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Tesla police fleet saves nearly half a million in upkeep and repair costs

The Bargersville Police Department started with one Tesla in 2019, but it has since added another dozen more.

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Bargersville Police Dept shares photo of Tesla police vehicle charging
Credit: @TheTeslaLife

As it turns out, operating a fleet of Tesla police cars is very cost-effective. This is, at least, according to the Bargersville Police Department, which has seen significant savings from its fleet of Tesla police vehicles.

The Bargersville Police Department’s recent comments about its savings were outlined in an IndyStar report.

Big Savings

The Bargersville Police Department started with one Tesla in 2019, but it has since added another dozen more. In a comment to the publication, police chief Todd Bertram stated that the department has been very happy about the cost-effective nature of the all-electric police cars.

“I couldn’t even begin to say how much money the department has saved. Since 2020, I’d say we’ve been saving about $70-80,000.00 a year from having our vehicles, and the more cars we get, the more savings too,” the police chief stated.

Thus, as per IndyStar, the department has saved almost half a million dollars in car upkeep and repair costs over the past five years.

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Taxpayer Money

To explain his point further, Bertram stated that in June 2024, he received a monthly gas bill of over $3,100 for the department’s four Ford vehicles. The Bargersville PD’s Tesla fleet, which was comprised of 13 cars, incurred a combined charging cost of $300 for the month. As per the police chief, that’s a lot of savings for taxpayers.

“That’s a lot of taxpayer money. The original Tesla we first got in 2019, we sold for $21,000. We tend to do that when it hits closer to 100,000 miles or if it gets closer to the warranty. That’s based on the decisions made by the city council,” he said.

Bertram also noted that since they were deployed, the department has never had to replace any brakes on its Tesla fleet. And when a Tesla police car did need repair, it was accomplished under warranty, and in a timely manner, too.

“That Tesla’s turn-around time was only three days and it was covered under warranty which means we didn’t have to pay. Compare that to a gas vehicle that had to stay in the shop for a week,” Bertram stated.

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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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Elon Musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says this common issue is ‘major area of focus’

Tesla, like any other company, goes through hardware issues with its vehicles, but some are more publicized than others.

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Credit: Tesla

Elon Musk said this afternoon on X that a commonly reported issue with the Tesla vehicles is a “major area of focus” for the company.

Tesla, like any other company, goes through hardware issues with its vehicles, but some are more publicized than others.

However, the simple yet annoying issues that owners encounter through thousands of miles of driving do not receive as much attention, even though they are likely more pertinent and frequently encountered by owners.

One of those problems is with the central windshield Full Self-Driving camera, which sits inside a housing at the top of the glass, enabling Tesla Vision to have an uninterrupted view of the traffic and surroundings ahead of the vehicle.

Many owners have reported that their vehicles alert them when Full Self-Driving is unavailable due to an obstruction with this camera. Commonly, it is caused by a buildup of condensation, which creates a haze on the camera and obstructs its view.

Tesla suggests a quick cleaning of the housing and cameras, which resolves the problem. Still, owners are not necessarily ecstatic about having to do this themselves.

Tesla developing more comprehensive Cybertruck camera cleaning system

Musk says that Tesla is attempting to fix the issue, and said in response to one owner who performed the maintenance that it was a “major area of focus” for the company:

While many were enthusiastic about the potential fix, but some complained that their cars had been in for service many times for the issue, inhibiting their ability to utilize FSD and truly enjoy the full experience of owning a Tesla.

It will likely be a hardware fix that will be implemented through a service appointment, but knowing Tesla, they could have something up their sleeve through a software update to resolve the issue.

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Tesla’s Lead of Optimus AI departs and people are confused about it

Kumar, who has been with Tesla for just over two years, made his announcement on X, revealing he was taking a role at Meta as a Research Scientist.

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Credit: @heydave7/X

Tesla’s Lead of Optimus AI, Ashish Kumar, is departing the company, and people sure are confused about it.

Kumar, who has been with Tesla for just over two years, made his announcement on X, revealing he was taking a role at Meta as a Research Scientist.

He said:

“Decided to leave Tesla. It’s been an incredible ride leading the Optimus AI team. We went all-in on scalable methods — swapping the classical stack with reinforcement learning & scaling dexterity by learning from videos. AI is the most significant bit to unlock humanoids.”

Tesla fans were baffled by Kumar’s decision, immediately questioning his choice, with many wondering why he’d leave Elon Musk for Mark Zuckerberg.

Some said the choice had to be financially motivated, but Kumar said it was not, and if money were the driving factor, he would have stayed at Tesla:

Others were grateful for Kumar’s contributions to the company and were very respectful regarding his decision:

It’s possible that Kumar chose to leave Tesla for more reasons than one, and financial reasons do not appear to be the issue, as he admitted. However, it could be a better work-life balance at Meta, or perhaps there is an internal project that simply interests him more.

Tesla will be okay, and Optimus will continue to improve with a new Lead in that position. We wish Ashish the best of luck in his new role, and we are thankful for what he contributed to the Optimus program.

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Elon Musk

Elon Musk: Tesla shareholder vote results could “affect the future of the world”

“This shareholder vote decides the future of Tesla and may affect the future of the world,” Musk posted on X.

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MINISTÉRIO DAS COMUNICAÇÕES, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Elon Musk is urging Tesla shareholders to take part in the company’s upcoming annual meeting, calling the vote critical not just for the automaker but potentially for the world. 

“This shareholder vote decides the future of Tesla and may affect the future of the world,” Musk posted on X, emphasizing the importance of proposals that will be voted on in the upcoming meeting on November 6, 2025.

A pivotal inflection point

In a message from its official account, Tesla described itself as being at “a critical inflection point” as it prepares for its annual meeting. Shareholders will soon receive voting instructions, with the company asking investors to back the Board’s recommendations on all proposals. The post also referenced Tesla’s Master Plan Part IV, which outlines ambitious growth targets across vehicles, energy, and artificial intelligence.

“Tesla is at a critical inflection point. We need your vote ahead of our 2025 Annual Meeting on November 6. Tesla shareholders, the owners of our company, will soon receive their control numbers and voting instructions from their brokers. This will enable you to vote. We are asking you to vote with the Board’s recommendations on *all* proposals,” Tesla wrote in its post.

The company also highlighted that it is currently on the brink of a “massive wave of transformational growth.” Tesla stressed that confidence in Musk’s leadership is central to this trajectory, as he is the CEO who could lead Tesla into its new, ambitious era.

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Some Key proposals

Two proposals stand out in Tesla’s recommendations, as per the company’s VoteTesla.com website. The first seeks to amend and restate Elon Musk’s 2019 Equity Incentive Plan, creating a special reserve of nearly 208 million shares to give the board flexibility amid ongoing litigation surrounding Musk’s 2018 CEO Performance Award. It also calls for replenishing the general share reserve with 60 million additional shares, ensuring capacity for employee equity grants.

“Equity is the cornerstone of Tesla’s compensation philosophy. We believe we need a framework that allows us to honor the deal we made with Elon and the extraordinary value he created for Tesla shareholders under the 2018 CEO Performance Award. In addition, it is essential that we maintain sufficient equity reserves and maximum flexibility to attract, retain and motivate talent at Tesla,” Tesla wrote.

The second proposal is a new 2025 CEO Performance Award, a pay-for-performance framework that links Musk’s compensation to reaching ambitious market cap and operational milestones. Under the plan, Musk would earn nothing unless Tesla achieves extraordinary results, potentially creating more than $7 trillion in shareholder value and pushing the company’s valuation to as high as $8.5 trillion. The company also asked shareholders to vote in favor of re-electing three directors: Ira Ehrenpreis, Joe Gebbia, and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson.

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