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Large Tesla Megapack fleet spotted at Lathrop Megafactory

Credit: Tesla Inc.

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The Tesla Megafactory at Lathrop, California is playing a growing role in the company’s overall operations. This was highlighted in a recent drone flyover of the facility, which showed more than 330 Megapack batteries in the Megafactory’s holding lots. 

Tesla Energy is starting to take a larger role in the company’s overall operations. As noted by Tesla in its Q1 2024 Update Letter, Tesla energy generation and storage revenues were up 7% year-over-year and gross profit was up 140% YoY, driven by increased Megapack deployments. Elon Musk reiterated this point during the first quarter earnings call, with the CEO stating that Tesla Energy reached record profitability in Q1 2024. 

“The Tesla team did a great job executing in a tough environment and energy storage deployments of Megapack, in particular, reached an all-time high in Q1 leading to record profitability for the energy business. And that looks likely to continue to increase in the quarters and years ahead,” Musk said

Aerial footage taken of the Lathrop Megafactory on April 25, 2024, which as taken by longtime Tesla watcher Met God in Wilderness, suggests that the facility remains extremely busy this second quarter. Based on the video, it appeared that the facility’s holding lots were filled with 334 Megapack batteries. This is not a record number for the Lathrop site, but it is still substantial, with Tesla watchers previously estimating that such a number of batteries is worth about ~$500 million in revenue.

Tesla’s production ramp of the Megapack at Lathrop was discussed during the Q1 earnings call. As per Tesla executives, the ramp of the Megafactory is moving along as planned, and a second general assembly line is expected to enable the facility to increase its exit rate to 40 GWh per year at the end of 2025. 

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“Lathrop is ramping as planned. We have our second GA line allowing us to increase our exit rate from 20 GWh per year to — at the start of this year to 40 GWh per year by the end of the year. That line is commissioned. There’s really nothing limiting the ramp. Given the longer sales cycles for these large projects, we typically have order visibility 12 to 24 months prior to ship dates. So, we’re able to plan the build plan several quarters in advance. So, this allows us to ramp the factory to align with the business and order growth,” Tesla executives noted. 

Watch a recent drone flyover of Tesla’s Lathrop Megafactory in the video below. 

Don’t hesitate to contact us with news tips. Just send a message to simon@teslarati.com to give us a heads up.

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Tesla’s Supercharger Diner probably just secured more locations

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tesla diner
Credit: Tesla

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:

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.

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Investor's Corner

Tesla short sellers win big after shares fall after earnings

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A red Tesla Roadster driving around a turn
(Credit: Tesla)

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 BloombergShares 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.

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Tesla door handle saga gets its latest chapter and a big change is coming

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Credit: Tesla | Model 3 Owner's Manual

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.

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.

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