Connect with us

News

Home Sweet Home: Tesla discreetly places Cybertruck inside Giga Texas

Credit: Terafactory Texas | YouTube

Published

on

Tesla is continuing construction at Giga Texas, and it appears that it has discreetly placed a future resident of the facility on the second floor: the Tesla Cybertruck.

Spotted in a new drone video from Terafactory Texas, the Cybertruck has been placed upstairs at the facility as construction continues to roll on in the plant that is located just outside Austin city limits. Following a brief appearance at the factory, the Elon Musk-commanded Cybertruck appeared at the plant in mid-April to give employees and workers on site a sneak peek at what the all-electric truck looks like in real life. It seemed that Tesla had then taken the Cybertruck off of the Texas property and transported it to New York, where it made an appearance at the Tesla Showroom located in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan at 860 Washington Street.

Elon Musk shares update on SNL appearance, says everyone is being friendly

While it is not known if this is the same prototype that graced Giga Texas employees a month ago, or if it is the same Cybertruck that rolled through the streets of Manhattan last weekend, the Cybertruck seems to be getting acclimated with its future digs as the truck will be produced at the Giga Texas factory when production begins. With plans to begin limited production by the end of 2021, the Cybertruck will be one of the first all-electric pickups on the market, likely following the R1T from Rivian, which is slated for deliveries in the coming months.

Since the Cybertruck’s dedicated unveiling event in November 2019, Musk has made several comments regarding the design, production processes, and overall build of the all-electric pickup. The most recent modifications that Musk announced had to deal with the vehicle’s dimensions. After noting that an anxiety-filled entrance into the Boring Company tunnel in Hawthorne, California, gave him concerns, Musk indicated that the truck would be smaller, but only by a fraction.

Advertisement

He said to Joe Rogan on an episode of the comedian’s podcast:

“That’s pretty much what it [the Cybertruck] will look like, with very small differences. You know, we adjusted the size a few percent. Like around 3% or smaller. You don’t want it to be a couple of inches too big for the tunnel.”

Additionally, Musk also indicated that the stainless steel alloy that is responsible for creating the truck’s “Exoskeleton” will also be subject to changes as new, more robust alloys are discovered. “We’re rapidly changing alloy constituents & forming methods, so traditional names like 304L will become more of an approximation,” Musk told Teslarati when commenting on an article regarding an upgraded Starship prototype in July 2020. Musk confirmed that the alloy changes would also come to the Cybertruck as well.

The Cybertruck was spotted on the second floor of the Giga Texas facility. Credit: Texas Terafactory | YouTube

The Cybertruck’s underside will also be manufactured with the use of an 8,000-tonne Giga Press from IDRA. Tesla uses the Giga Press to create single-piece castings of the Model Y crossover to increase structural rigidity and improve manufacturing efficiency.

While Cybertruck production is still several months away, Tesla has the truck stored at the facility that has been deemed the “Cybertruck factory” by some. Production of the Tri-Motor and Dual-Motor variants will begin first, with the Single-Motor configuration becoming available in late 2022 if all goes according to the company’s plan.

Check out Terafactory Texas’ video of the Cybertruck inside the factory below around the 7:10 mark.

Advertisement

https://youtu.be/3Qwp4cfsXpE

Joey has been a journalist covering electric mobility at TESLARATI since August 2019. In his spare time, Joey is playing golf, watching MMA, or cheering on any of his favorite sports teams, including the Baltimore Ravens and Orioles, Miami Heat, Washington Capitals, and Penn State Nittany Lions. You can get in touch with joey at joey@teslarati.com. He is also on X @KlenderJoey. If you're looking for great Tesla accessories, check out shop.teslarati.com

Advertisement
Comments

News

Tesla’s Supercharger Diner probably just secured more locations

Published

on

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

Advertisement

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.

Continue Reading

Investor's Corner

Tesla short sellers win big after shares fall after earnings

Published

on

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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

Continue Reading

News

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

Published

on

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.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

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.

Continue Reading