Connect with us
tesla supercharger tesla supercharger

News

Biden Administration details $700m in investments to boost EV charging infrastructure

Credit: Tesla

Published

on

The Biden Administration announced Tuesday that a few private companies had committed more than $700 million in investments to boost domestic production of more than 250,000 new electric vehicle chargers annually. According to the White House, this investment will create at least 2,000 well-paying jobs and make EV charging more accessible, affordable, and fair.

The $700 in private investments will follow the $7.5 billion from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which aims to help the EV sector by adding more charging infrastructure throughout the country among many other things.

The White House said that the most key investments come from Electrify America and Siemens, who announced an additional $450 million in investments today to help grow the infrastructure of ultra-fast chargers for EVs. While Electrify America’s investments will “support the rapid deployment of up to 10,000 ultra-fast chargers at 1,800 charging stations,” Siemens is currently on track to build one million EV chargers over the next four years.

Additional industry actions include ABB E-Mobility with 125 new jobs in two new facilities, ChargePoint, which will establish new production lines for Level 2 chargers at their Milpitas, CA, facility, and create approximately 250 new manufacturing jobs, and FLO, who will invest $3 million to build 30,000 charging stations annually.

Tesla is also mentioned by the White House for its dedication to deploying fast-charging stations and adding to its already industry-leading infrastructure. “More than 1,600 employees work at Giga New York producing the Tesla Solar Roof and Supercharger stations, which are capable of charging vehicles up to 250 kW. Tesla is expanding production capacity of power electronics components that convert alternating current to direct current, charging cabinets, posts, and cables. Later this year, Tesla will begin production of new Supercharger equipment that will enable non-Tesla EV drivers in North America to use Tesla Superchargers,” the White House said.

Advertisement

Biden Administration turns to Tesla for help on renewable fuel policy reform

After Biden’s Build Back Better plan stagnated due to a lack of support from some, including vocal opposition Joe Manchin, the White House has been forced to push the boundaries on what it can do to help create more EV adoption in the United States. One of the most recent pushes the Biden Administration has made is new guidelines for 500,000 additional EV chargers with a $5 billion federal initiative.

The White House’s press release can be read in its entirety here.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at christine@teslarati.comYou can also reach me on Twitter @Christi86567288, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Comments

News

Tesla rolling out Robotaxi pilot in SF Bay Area this weekend: report

Similar to the Austin pilot, the Robotaxi rides will reportedly be a paid service.

Published

on

Credit: @AdanGuajardo/X

Tesla is reportedly preparing to launch a Robotaxi pilot program in the Bay Area this weekend, with invites to a select number of customers reportedly being sent out as early as this Friday.

The update was shared in a report from Insider, which cited an internal memo from the electric vehicle maker.

New Robotaxi service launch

According to Insider, the Robotaxi service in the Bay Area is set to launch as soon as Friday. Thus, some Tesla owners in the area should receive invites to use the driverless ride-hailing service. Similar to the Austin pilot, the Robotaxi rides will reportedly be a paid service.

The publication noted that the Robotaxi service’s geofence in its Bay Area launch will be quite large, as it will include Marin, much of the East Bay, San Francisco, and San Jose. This is not surprising as California has long been saturated with Teslas, and it is home to several of the electric vehicle maker’s key facilities.

Unlike the Austin pilot, the Tesla Robotaxi service’s pilot in the Bay Area will use safety drivers seated in the driver’s seat. These drivers will be able to manually take over using the steering wheel and brakes as needed. As per a spokesperson from the California DMV, the agency recently met with Tesla but the company is yet to submit a formal application to operate fully driverless cars. 

Advertisement

Tesla Robotaxi expansion

Interestingly enough, Tesla did tease the release of its Robotaxi service to the Bay Area in its second quarter earnings call. While discussing the service, Tesla VP of Autopilot/AI Software Ashok Elluswamy mentioned that the company will initially be rolling out Robotaxis with safety drivers in the San Francisco Bay Area. He did, however, also highlight that the electric vehicle maker is working hard to get government permission to release the service for consumers.

“The next thing to expand would be in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are working with the government to get approval here and, in the meanwhile, launch the service without the person in the driver seat just to expedite and while we wait for regulatory approval,” he stated.

Continue Reading

News

Tesla is ready with a perfect counter to the end of US EV tax credits

Tesla executives have mentioned that these more affordable models would resemble the company’s current lineup.

Published

on

Credit: Tesla Asia/X

The United States’ electric vehicle tax credit is coming to an end at the end of the third quarter. Tesla, the country’s leading electric vehicle maker, is ready to meet this challenge with a rather simple but clever counter. 

Tesla executives outlined this strategy in the recently held Q2 2025 earnings call.

End of the US EV tax credit

While Elon Musk has always maintained that he prefers a market with no EV tax credit, he also emphasized that he supports the rollback of any incentives given to the oil and gas industry. The Trump administration has not done this so far, instead focusing on the expiration of the $7,500 EV tax credit at the end of the third quarter.

Tesla has been going all-in on encouraging customers to purchase their vehicles in Q3 to take advantage of lower prices. The company has also implemented a series of incentives across all its offerings, from the Cybertruck to the Model 3. This, however, is not all, as the company seems to be preparing a longer-term solution to the expiration of the EV tax credit.

Affordable variants

During the Q2 2025 earnings call, Vice President of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moray stated that Tesla really did start the production of more affordable models in June. Quality builds of these vehicles are being ramped this quarter, with the goal of optimizing production over the remaining months of the year. If Tesla is successful, these models will be available for everyone in Q4. 

Advertisement

“We started production in June, and we’re ramping quality builds and things around the quarter. And given that we started in North America and our goal is to maximize production with a higher rate. So starting Q3, we’re going to keep pushing hard on our current models to avoid complexity… We’ll be ready with new, more affordable models available for everyone in Q4.,” Moravy stated. 

These comments suggest that Tesla should be able to offer vehicles that are competitively priced even after the EV tax credit has been phased out. Interestingly enough, previous comments from Tesla executives have mentioned that these more affordable models would resemble the company’s current lineup. This suggests that the more affordable models may indeed be variations of the Model Y and Model 3, but offered at a lower price.

Continue Reading

Elon Musk

Elon Musk reveals Tesla’s next Robotaxi expansion in more ways than one

Tesla Robotaxi is growing in more ways than one. Tesla wants to expand and hopes to reach half the U.S. population by the end of the year.

Published

on

Credit: Tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed the company’s plans for its next expansion of the Robotaxi in terms of both the geofence in Austin and the platform overall, as it looks to move to new areas outside of Texas.

Tesla launched the Robotaxi platform last month on June 22, and has since expanded both the pool of users and the area that the driverless Model Y vehicles can travel within.

The first expansion of the geofence caught the attention of nearly everyone and became a huge headline as Tesla picked a very interesting shape for the new geofence, resembling male reproductive parts.

The next expansion will likely absolve this shape. Musk revealed last night that the new geofence will be “well in excess of what competitors are doing,” and it could happen “hopefully in a week or two.”

Musk’s full quote regarding the expansion of the geofence and the timing was:

“As some may have noted, we have already expanded our service area in Austin. It’s bigger and longer, and it’s going to get even bigger and longer. We are expecting to greatly increase the service area to well in excess of what competitors are doing, hopefully in a week or two.”

The expansion will not stop there, either. As Tesla has operated the Robotaxi platform in Austin for the past month, it has been working with regulators in other areas, like California, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida, to get the driverless ride-hailing system activated in more U.S. states.

Tesla confirmed that they are in talks with each of these states regarding the potential expansion of Robotaxi.

Musk added:

“As we get the approvals and prove out safety, we will be launching the autonomous ride-hailing across most of the country. I think we will probably have autonomous ride-hailing in probably half the population of the US by the end of the year.”

We know that Tesla and Musk have been prone to aggressive and sometimes outlandish timelines regarding self-driving technology specifically. Regulatory approvals could happen by the end of the year in several areas, and working on these large metros is the best way to reach half of the U.S. population.

Tesla said its expansion of the geofence in Austin is conservative and controlled due to its obsession with safety, even admitting at one point during the Earnings Call that they are being “paranoid.” Expanding the geofence is necessary, but Tesla realizes any significant mistake by Robotaxi could take it back to square one.

Continue Reading

Trending