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Overall, I’d say it has been a good week for electric vehicles.
The Porsche Taycan had more than just a moment in the spotlight, really. It kicked up all sorts of discussion about where EVs are headed and brought in some healthy debate about where things should be headed. I believe there’s an old saying that goes, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity,” which is probably debatable; however, as far as EV awareness goes, even the most skeptical takes on Porsche vs. Tesla vs. the rest arguably does more to spread consumer curiosity than the most expensive and extensive marketing campaigns.
I know the Taycan has been discussed to death at this point, but I do find it interesting what its final debut meant in the big picture. Despite everything that the $TSLAQ crowd tries to drag Tesla through the mud about, here is a luxury sports car maker with a decades-long, hard-earned reputation spending serious time and effort developing an amazing electric car. It’s not a compliance car to meet some sort of regulatory requirement. It’s not just an “option” built to prove the company is eco friendly or whatever term makes people feel warm and fuzzy about their purchase. It was built to be an EV worthy of sharing the stage with its award-winning, legendary, gas-powered brethren.
I think Elon Musk’s subsequent attentions to the Taycan added to the publicity benefits EVs were experiencing as well. Silliness aside, Tesla’s new challenge to take on the Taycan’s Nürburgring record validated what Porsche had achieved and validated Tesla’s success in spreading its message that EVs really are the future of automotive transportation. Tesla fans are no longer just cheering on the brand’s drag race wins over legacy cars. There’s a new “normal” on its way where electric is competing with electric, and the finer details about the cars will matter rather than just the source of power.
The timing of these recent events seems to be well placed in light of, say, Europe’s upcoming regulations regarding CO2 reductions for vehicles. Reading the news about various car makers’ struggles to comply with the rules and the foot dragging that’s been going on, it seems to me like there’s at least some confidence that serious efforts to make good electric cars is underway.
Personally, it took a while to understand the hubbub about EVs because of the poor efforts of car makers in the past. They sounded impractical, held very little value once purchased, and could only be driven until the batteries went bad, essentially. I mean, if it weren’t for writing about Tesla as a reporter, I would have thought any EV built to meet government regulations was going to be crud and held off as long as possible before buying one. Sometimes I wonder if European customers worry about the same thing after so many legacy car makers have come out with lackluster EVs, assuming their budget doesn’t allow for a Tesla.
The Taycan seems to give some hope that “compliance” may be out the window soon. Now that there’s another serious EV out there, everyone else risks looking…lazy? Uninterested in customer satisfaction? Innovatively challenged? With both Tesla and Porsche blowing through stereotypes, other car makers have to shelve their excuses and figure things out.
Then there’s Rivian continuing to make progress towards entering the arena as well. Most recently, the startup announced a $350 million dollar investment from Cox Automotive meant to focus on customer experience. It’s the third big investment for the company that’s working on some serious electric pickup trucks and SUVs. I know we still have yet to see their cars enter production, but the prototypes and show models are pretty impressive already. They’re yet another company putting legacy auto on notice that the compliance days are over.
Ford seems to have gotten the message with its $500 million dollar Rivian investment, so there are sprinkles of hope here and there I suppose. Perhaps Audi’s tiny-range e-tron that was recently announced will produce enough customer results to encourage production of really good EVs with a win-win balance. All customers get great cars, and car makers can find a better price point by reducing the parts that cost the most, i.e., the batteries. Just brainstorming here…
But regardless, considering the Tesla and Porsche banter and Rivian’s news this week, I’d say EVs came out with winning headlines overall. “Power” to the future? Sorry… I’m a sucker for cheesy 80s mantras.
Elon Musk
The Boring Company just doubled its tunneling power in Nashville
The Boring Company’s Prufrock MB2 is commissioned and ready to mine beneath Nashville’s streets.
The Boring Company’s second tunnel boring machine, Prufrock MB2, is officially ready to dig in Nashville. The company confirmed the news on X, posting: “Prufrock-MB2 is ready to mine in Nashville! MB2 commissioning is complete, including the brief 11 rpm rotation shown here. Will MB2 catch up to MB1, who had quite the head start? And Prufrock-MB3 ships in August!”
MB2 arrives with meaningful improvements over its predecessor. Lessons learned from the launch and operation of MB1 have already been applied to MB2 to improve efficiency and prepare the machine for launch.
Traditional tunnel boring machines operate in a stop-and-go cycle, digging roughly five feet, halt, erect precast concrete segments to line the tunnel wall, then resume. That repeated interruption is one of the main reasons conventional tunneling is slow and expensive. Prufrock is designed to install the tunnel liner simultaneously with mining, eliminating the need to stop every five feet. The machine also skips the need for excavated launch pits. Prufrock arrives on a truck, tilts down, and launches into the ground within 24 hours. And when the tunnel is complete, it emerges from the ground and drives to its next launch site on a trailer, eliminating the need for expensive cranes or pit excavation. The machine is also fully electric and runs with zero people in the tunnel during normal operations, controlled remotely from a surface operations center.
Prufrock-MB2 is ready to mine in Nashville! MB2 commissioning is complete, including the brief 11 rpm rotation shown here.
Will MB2 catch up to MB1, who had quite the head start?
And Prufrock-MB3 ships in August! pic.twitter.com/TTrMql2aRg
— The Boring Company (@boringcompany) June 17, 2026
It won’t be long before we hear of another major update on The Boring Company’s Music City Loop project – a planned underground transit network beneath Nashville that would move passengers in electric vehicles through a series of tunnels at highway speeds, and bypassing surface traffic entirely. Nashville was selected in part because of its strong rock conditions that suits the Prufrock machines well, and relatively less regulatory hurdles.
Progress has been steady on multiple fronts. All 37 permits and approvals required ahead of tunneling have been obtained, out of 45 total. Key wins include a fully executed TDOT tunnel permit authorizing 25 miles of tunnel, unanimous airport authority approval for a Nashville International Airport station, and the city’s first residential station agreement serving downtown tower residents.
With MB1 already tunneling, MB2 now commissioned, and MB3 shipping in August, Nashville is becoming something of a live proving ground for scaled tunnel boring. The broader ambition is not limited to one city. The Boring Company’s stated goal is to make underground transportation a practical alternative to surface roads across major metro areas. Nashville is one of many cities, including a successful Las Vegas tunnel system, where that idea is being put to the test at real speed.
Investor's Corner
Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”
Tesla’s folding Supercharger just arrived in Europe and it changes how fast charging expands.
Tesla’s Folding Unit Supercharger has officially landed in Europe, with the company teasing a new installation in its effort for a broader rollout targeting major motorway rest stops across the European continent in Q3 2026. The arrival marks a notable shift in how Tesla is thinking about network expansion, moving from hardware performance alone to engineering the logistics chain itself.
While Tesla did not reveal the exact location for the new folding Supercharger in Europe, the photo shared on X heavily suggests that this maybe somewhere in Norway. Historically, whenever Tesla rolls out an entirely new infrastructure architecture in Europe, whether it was the original Supercharger stalls years ago or these brand-new modular V4 “Folding Units”, Norway is almost always the designated launch pad because of its unmatched EV adoption rate and supportive infrastructure
The Folding Unit, introduced in March 2026, is a factory pre-assembled V4 charging station built on an industrial hinge system mounted to a heavy-duty concrete base. The entire assembly arrives on site ready to unfold and connect. Tesla confirmed the units feature telescopic light poles specifically designed for easy transportation and fast on-site deployment, a detail that signals how carefully the logistics chain has been engineered alongside the hardware itself. The design allows 33% more stalls per delivery truck, cuts installation time roughly in half, and reduces overall deployment costs by more than 20% compared to traditional installations.
Tesla’s newest “Folding V4 Superchargers” are key to its most aggressive expansion yet
Tesla also noted telescopic light poles which provide benefits over traditional Supercharger installations that require fixed-height poles that are awkward to ship, slow to position on site, and often require separate crews and equipment to erect before charging hardware can even be staged. By engineering poles that compress for transit and extend on arrival, Tesla has removed one of the quieter bottlenecks in the physical deployment process. Every hour saved on a light pole installation is an hour redirected toward getting stalls energized. At scale, across dozens of new sites per quarter, those hours add up to a meaningful acceleration in how quickly a location goes from approved permit to serving its first customer.
Each Folding Unit pairs a single V4 power cabinet with eight charging posts. The V4 cabinet delivers up to 500 kW per stall for passenger vehicles and up to 1.2 MW for the Tesla Semi, supporting twice the stalls per cabinet at three times the power density of its predecessor. Longer cables make every new station immediately usable by non-Tesla vehicles, a priority as Tesla continues opening its network to Ford, GM, Rivian, Hyundai, Stellantis, and others.
As Teslarati reported when the Folding Unit was first unveiled, Tesla’s Gigafactory New York produced its final V3 Supercharger cabinet in March 2026 after more than seven years and 15,000 units, completing a full pivot to V4 production. The European arrival of the folding design is the next chapter in that transition.
Faster and cheaper deployment means Tesla can justify building in markets and corridors that were previously too expensive to serve, filling the coverage gaps that have slowed EV adoption outside major urban centers.
First Folding Unit Superchargers in Europe 🇪🇺 https://t.co/KNfYWJukkL pic.twitter.com/YR1udIpH1i
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) June 10, 2026
Elon Musk
SpaceXAI just launched into your kitchen with their new app
SpaceXAI just powered its first consumer app and it predicts what you want to buy.
SpaceXAI just made its first move into consumer AI, and it involves your grocery cart. On June 3, 2026, Gopuff and SpaceXAI announced the launch of Go, a Grok-powered shopping assistant built directly into the Gopuff app that predicts what you need before you even start searching for it.
Gopuff is an instant delivery platform that operates more than 400 micro-fulfillment centers across the U.S., delivering everyday essentials, snacks, drinks, and household items in as little as 15 minutes. It is not a restaurant delivery app or a marketplace. It owns its inventory, controls its warehouses, and handles its own logistics, which means it has built one of the most detailed consumer behavior datasets in retail over its 13-year history.
Go combines SpaceXAI’s advanced reasoning, voice, and image generation models with Gopuff’s dataset of hundreds of millions of orders and real-time cultural signals from X to prepare a suggested cart the moment a customer opens the app. It learns each shopper’s habits and automatically builds a personalized cart based on time of day, location, order history, and real-time indicators. Returning customers can check out with a single tap.
Rather than searching for specific items, users can describe a situation like a game-day party or the desire for a healthy breakfast and Go will assemble a cart automatically. It can also predict when shoppers are running low on items like coffee or paper towels and have them packed and delivered in under 15 minutes. Grok voice integration lets users talk to the app in plain conversational language and check out completely hands-free.
Gopuff co-founder and co-CEO Yakir Gola said: “Today, we believe the greatest friction left in commerce is not delivery or instantaneous access to the essentials customers need. It’s the moment before: the thinking, the deciding, the remembering. We’re combining Gopuff’s demand intelligence with xAI’s frontier reasoning to create an everyday shopping experience that feels like a true extension of you.”
Why SpaceX just made a $60 billion bet on AI coding ahead of historic IPO
The timing carries context beyond the product launch. SpaceXAI was formed after SpaceX completed an all-stock merger with Elon Musk’s xAI earlier this year, folding one of the most advanced AI labs in the world into the same corporate structure as the company preparing what could be the largest IPO in history. SpaceXAI is dipping into consumer-focused AI just as it prepares for its public debut, and while Musk has openly discussed building an everything app, this launch uses Grok to power another company’s product rather than launching a standalone consumer platform. Every consumer-facing deployment of Grok ahead of the IPO roadshow adds tangible evidence that SpaceXAI is not just an infrastructure play but a direct competitor in the AI application layer where OpenAI and Google are already fighting for dominance.
President Trump touts new Air Force One with Musk technology
Tesla Cybercab launch is imminent after latest sighting at Giga Texas
