Tesla Model S is closing in on 400 miles of range per charge. With this update, Tesla has definitively extended its lead in the EV market, putting it far ahead — at least from a range perspective — against its biggest competitors. What’s rather interesting is that the Model S’ 390-mile range is just the tip of the iceberg.
Being a constantly-innovating company, it’s difficult to put the finger on the generations of vehicles that Tesla releases. Yet one look at the company’s upcoming electric cars and one would know that its next vehicles will feature next-generation technology. The Model Y, for example, is built from the company’s experiences with the Model 3, and pictures of the all-electric crossover in the assembly line hint that its casting may be quite unique. Tesla will likely not experience as many challenges ramping the Model Y compared to its previous vehicles, and this is likely due to the company’s experience.
There’s the Semi and the Cybertruck as well, both of which are large vehicles that would otherwise require a ton of batteries to get their estimated range. Yet in the case of the Cybertruck, the vehicle will be offering over 500 miles of range for less than $70,000. How Tesla will accomplish this remains to be seen, but Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry noted that the Cybertruck is on a “completely different technology orbit” after taking a test ride in the all-electric truck at Tesla’s Fremont factory.
Some of these improvements are already coming soon. Later this year, Tesla is expected to release the Model S’ Plaid Powertrain variant, which will be track-capable and boast an insane amount of power with its tri-motor setup. Elon Musk noted recently on Twitter that the Plaid Model S has “absurd” performance, though the electric car maker will ensure that the vehicle still gets enough range. This comment may seem like a typical Elon Musk update, but it shows a lot about Tesla’s experience as a veteran electric car maker.
Making an electric car is not easy. Making a great electric car is twice as difficult. This is something that veteran automakers are now learning, with each vehicle that they release. Premium EVs seem to be the ones learning this lesson the hardest, especially as otherwise great cars like the Audi e-tron and the Jaguar I-PACE end up being bogged down by issues such as range. Yet among carmakers and “Tesla Killers” that have come out, the Porsche Taycan seems to be the best example of this experience gap.
The Porsche Taycan is a beautifully-designed electric sports car, and it works like one. It’s top-tier variant, the $185,000 Taycan Turbo S, is arguably the only vehicle that can beat a Raven Model S Performance on the drag strip fair and square. Yet for all its speed and power, the Taycan suffers from poor efficiency, as evidenced by the Turbo S’ 192-mile EPA rated range. Granted, tests from motoring publication Car and Driver suggest that the Taycan’s range is more tuned for Autobahn driving, but the gap between the vehicle and the Model S is very evident. This becomes even more notable when one considers that both cars’ battery packs are similarly-sized.
The Model S’ Long Range Plus update means that through incremental improvements on electric car batteries, Tesla is now able to draw out 390 miles out of a 100 kWh pack. That’s just about 20 miles short of Rivian’s 400-mile trucks, and those vehicles are equipped with a 180 kWh battery pack. This matters a lot, and this is a benchmark that will probably take a few years to beat.
During Porsche’s Annual Press Conference last year, the company’s executives focused a lot of their discussions on the Taycan, whose development represented a multi-billion-dollar initiative for the company. Following the main conference, I was fortunate enough to be part of a group of reporters who were able to get a brief Q&A session with Porsche Board Member for Sales and Marketing Detlev Von Platen. When it was my turn to ask a question, I inquired about Porsche’s strategy about the Taycan’s range, and how the company plans to prevent the vehicle from being the electric equivalent of a gas guzzler.
The Board Member’s response did not directly address my inquiry, though he did emphasize that Porsche is no neophyte with battery tech due to its efforts with high-performance hybrid sports cars like the 918 Spyder. This is a fair point to make, of course, though looking at the Taycan’s range, it appears that the company still needs a few more iterations of its flagship electric car before it can expertly balance performance and range in a pure EV. The Tesla Model S Plaid is coming to establish itself as the undisputed king of consumer EVs, after all. If Elon Musk’s words are any indication, it would be a triple-motor monster with frighteningly quick acceleration and a range that’s still close to 400 miles.
That’s going to be a far tougher rival than the Tesla Model S Performance.
A Tesla Semi caught fire in Hayward, California, which caused both directions of traffic to shut down for hours before being completely reopened early on Wednesday, the California Highway Patrol said.
The fire occurred just after 5:30 local time in Hayward on Tuesday, as the Semi caught fire in the southbound lanes of I-880 before CHP officials made the decision to shut down both lanes of traffic due to potential risks from hazardous chemical smoke.
There were no injuries reported.
🚨 A Tesla Semi reportedly caught fire, with California Highway Patrol confirming. The Semi was on I-880 SB
An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 semi-truck and large commercial vehicle fires occur on U.S. roadways every year
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2026
The cause of the fire is currently unknown, as neither Tesla nor the CHP have not determined a cause.
However, some images taken before the Semi was completely destroyed by the fire seem to indicate this might have been an older unit, as it appears to be one of the designs that Tesla shipped as part of its pilot program, before revising it and starting mass production just a month ago.
@Tslachan From on of the videos looks like it’s an old Semi (not the refresh version that recently started production) https://t.co/KzwmR2kXow
— Area Under The Curve 🎗️ (@AreaUnderCurve) October 28, 2026
At the time of publication, CHP had not returned our request for a comment for additional details, including the Semi involved and any potential collaboration on an investigation between the CHP and Tesla. We will update this story when we hear back from them.
The southbound lanes were reopened at 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, with the northbound lanes opening last night a few hours after the fire began. The CHP did state that the lithium batteries were “incredibly difficult to extinguish,” according to NBC Bay Area.
The truck’s driver said that the Semi caught fire, but he did not have an explanation.
An estimated 5,000 to 7,000 semi-truck and large commercial vehicle fires occur on U.S. roadways every year.
Tesla’s launch of the “Emergency Drive Away” function a few months back offered owners a safe option to evacuate an area if they were in reasonable danger. The function finally got its first use in the real world, but it appears it was by mistake.
A video shared by u/Joshalander in the r/TeslaLounge subreddit recorded the instance from his vehicle and said the incident took place in Austin this past weekend during the city’s F1 Race.
“Was charging around 6 AM this past Sunday in Austin before heading to the F1 race and heard a pop. Looked over and saw the new emergency drive-away feature in action. Genuinely felt bad for the dude when he got out and realized what happened, since he looked exhausted and only seemed to half-read the prompts.”
🚨 Here’s the first look at Tesla’s Emergency Drive Away function in action:
Apparently this driver accidentally enabled it and drove forward; you can see the Supercharger pull with the car.
Tesla said previously this would cost up to $25k if not used properly. https://t.co/B4qQRrsO6B
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) October 28, 2026
Emergency Drive Away unlatches the Supercharger connector from the vehicle, but still causes damage to both the car and the Supercharger. Tesla has said that it will cost up to $25,000 in repairs to have everything fixed back to normal.
Additionally, the company said that if it were not used in an emergency situation, the driver of the vehicle who activated the Emergency Drive Away feature would be responsible for all repair costs.
Tesla constitutes the following situations as reasonable justifications for activating the feature:
- You face an immediate threat to your life or personal safety.
- You must leave the area immediately.
- Exiting the vehicle is unsafe.
- Unplugging the charge connector would unreasonably delay your departure or expose you to a risk to your personal safety.
After using the feature, Tesla requires the driver to schedule Service so the car can be inspected.
News
Tesla’s Cybercab battery design could make robotaxis even cheaper
Tesla built the Cybercab’s battery pack with spare room for a future switch to LFP.
Tesla built the Cybercab’s battery pack with empty space inside it on purpose, and the reason points to a cheaper robotaxi down the road.
Robert Sumpf, Tesla’s director of mechanical design engineering for battery modules and packs, said the extra room beside and beneath the Cybercab’s modules was left there so the company can move to lithium iron phosphate cells later. “So, we protected this pack to go to an even lower energy dense chemistry as we scale and need to bring LFP into the platform,” Sumpf said in a Cybercab deep dive with Munro Live.
The Cybercab runs on Tesla’s own 4680 cells with a nickel chemistry today. LFP cells store less energy for their size, so a straight swap would cut range. The reserved space lets Tesla add more LFP cells to make up the difference. In return, Tesla would get cells that cost less, run cooler and survive more charge cycles. LFP became the most used EV battery chemistry in the world last year.
Not all of that room was planned for a chemistry change. Lars Moravy, Tesla’s Vice President of Vehicle Engineering, said part of it exists because “we didn’t need as many batteries as we thought we did.” Tesla told Sandy Munro in early 2025 that it was targeting a Cybercab pack under 50 kWh with close to 300 miles of range.
The pack also breaks from the structural design Tesla used in some Model Y and Cybertruck builds. Instead of potting hundreds of cells into one block, the Cybercab uses four separate, individually sealed modules, so a bad module can be replaced without scrapping the whole pack. Sumpf was blunt about the older approach, giving the Model Y structural battery “a grade D” because it was hard to build and nearly impossible to repair. He estimated a fully structural pack gains about 10% more cell volume, but said “the issue is the service cost.”
That cost matters more for a car that rarely sits parked. Cybercab chief engineer Eric Earley said replacing an entire pack “before half a million miles is a killer on cost,” which is why remanufacturing and serviceability were built into the design from the start.
The same Munro Live tour produced Moravy’s admission that the Cybercab line at Giga Texas is now outpacing Robotaxi deployments, along with a look at the robotaxi’s unorthodox paint process. Tesla is aiming to deliver the first Cybercabs to outside customers by the end of 2026, though Elon Musk has said the vast majority will stay owned by Tesla and run as a transport service.
Sumpf did not give a date for an LFP version, name a cell supplier or say how a chemistry change would affect range. For now, the 4680 cars keep piling up: Texas DMV records from Tuesday list 544 Cybercabs authorized for Tesla’s Robotaxi fleet, more than the 507 Model Ys on the same roster for the first time.
Tesla Semi catches fire in California: what we know
Tesla’s ‘Emergency Drive Away’ function gets its first use in the real world
