

News
Elon Musk pay trial emphasizes CEO’s irreplaceable role at Tesla [Editorial]
Elon Musk’s pay trial regarding his Tesla compensation package as CEO of the company has led to some revelations in the past week.
One of the surprising revelations from the trial is that Elon Musk has a potential successor in mind for Tesla’s CEO position. The revelation made many wonder if Elon Musk plans to step down from his position as Tesla’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) sooner rather than later.
However, an overview of the trial reveals that the Tesla Board sees Elon Musk as irreplaceable when it comes to his position as CEO. Testimonies from current and former Tesla board members show that they value Musk’s contributions to the company.
Former Tesla board member Antonio Gracias testified that the Board does discuss finding someone else to fill in as CEO of the company from time to time. “We couldn’t find anyone,” Gracias stated.
In the past, Musk addressed concerns about him stepping down as Tesla CEO. He pointed out that Tesla still has a lot of products to launch in the future, including the Tesla Cybertruck, the Tesla Roadster, and most recently, the humanoid robot Optimus. Tesla hinted that it is also working on a smaller platform that might be the long-anticipated $25,000 electric car. So Musk has plenty of work to do at Tesla before he bids adieu to the company.
Elon Musk’s Tesla Pay Package
Elon Musk’s pay trial wrapped up Friday afternoon. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick presided over the trial. She did not issue a ruling from the bench when the trial ended. It could take some time before Chancellor McCormick issues a ruling.
Plaintiff Richard Tornetta filed the lawsuit against the compensation package the Tesla Board decided for Elon Musk as CEO of the company. Tornetta, who filed the lawsuit in 2018, alleges that Musk exploited his control of Tesla and its Board of Directors to receive the pay package “to fund his personal ambition to colonize Mars.” The plaintiff also alleges that the Board failed to disclose crucial information regarding Elon Musk compensation package to shareholders.
A lot of Elon Musk’s pay trial focused on the 12 tranches the billionaire CEO had to achieve before receiving any compensation from Tesla. Tornetta’s camp argued that Tesla knew Musk would clear some of the tranches relatively soon before approving his pay package.
Current and former Tesla Board members and Elon Musk have all stated that the billionaire was not part of the discussion related to his compensation package. Musk and the Tesla Board believed that some of the performance goals in his pay package were extremely difficult to achieve.
“Those market-cap goals were totally insane,” commented former Tesla board member Brad Buss. “If he didn’t perform, there would be nothing paid.”
The Teslarati team would appreciate hearing from you. If you have any tips, contact me at maria@teslarati.com or via Twitter @Writer_01001101.
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.
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