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Tesla Hornsdale Battery delivers inertia services at scale

Credit: Neoen Australia

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Neoen Australia thanked its partners, including Tesla, for collaborating on the Hornsdale battery’s latest achievement.

The Hornsdale Power Reserve is delivering inertia services at scale to the grid. It uses Tesla energy storage units to store and regulate renewable energy in South Australia. The Hornsdale battery was the largest battery in the world when it was first built.

What is Inertia?

A Paul Denholm et al. study defines inertia as the energy stored in large rotating generators or some industrial motors. Inertia services can contribute to the reliability or stability of a power system. 

During system failures, inertia gives systems time to respond and rebalance supply demand. Rotating electrical generators from fossil, nuclear, and hyrdoelectric power plants produce inertia. New sources of electricity generation—like solar and wind—do not inherently provide inertia because they do not rely on conventional generators. Solar, wind, and other forms of electricity generation are also called variable generation (VG).

“As VG penetration increases and conventional generators are displaced, the grid will need to be planned and operated differently to maintain reliability,” stated the study. 

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Tesla’s Inertia Services

In 2020, the Hornsdale Power Reserve upgraded its Tesla energy storage units. The upgrade introduced new services, such as “virtual inertia,” which Tesla refers to as “Virtual Machine Mode (VMM).” 

Tesla designed VMM to emulate mechanical inertia from traditional electrical generators. As of this writing, Tesla claims the Hornsdale Power Reserve can provide up to 3,000 megawatt-seconds of inertia, using Virtual Machine Mode

Virtual Machine Mode is just one of several software services Tesla Energy offers to its energy storage customers. It also offers Autobidder, Powerhub, Microgram Controller, and Opticaster.

Read Denholm et al.’s study below!

Tesla Hornsdale Battery the first to deliver inertia services at scale by Maria Merano on Scribd

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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 rivals are lagging behind alarmingly in this crucial EV necessity

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tesla supercharger
Credit: Tesla

Tesla rivals are lagging behind the company in alarming fashion in this crucial EV necessity: charging.

Tesla has had a long-standing reputation for having the most expansive electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and even as other companies have launched their own as part of the vehicle manufacturing, nobody seems to keep pace with the EV leader.

A report from Paren exhibited this trend in Q3, showing that Tesla overwhelmingly dominated EV charging stall installations over the past three months. This data is based on U.S. installations, where Tesla has long held a dominating position as the leader in overall electric vehicle sales for many years.

In Q3, Tesla installed 1,820 new chargers in the United States, bringing its total presence to 34,328, an all-time market share of 53.2 percent of all charging stalls in the country.

What’s alarming is the fact that all other networks — ChargePoint, Red E, Electrify America, EV Connect, EVgo, Ionna, Blink, Pilot Flying J, and Rivian Adventure — only installed 841 chargers collectively in Q3. That is nearly 1,000 units behind Tesla, despite there being nine companies contributing as competitors.

These nine networks have 10,055 stalls in total, the data from Paren shows, accounting for 15.6 percent of the chargers in the United States.

EV charging is such a crucial part of the ownership experience, and also a part of the ongoing expansion of EV adoption in the United States.

As more people buy EVs and they become a more prominent form of passenger transportation, more chargers are needed. Many owners charge at home, but charging options in public are important to have for traveling, commuting, and for those who do not have access to residential charging.

Tesla ownership without home charging: Here’s how it’s done

With Tesla opening its Supercharger Network to the majority of EV brands over the past two years, things have gotten better.

It has been alarming to see so many companies involved in EV infrastructure essentially accept the gap between Tesla and themselves; not a single company has tried to up its pace to catch up to what Tesla has.

When it comes down to it, as long as there is charging, the manufacturer does not truly matter.

However, it would be nice to see Tesla have some competition in the space, but with its domination and head start in the infrastructure division, it seems the company will have this competitive advantage for years to come.

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Tesla updates fans on its plans for the Roadster

Earlier in 2025, Musk said Tesla would host the “most epic demo” for the Roadster in late 2025. We’re in Q4, so time is running out, but we finally got the update we’ve been waiting for from von Holzhausen on the Ride the Lightning podcast yesterday.

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Tesla Roadster and Semi at Tesla Battery Day 2020 Credit: @GuyTesla | Twitter

Tesla has finally updated fans on its plans for the Roadster after stating earlier this year it would host the “most epic demo,” showcasing the vehicle’s capabilities.

The Roadster is amongst the most highly anticipated automotive releases in the entire industry, and was set for release in 2020 initially. However, Tesla got so caught up with scaling up the Model Y and focusing on autonomy that the project took a figurative backseat.

Elon Musk teases Tesla’s “most epic demo” by end of year

In the years since its planned release, we have not seen much of the vehicle. Company executives like Elon Musk and Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen have hinted at things about it and teased us with potential release dates, but each time, it has been delayed.

Last year, Tesla planned to show something, but Musk saw what improvements had been made from the original design unveiled back in 2017 and figured the company could go a step further, only delaying the project another year.

But what’s another year, right?

Earlier in 2025, Musk said Tesla would host the “most epic demo” for the Roadster in late 2025. We’re in Q4, so time is running out, but we finally got the update we’ve been waiting for from von Holzhausen on the Ride the Lightning podcast yesterday.

Confirming the demo was still on for this year, he also teased some new features that the Roadster will have, like new paint options.

Von Holzhausen said:

“I’m excited to showcase the Roadster for a lot of different reasons. The wait will be worth it.”

Additionally, he said the capabilities of the Roadster are truly something, and they have gotten the vehicle to a point that it seems to test the “limits of physics.” Franz added that Tesla has “really gotten to a point where we are going to be achieving that standard that we set out.”

Obviously, the Roadster is not a major contributor to Tesla’s mission or to its future, which mostly leans on artificial intelligence and Robotaxi or autonomy. However, it is still a product that Tesla needs to offer, as many have put massive $250,000 downpayments on the vehicle in an attempt to purchase one.

Tesla has not yet announced a date for its demo of the Roadster, but based on Franz’s interview, it seems the company is still on track to hold that by the end of the year.

The full episode with Franz von Holzhausen on the Ride the Lightning podcast is available here.

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Tesla is ramping up its hiring for the Cybercab production team

As can be seen on Tesla’s Careers website, three new Cybercab-related positions are currently available at Giga Texas.

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Credit: @serobinsonjr/X

Tesla appears to be ramping up its Cybercab team at Giga Texas. As per recent observations by the Tesla community, three new job listings on the automaker’s Careers site suggest that the company is starting to add more critical personnel for the autonomous two-seater’s production.

New Cybercab jobs

As can be seen on Tesla’s Careers website, three new Cybercab-related positions are currently available. Tesla is looking for a Metrology Technician, who will work on the Cybercab’s Quality team; an Equipment Engineer who will work on the Cybercab’s Plastics team; and a Tool & Die Supervisor, who will work in the Injection Molding team.  

All three positions are based in Austin, Texas, which is quite unsurprising as Giga Texas is the only facility today that has the capability to produce the vehicle. The Cybercab’s production is quite different compared to Tesla’s other vehicles, as it is the first car that would be produced using the company’s “Unboxed” process. 

Credit: Tesla

Unlike any car that’s produced before

Elon Musk has previously said the Cybercab will be Tesla’s highest-volume vehicle, targeting an annual rate of 2 million units. He also mentioned that the vehicle’s manufacturing line will not resemble an automotive production line at all. Instead, it would resemble a high-speed consumer electronics line, which should pave the way for one Cybercab to be produced every few seconds.

“If you’ve seen the design of the Cybercab line, it doesn’t look like a normal car manufacturing line. It looks like a really high-speed consumer electronics line. In fact, the line will move so fast that actually people can’t even get close to it. I think it’ll be able to produce a car ultimately in less than 5 seconds,” Musk stated during Tesla’s All-Hands meeting earlier this year.

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