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Lucid NACS adoption ‘must have been a bitter pill to swallow’: Elon Musk

Credit: Lucid Group

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Lucid Motors has joined several automakers in adopting Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS), just months after its CEO said it wouldn’t switch unless higher-voltage charging architecture was unveiled. Following Lucid’s announcement of plans to adopt the standard this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk pointed out that the switch was probably a little difficult for Lucid’s CEO to accept after some of his past statements.

On Tuesday, Lucid announced it would be adopting Tesla’s NACS, giving its drivers access to the Supercharger network as soon as 2025. Like other automakers, the company will build Tesla’s charging port into its electric vehicles (EVs) starting in 2025, and it plans to offer adapters to those with the current Combined Charging System (CCS) hardware in the same year — both of which will enable its cars to charge at Tesla’s Superchargers.

Following the announcement, Musk commented on X that the adoption of Tesla’s standard “must have been a bitter pill to swallow,” especially after the automaker’s CEO recently suggested that the charging port didn’t matter.

The news comes after Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson dodged questions about switching to the standard in June, adding that the plug mattered less than high-voltage charging infrastructure. In the months since, a slew of other automakers have also adopted the charging hardware, and Tesla has been deploying new technology, including higher-voltage charging hardware on one upcoming vehicle along with Superchargers sporting higher overall charging capacities.

During Tesla’s third-quarter earnings call last month, the automaker confirmed previous rumors that the Cybertruck will include 800-volt charging architecture, offering faster charging and better overall efficiency. In the U.S. and beyond, Tesla has also been deploying its V4 Superchargers, which offer a charging rate of 350 kW compared to the 250 kW rate offered by V3 chargers.

While neither of the developments from Tesla quite hit Rawlinson’s original demand for a 1,000-volt Supercharger, something about the past few months has obviously changed his mind from thinking the NACS was just a “plastic plug with some copper in it.”

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It also comes ahead of Lucid’s Q3 earnings call, set to be reported at 5:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday. You can see top investor questions ahead of the call here, the first of which is a question about how and when the automaker will become profitable.

Last month, Lucid reported a miss on analyst delivery estimates for the third quarter, and the automaker said that it was unlikely to reach its already-lowered 2023 production goal of 10,000 units.

Tesla officially opened the NACS design to other automakers just under a year ago, as detailed by the automaker in a blog post.

With the exception of the startup Aptera, which was an early adopter of the equipment, details surrounding Tesla’s opening of the NACS hardware remained quiet for several months after its announcement. In May, however, Ford CEO Jim Farley broke the silence by announcing plans to adopt the standard in May during a call on X with Musk. Since then, nearly every major and startup automaker has joined the list of companies adopting the standard.

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First production Lucid Air Sapphire rolls off the assembly line in AZ

What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send your tips to us at tips@teslarati.com.

Zach is a renewable energy reporter who has been covering electric vehicles since 2020. He grew up in Fremont, California, and he currently lives in Colorado. His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, KRON4 San Francisco, FOX31 Denver, InsideEVs, CleanTechnica, and many other publications. When he isn't covering Tesla or other EV companies, you can find him writing and performing music, drinking a good cup of coffee, or hanging out with his cats, Banks and Freddie. Reach out at zach@teslarati.com, find him on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.

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Tesla just told us twice that Model Y L is coming to the U.S.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla just told us twice that the Model Y L is coming to the U.S., and two social media posts definitely just tipped the company’s hand, as if they wanted it to be any other way.

The two social media posts basically confirm that the slightly longer version of the Model Y will be heading to the United States soon, and many have speculated that the company could launch the vehicle as soon as this weekend.

The first post was directly from Tesla, and it showed an incredibly long Dachshund, with words above that said, “Looking forward to the long weekend.”

Anyone who knows Tesla knows the company loves to troll its fans and have fun, and this is a perfect example of that. While not a direct acknowledgement, Tesla is very involved on social media, especially CEO Elon Musk’s platform X, and the company is well aware of what is being discussed within the community.

With recent sightings of Model Y L test mules in California, peeks of the vehicle at Giga Texas, and a large call for the car to come to the U.S., Tesla is simply stoking conversation with this.

However, the company also made another move that was recognized on social media. Tesla has a large gallery that includes photos of its products so media and others can use them. This gallery applies to the U.S. market specifically, unless otherwise specified.

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Tesla uploaded a Model Y L to the Gallery last night:

This seems to be another indication that the Model Y L is coming to the United States.

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Musk said last year that the Model Y L could make its way to the United States late this year, but it was not something that was set in stone by Tesla. The company definitely needs to establish something in the SUV market that is larger than the Model Y, and the Model Y L might be the answer.

Even still, there are consumers out there who would love Tesla to develop something even larger, like a competitor to the Tahoe or Expedition. Tesla has not really given much of an indication that it will go in that direction.

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Tesla is using vehicle microphones to improve build quality: here’s how

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla is using the vehicles’ internal microphones to improve build quality, Vice President of Engineering Lars Moravy revealed recently.

It’s no secret that Tesla is always finding ways to make its manufacturing operations more efficient, accurate, and valuable. Constantly trying to make its cars better, the company has never placed any restrictions on what it will do to improve everything from panel gaps to paint.

As Teslas have been driving autonomously on the property of the Gigafactory Texas plant for a while now, Moravy revealed to Herbert Ong in a new interview that cars rolling off production lines now autonomously navigate themselves through a bumps, squeaks, and rattles (BSR) portion of the line. This helps to identify any loose or improperly installed internal parts.

The cabin’s microphones, which are used for a variety of things in ownership, simultaneously monitor any noises inside the vehicle while it rolls through the BSR portion of the production line. Moravy actually revealed that Tesla is trying to build “Full Self-Hearing,” an AI system that will detect minor imperfections so they can be corrected before delivery.

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It’s no secret that build quality is something that Tesla struggled with as it scaled to a fully massive production operation that manufactures over 1.6 million vehicles per year. However, in recent years, especially, there have not been as many complaints. Tesla has truly improved upon its build quality and paint quality over the past several years, especially in the U.S.

Tesla’s ‘megacasts’ are key to massive build quality improvements

While those improvements have been evident, there are still some complaints; no automaker is perfect with this. But this step will now ensure that every single car that rolls off the production lines at Gigafactory Texas will be void of any creaks, squeaks, or squeals when it leaves the factory.

This measure is one of the most unique we’ve seen in terms of a strategy to avoid build quality issues, but it is not exclusive to Tesla.

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Ford uses acoustic analysis AI to find abnormalities in seat motors, climate control units, and other components. Suppliers and OEMs will also use microphone arrays or particle velocity sensors in end-of-line stations.

The full interview with Lars Moravy is available below:

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Investor's Corner

Tesla crushes Wall Street expectations, beats delivery estimates by over 15 percent

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Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) beat Wall Street expectations of 406,000 vehicles delivered in Q2 by reporting 480,126 deliveries for the three months ending in June.

Tesla reported it delivered 467,762  Model 3 and Model Y units, while 12,364 Model S, Model X, and Cybertrucks switched hands during the quarter. The Model S and Model X were officially sunset this past quarter and will no longer be part of the company’s Production & Delivery reports moving forward.

The quarter is a pleasant surprise and a good rebound from Q1, when Tesla slightly missed the Wall Street consensus of 365,645 cars by reporting 358,023 deliveries for the first three motnhs of the year.

Energy storage deployments also provided some strength in Tesla’s delivery report, hitting 13.5 GWh for Q2. This is a particular division of Tesla’s business that has been overwhelmingly robust over the past few years, truly being a strong point of the company’s overall model.

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For the year, Tesla analysts still predict deliveries to trend in the 1.69 million unit region, a modest 3 to 5 percent increase from the 1.64 million cars the company delivered last year. Tesla will likely return to more sequential and noticeable year-over-year growth as the Cybercab project starts to ramp up considerably in the next few years.

Tesla has some other potential catalysts to spur vehicle deliveries, too. Not only is it expecting Cybercab to truly start making a change in the next few years, but other vehicles could be entering the company’s lineup.

Tesla sends production Cybercab with no steering wheel, pedals to on-road testing

The slightly longer Model Y L has been a highly speculated release candidate in the U.S. It has already done incredibly well in China, and U.S. buyers have been wanting slightly more interior space than the Model Y. Now that the Model X is gone, it is more needed than ever.

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Q2 highlights a pretty stable automotive division within Tesla, and no true concerns arise from these figures, especially considering it managed to beat expectations convincingly.

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