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Porsche says it may spawn other EVs off of the Mission E platform

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Scalability is the new paradigm in the car business. In order to build cars that are the lowest possible cost, manufacturers strive to make as many parts off of common platform as possible. When building vehicles derived from a common chassis, wheelbase and width may increase or contract, but the rigidity needed to pass various crash tests should remain the same. Even details like the placement and size of air conditioning ducts in the dashboard need to be standardized to reduce manufacturing costs.

Michael Steiner, member of Porsche’s executive board for research and development, has revealed that scalability has been designed into the chassis for the Mission E – the German automaker’s first foray into the electric vehicle segment.

“The conceptual design of the Mission E once again gives us technically the potential to do more with this platform, and also we think about if the battery electric business will be fast growing and we think that the whole business will change, most probably pretty fast at some trigger point. That should be not the only battery electric car,” Steiner says. “In general we think what could be a second or third step, and also in terms of the platform of Mission E there is no reason why this has to be only a one body-style platform,” Steiner added, according to CarScoops.

Asked about whether an electric SUV could follow the Mission E, Steiner said that such a car was certainly possible “with some modifications” to the Mission E platform. He suggested it could share technologies with Audi’s upcoming all electric Q6 SUV. But first, Porsche needs to see how the Mission E performs in the marketplace and what the demand for premium electric cars will be. Italian supercar maker Lamborghini is also looking to enter the electric vehicle space with its own all-electric hypercar built off of Porsche’s Mission E platform.

Scalability is a key factor for another potential Tesla competitor — Faraday Future. It says the same chassis that was used to make the silly FFZero1 concept car for CES last January can be stretched or shortened to serve as the basis of a family car, an SUV, a minivan, or any other vehicle customers want. Furthermore, its modular battery design will allow the company to add or subtract battery cells to meet the power needs of various models.

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Tesla is also focused on scalability. The Model X was supposed to be manufactured on the same chassis as the Model S, but events took over and it turned out to be just a cousin to the Model S rather than a clone. But Tesla has taken the lessons learned from the Model X to heart and used them to make the upcoming Model 3 more suitable for efficient production. We have already heard there will be a Model Y crossover/SUV that will be built on the same chassis as the Model 3. The Silicon Valley automaker has also been reducing the number of available options on its fleet of vehicles. Just last week, we reported that Tesla has quietly removed two color options as well as the 60 kWh battery on the Model X, as the company aims to streamline production on its fleet of vehicles.

Nobody knows what the future of automobiles will be. Gas prices and emissions regulations could cause consumers to decide they want vehicles that are like nothing available today. Typically, it takes 5 years to bring an entirely new model to market. In the coming years, car companies may need to get new products to market more quickly and will rely on scalable platforms to achieve that. Whether its Porsche, Faraday Future, or Tesla, the ability to react quickly to changes in the marketplace may make the difference between profitability and financial ruin.

"I write about technology and the coming zero emissions revolution."

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Tesla’s Supercharger Diner probably just secured more locations

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tesla diner
Credit: Tesla

Tesla’s Supercharger Diner in Los Angeles dominated the company’s global usage rankings after just one year, proving the concept is more than just a one-off novelty location that will fade away.

The performance could incite the company to build more locations, something that CEO Elon Musk has hinted at for some time.

Tesla’s Supercharger Diner delivered 21.2 GWh of energy in its first year of operation, the company’s head of Charging, Max de Zegher, revealed on X. Of the top 10 most utilized Supercharger locations in Tesla’s global infrastructure, the Diner in Los Angeles was the most used by drivers, and it wasn’t particularly close:

On its launch day one year ago, nobody was too sure what the Tesla Diner would be about. It seemed like an interesting concept, and considering it had been in the works for years, it was a highly anticipated launch that many were looking forward to.

Based on its success, we could see additional Diners with Superchargers built throughout the United States, and potentially beyond. Musk has said on several occasions that the company would be willing to bring the Diner idea to more markets.

Tesla makes major change at Supercharger Diner amid epic demand

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Of the markets that Musk has mentioned, both Palo Alto and Austin have come to be perceived as ideal selections. However, there are no concrete plans as of now to build new Supercharger Diners anywhere; the location on Santa Monica Boulevard will remain the exclusive spot to pick up Tesla-inspired eats, at least for the time being.

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Tesla short sellers win big after shares fall after earnings

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A red Tesla Roadster driving around a turn
(Credit: Tesla)

Tesla short sellers won big following the company’s massive fall on Wall Street after it reported subpar Earnings on Wednesday.

Tesla short sellers collected about $4.12 billion in single-day profits on Thursday, according to BloombergShares fell as much as 15 percent during Thursday’s session. It closed as one of the worst days for Tesla on Wall Street in the past three years.

Investors sold off the stock after Tesla said it would aggressively direct its spending toward AI and its Optimus robot project. The company had record revenues, which were driven by one of the strongest quarters in terms of vehicle deliveries in company history.

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However, it missed EPS estimates by reporting just $0.33, a far cry from the $0.53 analysts expected.

S3 Partners reported that about 3 percent of Tesla’s outstanding stock is sold short. Managing Director at S3, Ihor Dusaniwsky, provided the short seller’s potential profit, as well as another figure: shorts have likely had paper gains of $8.92 billion this year, as Tesla shares are down 30 percent in 2026.

Tesla (TSLA) Q2 2026 earnings results: miss on EPS, beat on revenue

Tesla has burned short sellers many times in the past, but the company’s latest Earnings Call was a chance for those skeptics to taste some payback. Although the company gave some very transparent information regarding future projects, the rollout of Robotaxi, Optimus, and Semi, many investors took their profits on Thursday.

Notable short sellers like Michael Burry have been transparent about their skepticism around Tesla shares. Burry just revealed three weeks ago that he had opened up a new short on the stock, stating he shorted Tesla shares at $416.22. “Happy it jumped back to this level,” he said in a blog post.

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At the time of publication, Tesla shares were down about 3 percent and the stock was trading at $309.92.

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Tesla door handle saga gets its latest chapter and a big change is coming

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Credit: Tesla | Model 3 Owner's Manual

Tesla’s long-standing saga regarding its door handles and a manual release has entered its latest chapter, and as a result, a big change is coming.

On Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) denied Tesla’s petition that was seeking a defect investigation into roughly 180,000 Model 3 vehicles for an issue involving the emergency mechanical door release.

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NHTSA said that Tesla’s petition did not present evidence of a safety-related defect in the door handles or their emergency releases. Instead, the agency determined that it would rather solve the issue of the lack of labeling or location of emergency mechanical door releases and the federal safety rules that govern them.

Essentially, the NHTSA wants to create and enforce rules that would require automakers to make emergency door latch releases more clearly labeled in a car. Despite a Tesla having manual door releases on all four passenger doors, many people do not know they exist or how they work.

Tesla addresses door handle complaints with simple engineering fix

In recent times, Tesla has faced some criticism involving its door handles, specifically because some occupants have reported that they are unable to exit their vehicles after losing power. The door handles on a Tesla are electronically operated, but in the event that the 12V battery dies, there is a manual release that can be used.

The NHTSA only identified a single complaint involving the mechanical door releases: a 2022 Model 3 owner said the release was concealed and unlabeled after the vehicle lost power after a front-end collision. It has also already started to create a separate rulemaking process to make emergency door-egress systems more obvious.

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It should be noted that all Teslas have mechanical emergency door releases, but they are placed in various locations as the vehicles have aged and been redesigned from year to year. Refer to the safety manual for your vehicle if you have any confusion about where the emergency releases are and how they work.

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