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Jay Leno talks Tesla Cybertruck and his ride through the Boring Co. tunnel

Credit: The Boring Company

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Former late-night television host Jay Leno spoke about his experiences with the Tesla Cybertruck and what it was like to ride inside Elon Musk’s Boring Company tunnel on a recent episode of the Spike’s Car Radio podcast.

Spike Feresten and co-host Paul Zuckerman didn’t waste any time with Leno on the podcast and jumped right into questions about Tesla’s upcoming electric pickup truck. “Did you drive it, what’s it like?” asked the hosts.

“Well, it is very Tesla-like,” Leno explains. “It’s very quick. It’s very interesting, some people like the styling and some people don’t. One thing it does do, it changes your perception of–trucks have looked the same since what? 1930? It is basically a giant grille with some sort of aggressive thing in the front, you know? This doesn’t look like anything else you’ve ever seen before.”

Many people have described the Cybertruck as unique and different than the standard pickup design. At the Cybertruck’s unveiling event in November, one of the first portions of Elon Musk’s presentation was comparing currently available pickup designs. “It is hard to tell which is which, really. We took the brands off, but it is hard to tell which is which, they all pretty much look the same. We need something different.” Musk explained.

It seems that Tesla’s design undoubtedly convinced Jay Leno, a car enthusiast with a $52 million collection of automobiles, that trucks did not have to have the typical design that entailed a large grille, bulky exterior, and bed. The Cybertruck’s newly-introduced design changed what the idea of a pickup can look like so much for Leno that he believes any other truck currently on the market is outdated.

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“It immediately makes everything else look sort of old-fashioned,” Leno stated.

Perhaps the most exciting portion of Leno’s trip to Hawthorne was when he asked Musk how the Boring Company tunnel was doing. “Oh, good good! We have a tunnel running under Los Angeles,” Musk said. But the CEO of Tesla and the Boring Company wasn’t done yet. “Hey, I’ve got an idea,” he said to Jay. “You want to see if we can drive the Cybertruck in the tunnel? I don’t know if it’s going to fit.”

Leno described the tight fit of the truck within the tunnel, stating there may have been about a quarter of an inch on each side of the vehicle. “We drive the Cybertruck, we barely get it into the tunnel, and now we’re going like 50 or 60 miles per hour through the tunnel with a quarter-inch on each side.”

Leno’s first impressions of the truck seem to fit the rhetoric that he has used to describe Tesla vehicles since driving the original Roadster in 2008. He is a fan of electric cars due to their low maintenance and high-performance, and it seems that the Cybertruck simply widened Leno’s horizons when it comes to what is possible with electric transportation.

Tesla Cybertruck is set to air in the new season of hit TV series “Jay Leno’s Garage”. The show documents Leno’s drives in several rare cars with some familiar celebrity faces, one of which is Elon Musk.

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The podcast of  Spike’s Car Radio with Jay Leno can be heard below.

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

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Energy

Tesla Energy celebrates one decade of sustainability

Tesla Energy has gone far since its early days, and it is now becoming a progressively bigger part of the company.

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(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla Energy recently celebrated its 10th anniversary with a dedicated video showcasing several of its milestones over the past decade.

Tesla Energy has gone far since its early days, and it is now becoming a progressively bigger part of the company.

Tesla Energy Early Days

When Elon Musk launched Tesla Energy in 2015, he noted that the business is a fundamental transformation of how the world works. To start, Tesla Energy offered the Powerwall, a 7 kWh/10 kWh home battery system, and the Powerpack, a grid-capable 100 kWh battery block that is designed for scalability. A few days after the products’ launch, Musk noted that Tesla had received 38,000 reservations for the Powerwall and 2,500 reservations for the Powerpack

Tesla Energy’s beginnings would herald its quiet growth, with the company later announcing products like the Solar Roof tile, which is yet to be ramped, and the successor to the Powerwall, the 13.5 kWh Powerwall 2. In recent years, Tesla Energy also launched its Powerwall 3 home battery and the massive Megapack, a 3.9 MWh monster of a battery unit that has become the backbone for energy storage systems across the globe.

Key Milestones

As noted by Tesla Energy in its recent video, it has now established facilities that allow the company to manufacture 20,000 units of the Megapack every year, which should help grow the 23 GWh worth of Megapacks that have already been deployed globally. 

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The Powerwall remains a desirable home battery as well, with more than 850,000 units installed worldwide. These translate to 12 GWh of residential entry storage delivered to date. Just like the Megapack, Tesla is also ramping its production of the Powerwall, allowing the division to grow even more.

Tesla Energy’s Role

While Tesla Energy does not catch as much headlines as the company’s electric vehicle businesses, its contributions to the company’s bottom line have been growing. In the first quarter of 2025 alone, Tesla Energy deployed 10.4 GWh of energy storage products. Powerwall deployments also crossed 1 GWh in one quarter for the first time. As per Tesla in its Q1 2025 Update Letter, the gross margin for the Energy division has improved sequentially as well.

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Tesla Energy shines with substantial YoY growth in deployments

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Credit: Tesla Megapack

Tesla Energy shined in what was a weak delivery report for the first quarter, as the company’s frequently-forgotten battery storage products performed extraordinarily well.

Tesla reported its Q1 production, delivery, and deployment figures for the first quarter of the year, and while many were less-than-excited about the automotive side, the Energy division performed well with 10.4 GWh of energy storage products deployed during the first quarter.

This was a 156 percent increase year-over-year and the company’s second-best quarter in terms of energy deployments to date. Only Q4 2024 was better, as 11 GWh was recorded.

Tesla Energy is frequently forgotten and not talked about enough. The company has continued to deploy massive energy storage projects across the globe, and as it recorded 31.5 GWh of deployments last year, 2025 is already looking as if it will be a record-setting year if it continues at this pace.

Tesla Megapacks to back one of Europe’s largest energy storage sites

Although Energy performed well, many investors are privy to that of the automotive division’s performance, which is where some concern lies. Tesla had a weak quarter for deliveries, missing Wall Street estimates by a considerable margin.

There are two very likely reasons as to why this happened: the first is Tesla’s switchover to the new Model Y at its production facilities across the globe. Tesla said it lost “several weeks” of production due to the updating of manufacturing lines as it rolled out a new version of its all-electric crossover.

Secondly, Tesla could be facing some pressure from pushback against the brand, which is what many analysts will say. Despite the publicity of attacks on Tesla drivers and their vehicles, as well as the company’s showrooms, it would be safe to assume that we will have a better picture painted of what the issue is in Q2 after the company reports numbers in July.

New Tesla Model Y was a best-seller in China in March 2025

If Tesla is still struggling with lackluster delivery figures in Q2 after the Model Y is ramped and deliveries are more predictable and consistent, we could see where the argument for brand damage is legitimate. However, we are more prone to believe the Model Y, which accounts for most of Tesla’s sales, and its production ramp is likely the cause for what happened in Q1.

In what was a relatively bleak quarter, Tesla Energy still shines as the bright spot for the quarter.

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Energy

Tesla lands in Texas for latest Megapack production facility

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(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla has chosen the location of its latest manufacturing project, a facility that will churn out the Megapack, a large-scale energy storage system for solar energy projects. It has chosen Waller County, Texas, as the location of the new plant, according to a Commissioners Court meeting that occurred on Wednesday, March 5.

Around midday, members of the Waller County Commissioners Court approved a tax abatement agreement that will bring Tesla to its area, along with an estimated 1,500 jobs. The plant will be located at the Empire West Industrial Park in the Brookshire part of town.

Brookshire also plans to consider a tax abatement for Tesla at its meeting next Thursday.

The project will see a one million square-foot building make way for Tesla to build Megapack battery storage units, according to Covering Katy News, which first reported on the company’s intention to build a plant for its energy product.

CEO Elon Musk confirmed on the company’s Q4 2024 Earnings Call in late January that it had officially started building its third Megapack plant, but did not disclose any location:

“So, we have our second factory, which is in Shanghai, that’s starting operation, and we’re building a third factory. So, we’re trying to ramp output of the stationary battery storage as quickly as possible.”

Tesla plans third Megafactory after breaking energy records in 2024

The Megapack has been a high-demand item as more energy storage projects have started developing. Across the globe, regions are looking for ways to avert the loss of power in the event of a natural disaster or simple power outage.

This is where Megapack comes in, as it stores energy and keeps the lights on when the main grid is unable to provide electricity.

Vince Yokom of the Waller County Economic Development Partnership, commented on Tesla’s planned Megapack facility:

“I want to thank Tesla for investing in Waller County and Brookshire. This will be a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility for their Megapack product. It is a powerful battery unit that provides energy storage and support to help stabilize the grid and prevent outages.”

Tesla has had a lease on the building where it will manufacture the Megapacks since October 2021. However, it was occupied by a third-party logistics company that handled the company’s car parts.

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