Lifestyle
Review: Tesla Model S Trunk Organizer for Your Junk in the Trunk
One of the greatest benefits of owning a Tesla Model S beyond the fact that it’s electric, has amazing performance, and seats seven is being able to store tons of cargo in its spacious interior. There’s a front trunk also known as the “frunk” with ample storage space, along with a huge trunk large enough to store a full-sized bicycle. But with all that space comes the challenge of being able to organize and secure loose items so that they don’t rattle or shift when the car’s in motion.
The new Trunk Organizer for Model S by EVannex was intended to do just that. I recently had the opportunity to pick one up and test it out. Here’s what I thought of it.
Trunk Foot Well Space
The Model S trunk has a hidden gem in the form of extra storage space in the foot well of the trunk seating area. This area is designated as the third row for seating young children assuming one purchased the optional foldaway seats. Since the Model S does not have an exhaust system or muffler beneath the vehicle, Tesla was able to provide a rear foot well which also doubles as a storage area for the child seats when tucked away.
However, if you didn’t pick up the optional child seats like me, you’re left with an empty footwell that inevitably ends up collecting … stuff.
Mine contains a mixture of cleaning supplies, charging cables, adapters, tire maintenance items, things for walking the dog, the list goes on. Finding anything within this section generally requires a lot of digging around. Putting it back is just as painful as I’m often left shuffling items around and repositioning them in a way that allows the top cover to mount flush.
I’ve often thought about how to solve the problem by using various tote type boxes but never found anything to my liking.
EVannex Trunk Organizer for Model S
The ROLA Trunk Organizer is an aftermarket product carried by EVannex but also sold on Amazon that’s designed to help one organize their stuff within the Model S trunk footwell.
The product comes in a long flat box and simply pops open to form the organizer. The process couldn’t have been simpler.
The organizer has a number of nice features:
- It folds completely flat and locks into position when needed
- The dividers are completely removable and attach securely with velcro on the sides and bottom
- There is a mesh pocket running along the front and back of the organizer for smaller objects
- There are handles on each end to help with lifting and carrying the organizer
- The sides, dividers and bottom are sturdy
Installation
Installation was super-easy — the hardest part was clearing out all my crap from the footwell. After that you simply pop it open and drop it into the foot well. Be sure to angle the organizer when initially placing it into the footwell as it’s a snug and near perfect fit. Once in place you can straighten it back out.
Those who purchased the premium sound system will have the area to the left and right of the organizer filled with subwoofers. But for those of us that didn’t, there is extra storage space to be found – perfect for storing taller objects such as windshield washer fluid bottles.
Prior to installing the trunk organizer, I often encountered the issue where items stored in the side pockets would slide into my belongings stashed in the footwell. That’s because there’s no divider between each section. Having the trunk organizer in place alleviated this issue as items would butt up against each respective side of the organizer itself.
What I liked about the organizer is the removable dividers that can be positioned to fit your needs depending on the number and types of items being stowed. Thanks to the velcro attachment, securing it in various configurations was a simple process. I ended up compartmentalizing by theme. One section was for cleaning supplies, another for charging, and one was for tire related products.
One of my concerns when I first saw the dividers was their height. I wasn’t sure if the footwell cover would be able to sit flush but luckily I found it to be a near perfect fit. I kept my all-weather Tesla mat installed on the bottom of the footwell just in case something leaked, and even with that in place the footwell cover closed flush.
All in all, I’m quite happy with the ROLA trunk organizer and glad I got it.
Lifestyle
NTSB findings on fatal Tesla crash tell a very different story
The NTSB confirmed the driver, not Tesla’s FSD, caused the fatal Texas house crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board released preliminary findings Wednesday confirming that a Tesla driver, not the vehicle’s software, caused a fatal crash in Katy, Texas in June. The driver, 44-year-old Michael Butler, had engaged Full Self-Driving Supervised mode on Rose Hollow Lane, a residential street with a 30 mph speed limit, before manually overriding the system by pressing the accelerator pedal all the way to 100%. Data recovered from the 2025 Tesla Model 3 showed the vehicle was traveling over 70 miles per hour when it struck a home and killed 76-year-old Martha Avila, who was inside. Weather was clear, the road was dry, and it was daylight.
Texas man charged in fatal Tesla crash where he blamed Autopilot
Butler told authorities he had passed out at the wheel. But security camera footage obtained by the NTSB told a different story, and showed the car accelerating through an intersection before leaving the road entirely. Police also found that Butler’s phone had Google searches including the terms “Tesla FSD not aggressive enough 2026” and “Tesla FSD too timid,” raising serious questions about how he was using the system before the crash. Butler has since been charged with manslaughter. The victim’s family has filed a lawsuit against both Butler and Tesla, alleging negligence.
The NTSB findings aligned directly with what Tesla VP of AI Software Ashok Elluswamy had already stated publicly on X in the weeks after the crash, writing that “the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100%.” The data confirmed his account.
Yup. In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area. They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 22, 2026
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s Texas ranch to showcase the lifelong work that changed the world
Elon Musk is building a product gallery at his Texas ranch spanning his lifelong inventions.
Elon Musk took to X earlier today, noting “Am putting together a product gallery at my ranch in Texas.” in response to a resurfaced famous quote from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s wherein he draw parallels of the Tesla CEO to legendary physicist Albert Einstein.
Dimon made the remark at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland back in January 2025, telling CNBC at the time, “SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, I mean, the guy is our Einstein.” The remark seemingly ended a long-time feud between the two high profile execs.
While details are thin about the exact location of Elon Musk’s Texas ranch and any pending projects that would serve as a gallery and homage to his portfolio of revolutionary product inventions spanning from 1984 to 2025, land acquisition records point to roughly a location of several thousand acres in Bastrop County, east of Austin near the Colorado River and held through an LLC called Horse Ranch LLC that’s managed by Musk’s longtime personal friend and family wealth manager Jared Birchall. Birchall also serves as the CEO of Neuralink.
Tesla’s “ecological paradise” in Giga Texas may be larger than expected
The broader Bastrop County footprint surrounding the ranch has grown significantly. Entities tied to Musk have accumulated approximately 2,000 acres in Bastrop County as of mid-2026, up from 700 acres earlier in the year, with possibly as much as 6,000 acres acquired in total across Bastrop and Travis counties based on deed records.
No completion date for the gallery has been announced and Musk has not confirmed whether it will be open to the public. As Teslarati has reported, SpaceX just completed the largest IPO in history raising $75 billion, a milestone that makes this particular moment in Musk’s career a natural inflection point for looking back at what he has built through the years.
Am putting together a product gallery at my ranch in Texas https://t.co/xQf5FRy4uz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 15, 2026
Starting with Blastar, a simple space shooter game Musk coded at 12 years old and sold to a South African magazine for $500. From there the timeline moves through a commercial career that started with Zip2 in 1995, a city guide software company sold to Compaq for roughly $300 million in 1999. That was followed by X.com in 1999, which merged with Confinity to become PayPal, acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. SpaceX came in 2002, Tesla in 2003, SolarCity in 2006, the Supercharger network in 2012, Neuralink in 2016, The Boring Company in 2016, OpenAI co-founded in 2015, X acquired in 2022, xAI in 2023, Optimus in 2024, the Cybercab in 2026, and most recently SpaceXAI following the SpaceX and xAI merger. The gallery will also likely include items that blur the line between product and cultural artifact, among them The Boring Company’s Not-a-Flamethrower from 2018, Tesla Short Shorts from 2020, and Burnt Hair perfume released under X in 2022.
Lifestyle
Tesla makes the cut on California’s newest EV Rebate program
California just signed a $270 million EV rebate into law and it starts this summer.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 168 into law on Monday, July 13, 2026, creating a $270 million EV rebate program that delivers money directly at the dealership rather than as a tax credit applied months later. The program, called MyFirstEV, is funded equally by California’s state budget and participating automakers, with each contributing $135.5 million to make the math work.
The timing is directly tied to the loss of federal support when the $7,500 federal EV tax credit ended, removing the most significant consumer incentive that had driven EV adoption in the U.S. California, which accounts for roughly one-third of all EVs sold nationally, moved to fill that gap with a state-level replacement.
The rebate structure is straightforward. First-time EV buyers can receive $3,500 off any new battery-electric vehicle with an MSRP up to $50,000. Used EVs priced at $25,000 or below qualify for a $1,750 rebate. The credit is applied at the point of sale, which removes the friction of the old federal system where buyers had to wait for tax season to see the benefit. The program goes live later this summer, with the California Air Resources Board expected to release full participation details next month.
California hits Tesla Cybercab and Robotaxi driverless cars with new law
For Tesla buyers, the implications are mixed. The Tesla Model 3 RWD at $42,490 and the Model 3 Long Range at $47,490 both fall under the $50,000 cap and would qualify for the full $3,500 rebate for first-time buyers. The Model Y, which starts at $44,990 after Tesla’s recent price adjustment, also qualifies. The Model X, Model S, and Cybertruck all exceed the cap and receive no benefit. As Teslarati has reported, the program also includes a carve-out exempting California-based automakers like Rivian and Lucid from the price cap entirely, a provision that puts Tesla at a disadvantage since it relocated its headquarters to Texas in 2021.
Other qualifying vehicles include the Chevrolet Equinox EV, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Kia EV6, and Volkswagen ID.4.
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