News
Tesla Cybertruck rivals: These are the titans waiting for Elon Musk’s all-electric pickup
Automotive industry veteran Sandy Munro is a familiar face and voice in the electric car sector. Recently, Munro completed a multi-episode series tearing down the Model Y, identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the all-electric crossover from top to bottom. With that project coming to an end, Munro has shifted his focus on Tesla’s next vehicle: the Cybertruck. Munro plans to begin producing a new series that will identify the finer points of the Cybertruck and its competitors, and what Tesla will have to do to disrupt the popular pickup truck sector, which is filled with brand loyalty.
Tesla’s Cybertruck, the all-electric pickup unveiled by the automaker in November 2019, is still about a year and a half away from production. However, its competitors are waiting for the uniquely designed pickup to begin its first production phases, anxious to determine whether the truck will do exactly what Tesla is doing in the sedan market: disrupt the sector by offering features and specifications that simply cannot be replicated.
Munro believes that Tesla will have its hands full competing with the GMCs, the Chevys, and the Dodges of the pickup market. Between the Dodge Ram, the Ford F-150, and the Chevrolet Silverado, 2,000,000 units were sold in 2019, and Munro thinks that Tesla will have extreme difficulties breaking through to loyal truck owners across the US. Pickup truck owners, after all, are dead set on sticking with a manufacturer they have bought from for years more often than not.
“In Michigan, truck brand loyalty is unbelievable. So, it’s going to be tough for Tesla to make a substantial dent in the market, and they’re going to need to pay close attention to what these competitors do,” Munro said.
Munro added that trucks are on a completely different playing field compared to the rest of the automotive industry. While sedans and SUVs are inclined to have many different variations and configurations due to highly customizable body shapes and types, trucks are entirely different. Pickups, for many years, have been centralized around the same design. This design has consisted of varying sizes of cabins and a bed. All of these things can be customized in terms of size, length, and depth to an extent. However, the overall design of the pickup truck has never really changed.
Sedans and SUVs, meanwhile, carry a nearly endless number of designs and technicalities that make them individualized and unique. This characteristic is something that trucks simply do not have, and Tesla was sure to highlight this during the Cybertruck’s unveiling event in November.
Munro’s video series on the Cybertruck intends to help solve the mystery of what truck a conflicted buyer should find next. It will go much further than simple specifications, he says. “We are going to be discussing things in a little more detail than just an overview or reading of the specs…but we are not tearing these things down,” he says while standing in front of three legacy automaker trucks.
The series is sure to shed some light on the more technical findings that Munro has on the currently available trucks. However, he intends to get his hands on the Cybertruck when it is eventually released, which could be his most anticipated teardown series yet.
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:
Tesla Diner opened exactly 1 year ago. Inspiring that futuristic places like this exist.
It’s our highest usage Supercharger in the world: 21.2 GWh delivered in a year, 1.6k sessions/day.
Top 10 Superchargers by energy delivered: https://t.co/9YvJ8lw696 pic.twitter.com/koB3AUJHws
— Max (@MdeZegher) July 21, 2026
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
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.
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 Bloomberg. Shares 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.
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.
At the time of publication, Tesla shares were down about 3 percent and the stock was trading at $309.92.
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.
🚨 The NHTSA denied a petition from Tesla that would have thrown out concerns regarding its door handles.
NHTSA said Tesla’s petition did not present evidence of a safety-related defect warranting an investigation. The agency said a rulemaking process would be a better strategy. pic.twitter.com/j6PzUBM1mT
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 24, 2026
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.
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.
Tesla’s Supercharger Diner probably just secured more locations
Tesla short sellers win big after shares fall after earnings
