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McLaren Applied reveals path to besting Tesla in the EV industry

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McLaren Applied has revealed how it aims to conquer the EV industry in the coming years.

McLaren has consistently been on the bleeding edge of technology for its entire history as a company. From its time in Formula 1 to its work within automotive engineering, it has been a leader in automotive technology. Now, the company’s ex-technology wing has shared its plan to conquer the EV industry in an interview with Forbes.

McLaren Applied was the section of McLaren’s business that took the innovations from the track and its consumer hypercars and attempted to leverage them in other businesses. This resulted in the brand being involved in the engineering of everything from bicycles to medical equipment. But following the acquisition of the business by Greybull Capital, its mission has become more precise; data communications and engineering within mainstream vehicles.

As revealed in the report from Forbes, McLaren Applied’s automotive engineering work now focuses on supplying parts to other automakers, notably inverters for electric vehicles. And here is where the now independent business hopes to conquer the current EV leader, Tesla.

As described by McLaren Applied’s Stephen Lambert, Head of Electrification, the company views electrification as occurring in multiple waves. The first wave was Elon Musk’s introduction of the Tesla Roadster, and we now find ourselves within the second wave of electrification, mass proliferation. Automakers worldwide are attempting to bring as many offerings to the new market as possible as an ever-increasing number of consumers choose to electrify their mobility.

But where McLaren is focused is on what they call the third and fourth wave of electrification. The third wave will be one focused on EV efficiency. Which automaker can go the furthest with the smallest battery and thus achieve the best profit margins? And here is where Β McLaren introduces its product, its IPG5 EV inverter.

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“The inverter really is the heart of that driver experience,” says Lambert in a comment to Forbes. The inverter is directly responsible for taking energy from the battery and directing it to the motors of an EV, allowing for precise (or imprecise) motor control as a driver. Lambert explains that this is why so many seem to prefer the driving experience of the Porsche Taycan over alternative Tesla products.

McLaren’s inverter is quite extraordinary. Not only does the company claim it is the most power-dense inverter on the market, but thanks to its proprietary design, its compatibility with 800-volt architecture, and its use of silicon carbide, it is capable of achieving unparalleled levels of performance and efficiency.

This feeds into what McLaren believes will be the fourth wave of electrification, the driving experience of electric vehicles.

As the market of electric vehicles continues to grow, consumers will look for more ways to choose between the vehicles. Through part choices like the inverter, McLaren believes that the driving experience of different EVs will become dramatically different. And as the British engineering firm continues to aid its luxury automaker partners, it believes it can continue to deliver “Tesla-beating” products.

McLaren Applied has worked with Porsche, Formula E, and Extreme E in introducing and testing its products in recent years, but it hopes to work with other motorsports partners and automakers in the coming years. But if it hopes to dethrone the likes of Tesla, it has quite a hill to climb.

What do you think of the article? Do you have any comments, questions, or concerns? Shoot me an email atΒ william@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @WilliamWritin. If you have news tips, email us atΒ tips@teslarati.com!

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Will is an auto enthusiast, a gear head, and an EV enthusiast above all. From racing, to industry data, to the most advanced EV tech on earth, he now covers it at Teslarati.

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Tesla primes Cybercabs for 4K streaming and high bandwidth gaming with Starlink integration

Tesla is now shipping Cybercabs from Giga Texas with Starlink hardware built in as standard.

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tesla cybercab with no manual controls showing a movie with two employees inside

Tesla’s Cybercabs are now leaving Gigafactory Texas with Starlink hardware on the rear hatch in significant numbers, according to drone footage captured Tuesday by longtime Austin drone observer Joe Tegtmeyer. Production at the factory ramped back up after the Labor Day weekend, and his flyover of the outbound lot showed rows of gold Cybercabs alongside Model Y Long Wheelbase units, many carrying the satellite module for the first time as standard equipment rather than a one off retrofit.

Tesla first showed Starlink built into an actual Cybercab on August 10, when the Robotaxi account posted images of a single gold unit with the antenna integrated into the roofline above the taillights and called it the first Cybercab with Starlink integration. That followed a July reveal where Tesla and Starlink jointly posted a cutaway diagram of the antenna placement without a working vehicle to back it up. Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s VP of AI software, said at the time that the connection isn’t required for the car to drive itself. It exists mainly for navigation, customer service and keeping tabs on the fleet.

Musk has made a different case in public. During Tesla’s Q2 earnings call, he said the company can’t afford robotaxis stranded in what he called “Bermuda Triangles of lack of cellular connectivity,” and he separately claimed on X that Starlink will eventually reach every Tesla built, calling it the only way to deliver high bandwidth to billions of vehicles. He has also pitched the antenna as an entertainment upgrade, telling riders they would be able to stream 4K video or play games during a trip.

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The rollout has moved fast since. Robotaxi service opened to the public in Austin on September 3, and Cybercabs had already been spotted with Starlink hardware in Houston and near Miami International Airport in the weeks before Tuesday’s factory footage showed the module shipping at volume rather than on scattered test units. Whether the satellite link earns its keep is still an open question. Tesla’s unsupervised service currently runs in dense metro geofences in Texas and Florida, markets where cellular coverage is already strong, which is not where the rural dead zones Musk describes tend to show up.

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Lifestyle

Tesla Cybertruck targets job site crews with new Tailgate Utility Track and Bed Gear Box accessory

Tesla launched a $350 tailgate track and a $985 lockable Bed Gear Box for Cybertruck.

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Tesla Cybertruck construction site

Tesla’s Cybertruck team added two more items to the Tesla Shop, targeting job site crews and owners who use the truck bed for actual work rather than just showing it off. The official Cybertruck X account posted the Tailgate Utility Track and the Bed Gear Box within minutes of each other, part of a five item batch that also included a reflective jacket, a spray paint hat and an updated reflective tee.

The Tailgate Utility Track runs $350 and turns the folded down tailgate into another mounting surface. It’s a single aluminum track with a T-slot for sliding accessories and two L-track attachment points, plus two load stops included in the box. The pitch is straightforward: strap down oversized cargo, like lumber or a cooler, that hangs off the back of the bed without it sliding out mid-drive. It bolts onto the existing tailgate and works on every Cybertruck trim.

The Bed Gear Box costs $985 and is a different kind of accessory. It’s a lockable aluminum storage box, 55.78 inches long, 19.8 inches wide and 7.79 inches tall, that mounts to the bed’s L-track rails and comes with two internal bins for smaller items. According to Tesla, at just over 57 pounds empty, it’s meant to stay in place rather than come in and out with each trip, giving owners a factory-fit alternative to loose totes for tools, recovery gear or emergency supplies. Tesla’s listing notes that Long Range and Dual Motor AWD Cybertrucks need the L-Tracks accessory installed separately before the Gear Box will mount, since L-tracks come standard only on certain configurations.

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Tesla Cybertruck bed gear box accessory

Both accessories lean on the idea Tesla has been building toward since Elon Musk first described the Cybertruck’s third-party attachment strategy at the 2023 shareholder meeting, when he said the truck would ship with mounting points so outside companies, and Tesla itself, could keep adding gear without redesigning the bed. That’s the same L-track backbone underneath the tailgate shield and jumpseats Tesla launched last year, and the off-road armor package that arrived through the same X account in 2025.

Owners looking to round out the rest of the L-track ecosystem, cargo dividers, MOLLE panels, bed racks and similar gear, can find a wider range of options through our Cybertruck accessories collection.

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Elon Musk says he knows how to save Earth for a billion years

Elon Musk says sentient AI satellites launched from the Moon could keep Earth livable forever.

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Elon Musk spent part of his weekend describing a plan to keep the planet livable for roughly a billion years, and it starts with satellites that can think for themselves.

In a post on X, Musk argued that swapping fossil fuels for solar and wind power will not be enough to protect humanity from what he called extremely severe extinction events, the kind that occur roughly every 100 million years. His fix is what he called sentient satellites, or solar-powered satellites, controlled by AI, that would sit in a fixed spot between Earth and the Sun after being launched off the Moon using a giant electromagnetic catapult instead of rockets.

The satellites’ onboard AI would make continuous, small adjustments rather than waiting on human instructions. The mass driver is Musk’s proposed way of getting the raw material there cheaply by using an electromagnetic launch track built on the Moon, where lower gravity and no atmosphere make it far easier to fling cargo into space than it is from Earth.

Musk shared a Grok generated estimate suggesting roughly 5 percent of Florida’s land, or about 1.68 million acres, could face regular flooding by 2070 under a high sea level rise scenario, and said humanity has about 50 years to act before coastal living looks very different than it does today.

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This is not the first time Musk has floated the idea. He raised a similar concept in November, describing a solar powered AI satellite constellation that could make tiny adjustments to incoming sunlight to fine tune Earth’s temperature. Musk has also tied planetary risk to his broader vision at SpaceX, where his compensation package is explicitly linked to establishing a self-sustaining Mars colony, one he has described as an insurance policy against the kind of extinction event he referenced this weekend, and where he has said humans could set foot within five to seven years.

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