Tesla Space #34: ⚡ Cybertruck is now #1 — a very special Roadster — Robotaxi changes

X OF THE WEEK: ABOUT ROBOTAXI DELAY

This one needs a bit of a backstory first.

As you know, Tesla is to hold a robotaxi unveil event on 8th of August, as Musk posted on early April.

So, now on Thursday last week, the regular Tesla-critic Dana Hull of Bloomberg reported how Elon has pushed the Tesla Robotaxi event back two months, into October, to build additional prototypes. The news is of course titled to show maximum doom: “Tesla Delays Robotaxi Event in Blow to Musk’s Autonomy Drive”

And even though everyone on X were shouting to try and get an answer from him,

Crickets from Elon.

Until yesterday. We got somewhat of a “leak”, to counter the Bloomberg “leak”, from a Tesla content maker Warren Redlich.

Warren, on this video, says that some of Bloomberg reporting is off, and that his sources from the team said to him this is what went down:

1. There was an engineering meeting, and seemed they were very close to the end version of the vehicle. But there were some kind of issues with the front end of the vehicle.

2. Elon said “what if we did this”;

3. The engineers “froze, actually went speechless”;

4. One of the lead engineers said to Elon “I think it will take us two months to do that”;

5. Elon said “just get it done as fast as you can”.

So Elon didn’t apparently say “we’re delaying the event by two months”, but it seems that’s what Bloomberg has taken and run with. Warren himself speculates that Elon might’ve pushed the team to still make it happen by 8/8.

We would have been speculating if all of this actually took place or not, but Elon helped us out here, with the X of the week:

“Requested what I think is an important design change to the front, and extra time allows us to show off a few other things.”

So there we have it. I wonder what the ‘few other things’ are here?!

Now, we know Elon is great at rallying the troops around deadlines — I learned a lot reading Walter Isaacson’s latest book on Elon Musk, and I can only imagine what kind of a ‘surge’ is going on at Tesla right now, to get the robotaxi ready to be shown to the world.

So it’ll be interesting to see if the event is actually delayed, most likely it is, but also by how much. I would assume it will be communicated in the upcoming earnings call next week, on July 23^rd.

TESLA WINS GLOBALLY

We stay out of politics here.

I really don’t care who you vote for, as it is none of my business.

But, I will briefly cover some stuff that is important and will impact us in the Tesla Space. That would be Musk now using its massive reach, and money, to endorse Trump.

In addition to all of the Trump stuff going on with his X feed, WSJ reported that Musk plans to give $45M per month to a Super Pac electing Donald Trump.

The news, at least some part of it, might be fake, considering the meme Musk just posted under the article (the one up top of this section).

Anyway, as you might recall, Musk was on Trump’s advisory council when he was in office the last time, and Elon stepped down in mid-2017 when Trump pulled the US out of the Paris climate agreement.

By 2022, Trump and Musk were in a rather public feud, and Trump posted this after Musk had posted he should “hand up his hat & sail into the sunset”:

Looks like all of that is water under the bridge now.

What do WE win out of this?

The short answer would be: influence. While Musk can of course do as he pleases with his reach, and his money, we’re here to report on what all this leads to.

While we barely got the word “TESLA” out of Biden, he made a lot of moves to increase EV adoption in the US. Will we see the opposite from Trump, being all about Tesla yet hindering the rest of the EV adoption? Sounds likely.

Here’s a little curveball for you too — the Vice President pick from Trump, JD Vance, who Elon has also clapped for choosing — apparently has proposed a bill that would repeal the $7,500 EV tax credit and instead would create a $7,500 tax credit for gas-powered cars made in US.

What. The. Frunk.

Doubtful that this would come to fruition, of course, and no doubt that Elon now has some more influence over this if Trump gets elected. All we can hope for is that he’ll make sure Tesla — and hopefully the whole EV transition — won’t get hit with roadblocks in the US.

I think we’ve got enough of this topic, yeah? On a happier note, we have now

Confirmed: Cybertruck became the best-selling electric pickup truck in the US in Q2!

🇺🇸 In Q2 there were 8,755 Cybertrucks sold against 7,902 F-150 Lightnings, 3,309 Rivian R1Ts, 2,929 Hummers, and 2,196 Chevy Silverados. I looked it all up from Cox Automotive’s latest report, so it is now a confirmed win.

I would expect this position will not be taken from Tesla for at least the next few years now. According to Cox, the Cybertruck was also the best-selling vehicle in the US priced over $100,000 in June. I also found that

For the first time in the US, Tesla fell under 50% market share of all EVs sold in Q2 49.7% with 164,264 sold (304,451 first half of the year).

I still can’t believe it has taken so long. And the competition is still not there really if you check the next ones in line:

#2 was Ford with 23,957 EVs in Q2 (44,180 first half)
#3 was GM with 21,930 EVs sold in Q2 (38,355 first half)

While the EV competition is, hopefully, finally ramping up, it seems Tesla is also winning where it matters the most: in competition against ICE. Tesla is #1 in market share growth in the US in first half of 2024. Of all automakers.

We also got some exciting news from China: the Model Y has become the best-selling new energy vehicle in China in the first half of the year with 207,817 sales. This is great to see especially as competition is ramping up, with the smaller and much cheaper BYD Dolphin on #2 with 167,8361

Shareholders write a letter to increase Musk’s security: “With over 90% and more than 3,000 participants wanting to support Tesla's Board of Directors to increase the security budget for Elon, the Board Members, the employees and the sites, we set up the below letter.”

This comes after the obvious - Trump shooting - and also Elon’s comment on this from Sunday:

THE VEHICLES

We don’t usually share AI-generated photos here. And other than the ridiculous animations about the X logo that look like they’ve been made in 1997 (if you want to laugh, check the latest here), Elon Musk doesn’t share them either.

But with this picture, he seems to have made an exception. He didn’t comment anything alongside with it.

Should we read into this, especially with the CyberCab incoming?

I traced the image back to May 5th, when one of Musk’s buddies, @cb_doge, posted this on X. He posted it again now on July 15th, and Musk posted the same thing about 5 hours later. My conclusion — no, we shouldn’t read much into it.

I did enjoy the joke reply coming from official Cybertruck account though:

A special Roadster on auction

Look at that beaut’

An original 2011 Tesla Roadster test mule has gone on auction on Cars & Bids. It was the development mule for a Performance Package that was never released to the public. Today, we’re at $182k over 42 bids, with the reserve not yet met. See all 120 photos here.

• Driven 31,800 miles;

• “Roadster 3.0” battery — 80 kWh battery pack which Tesla says gives it ~340 miles of range;

• Special: Exposed “raw” carbon fiber body, grey interior, carbon fiber hardtop

• (It might be the only visible Carbon Fiber Tesla Roadster in existence, per Gruber Motors)

• Special: Tarox four-piston front & rear brakes;

• Special: Upgraded limited-slip differential; Bilstein suspension;

• Special: Custom ABS tune by Continental;

• “R80” and “Roadster Sport” badges

I also found what I believe is the history of this car from our friends at Gruber Motor Company (specialists on Roadsters), see the details and images here.

The history seems to be that this car was totaled in around March 2012;

then repurchased by Tesla to be driven by an executive, and thus put on a lot of demo upgrades making the Roadster into this.

Here’s Kennan from Cars & Bids, doing an in-depth review on this very Roadster:

If you’re more into this, here’s a great look at the interior and startup sequence (video).

Fun fact: approximately 2,450 units of the Roadster were assembled in California until production ended in 2012.

S3XY

Tesla has introduced the Model 3 Long Range RWD in the US:

• starts at $42,490 ($34,990 including tax credit)

• Range: 363 miles

• 0-60mph: 4.9s

It is now the best range-to-price ratio Tesla on sale today.

Recent Model Y RWD buyers in the US can now unlock “Energy Boost” 50 extra miles of range for $1,600 (or +30mi for $1k, depending on which cells you run on).

🇳🇱 In the Netherlands, Tesla will match the SEPP subsidy of 2,950€ for pre-configured Model Y RWD vehicles, on orders placed before August 31st and taking delivery before Sept 30th.

Model 3 in Europe (so… the one made in Shanghai) get the Quicksilver paint option. The Quicksilver is now also available in Canada.

📚️ Reading tip: Diagrams of the Tesla S3XY and CT structural details and material distribution, showing exactly which part of the structures different aluminum and steel are used.

Cybertruck

Tesla has scored another HUGE win on advertising the Cybertruck, for free. In 2 days, this MrBeast video with 10 Cybertrucks (and 50 YouTubers with a combined 1 billion subscribers) has gathered over 100 million views! Why I think this was free for Tesla is that I’ve gotten some whispers about MrBeast team looking for Cybertrucks to buy off owners a few months ago.

The “climate activists” in Germany are at it again, this time throwing paint on a Cybertruck at display in Hamburg. What a silly move. I enjoyed this joke about it though.

📚️ Reading tip: The story from a Cybertruck owner who finished a 1,100-mile trip with a Cybertruck pulling an Airstream trailer. Overall — very positive.

👀 Watch tip: BoostedBoiz bought “the cheapest Cybertruck in the World” (a totaled one), it’ll be fun to watch what they make of it. Kyle of BoostedBoiz are the ones who created the swapped sleeper van with Plaid

Watch tip #2: Tesla Cybertruck at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK.

SUPERCHARGING & ENERGY

This is Tesla’s 2000th Supercharger stall in the EV capital of the world, Norway, in Vøringsfossen (aka Norway's at best-known waterfall)

General Motors partners with Tesla to build 1,000 charging points in Mexico, to be ready by August-September 2025.

Tesla Energy 1-minute video ad: “Nathan drives over 93,000km a year in his Tesla, within a month of installing Powerwalls he saved 94% on his electricity bill.”

Tesla Energy posted that 34,000 Powerwalls across California were activated for a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) event on July 10th to support the grid during the current heatwave, delivering more than 100MW to the grid.

Here’s the best story to sum up the supremacy of Tesla Supercharging network in the US: a Rivian owner with a “Elon sucks” sticker at the back window, spends 20 minutes struggling to get two separate Mercedes Chargepoint stations to work, then finally goes and uses the Tesla Supercharger to reliably charge.

FUN FINDS AROUND THE TESLA SPACE

Listen tip: Good comedy, someone made a song with AI about Tesla owners in Australia waiting for FSD (Beta/Supervised).

Watch tip: A couple mistakes a white Tesla for their white Hyundai next to it, automatically trying to grab the non-existing door handles. Thank god for Sentry cam for these gems.

Watch tip #2: drone update on Tesla Semi factory, with a lot of steel brought to site and foundation work has begun.

Watch tip #3: Tesla shows a 30-second clip of opening the Giga Gym in Giga Berlin.

Watch tip #4: A full health check on a Tesla Taxi after 430,000 miles, by AutoTrader.

Read tip: a good experience at the Tesla showroom after hours.

Hat tip: Tesla released new “Built For Any Planet” merch, with a Hat ($35), Tee ($40) and a Hoodie ($85).

We’ll leave you off with more Robotaxi test mules, let me circle the cameras for you. I also added one of the early prototypes we’ve seen and a green circle to show you the exact spot on why I think they have placed the camera on the rear window:

Oh and here’s Steven Mark Ryan feat. Tasha Keeney from ARK explaining why Robotaxis are the largest AI opportunities of our time, in a 24-minute video. Musk reposted the video.