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Tesla’s 4680 battery updates and $25K car development gets nod from analyst

Credit: Tesla/YouTube

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Tesla’s efforts to bring its 4680 battery cells to its upcoming products received a nod of approval from Mizuho Securities analyst Vijay Rakesh, who recently reiterated a “Buy” rating for the EV maker and an $820 per share price target. According to the analyst, the progress of Tesla’s 4680 battery program could very well be the key for the $25,000 EV, a project that’s far more ambitious than anything Tesla has attempted in the past. 

“A key to realizing the $25,000 EV, TSLA noted (that) its new 4680 battery is on track to achieve volume production in ’12-18 months’ in Berlin, with a 100 GWh 2022 target from its Battery Day announcement. TSLA also noted it expects capacity supply from partners LG/Panasonic to double next year,” the analyst noted

The Mizuho Securities analyst has a good point, considering that Tesla’s 4680 is poised to power the company’s next generation of vehicles. Far more powerful and cheaper to produce, the 4680 cells could play a significant part in closing the gap between electric cars like Teslas and their internal combustion-powered counterparts in raw cost. This is particularly important in the affordable sector, where vehicles are judged not as much on performance, but on cost and practicality instead. 

Tesla is already in the process of developing a $25,000 car, the first of which is expected to be unveiled in China in the near future. To ensure that such a vehicle could compete with equally formidable and affordable cars in the market, Tesla would have to use the best innovations that it has in its arsenal. On the battery front, these would be the 4680 cells. For its part, Tesla has highlighted that the rollout of the 4680 cells will be a collaborative effort on the part of the EV maker and its battery suppliers. 

“This is just a guess because we don’t know for sure, but it appears as though we’re about 12, probably not more than 18 months away from volume production of the 4680. Now at the same time, we are actually trying to have our cell supply of partners ramp up their supply as much as possible. So this is not something that is to the exclusion of suppliers.

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“It is in conjunction with suppliers. So we want to be super clear about that. This is not about replacing suppliers. It is about supplementing the suppliers. So — and we have a very strong partnership with CATL, with Panasonic and LG — our request to our strategic partners for cell supply is, please supply us with as much as you possibly can. Provided the price is affordable, we will buy everything that they can make,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said

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Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Tesla analyst says this common earnings narrative is losing importance

“Numbers are going down next year, but that’s ok because it’s all about autonomy.”

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(Credit: Tesla)

A Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) analyst is doubling down on the idea that one common earnings narrative is losing importance as the company continues to work toward new technologies and projects.

This week, Tesla will report earnings for the third quarter, and one thing people always pay attention to is deliveries. Although Tesla reveals its deliveries for the quarter well before it reports earnings, many investors will look for commentary regarding the company’s strategy for responding to the loss of the $7,500 tax credit.

Tesla has made a few moves already, including a lease deal that takes a substantial amount of money off, launching new Standard models, and cutting up to 23 percent off of lease pricing.

Tesla makes crazy move to spur short-term demand in the U.S.

However, analysts are looking at the company in a different light.

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Aligning with the narrative that Tesla is not just a car company and has many different projects, Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management believes many investors need to look at another part of the business.

Munster said the delivery figures for Q3, which landed at 497,099, the highest in company history, were padded by customers rushing to showrooms to take advantage of the expiring tax credit.

He believes that deliveries will be more realistic in subsequent quarters, but investors should not worry because the focus on Tesla is not going to be on how many cars it hands over to customers:

“Numbers are going down next year, but that’s ok because it’s all about autonomy.”

Tesla has been working nonstop to roll out a dedicated Robotaxi platform in various cities across the United States, and has already launched in two states: Texas and California.

It has also received regulatory approvals to test driverless Robotaxis in Arizona and Nevada, while seeking permissions in Florida and other states, according to the company’s online job postings.

Munster continued:

“Most people are hyper-focused on the Robotaxi opportunity and not focused as much on FSD.”

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While Robotaxi is incredibly important, Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) suite is also extremely crucial moving forward, as it sets the stage for the company to roll out a formidable self-driving service.

Tesla rolled out its newest FSD software to more owners last night, and as it expands, the company is gaining valuable data to refine its performance.

Earnings will be reported tomorrow at market close.

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Tesla rolled out a new feature with FSD v14 to fix a major complaint

One of the most crucial cameras for FSD operation is located at the top of the windshield, and some owners have complained about condensation or other debris accumulating here, which impacts FSD’s availability during drives.

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Credit: The Kilowatts | X

Tesla rolled out a new feature with Full Self-Driving (Supervised) v14.1.3 in an effort to fix a major complaint from owners.

Tesla’s approach to self-driving is significantly different than other companies as it only relies on cameras for operation. Tesla Vision was launched several years ago and completely axed any reliance the suite had on sensors, as CEO Elon Musk’s strategy was unorthodox and went against the grain.

However, it has proven to be effective, as Tesla still operates the most refined semi-autonomous driving suite in the United States.

There are some drawbacks, though, and one of them has to do with the obvious: cameras get dirty and need to be cleaned somewhat regularly.

One of the most crucial cameras for FSD operation is located at the top of the windshield, and some owners have complained about condensation or other debris accumulating here, which impacts FSD’s availability during drives:

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Tesla has been working to confront this issue, and in classic fashion, it used a software update to work on resolving it.

With the rollout of Full Self-Driving v14.1.3 and Software Version 2025.32.8.15, Tesla added a new feature that aims to clean the front camera efficiently without relying on the owner to do it manually.

Tesla Full Self-Driving’s new version officially gets a wider rollout

In its release notes for the suite, it said:

“Added automatic narrow field washing to provide rapid and efficient front camera self-cleaning, and optimize aerodynamics wash at higher vehicle speed.”

If the camera starts to have some issues with visibility, the car will automatically clean the front windshield camera to avoid any issues:

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This new addition is a small but mighty change considering all things. It is a necessary process to keep things operational and avoid any disruptions in FSD performance. It is also a testament to how much better Tesla vehicles can get with a simple software update.

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Tesla Full Self-Driving’s new version officially gets a wider rollout

So far, v14 has introduced a handful of new features and improvements, but the first versions needed refinement before Tesla made an effort to expand the population. It had issues with a brake stutter, but this has been mostly resolved.

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Credit: Tesla Europe and Middle East | X

Tesla’s newest Full Self-Driving version is officially rolling out wider to customers outside of the Early Access Program (EAP), in preparation for a total launch of the new v14 suite.

Over the past several weeks, Tesla has been working to refine its new v14 Full Self-Driving (Supervised) in an effort to have it ready for the entire fleet of vehicles in the United States. We are lucky enough to be in the EAP, so we’ve been able to test new features and rollouts first-hand.

So far, v14 has introduced a handful of new features and improvements, but the first versions needed refinement before Tesla made an effort to expand the population. It had issues with a brake stutter, but this has been mostly resolved.

Additionally, the rollout of the new Mad Max Speed Profile has gathered some attention.

Now that Tesla has started rolling out v14.1.3 yesterday to EAP members, the company ultimately decided that it was time to expand the software to more vehicles, as many owners are reporting that they’re receiving it:

Additionally, the suite has started to expand to Model S and Model X vehicles, so this rollout is not exclusive to Model 3 and Model Y:

The only issue with this rollout is that it still appears to be missing the Cybertruck, which Tesla was transparent about earlier this month. Although the company planned to release v14 to Cybertrucks by the end of the month, there has been no hint that this is going to happen.

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This is already the third iteration of v14 in the past two weeks, indicating that Tesla is truly addressing the shortcomings of past versions and rolling out updates as quickly as possible.

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