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Why Tesla Needs Bigger EVs [Featured]

(Credit: Teslarati)

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Elon Musk recently gave his approval for Tesla vehicles for bigger families. 

A few people on X recently brought Tesla’s need to roll out bigger cars for bigger families to Elon Musk. X user @realpeteyb shared the story of his latest visit to a Tesla store. 

“I was at my neighborhood Tesla store yesterday and wanted to make sure again, that the X model is not big enough for my family… It isn’t,” Petey B said in his X post.

Another X user @SeibtNaoimi shared Petey B’s post, commenting: “We need big Teslas for big families!”

“Tesla has proven to be the most efficient and popular car on the market. But if we want more babies and repopulate the West, we need bigger models to support the lifestyle,she added, tagging Elon Musk. 

Musk read Naomi Seibt’s X post and simply replied,OK. 

Bigger Teslas for Everyone

Petey B and Naomi Seibt perfectly explained why Tesla needs to launch bigger cars. However, Western countries aren’t the only ones that need bigger Teslas. Bigger Teslas would be in demand in other regions worldwide as well. 

When Musk first mentioned the Tesla van, I knew it would be the Tesla I aimed to buy. Coming from a Filipino-American family, I knew I’d need a bigger Tesla. While growing up in New Jersey, I was surrounded by family, and it just kept growing through the years with more babies, cousins, visiting relatives, etc. 

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Needless to say, we never really fit in one car. We liked taking big family trips, and it would take at least three vehicles to transport all of us. At one point, we tried renting one big van to head to the Poconos, and it wasn’t big enough because of everyone’s luggage. We celebrated each others milestones too and often showed up for each other on special occasions, so we also took up a lot of parking space during graduations, family dinners, etc.

So, the idea of a bigger Tesla is great for more people than Musk might think. It isn’t just about having more babies, either. Now that I have a family, I realize that more babies also takes more people to care for them. In the Philippines, where I live now, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and even cousins are more involved in family activities—and they all need to fit in at least one or two cars. 

Last year, my parents and two sisters visited the Philippines, and we totaled seven people, including my husband, our son, and myself. Our car fit approximately seven people, but I had to borrow my uncle’s van during my parents and sisters’ stay so we could travel the Philippines AND carry our belongings. 

When Tesla launched the Robovan, I was a little sad because it was more like a Tesla bus. A Tesla that’s a little bigger than the Tesla Model X or Model Y and smaller than the Tesla Robovan with plenty of cargo space would be great for all Tesla customers with bigger families anywhere in the world.

The Teslarati team would appreciate hearing from you. If you have any tips, contact me at maria@teslarati.com or via Twitter @Writer_01001101.

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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Tesla launches V2L Outlet Adapter for Premium Model Y in the U.S.

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Credit: Tesla

Tesla has launched a new Vehicle-to-Load (V2L) Outlet Adapter for Premium Model Y vehicles in the United States, meaning you can now power devices like laptops or light strings with your vehicle’s battery.

It appears the capability will be available for any Model Y Premium trim, including those that were purchased prior to the Adapter being launched. It will also only impact Juniper Model Y vehicles, so the first-gen owners will unfortunately not have access to this capability.

If your Model Y was purchased before Tesla renamed the trim levels to “Premium” and “Standard,” it does not seem to be compatible. My Model Y is technically a Premium build, as it is the Long Range All-Wheel-Drive. However, Tesla says it is not compatible with my vehicle.

For $80, you can now utilize your car as a portable charger for small appliances or devices. This is perfect for things like tailgates, concerts, or camping, as you can now plug in devices that you might use. Those string lights for camping? That laptop for the other games that are on at the tailgate?

They’ll both utilize energy from your Tesla’s battery to be powered. This is the first time Tesla has expanded the capability to vehicles outside of the Model Y Performance and Cybertruck. However, this feature has been highly requested by owners for an extended period of time.

Tesla launched the Outlet Adapter in China last year:

Tesla China rolls out Model Y L V2L adapter, and it’s free for early owners

You will need the Mobile Connector to operate the Outlet Adapter: the Outlet Adapter will plug into the main housing of the Mobile Connector, where the appropriate adapter to charge your vehicle will plug in.

It is rated for 120 volts and 20 amps, and has a max power rating of 2.4kW.

You can buy it here from Tesla for $80.

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Tesla Roadster unveiling nears, and it will fly: The Information

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(Credit: Dami Kolz/Twitter)

Tesla is nearing its long-awaited unveiling of the all-electric Tesla Roadster, a new report from The Information claims, as the company has said several times this year that the event would take place “soon.”

Now, it appears there is movement on Tesla’s end regarding when it will happen.

The report says that Tesla will unveil the Roadster as soon as this month with a SpaceX version that will utilize cold-gas thrusters to help the vehicle float for a short period of time. This is something CEO Elon Musk has talked about with the Roadster for years.

Additionally, due to the delays, Tesla explored “a variety of designs” for the Roadster, potentially planning to abandon the design it showed off for the first time in 2017 and adopting an entirely new aesthetic.

According to The Information, Tesla considered utilizing a repurposed Model S Plaid and even wanted to upgrade the look to something like a Lamborghini Countach.

Elon Musk teases Tesla Roadster unveiling once again

We’ve heard all of these things before, including teases about the date and how “soon” the Roadster will finally be ready to be shown off to the world (for the second time). Musk said that the event would occur in April, then May, then Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen continued to say it would be coming “soon.”

We do expect to see the Roadster by the end of the year, and now with this new report swirling, it appears it could be sooner rather than later.

The wait has been incredibly long, but there is likely a good reason for it. Tesla’s desire to make the Roadster the craziest vehicle on the road was non-negotiable, and it likely took a lot of time and resources to develop and perfect into something that was safe and suitable for a vehicle like this.

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Tesla finally got its Nevada Robotaxi Permit but with a few catches hard to miss

Nevada granted Tesla’s robotaxi permit, but capped the fleet at just ten vehicles for now.

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Concept art of a Tesla Cybercab in Las Vegas Strip as rendered via Grok

Tesla has received its robotaxi permit in Nevada, more than two months after regulators closed the public comment period on the company’s application. News of the approval surfaced Wednesday night when Tesla investor and longtime company watcher Sawyer Merritt posted a copy of the interim order, and the Nevada Transportation Authority’s own carrier registry now lists the permit, AVNC Permit 002 under Docket 26-05015, as active for Tesla Robotaxi, LLC.

Tesla asked Nevada in June for authority to run up to 5,000 vehicles in Clark County within a year, however the permit the NTA issued is initially capping Tesla at ten fully autonomous vehicles and confines them to a defined geofence along the Las Vegas Strip corridor. Any expansion of that operating area, or any increase to the fleet size, requires the NTA’s approval first.

The order also sets rules that look more restrictive than what Tesla runs in Austin. Rides are barred on roads with posted speed limits above 45 miles per hour, pickups are off limits within a quarter mile of Harry Reid International Airport without separate authorization, and every vehicle has to carry visible “Robotaxi” markings while notifying riders before each trip that no one is driving. The order also requires “appropriate human supervision”, language that suggests Nevada isn’t ready to let Tesla offer the rides without a safety monitor that it has run in parts of Austin since January. As with standard protocol with robotaxi services, Tesla must report any accident, system failure, or vehicle that becomes stranded on a Nevada road within five business days.

Tesla is entering a market Nevada already knows well. Zoox, the Amazon owned robotaxi company, has run its own autonomous vehicle permit in the state since last year, building up to roughly 100 vehicles and 350,000 rides along the Strip. That history likely explains why the NTA started Tesla at ten cars rather than the fleet size the company asked for. The agency has a template for scaling a permit up once a company proves out its safety record.

Tesla’s Nevada application first surfaced in June, when the company filed for the permit alongside plans for a maintenance hub in southwest Las Vegas. The company has said it won’t meaningfully scale its robotaxi fleet anywhere until FSD v15 ships, expected in late 2026 or early 2027, which makes the ten vehicle cap less of a constraint today than it might look on paper. For now, Tesla has the legal right to start Nevada rides. Whether it starts before FSD v15 arrives is a separate question the permit doesn’t answer.

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