The Auto Xone

By Simon Alvarez Posted on November 22, 2024 Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s net worth reached an all-time high of $347.8 billion, as per estimates in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index . The feat was achieved on Friday, as TSLA shares saw a 3.8% rise amid optimism that U.S. president-elect Donald Trump’s plans for autonomous cars and EVs could give Tesla an edge over its competitors.  Musk became an avid supporter of Trump following the president-elect’s assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania in July 2024. During the final weeks of the campaign period, Musk doubled down on his support , personally campaigning for Trump and reportedly contributing over $170 million to a PAC supporting the Republican nominee. Check out the TESLARATI Marketplace! Head on over for more TESLARATI on TikTok! Musk’s net worth is tied to his companies. Following Donald Trump’s win in the 2024 U.S. presidential elections, several of Musk’s companies received o

Photo: Ørsted The Mockingbird Solar Center, Ørsted’s largest solar project globally, is now online, next to protected prairie donated by the renewable energy giant. This massive 468-megawatt (MW) solar farm is set to power 80,000 homes and businesses, providing a major boost to the Texas grid. But the launch of Mockingbird Solar isn’t just about clean energy – it’s also about restoring precious ecosystems. Ørsted has donated 953 acres of the Smiley-Woodfin Native Prairie Grassland, which sits next to the solar center, to The Nature Conservancy. The donated land is now the Smiley Meadow Preserve , a protected area for tallgrass prairie that’s home to more than 400 species of grasses and wildflowers. Tallgrass prairies are some of the rarest ecosystems in the US, with less than 1% of Texas’ original tallgrass prairies still in existence. Tallgrass prairie does a lot of heavy lifting for the environment, including storing carbon, preventing floods, and providing crucial habitats fo

By Maria Merano Posted on November 21, 2024 Northvolt AB, a Swedish battery maker, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States on Thursday, November 21, 2024. The Swedish company hasn’t given up yet. According to its press release, Northvolt hopes its Chapter 11 reorganization filing will enable it to restructure its debt, appropriately scale its business to meet customer needs and secure a sustainable foundation for continued operation. Northvolt also hopes the filing will help it implement strategies to rescope its business and prioritize customer commitments. “This decisive step will allow Northvolt to continue its mission to establish a homegrown, European industrial base for battery production. Despite near-term challenges, this action to strengthen our capital structure will allow us to capture the continued market demand for vehicle electrification. We are likewise pleased by the strong support we have received from our existin

Audi has launched the new 2025 RS e-tron GT and S e-tron GT to update its top-performance EV lineup with what is now the most powerful and fastest accelerating production vehicle in the brand’s history. With almost 1,000 horsepower and a 0-60 mph time of just 2.4 seconds, Audi’s electric flagship joins the electric supercar ranks, where efficiency meets performance. Two Models, One Bold Vision The 2025 e-tron GT family now includes two models: the S e-tron GT as an impressive entry point and the headline-grabbing RS e-tron GT Performance. Both models benefit from significant upgrades, including improved battery capacity, range, and faster charging. S e-tron GT : With 670 horsepower and a 0-60 mph time of 3.3 seconds, the S model brings thrilling performance to a broader audience. Its range now stretches to an impressive EPA-estimated 300 miles, making it as practical as it is powerful. RS e-tron GT Performance : This model doesn’t just push boundaries—it obliterates them. Along

By Joey Klender Posted on November 19, 2024 SpaceX successfully launched its sixth test flight of Starship on Tuesday from Starbase, Texas. There was no catch today, as SpaceX did not see favorable conditions for the attempt. Starship took off on time right at 4:00 p.m. CT, and the Super Heavy booster landed with a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico about seven minutes after liftoff. Super Heavy initiates its landing burn and softly splashes down in the Gulf of Mexico pic.twitter.com/BZ3Az4GssC — SpaceX (@SpaceX) November 19, 2024 About two minutes before the successful splashdown, SpaceX decided to abort an attempt at catching Super Heavy once again. SpaceX kept safety as a priority as always and decided that conditions for a catch attempt were not met. It called for a booster offshore divert and completed it with no issues. CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X that he hoped to catch Super Heavy faster and harder with this launch, along with three other

When ChatGPT burst on the scene last spring, one of the editors at Automotive News asked it about himself. It described his career, listed several newspapers that had published his work and said he had died six years earlier. (To be clear, he hadn’t.) So my first impression of the technology was that it was fast, powerful and dumb — dangerously dumb, for journalistic purposes. And potentially perilous for the auto industry, as well. Remember when a chatbot agreed to sell a Chevy Tahoe for a dollar? Since those days, we’ve all learned a lot more about generative artificial intelligence, as well as its predecessors, artificial intelligence and machine learning. And it continues to pervade the automotive industry. So I challenged the team at Automotive News to explore how AI is being used throughout the auto industry today . They found so many applications — and we’ve just scratched the surface. Tesla pictures itself turning into an AI-based company that makes self-driving cars an

By Simon Alvarez Posted on November 18, 2024 A dirt bike rider stole the show at the Baja 1000 by completing the grueling 1,000-mile race while live-streaming to his mother using Starlink Mini the whole time. The rider, Ben Hundter, and his brother David, completed the race in 31 hours 30 minutes, which is a pretty long FaceTime video call, all things considered.  A video of Hundter finishing the race has made the rounds online, partly due to the racer’s eye-catching Starlink Mini setup. As could be seen in the video, Ben Hundter’s 279X Sportsman Moto class Sherco was equipped with a huge Jackery battery at the rear. The Starlink Mini was duct taped to the rider’s head. The iPhone that Hundter was using to FaceTime his mother was also taped to his chest. Check out the TESLARATI Marketplace! Head on over for more TESLARATI on TikTok! In an interview following the race, Hundter explained that he had always wanted to race the Baja 1000, bu

China’s BYD just topped another major milestone. The EV giant produced its ten millionth new energy vehicle (NEV) this week, becoming the first automaker to accomplish the feat. BYD’s accomplishment comes just three years after its one-millionth NEV rolled off the assembly line. After its fifth straight record sales month, BYD is now closing in on top global automakers like Ford. BYD continued its dominant run after selling over 500,000 vehicles for the first time in a single month in October. October was BYD’s fifth straight record-breaking month for NEV sales, including plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and battery electric (EV) models. Through the first ten months of 2024, BYD has sold over 3.25 million NEVs, up 36% from last year. Nearly 1.36 million of them were all-electric. Amid a wave of new competition and an intensifying EV price war in China, BYD is setting up shop in key overseas markets to drive growth. The company opened its first manufacturing plant in Thailand, a booming EV

By Zachary Visconti Posted on November 16, 2024 A chairman from China-based battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) recently cast doubt on Tesla’s 4680 battery cell, saying that he didn’t think it would be successful in the long run. In a conversation earlier this year, CATL Chairman Robin Zeng told Elon Musk that the cylindrical 4680 battery “is going to fail and never be successful,” according to a report from Reuters this week. Zeng made the statements to Musk in a meeting with the Tesla CEO on his Beijing visit in April , and the chairman also said that the Tesla CEO was better equipped to handle other technologies than battery cells. “We had a very big debate, and I showed him,” Zeng said. “He was silent. He doesn’t know how to make a battery. It’s about electrochemistry. He’s good for the chips, the software, the hardware, the mechanical things.” Tesla working on four dry cathode 4680 battery variants: The Information T

Kubota says its new KATR farm tractor concept raises the bar in autonomous, zero-emission farming – and it looks like they’ve convinced others, too. The robot just won “Best of Innovation” at the CES Innovation Awards. Built as a follow-up to last year’s New Agri Concept electric autonomous farm tractor, the new Kubota KATR is a first of its kind, compact, four-wheeled robot with a stable cargo deck platform and stability control features that allow it to conduct work in demanding off-road agricultural and construction work environments, even on extreme hills and slopes. The KATR was named best in the Industrial Equipment and Machinery product category by a panel of industry expert judges, including media, designers, and engineers who reviewed submissions based on innovation, engineering, aesthetics, and design. Kubota seems pretty proud of themselves – and rightly so. “We have a long-standing philosophy that our products must be technically excellent, be productive and enjoyabl

By Joey Klender Posted on November 14, 2024 Tesla is set to launch the new V4 Cabinet starting in 2025, which will enable the fastest Supercharging speeds for both passenger vehicles and the Semi. Tesla’s V4 Superchargers started rolling out in 2023, bringing 350 kW charging speeds and giving EV owners their most expedited experience yet. However, the speeds were not largely improved from the V3 Supercharger, as the V4 was catered to higher-voltage architectures , which have not yet become as popular in EVs. It did feature a streamlined pile design and larger cables, as the V4 was made to be the first Supercharger to truly cater to non-Tesla EVs. The Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y can still “enjoy 250kW charge rates on V3 cabinet — charging up to 200 miles in 15 minutes,” Tesla said in an X post. The V4 Cabinet will be the missing piece of the puzzle, bridging the gap for EVs that have a 400 to 1000V architecture that can support the fastest ch

The all-electric luxury electric SUV is getting significantly cheaper. Lexus launched a new entry-level 2025 RZ trim with starting prices over $10,000 less than last year’s model. And you get just as much driving range. 2025 Lexus RZ electric SUV prices and driving range Lexus launched its first dedicated EV last year, the RZ electric SUV. Starting at $55,175, the 2024 Lexus RZ 300e has a range of up to 266 miles. The 2024 RZ 450e AWD, equipped with its dual-moto DIRECT4 system, has a range of up to 196 miles. Prices start at just under $60,000. Both models are offered in Premium or Luxury packages. Lexus is drastically lowering prices for the 2025 model year. The 2025 Lexus RZ starts at $43,975, and that includes the $1,175 delivery fee. At under $44,000, prices for the 2025 RZ start at over $10,000 less than last year’s model. The lower price tag comes as Lexus added a new entry-level RZ 300e FWD trim to the lineup. The 2025 Lexus RZ 300e FWD still has an EPA-estimated 266-m

By Joey Klender Posted on November 13, 2024 Rivian and Volkswagen announced today that the two companies would expand their joint venture and up the total investment to $5.8 billion — up from $5 billion — in an effort to survive the electric vehicle transition. The companies announced that Rivian and VW Group Technology LLC, the name of the joint venture, hope to have cars equipped with Rivian’s electrical architecture and software technology stack. This will enable the launch of Rivian’s R2 in the first half of 2026  and should support the “expected launch of the first models from the Volkswagen Group as early as 2027.” CEO of Rivian RJ Scaringe said: “Today’s finalization of our joint venture with Volkswagen Group marks an important step forward in helping transition the world to electric vehicles. We’re thrilled to see our technology being integrated in vehicles outside of Rivian, and we’re excited for the future. Rivian will continue to stay focused