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Tesla Semi competitor Nikola set to unveil battery-only semi-trucks at launch event
Tesla Semi Truck competitor Nikola Motor Company will unveil battery-only versions of the Nikola Two and Nikola Tre semi-trucks at its two-day Nikola World 2019 event in Scottsdale, Arizona this week. Previously, hydrogen-electric versions were announced, including the Nikola One, unveiled in 2016. A track demonstration of the Nikola Two will be part of the Nikola World activities, and a functioning version of the company’s coming solar powered hydrogen fueling stations will be on display.
In the lead up to the Nikola World production, the zero-emissions trucking startup has made significant development headway, teased further product announcements, and built excitement around its brand. At the end of March, Nikola finalized a deal with Saint Holdings IPA acquiring 400 acres of prime development property of an up-and-coming vehicle manufacturing hub in Pinal County, Arizona. The manufacturing mega site will host the factory where Nikola’s Class 8 vehicles will be built once complete. For now, Fitzgerald Glider Kits is handling the initial truck manufacturing.
Nikola announced a $16 million-dollar equipment purchase (out of hundreds of millions planned) for its hydrogen fuel cell laboratory shortly after the Arizona land deal was made public. The technology already developed and utilized in the company’s demo trucks will continue to be improved upon at this lab, enabling Nikola to “set a new efficiency benchmark for heavy-duty fuel cell systems”, as described by CEO Trevor Milton in a press release about the investment.
#NikolaWorld2019 is tomorrow and we're so excited to share with the world what we've been tirelessly working on over the past couple of years. Tomorrow will be a huge step in showing off the most advanced technology the transportation industry has ever seen. See you all tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/gMxrafOxi3
— Nikola Corporation (@nikolamotor) April 15, 2019
Nikola has made a number of bold claims about the products it’s developing since the Nikola One’s unveiling in 2016. Nikola’s truck lineup itself is said to meet or exceed the performance provided by diesel-powered vehicles with 1,000 hp, up to 2,000 ft-lbs of torque, and around 1,000 miles of range. In response to claims that hydrogen production requires fossil fuels, the company stated that its fueling stations will primarily use renewable energy sources as will its manufacturing facilities. Along with committing to a clean energy, diesel-free future for transportation, Nikola is also working on making its products ready for full autonomous driving, all of which draw direct comparisons to its main rival, the Tesla Semi.
The hydrogen-electric truck company unveiled the Nikola One full-cab semi-truck prior to Tesla’s launch of its own commercial hauler, which should have given Nikola a time and development advantage; however, over the last year, the Arizona-based truck manufacturer has acquired the appearance of having fallen technologically behind.
The electric vehicle community has grown accustomed to seeing all-electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla’s continued success while also witnessing several electric startups disappear almost as quickly as they appeared. The lack of a near-production vehicle feeds the perception that Nikola’s “talk” won’t be translated into its “walk”, to borrow a common phrase. There are also doubts about the hydrogen fuel cell component of Nikola’s technology, something the company has addressed numerous time, doubling down on the viability of fuel cells as a better solution over batteries-only for long range trucking.
In contrast, the Tesla Semi test mule has been seen on public roads on several occasions, and Tesla has even released production-quality video of the semi-truck hauling its all-electric sedan and SUV brethren. Photos of the long-hauler making deliveries of those same vehicles to customers were also published by Tesla, furthering the narrative that significant progress is being made by the California-based car maker with its Semi.
Tesla itself is very familiar with the public relations climb. Every slip in production estimates, price change, or even odd tweet or two (etc.) from CEO Elon Musk draws the ire of critics and skepticism of fans alike. Musk’s tenacity, however, has given way to the phrase “Tesla Effect”. Due to Musk’s drive that helped lead to success at Tesla, any newcomers to the electric auto manufacturing industry are going to have to answer the question, “What are you doing that’s better?” Nikola Motors is no exception despite the primary business differences between the companies.
Nikola World 2019’s product announcements and battery-electric unveilings will serve to bring the company’s tangibility into view. Nikola also frequently communicates its gratitude for its supporters, and this week’s event is no different. An announcement was made via the company’s social media accounts that guests of Nikola World would be treated to a country music superstar performance during the first night of the event.
“SURPRISE ANNOUNCEMENT! We will be having a special country music superstar performing the night of the unveiling, you don’t want to miss it,” the company tweeted. Nikola World 2018 was the company’s first annual event, officially putting Nikola on the map of next generation, Class 8 truck manufacturers.
SURPRISE ANNOUNCEMENT! We will be having a special country music superstar performing the night of the unveiling, you don't want to miss it! #NikolaWorld2019 pic.twitter.com/FidOf1FwLA
— Nikola Corporation (@nikolamotor) April 10, 2019
Follow us @Teslarati for behind-the-scenes coverage from Nikola World, taking place on April 16-17 in Scottsdale. We’ll bring you a first look at Nikola’s upcoming all-electric semi trucks and new products.
Elon Musk escalated his monthslong feud with Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey this week, pledging that his own AI video tool will produce a competing version before the year is out. Responding to a fan-made, AI-generated clip of the ancient epic, Musk wrote on X, “Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer.”
In June, Musk quoted an xAI-shared trailer built entirely with Grok Imagine Video 1.5, a two-minute-plus reimagining of The Odyssey styled after a 1970s classical Hollywood epic, and predicted “full movies by the end of the year,” as Teslarati reported at the time. That trailer, built from 36 consistent shots by a single creator, was Musk’s proof of concept. This week’s pledge turns that prediction into a specific commitment, tied directly to Homer’s text rather than a generic demo.
Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer https://t.co/bVHzUmY9WN
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 22, 2026
When a fan separately proposed that Musk fund a live-action alternative, to “give Mel Gibson $100 million to film an Odyssey adaptation with painstakingly historically accurate ships, armour, weapons, and casting, with all dialogue taken straight from the original poem and delivered in Homeric Greek,” Musk replied with two words: “I’m down.”
The Grok Imagine pledge lands as the tool’s underlying infrastructure has changed hands. Grok is no longer a standalone product, it folded into SpaceXAI after SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI closed in February, meaning the compute behind any Odyssey production traces back to the same Colossus supercomputers now bundled into SpaceX’s pitch to investors. Musk has separately said SpaceX’s own engineering data is being fed into the next major Grok training run, a two trillion parameter model he’s called the “2T run.”
Whether Grok Imagine can sustain a feature length narrative, rather than a series of impressive individual shots, remains the open question.
Cybertruck
Tesla Mobile App gets a new feature that wrap fans are going to love
Tesla’s Summer Update removes the USB drive step from customizing your car’s digital wrap design.
Tesla’s latest 2026 Summer Update quietly closes out one of the more tedious steps in personalizing a Tesla’s digital appearance. Uploading a custom wrap design used to require a USB drive. Now it doesn’t.
The feature is listed in Tesla’s release notes as “Send Custom Wraps from Mobile App.” The company described it plainly: “Skip the USB drive and upload a custom wrap of your car from the mobile app. Instructions for creating a custom wrap here: github.com/teslamotors/custom-wraps.”
The digital wrap tool has been around since Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, when it launched for Cybertruck owners first, as Teslarati reported at the time. Getting a design onto the car meant formatting a USB drive, creating a folder named exactly “Wraps,” dropping in PNG files sized between 512×512 and 1024×1024 pixels and under 1 MB each, then plugging the drive in and applying the wrap through Toybox. Tesla expanded the tool to other models and renamed it from “Colorizer” to “Paint Shop” with the 2025 Holiday Update, while also adding license plate and window tint customization alongside the wraps.
Custom wraps via mobile app https://t.co/5OydZ26g9p pic.twitter.com/uexU0ZePxu
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 22, 2026
The latest Summer Update removes the USB step from that process. Owners will be able to pull a design from wherever they saved it, whether that’s a download from social media or something built from Tesla’s own GitHub templates, and push it to the car directly through the app.
Tesla reveals 2026 Summer Update with crazy fixes to Nav and more
It’s a small fix relative to the rest of this latest release, which also included expanded Grok voice commands, automatic navigation that learns regular routes, and self-driving stats inside the mobile app, all detailed in our rundown of the full Summer Update. The USB requirement was one of the more common complaints about Paint Shop since it launched. Tesla did not say when the wrap upload change would reach individual vehicles, only that the broader update is rolling out now in waves.
Elon Musk
Tesla Diner is throwing a birthday party with a Franz-signed special treat
Tesla Diner turns one on July 21 with Optimus, roller skates, and a Franz-signed hat.
Tesla is throwing its Hollywood Diner a first birthday party on July 21 and the celebration comes with a guest list of unique items, including a limited run of Tesla Diner birthday hats personally signed by Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen for the first 50 customers who place an in-car order at midnight.
One year after lines wrapped around the block on Santa Monica Boulevard for a diner that most of the restaurant industry did not take seriously, Tesla is making the case that the concept was worth the years it took to build. The concept had been in Musk’s head since at least 2018, when he floated the idea of “an old school drive-in, roller skates and rock restaurant” on X, describing it years later as “‘Grease’ meets ‘The Jetsons’ with Supercharging.”
Tesla Optimus Gen 3 is coming to the Tesla Diner with new ambitions
What made the diner genuinely different from any restaurant that came before it was not the menu or the nostalgia. It was the ordering model. Tesla owners could place food orders directly from their vehicle’s touchscreen before arriving, a small feature that hints at something much larger on the horizon. As the Cybercab and unsupervised FSD expand across major cities, the diner model becomes a template for an entirely new kind of commerce. A robotaxi pulling in to charge does not need a human to walk up to a counter. The vehicle places the order, the food is ready on arrival, and the passenger never interrupts the experience of being driven somewhere else. It is the first glimpse of what drive-through commerce looks like when the car is doing the driving.
As Teslarati has reported, Musk signaled immediately after opening that the Hollywood location was only the beginning, posting that Tesla would expand the concept to major cities worldwide and along Supercharger corridors on long-distance routes if the first location proved successful. One year in, the birthday celebration on July 21 makes a strong case that it has. Tesla announced a full day of events including a Cybercab on display, a birthday menu, Optimus in attendance, face painting, a photo booth, roller skating servers, a light show, a Skypad DJ, and complimentary collectibles.
If Musk’s ambition holds, the Hollywood diner is year one of something much bigger. The birthday party is the proof of concept. The robotaxi fleet is the business model waiting behind it.
Tesla Diner is turning 1 on July 21st, so we’re throwing a party
Come swing by for a day full of fun:
– Cybercab on display
– Birthday menu
– @Tesla_Optimus
– Face painting for kids & adults
– Photo booth
– Servers on roller skates delivering your order
– Light show
– Skypad DJ… pic.twitter.com/TD8pOjihYs— Tesla North America (@tesla_na) July 18, 2026
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