The future of transportation is electric. Tesla proved with the Model S that customers would want to buy luxury vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries. Other EV startups like Faraday Future, Byton, Lucid Motors, and SF Motors are chasing after Elon Musk. And major automakers like Jaguar, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz have each released their own Tesla challengers. There are obstacles, such as the need for a more robust charging network. But battery-powered cars are here to stay.
It looks much like the E Concept presented in Shanghai last year during the debut of Audi’s ringless, all-caps brand for the Chinese market. The E5 Sportback is built on an 800-volt “Advanced Digitized Platform” co-developed with China’s SAIC Motors and features a 100kWh battery capable of 478 miles of range per charge, 3.4 seconds 0-62 mph acceleration, a pillar-to-pillar 4K screen, and a lidar-based driver assistant.
DOGE is gutting the agency that enforces environmental laws Elon Musk’s companies have been accused of breaking.
Slate Auto, the secretive EV startup backed by Jeff Bezos, dropped a bunch of concept versions of its $25,000 electric truck in California over the weekend to emphasize the vehicle’s “transformative” powers, TechCrunch reports. The company is planning an official reveal later this week.
But as noticed by The Autopian’s David Tracy, the concept vehicles are sporting some, shall we say, unique camouflage. One was wrapped in pink and blue advertising for a fake company called “Cry Share” that offers to drive around your crying infant until they fall asleep. Sounds legit.
The company is working on a cheaper Model Y that will initially be made in the US, codenamed E41, but the start of production has been delayed, Reuters reports. Tesla apparently wants to make 250,000 of these vehicles in the US in 2026.
Reuters also says that a “bare-bones version” of the Model 3 is in the works.
Tesla conducted an internal analysis last year that concluded its upcoming driverless Cybercab is shaping up to be another Cybertruck-level flop, The Information reports:
One of the first assumptions was that the U.S. car market could shrink from 15 million a year to roughly 3 million because Robotaxis would be used for five times as many hours as privately owned cars, which sit in driveways and parking lots most of the time. Then the analysts subtracted Americans who wouldn’t switch to a driverless EV. These included people in rural parts of the country who often travel vast distances that are impractical for Robotaxis; suburbanites with kids and complicated pickup and drop-off schedules; and active people who routinely cart around a surfboard or a mountain bike.
That pushed probable annual Robotaxi sales well below 1 million vehicles a year. “There is ultimately a saturation of people who want to be ferried around in somebody else’s car,” said one person familiar with the situation.
Of course, Elon Musk doesn’t really care whether it succeeds or fails. AI is Tesla’s future, for better or worse. (It will be worse.)
[theinformation.com]
Tesla has stopped taking orders in China for new Model S and Model X EVs, which are manufactured exclusively in California and imported. With tariffs now at 125 percent on US imports, you can guess why.
It will still sell its Model 3 and updated Model Y, which are built in Shanghai and make up the overwhelming majority of its Chinese sales — Reuters reports it imported fewer than 2,000 S and X vehicles in 2024.
Elon Musk’s new single-motor RWD political-statement-on-wheels starts at $69,900, making it the cheapest Cybertruck yet, according to Teslarati. With a range of 350 miles, it also bests the dual-motor AWD model by 25 miles. Range can be extended to 362 miles when opting for the $750 soft tonneau cover but swastikas might be added for free. US deliveries begin in June.
Sean O’Kane reported earlier this week that Amazon chairman Jeff Bezos is backing a new EV startup called Slate Auto, and now a user on Reddit posted a spy shot of what might be the company’s first vehicle.
A source confirmed to TechCrunch that the pictured EV pickup is real and may be a concept to show potential investors.
Tesla is certainly sweetening the pot by offering the cheaper Long Range All-Wheel Drive version, which starts at $50,630 including destination and order fees. But given all the chaos swirling around Elon Musk and his company, I can’t recommend this purchase in good conscience. Sure, the Model Y is a very popular car — it was once the best selling car in the world, EV or otherwise — but there are now plenty of EVs you can buy that are not associated with controversial billionaires who make fascist salutes and brag about feeding humanitarian aid programs “into the wood chipper.“ Just saying.
[insideevs.com]
We may found out soon enough, as TechCrunch senior reporter (and Verge alumni) Sean O’Kane discovered that Bezos is secretly funding an EV startup called Slate Auto. The company is connected to another Bezos venture, Re: Build Manufacturing, and is reportedly working on a two-door, sub-$25,000 electric pickup as its first EV. Slate is also planning a lineup of accessories for owners to customize their vehicles. Sounds interesting, but I don’t envy Bezos trying to launch a new EV company amid market chaos and a global trade war. To be sure, the guy loves competing with Elon Musk!
The Newark, Calif.-based automaker reported a brisk uptick in deliveries for the first quarter of 2025. Lucid sold 3,109 vehicles, a 44 percent increase year over year. The company said it produced 2,212 vehicles, plus “over 600 additional vehicles in transit to Saudi Arabia for final assembly.” (Lucid is majority owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.) Tesla’s loss appears to be Lucid’s gain. Last month, the company’s CEO said “over 50 percent” of its orders were from former Tesla owners.
Reports of Elon Musk’s impending departure from the White House could not have been better timed for Tesla’s stock prices, which had started plummeting after its dismal Q1 report was released this morning. Within hours of the news breaking, the price not only recovered but surged an extra 5 percent. (As always when it comes to Musk’s relationship with the Trump administration, let’s see how long that surge lasts.)
[politico.com]
That’s Tesla bull Dan Ives from Wedbush reacting to this morning’s first quarter production and delivery report, in which the company clocked a 13 percent decrease in sales year over year. Ives, who strongly believes in Elon Musk’s vision of AI, robotics, and self-driving cars, is nonetheless adamant that the billionaire CEO needs to take the proverbial bull by the horns. He writes:
The time has come for Musk....it’s a fork in the road moment. The more political he gets with DOGE the more the brand suffers, there is no debate. This quarter was an example of the damage Musk is causing Tesla. This continues to be a moment of truth for Musk to navigate this brand tornado crisis moment and get onto the other side of this dark chapter for Tesla with much better days ahead.
[wedbush.bluematrix.com]
Rivian just released a miserable production and delivery report for the first quarter of 2025. The company produced 14,611 vehicles, but only sold 8,640 of them, a 36 percent drop year over year.
As noted by TechCrunch, Rivian warned last earnings call that its sales would be affected by the Los Angeles wildfires, as well as a “challenging demand environment.” Still, the company reaffirmed its full-year guidance to sell 46,000 to 51,000 vehicles in 2025.
A Senate bill requiring all new cars to have AM radio now has over 60 cosponsors, meaning it can overcome a filibuster, Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said today. It’s a response to new electric vehicles increasingly lacking the first-generation radio broadcast technology.
Automakers, including Tesla, argue that AM radio is incompatible with EVs, citing electromagnetic interference from the powertrain. Supporters say they’re worried about losing a crucial medium for emergency broadcasts during natural disasters. And conservatives love it for right-wing news and media. The bill passed the House last year, and it’s looking increasingly likely that, despite changing listening habits, AM radio is here to stay.
The three-row Cadillac Vistiq SUV was scheduled to arrive in “spring” as a 2026 model, which usually means late June, but they’re already popping up for sale — here’s a dramatic TikTok from a dealer in Indiana. It’s expensive, with a starting price of $77,395, but it’s in the same zone as similar Rivian R1S and Kia EV9 trims, and you get the feeling Cadillac is pushing these out to capitalize on the wave of Tesla trade-ins and general anxiety about the $7500 EV tax credit going away.
As it enters its third month, the Tesla Takedown movement shows no signs of slowing down.
Pleos Connect is the name of Hyundai Motor Group’s next-gen vehicle software interface based on Google’s Android Automotive OS, launching in Q2 2026. Today, the automaker kicked off a new annual conference to accelerate the development of Pleos and its “Cloud Mobility” software ecosystem, where “all forms of mobility are connected through software on the cloud,” including urban infrastructure.
Here’s a first look at the Pleos Connect interface:
Is Tesla really cooked? Watch as The Verge transportation editor, Andrew Hawkins, walks us through how Elon Musk’s unprecedented takeover of the federal government has transformed public opinion of his car company into something increasingly toxic instead of futuristic, with some owners suddenly selling their cars even at a loss.
An arrest has been made in connection with a recent incident where someone wearing all black threw Molotov cocktails at vehicles and spray painted “resist” on the doors of a Tesla collision center in Las Vegas.
As reported earlier by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and other outlets, Paul Hyon Kim has been arrested and is facing charges including arson as well as the destruction of property, and law enforcement officials said he would also be booked on federal charges later today.
