Welcome to Electrified, it's your host Dylan Loomis. First up today, just another anecdote about the EV slowdown in Germany. This time around, Great Wall Motors has decided to close its headquarters that was in Munich, Germany, thanks to disappointing EV sales in the region. Instead, Great Wall will serve European markets like Germany and the UK and Ireland from China. And separately, only 183 BYD models were sold in Germany in April. This yet another ripple effect of Germany ending its EV subsidies abruptly, and there are many other things at play, but these ripple effects continue.
Tesla released another response letter this time to ISS, Institutional Shareholder Services, the other proxy firm that's making recommendations to Tesla investors. They actually recommended voting for Tesla's redomestication to Texas, but there was some confusion around Elon's comp plan. On Elon's compensation plan, Tesla said a technical misunderstanding led ISS to recommend stockholders reject the award. The concern from ISS was that Tesla's board has effectively only offered shareholders an all or nothing option in this vote. But Tesla's response, under Delaware law, ratification must be all or nothing. AKA, this is not the time to be negotiating a different or a smaller package for Elon.
In this letter, Tesla touches on a possible replacement compensation plan for Elon if the vote goes no and the appeal goes south in the Delaware courts. Tesla said, we believe it's unlikely that such a replacement award would be less costly, less dilutive, or create more of an incentive for Elon. Doing so would present several hurdles for Tesla, including significant time and additional costs, all to the detriment of stockholders. For example, a functionally equivalent grant of new options could result in an accounting charge of more than $25 billion compared to the $2.3 billion charge originally recognized for the 2018 award.
At this point, it's important to point out there are people out there making predictions about how this is all going to impact Tesla's financials going forward. Right now, the lawyers don't know, Tesla's board doesn't know, Elon doesn't know, not even Tesla's accountants really know how this is all going to impact the financials going forward. There are of course some general things we know to be true, like if Elon gets the options back and then exercises them that would be a dilutive event because there would be more Tesla shares outstanding. So for now, just know that Tesla believes a replacement compensation plan could cost as much as $22 billion more compared to just ratifying Elon's 2018 plan. But even that number is just a guesstimate.
I find this one to be a bit ridiculous, ISS said it's concerned about the award's inability to increase Elon's focus on Tesla. Tesla's response? The award requires Elon to hold his shares following the exercising of any options for five years. To date, Elon has not exercised any shares. Elon has stronger incentives to focus on Tesla with the award than without it. The fact that Tesla has to state the obvious like this highlights the absurdity of the situation. Replying to James Stevenson, Elon did say the deal allows me to sell enough stock to pay the taxes.
The remaining stock though must be held for five years, so it's impossible for me to cash out and run. If and when Elon gets the options back and exercises them, be sure to keep this in mind if you see a Tesla stock sale happening at the same time. It is true, Tesla's FSD version 12.4 is delayed from the timeline Elon had mentioned. The word initially was that it should roll out to the customer fleet sometime toward the middle of May. It's now been in employee testing for over two weeks and some people are growing concerned about the pace of future updates. I do think that's a bit premature...
...but there was a user on Reddit that was able to confirm he has version 12.4 and he said I have it with early access. It's unusable unfortunately. I assume it's bugged and they'll fix it soon, but I can't use it for more than 10 seconds without it driving me off the road. Worst revision I've seen. This user continued saying I have a vested interest in FSD performing well as 70% of my net worth is in Tesla via equity. However, this is a massive issue. He also shared some anecdotes about what it was doing wrong, saying when I say it's unusable, I mean it, something is severely wrong.
Version 12.4, which is supposed to reduce the steering wheel nag and supposed to decrease the miles per intervention or MPI by 5 to 10x is off to a rough start. But with the new paradigm of version 12, I think it would be wise to expect some bugs with these dot releases, so we just have to hang tight. And in case you didn't know what the numbers in Tesla's dot releases are, I've seen some people out there with questions. The first number 2024 is the year, the second number in this case, 8 would be the week of the year, and the third number is going to be the number of revisions on that branch. Meaning this branch, the one I am currently on, is the year 2024, week number 3, and revision number 25. So yes, 2024.8 is a release after 2024.3.
And sadly for FSD owners, typically that's on a firmware, a couple releases behind Tesla's most recent feature updates, in this case like the spring update. Tesla is trying to limit the number of different software versions out there, but when you throw in the different hardware, it becomes a pretty complicated web. We finally have an industry player saying what we've all been saying now for a while. A former top gear host, Quentin Wilson, has blamed misinformation for plummeting EV sales, claiming consumer demand is being held back by myths. Again though, I would counter the plummeting EV sales as a bit dramatic, sure they're not growing as fast as we've seen in years past, but that's not totally out of the ordinary for entering the mainstream adoption.
A sentiment I agree with, he said long term EV viability as a technology is not in question. What's in question is how we manage consumer sentiment and awareness of the advantages and negatives of EVs. He said people are not even considering buying an electric car or inquiring about price because they read this torrent of stuff from right wing and vested interest. He's now calling for greater myth busting. Definitely easier said than done, but I do think there's a lot of truth in what he's saying and I do wish that Tesla spent more time and energy pushing back the misinformation. I found some interesting facts about EVs in the United States. Almost one third of new EVs are going to one of three states, California, Florida, or Texas.
Of note though, this data is from car gurus and they do not track direct sales models like Tesla, Polestar, and Rivian, so those would be excluded. However, for Legacy Auto, this leaves very few EV options in many other US states. At the end of the first quarter this year, 23 states had fewer than 1000 EVs on offer. 9 states had fewer than 400, so adding to the slower rate of EV growth are also things like lack of desirable options, options not being produced in high volume, and not being distributed to the states where there may be demand for them. I think this is another slept on challenge for Legacy Auto, not going the direct sales route. They have to effectively guess where the demand will be for their vehicles state specific because consumers only want to travel or jump through so many hoops to get the car they want.
JD Power put out its 2024 app report and they said while 40% of non-Tesla EV owners say they experienced a connection problem with the app, which was down from 44% one year ago, now 35% of Tesla owners say they experienced a connection related problem up from 30% in 2023 and 20% in 2022. They said this may suggest that increasing app usage is straining Tesla's app network capacity. Unfortunately, I have also experienced connectivity issues with my Tesla vehicle more times than I would like. Despite that though, on a 1000 point scale for the premium brand segment, Tesla leads the way with a score of 847, followed in second place by Mercedes and their Mi connect with 843 points. At the bottom of this list, you'll find Polestar with a score of 626, the company that's also in the midst of rolling out its own smartphone trying to rectify these scores.
Here's some new footage of Baidu's V20 Maps for Tesla. Now, Tesla China offers two map options, one of its own and this one in partnership with Baidu and the two can be toggled back and forth. And yes, this release of the V20 Maps with Baidu is supposed to be part of Tesla's spring update in China. Some folks are highlighting the Baidu Maps can recognize traffic lights and tells you how many seconds are left, but this feature has been in China for a while now, so don't get optimistic about it.
I also would not be expecting a second map option for Tesla's in North America since this Baidu partnership has limited scope and it may have to do with Tesla actually keeping its FSD data in China. The details of this Tesla and Baidu partnership still are not really clear, but Tesla has been partnered with them since 2020. There's a chance Baidu will provide Tesla with the mapping license it needs to collect driving data, to supervise the collection process and to actually redact and store that data in China. I say that because China does have a stipulation that car makers have to work with mapping partners in the country.
I'm sure many of us remember what Elon said, there's no need for high definition maps or a cell phone connection. The system FSD is designed such that even if you have no connectivity whatsoever and you're in a place that you've never been to before and no Tesla has ever been there, the car should still be able to drive just like a person. That's in part why I think the Tesla and Baidu deal has more to do with data licensing and storage, almost for monitoring of Tesla's activity than it does serving as a tool that Tesla's FSD software needs to use.
And sure, there may be some integration between Tesla's FSD and Baidu maps for the user experience, but we don't yet know what that would be. Speaking of autonomy, Elon did say that FSD will have chill, standard and hurry modes. Joe Tett-Mayer shared an update on Tesla's lithium refinery in Corpus Christi saying the first of two parallel processing facilities is well underway with the rotating kiln and cooler plus support infrastructure looking much more complete. You may recall in October of last year, Tesla's senior manager of operations was talking about this lithium refinery and said, we will begin commissioning the assets roughly the first of next year, and that'll continue in earnest over the first half of next year.
Well, the first half of this year has come and gone, and sure, I guess commissioning could mean many different things, but at this point there is still no lithium being shipped. This is just my speculation, but based on the rate of progress we've seen, I'm not expecting Tesla to be producing lithium from this site until sometime in 2025. Maybe they can start some trial refining toward the end of this year, but I don't think it'll be that impactful until next year. It will, however, be important when it happens for Tesla reducing its cost of goods sold. This is the project Elon has referred to as being a money printer, that being refining lithium.
A Tesla employee on LinkedIn said we are thrilled to announce the opening of our brand new Tesla store in Qatar, the first of its kind. Tesla is also planning to open two supercharger locations in the capital city sometime later this year. Tesla did launch vehicle sales online in Qatar in December of last year, but now customers will be able to go experience the vehicles in person. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Jamie Dimon and Elon Musk may be making peace opening the door for the possibility for Tesla to work with the bank again.
There's a long history here, but what you really need to know a few years ago, Elon went to Jamie Dimon and JP Morgan and asked them for an automotive leasing business line, to which Jamie Dimon effectively said no and chose not to support Tesla. Elon didn't like that and then pooled all of Tesla's business from the bank. In March earlier this year, Elon was actually a guest speaker at a JP Morgan event where Elon and Jamie were on stage together and they seemed to be getting along and having a report on stage. Now the word is following that event, Dimon decided the bank could try to resume doing business with Elon.
Unfortunately though, JP Morgan and Tesla actually have lawsuits against one another. You may remember JP Morgan sued Tesla for about $160 million over a trade a few years back. Then Tesla actually countersued saying they were just mad that Elon pooled all of its commercial banking business. If you haven't seen it, YouTube now has dozens of games that you can play directly on the app, so these games also translate into your Tesla UI through the YouTube app. So far, these games are only available in select markets, so if you're not seeing them, that could be why, but if you want to check, go to the YouTube homepage and then find playables from the Explore menu.
Japanese automakers are embroiled in an ongoing safety scandal and most recently Toyota submitted faulty data during pedestrian safety tests for three current models. And they used modified test vehicles during collision safety tests for four past models. Toyota's CEO said we neglected the certification process and mass produced our cars without first taking the proper precautionary steps. For that, we apologize to our customers and all automotive enthusiasts. Meanwhile, Mazda said it fabricated test results and tampered with the units used for collision testing in five models. And separately, Honda was found to have fabricated data related to noise and gasoline engine output, affecting more than 3 million units.
The latest probes follow from a series of scandals involving the likes of Nissan, Mazda, and Suzuki, stretching back more than a decade, including falsifying emissions and fuel economy data. Also at Toyota, engine power tests were found to have been falsified. Honestly, it's stories like this that make it even more frustrating that the media and the general public think Tesla is the unsafe company when in reality, they're the company doing the most to push forward all of the engineering and the testing around safety, always going the extra mile doing its own safety testing. Jim Farley sat down with Yahoo Finance for about 25 minutes. I'll have the full thing linked below.
I'll just play a few quick clips. Why are EVs still so expensive? You know, the reason is the NCM batteries that have cobalt and lithium and nickel in them are very expensive and they're very heavy on a lightning that battery could be $30,000, $40,000. A combustion, you know, at scale, a combustion drive train is going to be, you know, 10% of that. And so really it's the batteries and the one-time investment for building the battery plants and the manufacturing facility and engineering these very different kinds of vehicles. And what we've had to do is completely change our execution.
We had a very American idea. The Skunkworx team in California filled with a lot of Tesla and Apple people who don't have the prejudices that I would as a old-school car person. And they are engineering a completely different approach, a different product at a different cost with a much smaller battery and different chemistry that we're very convinced it will be not only profitable, but it will be affordable for most Americans to be fully competitive with the best in the business, which we think are the Chinese. When does Ford make money from EVs? I think the first generation, we have a lot of opportunity to improve our losses. But until we get to the second generation, which we start to roll out in the next couple years, that's when things turn around. And as those products scale and become a bigger part of our EV business, you'll see the business turn around. You mentioned Elon, how's that partnership going? We just started using the Supercharger network.
I think we have 100,000 applications for the adapter. So it's very. That's a lot of time. We've shipped it about a couple thousand so far. The people get them like them. We've learned like, well, the charging port has to be maybe a little bit different in the car. The lightning you have to kind of inch over because they didn't design their charging system. We are the first manufacturer to scale on the Supercharger network. It's going well so far. We really appreciate working with Tesla between the number one and number two players in the country.
We think giving our customers access to the Supercharger network is a good move. But it's early days. We still need 90,000 adapters. You'll get them, right? I mean, I'm hoping. I texted Elon so last night we'll see what he says. What is that relationship like? I think there's a mutual respect. Look, I think it's been largely a positive relationship. In 120 years, we've been through a lot as a company. Like we know when what a partnership should be and what's realistic to expect out of a partner. We compete. I mean, Mach-E and Model Y, they're in the market competing every day.
So we're realistic, but so far the partnership has gone well and we have a professional relationship. And it's mutual respectful. Does he text you right back? Because if you texted me, I'm dropping everything. No, no, he is really an incredible person. He absolutely does. He very much made this decision based on the adoption of EVs in the country. And of course, it's good for him. His charging network is very valuable and a really wonderful asset for the company. But he's very responsive. And I think it's because he knows we respect each other. On Weibo, Grace Tao, Tesla's global vice president, said that the refreshed Model 3 during Quarter 1 in China had the lowest complaint rate among all sedans in the industry. I don't know about you, but for me, I think it's time everybody retires that whole argument about Tesla's being poor quality and poorly made. It's not what the data says any longer.
The Financial Times has said tens of thousands of Tesla's retail shareholders internationally, with around $17 billion of stock, may be unable to vote. That's thanks to these investment platforms failing to put adequate cross-border systems. The only general advice I can give would be to reach out to your broker directly, see what the case is, and then you could consider transferring your shares to a different broker where they actually have the ability to make these proxy votes. On the configurator, Tesla now only has the dark Gemini wheel option. It's also now included. On ex Jim Kramer said, time for Elon to come on mad money to state his case, to which Elon said we could do in ex spaces. Tesla is still in the process of hiring back some of its supercharger team, as TJC has confirmed on LinkedIn.
He said, please forgive any delays in my responses, but I assure you that the EV charging industry is okay. Tesla will continue to lead and inspire while providing the best customer experience with our best in class products and support. An important update, if you're considering breaking the rules, Tesla is indeed enforcing the Cybertruck purchase agreement. This customer decided to sell his Cybertruck, and now he reports that Tesla has banned him from buying any new Tesla vehicles. Just to confirm our Gigacast expert Luca Greco on ex has also said that Tesla's Gigacast are indeed repairable, contrary to what others may tell you. A few months back, I had said the same thing as I had one of you reach out to me with some actual photos of a Gigacast and the repair process.
These Gigacasts are effectively modular, so if one area or portion is damaged, oftentimes that specific piece can be removed and replaced. And now we have the CEO of Evolve EV Specialists, a company that specializes in repairing EVs, confirming the same. In case you're wondering why Joe Gebia stepped down from Tesla's special counsel for all of this proxy voting, Joe said I did not want Elon's status as a potential customer of Samara to be used against the committee, so I disclosed that I had put that potential business transaction on hold. Samara, his company, manufactures tiny, prefab homes that reportedly Elon was considering buying from. Tesla stock closed the day at $176.29 down 1.01%, while the Nasdaq was up 0.56%.
这些巨型铸件实际上是模块化的,因此如果某个区域或部分受损,通常可以单独移除并更换。现在,专门从事电动汽车维修的Evolve EV Specialists公司的首席执行官也确认了这一点。如果你想知道乔·格比亚为什么辞去了特斯拉特别顾问的职务,这与所有的代理投票有关,乔说:"我不希望埃隆作为Samara潜在客户的身份被用于对抗委员会,所以我披露了我已经搁置了这个潜在的业务交易。" Samara是他的一家公司,生产微型预制房屋,据报道埃隆正在考虑购买。特斯拉的股票当天收盘价为176.29美元,下跌了1.01%,而纳斯达克指数上涨了0.56%。
It was yet another low volume day for Tesla, trading about 23 million shares below the average volume the past 30 days. Hope you guys have a wonderful day, please like the video if you did, you can find me on X-Link below, and a huge thank you to all of my Patreon supporters. Thank you.