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Tesla’s Elon Musk will meet with Indonesian officials once again to discuss nickel

Credit: Instagram | luhut.pandjaitan

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk is reportedly set to meet with Indonesian President Joko Widodo as early as this week to discuss electric vehicle supply chain development in the Southeast Asian country.

Tesla representatives traveled to Indonesia last week to discuss nickel production at a hub in the country, according to a report from Reuters. The reps, who have not traveled back to the United States yet, were confirmed to be in Indonesia to visit the nickel plant by Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the country’s Coordinating Minister of Investment and Maritime Affairs.

“They will visit Morowali. They are very satisfied with the data they have received so far,” Luhut said.

Luhut met with Musk in April to discuss Indonesia’s nickel mines at Tesla’s new Gigafactory Texas facility outside of Austin. “I did not expect to be greeted so cordially and cordially by the CEO of Tesla, Inc. Elon Musk, at the Tesla Giga Factory in Austin, Texas,” Luhut said in an Instagram post. “This is indeed the first time for Elon and I to meet, but actually, our communication has been established for the past two years. For about an hour, I conveyed the potential raw material for electric vehicle batteries, which we are currently exploring through the mineral downstream program.”

Nickel has become an extremely high-demand material as electric vehicle battery production has started to increase across the automotive industry. Now that so many automakers are developing EVs, the supply of battery materials is where many companies are beginning to look to develop their own cells, along with buying others from suppliers. Nickel is becoming a crucial plan for so many car companies who are scrambling to develop different cell chemistries to cater to different range ratings and performance needs.

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Tesla has signed several nickel deals, including one late last week with Vale SA, which operates a mine in Indonesia. The material will be crucial for the development of Tesla’s 4680 batteries, which are the automaker’s most high-tech cells and are being put in Model Ys built from its new Texas plant.

Indonesia, on the other hand, is working to develop a full domestic supply chain for nickel, which will eventually lead to chemical extraction, battery manufacturing, and electric vehicle production. The country’s economy, which is the largest in its region, struck several multi-billion dollar deals with South Korean and Chinese companies keen to take advantage of Indonesia’s large nickel resources.

The exact time and date of the meeting are still unknown, but President Widodo is set to be in Washington this week for a summit of Southeast Asian leaders.

I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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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

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Energy

Tesla launches first Virtual Power Plant in UK – get paid to use solar

Tesla has launched its first-ever Virtual Power Plant program in the United Kingdom.

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Credit: Tesla Energy | X

Tesla has launched its first-ever Virtual Power Plant program in the United Kingdom. This feature enables users of solar panels and energy storage systems to sell their excess energy back to the grid.

Tesla is utilizing Octopus Energy, a British renewable energy company that operates in multiple markets, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States, as the provider for the VPP launch in the region.

The company states that those who enroll in the program can earn up to £300 per month.

Tesla has operated several VPP programs worldwide, most notably in California, Texas, Connecticut, and the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. This is not the first time Tesla has operated a VPP outside the United States, as there are programs in Australia, Japan, and New Zealand.

This is its first in the UK:

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Tesla is not the only company that is working with Octopus Energy in the UK for the VPP, as it joins SolarEdge, GivEnergy, and Enphase as other companies that utilize the Octopus platform for their project operations.

It has been six years since Tesla launched its first VPP, as it started its first in Australia back in 2019. In 2024, Tesla paid out over $10 million to those participating in the program.

Tesla VPP program in California hits new capacity milestone

Participating in the VPP program that Tesla offers not only provides enrolled individuals with the opportunity to earn money, but it also contributes to grid stabilization by supporting local energy grids.

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Waymo responds to Tesla’s Robotaxi expansion in Austin with bold statement

Waymo and Tesla are surely in a battle of “mine’s bigger” right now.

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Credit: Waymo

Waymo has responded to Tesla’s Robotaxi expansion in Austin with a bold statement by extending its own geofence by a considerable margin.

Earlier this week, Tesla chose to expand its geofence for its driverless Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, substantially. The geofence more than doubled, bringing Tesla’s total serviceable area within Austin to approximately 42 square miles.

Tesla’s Robotaxi geofence in Austin grows, and its shape is hard to ignore

This put Tesla ahead of Waymo in terms of its service area in Austin, as the company’s geofence was just 37 square miles.

We reported on how significant this statement was for Tesla, as it has only been operating its driverless Robotaxi platform in Austin for less than a month, compared to Waymo, which has been there since March.

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Tesla Robotaxi has already surpassed Waymo in this key metric

Waymo took it as a challenge, it seems, and expanded its geofence, and it did it impressively and massively. Now, Waymo’s geofence spans 90 square miles within Austin, including new neighborhoods such as Crestview, Windsor Park, Sunset Valley, Franklin Park, as well as popular tourist destinations like The Domain and McKinney Falls State Park.

The move “unlocks another key milestone in Austin as our operating territory with Waymo expands from 37 to 90 square miles, which means that even more riders can experience Waymo’s fully autonomous vehicles through the Uber app,” Sarfraz Maredia, Global Head of Autonomous Mobility & Delivery at Uber, said.

Additionally, Shweta Shrivastava, Senior Director of Product Management at Waymo, said:

“Just months after serving our first Austin riders with Uber, we’re excited to offer our 24/7 service to more of the city. The service with our partners at Uber is healthy, and we are ready for more Austinites to experience the magic of fully autonomous driving. Austin remains one of the fastest growing cities in the country, and we are doing our part to grow with it.”

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Across the U.S., this expansion brings Waymo’s service area to more than 700 square miles, as it also operates in California and Arizona.

Here’s what the two geofenced regions look like:

The competition between Waymo and Tesla only benefits consumers, as the two companies are evidently sparring for a larger service area in Austin. Tesla launched its interestingly-shaped geofence expansion on Monday, and it seemed that the shape was more of a joke that could also be construed as a warning to competitors.

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Tesla could more than likely have pushed its geofence to a larger size, but it purposely chose to do so in a comical fashion.

Now that Waymo has responded in this way, we’ll see if Tesla puts the jokes aside.

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Tesla exec hints at useful and potentially killer Model Y L feature

The Model Y L could become the company’s vehicle that offers the best balance between utility and comfort.

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Credit: Tesla China

A Tesla executive from China has hinted at what could very well be a killer feature for the upcoming Model Y L. If speculations prove accurate, the Model Y L could become the company’s vehicle that offers the best balance between utility and comfort, possibly even exceeding what is offered by Tesla’s flagship vehicles.

Model Y L teaser

The Tesla Model Y L is expected to be a six-seat version of the best-selling all-electric crossover. With its six seats, the new Model Y L would be able to provide ample leg room to third-row passengers—something that the seven-seat Model Ys produced in the United States were unable to do.

With six seats, the Model Y L would be closer in size and more similar to the larger and much more expensive Model X, which remains Tesla’s de facto family hauler. The six-seat Model X, however, has one flaw that makes it a bit less useful than its seven-seat variant–its second row seats don’t fold fully flat.

Second row magic

In a post on Weibo, Tesla Vice President for China Grace Tao described the upcoming Model Y L as a “full-scene 6-seat luxury SUV.” This description, particularly the executive’s “full-scene” description, is notable, with Tesla China watchers such as @zhongwen2005 stating that “full-scene” typically means that all seats can be folded flat.

If Tesla is able to design the Model Y L’s second row seats to fold flat, it would provide the extended wheelbase vehicle with a lot more utility than typical six-seaters, including the six-seat Model X. And considering that the Model Y L will likely be priced just above the standard Model Y, its price would likely be extremely competitive, even in challenging markets such as China. 

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