News
‘Dismayed’ U.S. Lawmakers pen letter to Tesla’s Musk questioning Xinjiang Showroom
Two “dismayed” United States Lawmakers have penned a letter to Tesla CEO Elon Musk questioning the company’s recent opening of a showroom in the Xinjiang region of China.
In early January, Tesla opened a showroom in Xinjiang, a controversial region of China that is often under intense scrutiny due to its human rights abuses. The area is currently the holding location of Uyghur Muslims, who are being held due to potential extremist and separatist ideas, according to the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
The opening of the showroom prompted a harsh warning to any U.S. entity that plans to open operations in the region from White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who said that companies that fail to address forced human labor or human rights abuses could “face serious legal, reputational, and customer risk.”
Now, Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ 9th District) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR 3rd District) have written a letter to Musk, calling the company’s decision to open a showroom “misguided.” Additionally, Pascrell Jr. and Blumenauer have asked Musk questions regarding Tesla’s future in China.
“We are dismayed that Tesla has reportedly opened a showroom in the province that is at the heart of China’s Uyghur detainment in camps and forced labor in factories,” Pascrell Jr. and Blumenauer wrote. “As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) commits genocide against the Uyghur peoples and ramps up its hostility towards America and our allies, your misguided expansion into the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region sets a poor example and further empowers the CCP at a fraught moment.”
Human Rights Watch, a non-governmental, international organization that “defends the rights of people in 100 countries worldwide,” estimates that one million Uyghur Muslims are detained in the region.
“Evidence of the genocide in Xinjiang is well documented. From the farm to finished goods, forced labor in the region appears to be prevalent at all levels of the supply chain because of the CCP’s internment of more than one million Uyghurs, as well as forced labor by prisoners incarcerated in the Chinese government’s penal system,” the lawmakers wrote. “Numerous credible reports have detailed forced labor and other violations of fundamental human rights under the CCP’s rule. Weeks after CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping all but declared himself dictator for life and the CCP politburo standing committee tightened its totalitarian grip over virtually every sector, American business cannot further empower the gross human rights violations of the CCP.”
While at least 50 companies in the Fortune 500 have operations in the Xinjiang region, Tesla’s most recent expansion into the area has caused plenty of uprise from politicians. Tesla has not issued a formal statement regarding its showroom in Xinjiang.
The full letter to Musk is available below.
In December, President Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention act, which bans imports from the Xinjiang region unless companies can prove that their products were not made with forced labor.
2022.01.19_bp_eb_to_tesla by Joey Klender on Scribd
News
Tesla takes first step in sunsetting Model S and X with drastic move
Tesla won’t be taking custom orders of the Model S or Model X in Europe any longer.
Tesla has seemingly taken the first step in sunsetting two of its older vehicles, the Model S and Model X, by ending international orders.
The flagship sedan and SUV from Tesla are the two oldest cars in the company’s lineup. They account for a very small portion of overall sales, and several years ago, CEO Elon Musk admitted that Tesla only continues to build and sell them due to “sentimental reasons.”
Earlier this year, there were calls for Tesla to end the production of the two cars, but Lars Moravy said that the Model S and Model X were due to get some love later in 2025. That happened, but the changes were extremely minor.
Tesla launches new Model S and Model X, and the changes are slim
Some took this as an indication that Tesla has kind of moved on from the Model S and Model X. A handful of people seemed to think Tesla would overhaul the vehicles substantially, but the changes were extremely minor and included only a few real adjustments.
In Europe, customers are unable to even put a new order in on a Model S or Model X.
We noticed earlier today that Tesla pressing the ‘Order’ button on either of the flagship vehicles takes you to local inventory, and not the Design Studio where you’d configure your custom build:
🚨 Tesla has removed the Model S and Model X Design Configurators from European customers
It will now bring up available inventory for those two vehicles instead of allowing you to build your own config pic.twitter.com/sMnGAr2kuu
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 30, 2025
Tesla simply does not make enough Model S or Model X units to justify the expensive logistics process of shipping custom orders overseas. It almost seems as if they’re that they will essentially build a bunch of random configurations, send them overseas every few months, and let them sell before replenishing inventory.
Inversely, it could also mean Tesla is truly gearing up to sunset the vehicle altogether. It seems unlikely that the company will fade them out altogether in the next couple of years, but it could absolutely think about ending international orders because volume is so low.
Energy
Tesla inks multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution to avoid tariff pressure
Tesla has reportedly secured a sizable partnership with LGES for LFP cells, and there’s an extra positive out of it.
Tesla has reportedly inked a multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution in an effort to avoid tariff pressure and domesticate more of its supply chain.
Reuters is reporting that Tesla and LGES, a South Korean battery supplier of the automaker, signed a $4.3 billion deal for energy storage system batteries. The cells are going to be manufactured by LGES at its U.S. factory located in Michigan, the report indicates. The batteries will be the lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, chemistry.
Tesla delivers 384,000 vehicles in Q2 2025, deploys 9.6 GWh in energy storage
It is a move Tesla is making to avoid buying cells and parts from overseas as the Trump White House continues to use tariffs to prioritize domestic manufacturing.
LGES announced earlier today that it had signed a $4.3 billion contract to supply LFP cells over three years to a company, but it did not identify the customer, nor did the company state whether the batteries would be used in automotive or energy storage applications.
The deal is advantageous for both companies. Tesla is going to alleviate its reliance on battery cells that are built out of the country, so it’s going to be able to take some financial pressure off itself.
For LGES, the company has reported that it has experienced slowed demand for its cells in terms of automotive applications. It planned to offset this demand lag with more projects involving the cells in energy storage projects. This has been helped by the need for these systems at data centers used for AI.
During the Q1 Earnings Call, Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja confirmed that the company’s energy division had been impacted by the need to source cells from China-based suppliers. He went on to say that the company would work on “securing additional supply chain from non-China-based suppliers.”
It seems as if Tesla has managed to secure some of this needed domestic supply chain.
Lifestyle
Tesla brings perhaps the coolest interior feature to cars in latest update
Tesla adds on to the “fun” aspect of its vehicles.
Tesla has brought perhaps the coolest interior feature to its cars in a new update that is rolling out to vehicles now.
The feature will require a newer vehicle that has interior ambient lighting, which is present on the new Model S, Model X, Model 3 “Highland,” and Model Y “Juniper.” The Cybertruck also has ambient lighting strips throughout.
Tesla Model Y’s ambient lighting design changes revealed in leaked video
With the Version 2025.26+ Software Update, Tesla is rolling out a new “Sync Accent Lights w/ Music” feature, which is available on the Tesla Toybox:
Turn your Tesla into a rave cave with the new Light Sync feature 🎶
Rolling out now in software update 2025.26+ pic.twitter.com/IIsQxZ9jDP
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 29, 2025
To enable the feature, you’ll access the Toybox, choose “Light Sync,” and then choose “Sync Accent Lights w/ Music.”
Although it does not improve the performance of the vehicle, it is yet another example of Tesla making one of the coolest cars out there. This is truly a cool add-on that can be used to impress your friends and family.
Tesla takes first step in sunsetting Model S and X with drastic move
Tesla inks multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution to avoid tariff pressure
Tesla brings perhaps the coolest interior feature to cars in latest update
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