09 Apr 2022 | Elon Musk hosts 'Cyber Rodeo' At Austin Gigafactory

Episode 1430,   Apr 08, 2022, 04:00 PM

On the podcast today:
• Tesla CEO Elon Musk hosts 'Cyber Rodeo' party to open Austin factory
• Tesla's 4680 Cells & Structural Pack Revealed At Cyber Rodeo
• Tesla officially opens Texas Gigafactory
• Tesla Will Sell Its Cybertruck Next Year, Elon Musk Says
• Tesla delivers first Model Y vehicles with 4680 batteries from Giga Texas
• CATL Paves the Way for Tesla to Begin Building LFP-Based Vehicles at Giga Berlin
• Ford begins building E-Transit vehicles for Europe
• China's BYD ends full combustion engine cars to focus on electric, plug-in hybrids
• Nissan gives first look at prototype production plant for solid-state batteries

Show #1430

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening wherever you are in the world, welcome to EV News Daily, you trusted source of EV information. It’s Saturday 9th April, it’s Martyn Lee here and I go through every EV story so you don't have to.

TESLA CEO ELON MUSK HOSTS 'CYBER RODEO' PARTY TO OPEN AUSTIN FACTORY

- On Thursday night, Tesla CEO Elon Musk spoke at a grand opening event for the electric vehicle maker’s new $1.1 billion factory near the Austin airport in Texas.

- At the event, he spoke about how massive the new factory is, and teased products that are still in development, including the Cybertruck, and a robotaxi that he promised would look quite futuristic.

- Tesla aims to make 500,000 units of the Model Y in a single year in Austin

- “In trailing twelve months, we’ve delivered over a million cars worldwide,” Musk said. “There’s still a long way to go.”

- “We’re aiming to go to wide beta for almost all Full Self-Driving customers in North America this year,”

- Musk said on Thursday night that the Model Y vehicles being produced in Texas feature what’s known as a “structural pack,” meaning the cells in the cars’ high voltage battery packs carry the load of the vehicle.


TESLA'S 4680 CELLS & STRUCTURAL PACK REVEALED AT CYBER RODEO

- While Tesla CEO Elon Musk did reveal a few juicy bits of information at Tesla's Cyber Rodeo delivery party last evening, there wasn't a whole lot of "new material," and future plans, details, and dates were lacking. That said, tweets and videos from fans, owners, and investors attending the event delivered more compelling information.

- Tesla had several unique displays prepared for the event, including one that revealed production-level 4680 battery cells manufactured at Giga Texas.

- The text on the hanging metal plaque above reads:  “Made at Gigafactory Texas, our new tabless 4680 cell lowers the cost per kilowatt hour. We have everything we need under one roof to produce and assemble the first high-volume structural battery pack, using our fully integrated process. The structural pack greatly reduces the number of parts used in both the battery pack and the car, allowing our pack manufacturing line to be less than half the size of previous factories."


TESLA OFFICIALLY OPENS TEXAS GIGAFACTORY

- The milestone was achieved less than two years after Musk declared that Austin would be the site of the company’s next Gigafactory and less than one year after Tesla officially moved its headquarters to Texas from California.

- Tesla has said it expects to make 1.5 million vehicles in 2022, after producing slightly less than 1 million vehicles last year

- The company has said it will hire up to 5,000 workers at an average salary of $47,147, with entry-level positions starting at $35,000. Today, Tesla employs about 10,000 people at its only US car plant in Fremont.


TESLA WILL SELL ITS CYBERTRUCK NEXT YEAR, ELON MUSK SAYS

- Tesla will begin producing its much-delayed electric pickup, the Cybertruck, next year along with numerous other new products, Elon Musk, the carmaker’s chief executive, said late Thursday.

- Tesla’s chief executive has a long history of promising products that materialize later than he said they would or not at all, but his timeline for the Cybertruck is more definite than the one he gave to investors in January, when he said delivery in 2023 was “most likely.”

- Delays in producing the Cybertruck have allowed rivals to come to market sooner with pickups, one of the most popular types of vehicle in the United States. Ford Motor is expected to begin delivering the Lightning, a battery-powered version of its F-150, this summer. Rivian’s electric pickup went on sale late last year to rave reviews, but the company has had trouble ramping up production, a common problem for new car companies.

- “This year is all about scaling up,” Mr. Musk said. “Next year, there is going to be a massive wave of new products.”


TESLA DELIVERS FIRST MODEL Y VEHICLES WITH 4680 BATTERIES FROM GIGA TEXAS

- On Friday, April 8, Elon Musk officially announced that the first production Model Y units were delivered. He thanked the Tesla team for their hard work. A few of the new Model Y owners already shared their joy with the community online.

- Tesla technician Regan Janssen announced that she received the first Model Y with 4680 battery cells produced in Giga Texas on LinkedIn. Janssen happens to be an Engineering Process Technician at Tesla. She started her Tesla career just last month.


CATL PAVES THE WAY FOR TESLA TO BEGIN BUILDING LFP-BASED VEHICLES AT GIGA BERLIN

- CATL’s $1.8 billion investment in Germany will supply carmakers in Germany with LFP batteries. Although CATL does not name any specific company, Tesla is probably the only carmaker in Germany that could use enough LFP batteries to justify the investment. Other carmakers, like Volkswagen, have agreements in place with Korean battery makers like SK Innovation and LG Energy Solutions while also investing in battery technologies on their own.

- The initial capacity for the CATL battery factory is 8 GWh per year which is enough for 100,000 electric vehicles provided they have an 80 kWh battery. In the case of the Chinese Model Y with an LFP battery (Standard Range), the battery capacity sits at 60 kWh, so CATL would be able to equip more than 133,000 cars.

- The first German-made batteries should go to partners by the end of the year when the plant should employ 1,500 workers.


FORD BEGINS BUILDING E-TRANSIT VEHICLES FOR EUROPE


CHINA'S BYD ENDS FULL COMBUSTION ENGINE CARS TO FOCUS ON ELECTRIC, PLUG-IN HYBRIDS


NISSAN GIVES FIRST LOOK AT PROTOTYPE PRODUCTION PLANT FOR SOLID-STATE BATTERIES


QUESTION OF THE WEEK WITH EMOBILITYNORWAY.COM

Mirror.co.uk: “An electric car owner has warned other EV drivers they can be fined for charging their vehicle in supermarket car parks. Electric vehicle owner Max Wilkinson - who is also a Cheltenham Councillor - recently bought a four-year-old hybrid Mini Countryman. He went home - but returned two hours later by which time the hybrid Mini was about half-charged. A week later Max received a penalty notice saying he'd been fined £90. Mr Wilkinson has paid the fine and doesn’t dispute it. But he does think it doesn’t quite make sense to restrict car charging to 90 minutes as well.

- He said: “It seems illogical that quite a lot of EV and hybrid owners won’t be allowed to spend enough time in the car park to get a full charge.”

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