

News
Harvard engineers develop solid-state battery with performance, reliability improvements
Engineers in the lab of Xin Li, an Associate Professor of Materials Science at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, have developed a new solid-state battery that is capable of 10,000-lifetime cycles and a charge rate as fast as three minutes. The revolutionary technology has brought in an exclusive grant from Harvard’s Office of Technology Development for Li’s startup Adden Energy, Inc., which will help develop cells with improvements in reliability and performance that could be used in future applications for electric vehicles.
Li, along with Fred Hu, William Fitzhugh, and Luhan Ye, all Ph.D. recipients at Harvard, founded Adden Energy in 2021. The startup was launched last year to help develop palm-sized pouch cells for various applications. The cells are essentially a trial run for future projects, which include a full-scale vehicle battery within the next three to five years.
“If you want to electrify vehicles, a solid-state battery is the way to go,” Li said in an interview with Harvard. “We set out to commercialize this technology because we do see our technology as unique compared to other solid-state batteries. We have achieved in the lab 5,000 to 10,000 charge cycles in a battery’s lifetime, compared with 2,000 to 3,000 charging cycles for even the best in class now, and we don’t see any fundamental limit to scaling up our battery technology. That could be a game changer.”
Solid-state batteries utilize a solid material to allow energy to flow from the cathode to the anode, instead of traditional lithium-ion cells, which utilize a liquid electrolyte solution. EV makers have not been able to switch to solid-state technology as of late due to its complex manufacturing processes. Additionally, researchers have not been able to find ideal solutions for the material it would utilize in the batteries, and this continues to be a pain point of the development.
However, Adden Energy’s grant from Harvard, along with a $5.15 million funding round earlier this year, will help develop the recently-successful palm-sized cell into an upstream process that will hopefully yield a new, full-scale EV battery. Adden’s cell achieved charging rates as fast as three minutes and over 10,000 cycles in its lifetime. It also displayed high energy density and stability that was incredibly more predictable than lithium-ion cells.
Li, along with other Adden founders, all maintain that developing a solid-state cell could help improve affordability, availability, and the overall EV market share.
“Electric vehicles cannot remain a luxury fashion, literally the ‘one percent’ of vehicles on the road, if we are to make progress toward a clean energy future, and the U.S. won’t have a used-car market if EV batteries last only 3 to 5 years. The technology needs to be accessible to everyone. Extending the lifetime of the batteries, as we’re doing here, is an important part of that,” Li said.
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News
Waymo considers selling robotaxis to individual owners
Tesla currently offers its Supervised Full Self-Driving to owners of its vehicles, while Waymo is the only company operating paid autonomous ride-hails at this point.

Alphabet-owned robotaxi company Waymo is mulling over the possibility of selling self-driving vehicles to individual owners in the future, as highlighted last week by the Google parent company’s head executive.
On Thursday, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said during the company’s first-quarter earnings update that Waymo would maintain selling self-driving vehicles to individuals as an option in the future, according to a report from Reuters. Pichai didn’t disclose any specifics about the potential to do so or a timeline, though he noted that “there is future optionality for personal ownership.”
Waymo currently operates over 700 self-driving vehicles, 300 of which are operating in San Francisco, and it’s the only company to operate a paid self-driving ride-hailing service as of yet.
The statement comes as Tesla and other companies aim to launch their own commercial robotaxi services, and while the electric vehicle (EV) giant already sells its Supervised Full Self-Driving (FSD) software to individual owners. Additionally, Tesla aims to launch an Unsupervised version in the coming months.
Waymo launched in Austin in January in a unique partnership with Uber, while its self-driving ride-hailing vehicles in California run through its in-house ride-hailing app, Waymo One. It has opened the app to the public in multiple areas of Los Angeles and in cities surrounding and including San Francisco. The company also dropped the need to sign up for a waitlist to use the service in Los Angeles in November, after doing so in the Bay Area earlier that year.
The Alphabet-owned firm also started initial testing in Japan earlier this month, marking the company’s first time in an international market.
Waymo is setting the stage for its rollout in Tokyo. 🇯🇵
Have you experienced a ride in Waymo's self-driving robotaxis?pic.twitter.com/V7lQf1CMjD
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) April 10, 2025
READ MORE ON WAYMO’S ROBOTAXIS: Here’s where Waymo is launching autonomous robotaxis next
Tesla is targeting a launch its first commercial robotaxis and Unsupervised FSD around Austin in June, and CEO Elon Musk reiterated this goal during the company’s Q1 earnings call on Tuesday. When asked about how Tesla expected its commercial robotaxi services would compete with Waymo, which is already operating paid driverless rides in multiple cities, Musk highlighted how costly the company’s cars are to produce:
The issue with Waymo’s cars is it costs way more money, but that is the issue. The car is very expensive, made in low volume. Teslas probably cost 25 percent or 20 percent of what a Waymo costs, and are made in very high volume.
So, ironically, we’re the ones to make the bet that a pure AI solution with cameras, and what do you have? The car actually will listen for sirens and that kind of thing. It’s the right move.
And Waymo decided that an expensive sensor suite is the way to go, even though Google is very good at AI.
Musk also went on to predict that Tesla would eventually capture at least 90 percent of the robotaxi market, or potentially as much as 99 percent, with millions of cars on the road that are already able to run FSD.
He also highlights that Tesla’s vehicles at both the Gigafactory in Austin, Texas and the Fremont, California plant can drive themselves fully autonomously from the end of the production line to the outbound lot. Musk also said that he was “confident” that the first Model Y units to drive themselves to the customer will take place later this year, from both the Fremont and Austin factories.
Ex-Waymo CEO dismisses Tesla, Cybercab: “They’re a car company with a driver-assist system”
News
Tesla China’s rumored Model Y “E80” variant: Alleged price, features, and more
The vehicle will reportedly be a more affordable variant of the best-selling Model Y crossover.

Recent reports from Chinese social media and news outlets have shared some rumors about an upcoming vehicle that Tesla China is reportedly developing.
Rumored to be internally codenamed as “E80,” the vehicle will reportedly be a more affordable variant of the best-selling Model Y crossover.
The Model Y “E80” Rumors
As per the recent rumors, which were initially posted on Chinese social media, the Model Y “E80” will reportedly be equipped with a 50-55 kWh battery. The vehicle’s launch will reportedly be determined by the market performance of the new Model Y, though some rumors suggest that its rollout could be as early as the second half of 2025, or sometime in 2026.
Rumors about the vehicle’s price are varied, with some news outlets stating that the “E80” will be priced at around 150,000-170,000 yuan ($20,500-$23,300), while others cited a price of 190,000–210,000 ($26,000–$28,800). For context, the new Model Y in China today is priced at 263,500-313,500 yuan ($36,160-$43,000) depending on its variant.
Being an affordable variant of the new Model Y, he “E80” will reportedly be quite different from its more premium siblings. The vehicle will reportedly be fitted with smaller wheels, single-layer windows on its sides, no rear display, half the number of speakers, single-color ambient interior lighting, fabric seats with no heating or ventilation functions, a manual trunk, and a metal roof.
Rumored, But Not Farfetched
While these rumors about the alleged Model Y “E80” from China are not confirmed at all, Tesla has released a pretty similar, stripped-out variant for one of its current vehicles—the Cybertruck. Just recently, Tesla introduced the Cybertruck Long Range Rear Wheel Drive (LR RWD), which costs $10,000 less than the Cybertruck All Wheel Drive (AWD). The vehicle featured smaller wheels, fabric seats, less than half the number of speakers, and no rear display, among others.
A more affordable Model Y was teased by Tesla VP of Engineering Lars Moravy, who noted that Tesla’s affordable models will likely resemble the company’s current products. “Models that come out in next months will be built on our lines and will resemble, in form and shape, the cars we currently make. And the key is that they’ll be affordable, and you’ll be able to buy one,” Moravy stated during the Tesla Q1 2025 earnings call.
News
NY Democrats are taking aim at Tesla direct sales licenses in New York
Democratic Senator Patricia Fahy is pushing to revoke a legislative waiver that allows Tesla to operate five NY locations without using dealer franchises.

Democratic New York State Senator Patricia Fahy, once a Tesla ally, is currently pushing to revoke a legislative waiver that allows the electric vehicle maker to operate five New York locations without using dealer franchises.
Fahy cited CEO Elon Musk’s role in President Donald Trump’s administration as a reason for her change of heart.
Fahy’s Shift in Stance
For 12 years, Fahy frequently supported Tesla’s fight to bypass New York’s franchise dealer regulations. But after Elon Musk personally took Donald Trump’s side, and after he worked as part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Fahy no longer supports the EV maker. Apart from her anti-Tesla efforts in the State Capitol, the Senator has also participated in demonstrations against a planned Tesla dealership in Colonie, as noted in a report from the New York Times.
“Maybe I’m making amends,” Fahy stated, describing Musk as “part of an administration that is killing all the grant funding for electric vehicle infrastructure, killing wind energy, killing anything that might address climate change. Why should we give them a monopoly?”
Fahy has introduced legislation that would effectively end Tesla’s direct sales operations in New York, as noted in a Syracuse.com report. Her bill argues that Tesla’s legislative waiver provides the EV maker with an unfair advantage. Thus, Fahy wants Tesla to forfeit its five licenses by 2026. The licenses could then be redistributed to other EV makers that also sell directly to consumers, such as Rivian, Lucid, and Scout Motors.
Republican Opposition
Republican New York Senator Jacob Ashby has described Senator Fahy’s bill as misguided, arguing that the “government should not be picking winners and losers on this.” Ashby also noted that “political disdain seems to be more at play. We are not recognizing the power and implications of the process that we have and that we should trust it.”
Colonie town supervisor Peter Crummey, also a Republican, stated that “though political sentiments appear to have recently changed for some folks about Tesla’s founder, people should let the Planning Board do their work.” As for requests from state legislators who are inserting themselves into the Tesla issue, Crummer noted that “I am confident we will give them the weight it deserves.”
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