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Rivian Demo Drives will be available at SXSW in Austin next week!

Rivian is offering R1T & R1S demo drives at SXSW 2025 in Austin, TX. Check out the Rivian R2 on display, too!

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(Credit: Rivian)

Rivian demo drives will be available at SXSW (South by Southwest) in Austin, Texas, starting March 11, 2025, from 11:00 am to 4:30 pm.

The company is offering demo drives for the R1T pickup truck and R1S SUV. Rivian’s SXSW demo drives will be available until the end of the festival on March 15, 2025. The Rivian R2 will also be on display at SXSW 2025, giving future customers a chance to interact with the upcoming electric vehicle (EV).

In December 2024, the American EV automaker signed a 2-year headlining sponsorship agreement with SXSW, an annual festival dedicated to tech and bringing a culture of professionals to Austin, Texas.

Rivian has fun activities and exhibits planned for SXSW 2025, including transforming its South Congress flagship space into “Electric Roadhouse,” inspired by Texas Roadhouse. The festival’s program includes panel discussions, concerts, drive-in movies, and more. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe is expected to appear in this year’s keynote.

“We’re thrilled to bring our brand to life at SXSW with the Electric Roadhouse, a space that merges classic Americana with a vision for a sustainable future,” said Denise Cherry, Rivian Vice President of Marketing. “The festival’s creativity and adventurous spirit perfectly complement our own, and we can’t wait to share this experience with the community.”

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SXSW 2025 starts later this week on March 7, 2025.

Maria--aka "M"-- is an experienced writer and book editor. She's written about several topics including health, tech, and politics. As a book editor, she's worked with authors who write Sci-Fi, Romance, and Dark Fantasy. M loves hearing from TESLARATI readers. If you have any tips or article ideas, contact her at maria@teslarati.com or via X, @Writer_01001101.

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RBC cuts Tesla’s price target to $320, with a potential upside of 34%

RBC slashes its TSLA price target from $440 to $320 but still sees a potential 34% upside!

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Credit: Jim Koehler | X

RBC Capital Markets analyst Tom Narayan cut Tesla’s price target from $440 to $320. RBC is the latest firm to lower its Tesla price target. However, the RBC analyst’s new TSLA price target still represents a potential upside of 34%.

Narayan follows other TSLA analysts who have cut their price targets for the company. Goldman Sachs also lowered its Telsa price target to $320 from $345. Last week, Wells Fargo slashed its TSLA price target to $130 from $135.

Narayan kept an “Outperform” rating on Tesla’s shares. His latest Tesla price target is based on lowered expectations around the company’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) capabilities. “We now assume Tesla FSD pricing drops to $50/month in 2026 from $100/month today,” noted the RBC analyst.

Narayan emphasized that Tesla is facing pressure from competition in markets abroad, specifically in China. “While we do think it unwise to extrapolate too much from car demand dynamics, Tesla is losing market share in Europe and China.

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“In China, in particular, competition is intensifying. Further, on robotaxis, we think it likely that domestic OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] will dominate the market. As a result, we now lower our market share assumption to 10% from 20% in both markets,” he said.

Narayan stands in stark contrast to other analysts who have mostly based their TSLA price target cuts on its lower-than-expected Q1 2025 delivery numbers. The RBC analyst believes delivery fears have been “overblown.”

“Although sales fell sharply in Europe (45% in January) and China (60% in January and 21% in February), these regions represent a small portion of Tesla’s total sales compared to their annual figures (311k in Europe and 683k in China for ’24). Tesla’s U.S. sales, on the other hand, saw modest increases,” he noted.

The majority of analysts see Tesla’s Full Self-Driving as a positive driving force in Tesla stock. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, for example, predicts Tesla will rebound over 90% within the next year. Jonas lists Tesla’s FSD Unsupervised use in paid rideshare services in Texas as one of the catalysts for TSLA stocks to rise back up.

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Tesla is NOT done in Germany–exact same poll debunks its own “94% won’t buy Tesla” narrative

As of writing, 307,119 readers, or 69.9% of the study’s overall respondents, stated that they would still buy a Tesla.

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Credit: Romain Hedouin/X

As it turns out, news of Tesla’s demand death in Germany have been widely exaggerated. This is highlighted by the same poll that was used to frame the narrative that 94% of car buyers will not buy a Tesla in Germany.

So no, Tesla is not done in Germany. Nowhere close.

The Survey and the Reports

A look at the Tesla news cycle over the past few days would show that one of the biggest stories about the electric vehicle maker involved the results of a survey from German publication t-online. As per the reports, a survey of over 100,000 t-online readers has shown that 94% were not willing to buy a Tesla, and only a minuscule 3% were still willing to consider a vehicle from the American EV maker. 

t-online’s report on its survey, as well as articles that cited the study, related the alleged drop in Tesla interest in Germany to Elon Musk’s conservative politics. However, the survey itself received polarizing reactions among social media users since its respondents were self-selected. The poll also seemed open to everyone globally, so its results may not have been the most accurate.

These concerns, of course, were largely ignored and dismissed as the complaints of Tesla “cult” members or “stans,” as critics stated on social media. Unfortunately for Elon Musk/Tesla critics, it appears that t-online‘s Tesla poll is not done telling its story just yet.

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Ongoing Survey, Drastically Different Results

While t-online published its article about Tesla’s alleged decline in Germany after the study passed 100,000 responses, the survey itself was actually left open. Thus, despite articles stating that Tesla is done in Germany already spreading online, t-online’s survey was still gathering data from respondents. Interestingly enough, the survey started showing a drastically different narrative once it started getting more respondents.

As of writing, a total of 439,111 respondents have participated in t-online’s Tesla survey. As of writing, 307,119 readers, or 69.9% of the study’s overall respondents, stated that they would still buy a Tesla. A total of 128,643 readers, or 29.3% of the study’s respondents, stated that they would “absolutely no way” consider a Tesla. A total of 3,296 t-online readers, or 0.8% of the survey’s current respondents, stated that they “do not know” if they would like to buy a Tesla.

Keeping Things in Perspective

While one could argue that the current findings of the survey are probably astroturfed by Tesla “stans” or “cult” members, the fact remains that the poll itself was flawed to begin with. Its self-selected respondents could have been affected by bias, and the fact that it seemed open to all users across the globe suggests that the study may not have accurately represented Germany’s car buying public at all.

With this in mind, it would be unreasonable to argue that t-online‘s poll was completely accurate up to its first 100,000 respondents but inaccurate when more respondents answered the survey. The reports that emerged from the first 100,000 respondents of the poll concluded that Tesla was finished in Germany. Following the same logic, one could argue that such reports were premature, and based on updated data from the same survey, Tesla still enjoys majority support in Germany.

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BYD debuts 5-minute EV charging system

BYD debuts a 5-minute EV charging system, rivaling ICE refuel times! With a 1,000 kW peak charge, will this tech speed up global EV adoption?

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(Credit: BYD)

BYD recently debuted a 5-minute electric vehicle (EV) charging system, a game-changer in the ever-growing industry.

BYD’s 5-minute EV charging system means all-electric cars can charge as fast as internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles fill up at a gas station. EV charging times remain one of the concerns consumers dwell over when transitioning from ICE to electric vehicles. BYD’s new 5-minute EV charging system might expedite electric vehicle adoption across the globe.

According to Reuters, BYD plans to build a 5-minute EV charging network across China. The Chinese automaker calls its rapid charging technology, the “super e-platform.” It can reach a peak charge of 1,000 kilowatts (kW). BYD’s super e-platform can fully charge an electric vehicle with a range of 249 miles (400 km) in 5 minutes.

BYD has developed a few technologies to create its 5-minute megawatt charging system. For instance, BYD developed batteries with a 10C charging multiplier, meaning they can charge at 10 times the cell’s capacity per hour. The Chinese automaker has also created high-power motors, high-volt silicon carbide power chips, and fast chargers that support 1,000 kW of power.

Tesla, which would be BYD’s biggest competition in the EV charging space, has a 400-volt system that can charge up to 250 kW for its EVs. The Tesla Cybertruck uses an 800-volt architecture with a maximum rate of 350 kW. Meanwhile, the Tesla Semi truck has a 1,000-volt powertrain.

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BYD’s 5-minute megawatt charging system could make significant waves in the EV industry. However, it would depend on the super e-platform’s compatibility with other EVs.

Tesla has managed to open its Supercharger Network to non-Tesla EVs, helping it grow and reach new customers. The company has also managed to get other EV makers to adopt its NACS connectors, at least in the United States. It would be interesting to see if BYD can gather as much support for its rapid charging system in China and among Chinese EV manufacturers.

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