting. We have Chevy finally beginning deliveries of the equinox and their chief marketing officer is saying they're ready to take over Tesla's lead. The Chevy exec said despite all of Tesla's success the past few years, the tides are finally turning in Chevrolet's favor as EV shoppers gravitate to more practical options and legacy brands.
Another interesting comment he said customers will say if it doesn't haul or tow or fit my kids or have the safety features I want I'm tapping out, I don't care if it runs on electricity, gas, or hamsters. We won't spend too much time here but to make the point he said momentum is a true force, whether it's auto, sports, whatever, we've got some momentum so let's see how the second half unfolds. The way I see it, some momentum is basically one step away from no momentum. Recent studies on a new cohort of EV car shoppers show they're more inclined to buy an EV from a legacy brand. After years of a virtual monopoly on the EV market, shoppers are growing tired of Tesla and are looking for fresher options. He said for people weighing the pros and cons they can look at Chevy and see a product they know and trust. Look, I know he's the marketing officer he's going to say things like this but did he forget about what we've all been talking about the past few months, how many problems the Chevy blazer had very early in the rollout.
For any consumer that's educated in the slightest, they know that building an EV with new software is an entirely different task than building a combustion vehicle. Don't forget, it's not just the Chevy blazer that had problems with the EV rollout but effectively every EV on the Altium platform has been plagued with problems at the rollout. So one, when you're talking about overtaking Tesla, when you're not selling any EV even close to scale is a bit premature and two, putting trust in a Chevrolet ice vehicle is not the same thing as putting trust in a Chevrolet EV. Let me be clear and reiterate, I want all of these companies to succeed in making EVs at scale so the consumer has more options. But I also think these companies need to be called out and they need a reality check every now and then. Many of us here are eager to protect our families by driving a Tesla.
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Here we have a Norwegian source and I'll be honest, I'm a bit skeptical of what this article is saying but they're telling us in Norway Tesla is looking to lay off 10% of the workforce. That definitely checks out but they're saying Tesla is offering severance packages to all employees regardless of function. The interest in taking a severance package in Norway has been so great, Tesla has had to reduce the deadline for acceptance from one week to three days. They're saying the employees have been offered at least three months with full pay and no work obligation even if they've just been hired. And if you've worked at the company longer, you can receive up to 15 month salary without work obligation. Thus, it makes sense that people are referring to these severance packages as generous. Part of the reason I'm sharing this is because I know we have a few viewers who are in Norway so if you happen to have any information about this, feel free to shoot me an email.
In case you'll be in the area Tesla's mobile gallery which is being towed by the Cybertruck will be in Orlando, Florida for the weekend May 17th to the 19th. Pause if you'd like to see the specific locations. Just FYI, Tesla has released some new Cybertruck accessories. I'm not going to go over all of them but I will have this link below if you're interested in checking out the updates. We got a new report from Reuters today and yes, I am fully aware of Reuters antics anytime we read one of their articles, we need to have our discernment fully turned on. Just don't forget, over the years they've certainly got other things right as well, it's just we're so familiar with the things they've got terribly wrong. This time around they said Tesla is pushing ahead with plans to power the global development of FSD with data from China that could be processed within the country. As part of the effort, Tesla has been developing plans for a data center in China to train the algorithm needed for more fully autonomous vehicles. Until recently, Tesla has focused on efforts to secure approval from Chinese regulators to transfer data generated by its EVs in China out of the country for FSD. For now, it's not clear if Tesla would proceed with both options for handling self-driving data from China, data transfer, and a local data center, or if it was developing parallel plans as a hedge.
To clarify things at this point, Tesla already has a data center in China, they've had one there now for a few years because China told them they had to, so all of the data that Tesla collects about its customers and their behaviors needs to be kept in China. Now to date, when it comes to FSD and training the algorithm, Elon has been trying to get Chinese regulators to allow Tesla to send that training data back to the United States to further train the neural nets. The word is that was a big part of Elon's visit to China, he was trying to convince the regulators to allow Tesla to send the FSD training data back to the United States. And now Reuters would be implying that it looks like Tesla has not gotten that approval and that Tesla is either creating a new data center or adding to the current one to actually train the neural nets for FSD in China. Back to the article, Reuters said setting up a data center in China for FSD development would require Tesla to work with a Chinese partner. There's also a potential hardware sourcing challenge. If you've been following along, we did briefly touch on the US sanctions when it comes to what ships in Vidya is actually allowed to export into China. Included in this export ban are both the A100s and the H100s that Tesla is using very heavily to train the FSD neural nets. Now it's true, the US bars in Vidya and its partners from selling advanced chips to China, including via third parties, but the sale and purchase of the chips are not illegal in China. What happens when you have parameters like this? A black market. There have been 11 or so sellers of these chips that are little known Chinese retailers.
Doing a bit of digging, I found that just earlier this month in May, they said the black market prices of the H100 in mainland China have been dropping. Part of that phenomenon could be that the market is preparing for in Vidya's next generation of chips, specifically the H200. I'll admit, it would be tough to imagine Tesla resorting to the black market, but just so you're aware, despite the ban, the H100 remained available through covert channels, including purchasing agents and shell companies that imported the processors and even servers from elsewhere into mainland China. But as it stands for in Vidya, neither the H100 nor the H200 are supposed to be exported to China. So this is the problem that Reuters was talking about. If Tesla is forced to keep the FSD training data in China, they're going to need a supercomputer setup in China, which means what buying all of these Nvidia chips and some dojo just like they're doing in the United States. However, if they can't do that, then theoretically Tesla would not be able to use all of that data from China to actually improve the operation of FSD.
经过一番调查,我发现就在本月五月初,他们表示在中国大陆,H100的黑市价格一直在下降。这种现象的一部分原因可能是市场在为 in Vidya 的下一代芯片,尤其是H200做准备。我得承认,很难想象特斯拉会倚赖黑市,但需要告诉你的是,尽管被禁止,H100仍然通过秘密渠道可获得,包括购买代理和进口处理器甚至服务器到中国大陆的壳公司。但就 in Vidya 而言,无论是H100还是H200都不应出口至中国。这正是路透社所谈及的问题。如果特斯拉被迫在中国保存FSD训练数据,他们将需要在中国建立超级计算机系统,这意味着购买所有这些英伟达芯片和一些像在美国所做的道场一样。然而,如果他们做不到,那么理论上特斯拉将无法利用中国的所有数据来真正改善FSD的运作。
Now the way I understand it, Tesla's FSD could still operate in China because all they would be doing is using the inference on the vehicles to pull from those neural nets that are being trained back in the United States. In that case, they would effectively be pulling data into China and not exporting anything out. At this point, I will say I believe Tesla will find a workaround I believe Elon will negotiate something to figure it out. But as it stands now, we have to at least consider the possibility that Tesla may not be able to use all of this training data from the very valuable Chinese roads in the Chinese market to actually improve its global FSD system. That's why as it stands now, I think most of us would agree this would be something that Elon needs to fix as soon as possible.
And if anybody on the planet has the respect of the leaders in China, it would actually be Elon. He's done an excellent job maintaining relations with China over the past few years. Tesla has already been receiving special treatment from the Chinese government for years, so hopefully that can continue with this one. Back to the Reuters article, Elon also discussed the possibility of Tesla licensing its FSD systems to Chinese EV makers. Elon previously expressed opposition to a China-based data center arguing that data transfer to the United States was the most efficient option. Which should be obvious because this training compute is not cheap. Elon just told us Tesla may be spending $10 billion on that alone in 2024.
As we talked about, Tesla has had a data center in China since 2021, but during that time, the Tesla China team has been seeking approvals from Chinese regulators to transfer data out of the country. An analyst in Shanghai said it would definitely be a milestone for Tesla if it rolls out FSD in China and leverages the China data for algorithm training. There also seems to be a lot of confusion around this. They said at least five automakers Hyundai, Mazda, Toyota, VW, and Nissan have approval to transfer some of their data out of China, but none of those approvals are for data to be used to train AI systems.
Also, today Reuters has reported that there is a new one-year pilot project for companies in Shanghai's Ling Yang area. Which is where Tesla's factory is located. This pilot will be allowed to transfer certain data without needing further security assessments. After that, many people in the Tesla community started getting excited saying, hey, Tesla's going to get its break and they're going to get that approval for FSD training data. Once again, if you actually read the article, that's not the case. Shanghai has compiled a list of data that can be transferred overseas without security assessments. The government of Shanghai has compiled a first batch of ordinary data in three sectors, intelligent and connected vehicles being one of them.
The document does detail broader plans for Ling Yang to become a hub for cross-border data. According to the Ling Yang website, the newly announced data transfer rules take effect immediately. But here's the letdown. For the auto sector, the data includes information involving manufacturing like procurement and stockpile, research and development including auto design and tests, after sales services and used car sales. They also said this list of ordinary data will be expanded over time. However, based on everything I'm reading, this pilot project has nothing to do with FSD or AI training data specifically. For now, that bucket of data does not fall into this ordinary data list.
Simply put, data collected by Tesla's FSD would actually be considered a core data and that is currently prohibited from being exported out of China. And even if Tesla now spends billions of dollars for training compute specifically for China, questions remain about how specific FSD improvements from that data in China will actually be used elsewhere around the world. This undoubtedly will not be the last we hear about this, but this development is certainly ranked up there in the list of the most important things taking place at Tesla right now.
Robin Denilm did an interview with the Financial Times and there were a few things worth highlighting. First, she was joking and she said if I had a magic wand, Twitter would not exist. She cited one example which was Elon tweeting about Tesla reincorporating in Texas and that just made it harder for Tesla's board of directors to make it look like they were doing that in an impartial manner. And not just reacting to whatever Elon said he wanted to do. She said, do we have tough conversations about tweets? Absolutely. But she said, he's a contrarian and you can't be a contrarian part of the time, so you've got to work with that as a board. I might wake up in the morning and read a tweet that I was not expecting. I don't wake up to a strategy shift that we have not talked about. So perhaps there are social media lines that even Elon is not ready to cross.
Other than that, most of the article was things we've already covered and a lot of it was actually Robin calling complete nonsense for many of the things that are reported about Tesla and Elon. One being Elon's drug use and that the Tesla board was concerned about it. She said, I've been around this company 10 years and I have never seen any evidence. We also learned that it's most of Tesla's board of directors excluding Kimball that are actually part of this global drive to get shareholders voting. She did make a fair point defending her independence from Elon saying, if I did not agree with something that was happening at the company, I could walk away tomorrow referring to the life changing money that she's already made. And finally, because some people out there still do not get it, she said Elon has not been paid for any of his work for Tesla the past six years.
On the Tesla layoffs front, we learned specifics. Tesla is cutting approximately 600 more employees at its manufacturing facilities and engineering offices in Fremont in Palo Alto. This will impact an array of departments impacting factory workers, software developers, and robotics engineers. According to the filing, it's 378 jobs in Fremont, including staffing and running vehicle assembly. There were also 65 cuts at Kato Road, the 4680 pilot plant in Palo Alto, the engineering headquarters, 233 employees being let go, including two directors of technical programs. Tesla might be dropping steam support on some deliveries of the Model X. For now, there's no indication that other Tesla models will be affected. I was able to find a message from Tesla, it said Tesla's updating the gaming computer in your Model X and your vehicle is no longer capable of playing steam games. All other entertainment and app functionalities are unaffected. Usually Tesla updates make your car better, but unfortunately, that's not the case this time around.
In case you missed it, it's official Tesla's biggest retail investor Leo Kogiwan will be voting against Elon's pay package. These are the moments I wish I had more time in these videos to analyze certain news items, but there's something for that coming in the future, so stay tuned. For now, I just wanted everybody to be informed. Just know he does only own less than 1% of shares, but it's still a large amount. Honda is set to unveil its Class 8 hydrogen full-cell, I mean, fuel cell truck concept next week in Las Vegas. Honda is actively seeking business collaborations and customers to help bring these hydrogen fuel cell solutions to market in North America. They're also planning a fuel cell variance for their Honda CR-V that they're saying will begin shipping this year, but production will be limited to 300 a year and the vehicle will only be available for lease in California. Part of the challenge, there are fewer than 60 hydrogen fueling stations in the entire United States. It's a painful reminder, but this is the type of thing we're currently up against. In these stocks, subreddit, we have over 3000 people upvoting this headline, Tesla's self-driving tech ditched by 98% of customers that tried it. So not only is this phrased in a very adversarial tone, but it's also not even accurate. Elon already debunked this, but that does not stop people from running with false information.
A camouflaged, prototype version of an upcoming Kia pickup truck has been spotted in North America, specifically in California. The expectation is this truck will be on Kia's E-GMP platform, which is their modular architecture that they use for other EVs like the Ionic 5 and 6 and the EV 6 and 9. We really don't have many details about this vehicle, but Kia's EV 9 is already selling pretty well in the United States, but they're currently being produced in South Korea. However, that's about to change, as Kia's factory in West Point, Georgia is supposed to start production this month. There are still questions for Kia when it comes to battery sourcing, but Kia plans to add an EV battery facility to the Georgia plant in 2025, so at that point, they're confident the EV 9 would qualify for the full tax credit. And honestly, the EV 9 at around $49,000 would be a pretty attractive offer for many people in the US.
Now we have Toyota, Nissan, Honda, and other major Japanese automakers planning to work together to develop software for next-gen vehicles. There will be a more detailed strategy announced soon, but the takeaway is Japan knows it needs to do something about software for its vehicles as soon as possible.
Mercedes workers at a plant in Alabama have voted against joining the UAW. In case any of you are Chevy Camaro fans, GM President wants to bring it back as an electric car, and one that's affordable, nothing set in stone yet though.
The official Tesla account on X said congrats Tesla Fremont and Giga Nevada on building their 3 millionth car. Tesla stock closed the day at $177.46 up 1.5% while the Nasdaq was down 0.07%. It was another slower volume day for Tesla trading about 20 million shares below the average volume the past 30 days.
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