Partners involved in yet another Tesla Megapack project in Australia have reached a financial close, as the upcoming site also begins construction.

On Monday, renewables provider Equis Australia announced closing on the $260 million deal for 138 two-hour Megapack units in Tamworth, New South Wales (NSW), set to back a 250MW/500MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). Dubbed the “Calala” BESS, Equis says the project will store enough power to supply electricity for as many as 115,000 homes during peak usage.

The Calala project is expected to become fully operational by 2027, and it will be constructed in two independent project phases, bringing 100MW and an additional 150MW online in sequence. Located about 5.8 kilometers (~3.6 miles) to the southeast of the Tamworth town centre, the Calala battery will be connected to the NSW grid using an underground cable leading to Tamworth’s 330kV Substation.

172 Megapacks and over a million solar panels 🤯 https://t.co/c5Ym3joxYw

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) March 17, 2025

READ MORE ON TESLA MEGAPACKS: Tesla and Arevon team up on 172-Megapack solar plus project

The BESS is also expected to create around 170 new roles during construction, and as many as seven ongoing positions upon launching operations. The first 100MW portion of the Calala project will be devoted to supplying a partnership with provider Smartest Energy, while Tesla’s Autobidder real-time trading and control platform will be used to manage and oversee energy transactions to make the 150MW project a merchant BESS.

The financial deal includes the sale of $260 million in non-recourse debt financing package from lenders Westpac, Societe Generale, and the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. The agreement will also include a Voluntary Planning Agreement (VPA) for the Calala project to contribute a total of $2 million to the Tamworth Regional Council over time.

Equis Australia also has several other BESS projects, primarily located near its headquarters in Melbourne, along with those scattered around the Sydney and Brisbane areas. The company’s Australia branch says it has 16 BESS projects in its portfolio, along with 11 onshore wind projects, together which total 9.6GW of renewable energy capacity.

The renewable provider is also nearing completion of a massive 600MW/1,600MWh BESS outside of Melbourne sporting 444 Tesla Megapack units, which is expected to become operational later this year.

Currently, Tesla produces most of its Megapacks in Lathrop, California, though the company recently shipped its first units from a new Megafactory in Shanghai, China to Australia. The manufacturer has also begun building a third Megafactory in Waller County, Texas, just a couple of hours east of Tesla’s Gigafactory Texas.

Tesla has joined the Australian Energy Council

Tesla Model Y inventory is apparently moving pretty quickly as the legacy version of the best-selling car in the world is now sold out in many U.S. states.

With the introduction of the new Tesla Model Y, the legacy version of the vehicle is now no longer being produced. The units that are available are the final ones that Tesla will produce as it is sunsetting the old look of the all-electric crossover.

As production has stopped on this specific version of the Model Y, Tesla is offering some great deals on the vehicle…that is, if it is still available for delivery in your area.

Since the new Model Y has started production and deliveries, 29 U.S. states have now sold out of the old vehicle’s look:

NEWS: New Tesla Model Y inventory is now completely sold out in Texas, Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Georgia, Utah, Virginia, Alabama, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Indianapolis, Iowa, Nebraska, Hawaii,… pic.twitter.com/hTZgDexgmE

— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) March 23, 2025

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Tesla is offering over $5,000 off of some of these Model Ys in an effort to move inventory and make room for the new Model Y at its showrooms across the country.

For what it is worth, the legacy Model Y is still a fantastic vehicle, and picking it up through inventory is still a great idea, considering it holds a lot of great tech and is now being offered at a great price.

In the United States, Tesla is still only offering the new Launch Series version of the Model Y, which comes with the company’s Full Self-Driving suite, some exclusive badging, and premium interior, among other things.

Until those lower-cost trims arrive, sales figures for the new Model Y will be restricted to the Launch Series trim. We likely won’t see a launch of Rear-Wheel-Drive or All-Wheel-Drive configurations of the new Model Y until the inventory of the previous version starts to dwindle down a tad more.

Launching those trims now would cannibalize the legacy Model Y vehicles, as most consumers would rather have the new vehicle with the upgrades than the older version — even if it means a substantially lower price.

Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous driving unit, is still unchallenged in the robotaxi sector, outpacing Tesla’s Cybercab and FSD system. This is, at least, according to John Krafcik, Waymo’s former CEO. 

Krafcik shared his thoughts on Waymo, Tesla, and the Cybercab in an interview with Business Insider.

Still Not a Competitor

Krafcik, who led Waymo until 2021, previously noted that Tesla is just an electric vehicle maker with a “really good driver assistance system.” In his recent comments, the ex-Waymo CEO noted that his position regarding Tesla is still the same.

“Tesla has aspired to compete with Waymo for nearly ten years, but they still don’t. They’re a car company with a driver-assist system. They haven’t delivered a single fully autonomous revenue-generating ride yet, something Waymo is already doing a million times a month,” Krafcik noted.

Tesla is currently aiming to launch a robotaxi service using its Unsupervised FSD system around June 2025. Waymo, for its part, has noted that it is providing over 200,000 rides a week across several U.S. cities.

Cybercab Design Criticism

Tesla’s Cybercab, a sleek, two-seat robotaxi revealed in 2024, failed to impress Krafcik. While the Cybercab looks like a vehicle straight out of a science-fiction story, the former Waymo CEO noted that a company serious about building a safe and accessible robotaxi would not come up with an autonomous car that looks like the Cybercab.

“If a company were serious about building a safe and accessible robotaxi business, it would look nothing like what was shown,” Krafcik noted. He also defended Waymo’s use of multiple sensors on its vehicles. “The cost of a robust sensor set, including lidar, is trivial on a per-mile basis. Even more so for mapping. And the safety benefits measured in human harm reduction are real and verifiable.”

Three to Five-Year Lead

Ultimately, Krafcik noted that Waymo should have an edge in the robotaxi business for at least three to five years. “They are the only company in the world successfully deploying an embodied AI replacement for a licensed human driver that can be integrated into any vehicle — and doing this at scale with third-party data verifying significant performance and safety advantages over human drivers,” he stated.