

News
Tesla battery partner Panasonic to lean on 2170 and 4680 batteries for profitability
Tesla battery partner Panasonic cut its 2023 outlook by 12.5 percent after it missed earnings expectations. The Japanese company will lean on automotive batteries, including the 2170 and 4680 chemistries, to improve profitability for operations this year.
Panasonic’s Earnings Call on Thursday revealed it struggled with headwinds caused by a weakened global economy and high raw material prices.
Its nine-month net profit attributable to stockholders decreased to 162.9 billion yen ($126,797,287) from 195.6 billion yen ($152,250,150) during the same period a year prior. Operating profit also slid by a considerable margin, 85 percent, which can mostly be attributed to the rise in price for raw materials.
Panasonic will lean on automotive battery supply deals to grow profits, especially with 4680 and 2170 battery cells, which are used in electric vehicles. The 2170 cell has been used in Tesla Model 3 and Model Y vehicles for years, and was an improvement from the 18650 cells used in flagship Model S and Model X vehicles.
In a presentation during the Earnings Call, Panasonic stated it would “Focus on North America market where we can leverage advantages (high capacity) with established strong business foundation; Achieve profit growth by expanding sales of 2170 cells and commercializing 4680 cells.” It also stated it would leverage renovations of its Wakayama Factory in western Japan to promote the commercialization of 4680 cells.
However, Tesla’s unveiling of the 4680 cell chemistry in 2020 brought on a new, more powerful, and more efficient cell that would be used in future EV applications. Tesla has utilized the 4680 cell in some vehicles, but the company is still ramping up production.
Tesla 4680 battery plant in Giga Nevada to ramp up to 500 GWh long-term: Elon Musk
Panasonic is planning to begin production of the 4680 cell in Q2. “A pilot line, created first in Japan, made it possible to start large-scale prototype production in May,” Panasonic’s energy business CEO Kazuo Tadanobu said at a company investor event last year.
The cells will eventually be built in the United States as Panasonic plans to invest 600 billion yen ($4,670,250,000) through March 2025 to establish a battery manufacturing plant in Kansas. The plant’s U.S.-based manufacturing is a strategic move that will help automakers qualify for tax credits through the Inflation Reduction Act, which incentivizes the production of battery cells and EVs in North America.
In mid-December, Panasonic signed a supply deal with Lucid Motors to provide EV batteries for its Air lineup.
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Elon Musk
Grok coming to Tesla vehicles next week “at the latest:” Elon Musk
Grok’s rollout to Tesla vehicles is expected to begin next week at the latest.

Elon Musk announced on Thursday that Grok, the large language model developed by his startup xAI, will soon be available in Tesla vehicles. Grok’s rollout to Tesla vehicles is expected to begin next week at the latest, further deepening the ties between the two Elon Musk-led companies.
Tesla–xAI synergy
Musk confirmed the news on X shortly after livestreaming the release of Grok 4, xAI’s latest large language model. “Grok is coming to Tesla vehicles very soon. Next week at the latest,” Musk wrote in a post on social media platform X.
During the livestream, Musk and several members of the xAI team highlighted several upgrades to Grok 4’s voice capabilities and performance metrics, positioning the LLM as competitive with top-tier models from OpenAI and Google.
The in-vehicle integration of Grok marks a new chapter in Tesla’s AI development. While Tesla has long relied on in-house systems for autonomous driving and energy optimization, Grok’s integration would introduce conversational AI directly into its vehicles’ user experience. This integration could potentially improve customer interaction inside Tesla vehicles.
xAI and Tesla’s collaborative footprint
Grok’s upcoming rollout to Tesla vehicles adds to a growing business relationship between Tesla and xAI. Earlier this year, Tesla disclosed that it generated $198.3 million in revenue from commercial, consulting, and support agreements with xAI, as noted in a report from Bloomberg News. A large portion of that amount, however, came from the sale of Megapack energy storage systems to the artificial intelligence startup.
In July 2023, Musk polled X users about whether Tesla should invest $5 billion in xAI. While no formal investment has been made so far, 68% of poll participants voted yes, and Musk has since stated that the idea would be discussed with Tesla’s board.
News
Tesla Robotaxi to expand Austin coverage, Bay Area launch targeted in coming months
Tesla is looking at the San Francisco Bay Area as the next location for its Robotaxi service.

Tesla is preparing to expand its Robotaxi pilot program in Austin, Texas, with the self-driving service set to cover a larger portion of the city this weekend. The CEO shared the update in a post on social media platform X, where he also noted that the company is currently looking at the San Francisco Bay Area as the location for Tesla’s next Robotaxi pilot.
Tesla’s growing Robotaxi pilot
Tesla’s Robotaxi service first launched in Austin last month as a test program. While the vehicles operate without a human in the driver’s seat, a Tesla employee currently rides in the front passenger seat to monitor vehicle performance. Responses to Tesla’s Robotaxi pilot are quite positive, with some users praising the vehicles for their smooth and comfortable rides.
In a later post on X, Musk also stated that Tesla is in the process of seeking regulatory approval to begin operating robotaxis in the Bay Area, adding that a launch there could happen within “a month or two.” The California expansion would be a notable milestone for Tesla, considering its roots in the state.
Robotaxi is key to Tesla’s long-term growth
Autonomous driving remains central to Tesla’s long-term vision. Musk has consistently framed Robotaxis as a future driver of profitability and growth, particularly as EV sales face headwinds across multiple regions. In a way, the expansion of Tesla’s autonomous fleet is expected to play a critical role in differentiating the company’s offerings in a crowded electric vehicle market.
Tesla has yet to specify when the Robotaxi service will transition out of its testing phase or how it plans to monetize the platform, as the company is only charging a flat fee of $4.20 per ride in its Austin pilot program today. However, its growing geographic footprint suggests the company is steadily progressing toward wider deployment.
Elon Musk
xAI launches Grok 4 with new $300/month SuperGrok Heavy subscription
xAI also introduced SuperGrok Heavy, which is priced at $300 per month.

xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, has officially launched its latest flagship models, Grok 4 and Grok 4 Heavy. Alongside the release, the company introduced its most premium subscription tier to date, SuperGrok Heavy, which is priced at $300 per month and targeted at power users and developers.
Grok 4 is designed to compete with top-tier AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. As per xAI, Grok 4 demonstrates frontier-level performance across several benchmark evaluations.
On Humanity’s Last Exam, an extensive test designed to evaluate general knowledge, Grok 4 scored 25.4% without using external tools, outperforming OpenAI’s o3 (high), which scored 21%, and Gemini 2.5 Pro, which scored 21.6%.
When equipped with tools, Grok 4 Heavy scored 44.4%, making it the top-performing model in that category. For context, Gemini 2.5 Pro with tools scored 26.9%, as noted in a TechCrunch report.
xAI also highlighted Grok 4 Heavy’s “multi-agent” system, which enables multiple instances of the model to solve a problem in parallel and compare answers, similar to a study group. This collaborative approach is intended to improve both reasoning and accuracy in complex tasks.
The company also shared results from the ARC-AGI-2 benchmark, where Grok (Thinking) achieved new state of the art (SOTA) score on the test with 15.9%. As per Arc Prize in a post on X, this score is “nearly double(s) the previous commercial SOTA and tops the current Kaggle competition SOTA.”
The $300/month SuperGrok Heavy plan grants users early access to Grok 4 Heavy, as well as upcoming product features. Upcoming capabilities that are planned for release in the coming months include an AI coding model in August, a multi-modal agent in September, and a video generation system in October.
Grok 4 and Grok 4 Heavy are available via API as part of xAI’s push to engage developers and enterprise users. The company’s enterprise platform, which launched just two months ago, will also expand via partnerships with cloud hyperscalers to bring Grok models to broader infrastructure environments.
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