Tesla CEO Elon Musk promised a “giant contract” to a nickel supplier during the Q2 2020 Earnings Call. The problem is that the company will have trouble finding an efficient and environmentally-friendly nickel mine, and it could prove to be Tesla’s biggest challenge yet.
Nickel is a crucial metal in electric vehicle batteries because it can increase energy density and provide cars with more range. Musk stated during the Earnings Call that nickel-based cells are essential for the development of larger vehicles, like the Tesla Semi, for example. “Where every unit of mass that you add in battery pack, you have to subtract in cargo,” he said. “So it’s very important to have a mass efficient and long-range pack.”
Nickel-based cells would give Tesla an advantage in electric vehicle range, a category where the company already leads by a sizeable margin. However, with new vehicles on the way, cells have to be adjusted to work with specific workloads. The Semi is an excellent example of this.
Nickel could replace cobalt in Tesla’s current battery cells. Cobalt, a controversial element on its own, is responsible for stabilizing the cell and has been effective in increasing the safety of the high-energy batteries that Tesla has used. However, the mining process of cobalt is questionable, and mines which can obtain it likely are using child labor, which is highly illegal. It also is not environmentally-friendly to mine.
Tesla has taken extra steps to ensure that its cobalt suppliers are treating their workers humanely through a series of due diligence checks. Third-party companies complete random visits to these mines a few times a year to ensure that the cobalt Tesla is using in its batteries is humanely obtained.
The problem is: Nickel mining isn’t much different. Although it would be advantageous, safer, and provide more range for Tesla’s vehicles, it is tough to find nickel that is environmentally-friendly and responsibly mines. The largest nickel sources are in Indonesia, where millions of tonnes of waste are dumped into the sea, polluting coral reefs and damaging the homes of turtles.
Analysts believe that Indonesian miners will provide nearly all of the growth of nickel supplies over the next decade. With electric cars becoming more popular, batteries will be a large part of the surge in demand for the metal. Still, it is also used in everyday products, like stainless steel appliances, Financial Times says.
Other countries, like Canada and Australia, have nickel mines, but Indonesia is highly concentrated with it.
Steven Brown, a consultant and former employee at nickel mining company Vale, says that it could be challenging for customers who are environmentally-conscious to want products that contain the metal after hearing how some entities dispose of it.
“It could undermine the entire proposition of trying to sell a consumer a product that is environmentally friendly, if you have this back story,” he said.
Even though other countries have nickel available, the increased demand for EVs will require large automakers, like Tesla, to eventually have to source some of the metal from Indonesia. “At some point, it will happen where they can’t avoid Indonesian nickel,” Brown added.
Luckily, Tesla requires its sources to go through due diligence processes, and it is unlikely the company will steer away from them to obtain nickel. Of course, Tesla will benefit from having more nickel, but it has to be sourced responsibly for the company even to consider using it.
On top of that, nickel is the second most expensive metal in EV batteries. It only trails cobalt, which Tesla has worked intensively to get away from because of its environmental and humanitarian impact.
“We use very little cobalt in our system already, and that’s — that may to zero along, so it’s basically about nickel,” Musk said.
There is a delicate balance between positive environmental impact after EVs hit the road and the harmful impact sourcing some of the metals have. However, the automakers do not assume any of the responsibility for the mining companies’ process of getting rid of waste. But it is their responsibility to choose a company that decides to handle the ridding of environmentally-harming materials responsibly.
Tesla has made it a point to choose companies that share their mission for sustainability because the automaker realizes that building an electric car starts with sourcing the materials. If the materials are not responsibly obtained, then the EV isn’t as Earth-friendly as it could be.
Pius Ginting, an environmental activist, summed it up perfectly: “The net result is we have clean air in our cities — but then we destroy a rich biodiversity area.”
Elon Musk
Why automakers keep turning down Elon Musk’s Tesla Full Self-Driving offer
Elon Musk confirms no automaker has ever accepted Tesla’s offer to license Full Self-Driving software.
Elon Musk gave a brief answer on X Monday that confirmed that Tesla’s standing offer to license Full Self-Driving to other automakers still has zero takers. Sawyer Merritt wrote that “Tesla has for years openly invited other automakers to license FSD. None of them have accepted,” responding to a prediction from Boom Supersonic founder Blake Scholl that Tesla would eventually open FSD the way it opened its Supercharger network to rival brands. Musk’s reply to Merritt was one word: “Exactly.”
It is not the first time Musk has made this point. He said something similar in November, when he called legacy automakers reluctance to adopt FSD “crazy,” and Tesla has floated the offer publicly since at least 2021. Scholl’s prediction touches on something real. Once NACS became the de facto charging standard, adoption from Ford, GM, Rivian and others followed within about a year. FSD licensing was supposed to work the same way once Tesla built enough of a lead that switching made sense for everyone.
Tesla has for years openly invited other automakers to license FSD. None of them have accepted. https://t.co/kgz4idpoUM
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) September 22, 2026
The case for licensing now is stronger than it was two years ago. Waymo and Zoox are logging hundreds of thousands of unsupervised autonomous miles, along with Tesla’s own Robotaxi fleet. Every automaker still selling driver assist systems that lag FSD has given the robotaxi conversation to Tesla, Waymo and Zoox by default. Licensing FSD would let a GM or a Ford compete on the same field without spending a decade and billions of dollars building a stack from scratch, the same argument Tesla made when it opened the Supercharger network to bring more EVs onto its chargers.
But FSD is not a connector standard. As one reply to Musk’s post pointed out, licensing FSD is not a software license the way NACS was a plug spec. It requires adopting Tesla’s eight camera layout and its onboard compute architecture, meaning a licensee’s cars would effectively become Tesla hardware wearing someone else’s badge. That is the visible obstacle. The less visible one is data. A licensed FSD stack would report back the same telemetry Tesla collects from its own fleet, giving Tesla a continuous read on how a competitor’s cars are actually driven, where they struggle, and how often drivers intervene. For an automaker trying to build its own autonomy program, or simply trying to keep its build quality and safety record private, handing Tesla that visibility could be a bigger cost than the hardware bill. It is the reason the Supercharger comparison only goes so far. Opening a charging plug cost Tesla very little. Opening FSD would cost a rival something it cannot get back.
Tesla has reopened reservations for its long-delayed next-generation Roadster, asking buyers for a $50,000 deposit just days before an October 1 reveal event in Waco, Texas. The move revives a reservation process first launched in 2017 and later paused when Tesla pulled pricing from its website in 2021.
The reservation page requires an immediate $5,000 credit-card payment, described as fully refundable, followed by a $45,000 wire transfer due within 10 days, which is identical to what was expected previously. Reservations are not considered final until the wire clears.
The structure matches the 2017 terms Tesla used when it first collected deposits after unveiling a prototype. Tesla has not published a confirmed retail price or production start date on the order page.
Go buy a Roadster pic.twitter.com/n7rhouAmIS
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 21, 2026
The October 1 event is scheduled in Waco, about 90 minutes north of Tesla’s Austin headquarters and near SpaceX’s McGregor rocket test site. Tesla sent invitations to existing reservation holders and posted a “Go for launch” teaser on September 12.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) established a temporary flight restriction over the McGregor area from September 18 through October 2, consistent with plans for a demonstration involving SpaceX-designed cold-gas thrusters. Elon Musk has previously described the optional package as enabling extreme acceleration or brief hovering. Tesla has said the event will include pricing, specifications, and production targets.
The second-generation Roadster was first shown in November 2017 during Tesla’s Semi launch. Musk promised production in 2020, with claimed performance of 0-60 mph in 1.9 seconds, more than 250 mph top speed, and roughly 620 miles of range.
Those targets have slipped repeatedly.
Tesla later pointed to 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025-2026 before indicating production would not begin until 2027 or 2028 at Gigafactory Texas. Design work has continued, with reports of a sharper, Cybertruck-influenced look replacing the original curvy prototype.
Original reservation holders who paid $50,000 in 2017, or $250,000 for the Founders Series, have waited nearly nine years without a production car. Some high-profile customers canceled. Tesla’s decision to reopen orders now, after previously shutting them down, tests whether new buyers will commit substantial funds before seeing a finalized production vehicle. The October 1 event is intended to answer remaining questions about what those buyers will actually receive and when.
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) is heading to Czechia after the Czech Ministry of Transport recognised the Dutch RDW’s provisional type approval, making the country the seventh EU member state to clear the system for public roads. Tesla Europe announced on 21 September 2026 that “FSD Supervised is now approved in Czechia” and that rollout “will begin soon.”
The decision marks a notable reversal. Earlier in 2026, Prague had declined to automatically recognise the Netherlands’ April approval, citing concerns over speed-limit compliance, traffic-sign recognition and driver-attention monitoring, and arguing that a coordinated EU approach was preferable. Officials said months of expert review, talks with Tesla and other member states, and real-world data from countries already using the system resolved those issues.
🚨 Tesla FSD heading to Czechia 🇨🇿 pic.twitter.com/mkzlM9QjrB
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 21, 2026
“Safety remains the top priority,” the ministry stated.
FSD Supervised remains a Level 2 driver-assistance system: the driver must stay engaged and is legally responsible. Eligible vehicles need AI4, the company’s most up-to-date hardware version. Tesla is expected to push the feature over the air in the coming days, following the pattern seen after earlier national approvals.
Europe’s rollout began when Dutch regulator RDW issued a provisional EU type approval on 10 April 2026 after extensive testing. Mutual recognition then produced a rapid cascade: Lithuania (20 May), Estonia (29 May), Denmark (9 June), Belgium (10 June) and Slovenia (7 September). Czechia now completes that list of seven.
The approvals cover only a modest share of the EU population, but they add political weight ahead of a 6 October vote by the Technical Committee on Motor Vehicles. A qualified majority, at least 15 of 27 member states representing 65 percent of the EU population, could open the remaining markets, including large ones such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain that have so far preferred to wait for a bloc-wide decision.
For Czech Tesla owners, the immediate prize is access to the same supervised highway and city driving already available in the other six countries. For Tesla, each new market generates additional European driving data and strengthens the case that FSD Supervised can operate safely under the continent’s varied road rules. The Czech approval is therefore both a local milestone and another incremental step toward a wider European launch.
Why automakers keep turning down Elon Musk’s Tesla Full Self-Driving offer
Tesla Roadster is available for order once again following brief hold
