News
Tesla Semi rival Nikola throws shade, claims $8 billion in pre-orders, 100% reservation refunds
Tesla Semi rival Nikola Motors recently threw some shade at the Elon Musk-led company, stating that it will be refunding 100% of the reservations placed for its hydrogen-electric trucks and boasting that it had already received over $8 billion worth of pre-orders. Nikola also included what appears to be a pointed statement about Tesla’s finances, stating that it would not use its reservation holders’ money to operate its business.
Nikola’s bold declarations were posted on the company’s official Twitter account. According to the company’s tweets, Nikola customers could now reserve their trucks — the sleeper semi-truck Nikola One and the day cab Nikola Two — at zero cost. The startup also promised that refunds for those who have already placed reservations for their vehicles would be processed within 60 days.
“Great news! All reservations will be refunded 100%, and you won’t lose your place in line. We don’t use your money to operate our business. We want everyone to know we have never used a dollar of deposit money in the history of our company. All deposits will be refunded < 60 days.
“You can now reserve a Nikola One or Two without any deposit at https://nikolamotor.com/motor. With over 8+ billion in pre-order reservations, who needs deposits anyways!”
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- Credit: Nikola Motor
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- The Nikola One.
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- The Nikola One
Nikola’s statements are very bold, considering that the company is yet to start the production of its hydrogen-electric semi trucks. Earlier this year, Nikola announced its plans to build a $1 billion factory in Phoenix, AZ, which will house facilities that would manufacture its offerings, according to a Fortune report. According to Nikola CEO Trevor Milton, the trucking startup will complete the move to the Phoenix, AZ site by October 2018. Production for the Nikola One and the Nikola Two is estimated to begin in 2021.
Nikola’s hydrogen-electric trucks boast impressive specs. According to the trucking startup, its long-haulers would be able to offer up to 1,000 hp, up to 2,000 ft-lbs of torque, and up to 1,000 miles of range. Unlike the Tesla Semi, however, Nikola’s vehicles are not all-electric. Instead, they would run on hydrogen fuel cells, which, as we noted in a previous report, might give the startup some difficulties when it begins the rollout of its vehicles.
Hydrogen, after all, is usually derived from natural gas. Taking the process back a step or two, natural gas is often the result of fracking, a practice that is quite controversial in terms of its impact on the environment. Fracking, at its worst, can pollute the land and groundwater.
If there’s anything that Nikola can learn from Tesla, it is that producing a vehicle takes a lot of effort and resources. The challenges that Tesla is facing with the production of the Model 3 — a vehicle designed to be simple to build — is a testament to just how complex the manufacturing business really is. Thus, Nikola’s confident Twitter declarations, as well as its seemingly pointed remarks at Tesla, might end up as a case of premature hubris for the trucking startup.
Tesla’s own long-hauler, the Semi, after all, is already testing on public roads. Just last month, Tesla’s Semi prototypes have begun delivering cargo from Gigafactory 1 in Nevada to the Fremont factory in California. Sightings of the long-haulers have also been reported in several places across the country, including St. Louis, MO, Dallas, TX, and more recently, in Des Moines, IA. The production of the Tesla Semi is expected to begin in 2019, giving it a headstart over Nikola’s trucks.
News
Tesla takes first step in sunsetting Model S and X with drastic move
Tesla won’t be taking custom orders of the Model S or Model X in Europe any longer.
Tesla has seemingly taken the first step in sunsetting two of its older vehicles, the Model S and Model X, by ending international orders.
The flagship sedan and SUV from Tesla are the two oldest cars in the company’s lineup. They account for a very small portion of overall sales, and several years ago, CEO Elon Musk admitted that Tesla only continues to build and sell them due to “sentimental reasons.”
Earlier this year, there were calls for Tesla to end the production of the two cars, but Lars Moravy said that the Model S and Model X were due to get some love later in 2025. That happened, but the changes were extremely minor.
Tesla launches new Model S and Model X, and the changes are slim
Some took this as an indication that Tesla has kind of moved on from the Model S and Model X. A handful of people seemed to think Tesla would overhaul the vehicles substantially, but the changes were extremely minor and included only a few real adjustments.
In Europe, customers are unable to even put a new order in on a Model S or Model X.
We noticed earlier today that Tesla pressing the ‘Order’ button on either of the flagship vehicles takes you to local inventory, and not the Design Studio where you’d configure your custom build:
🚨 Tesla has removed the Model S and Model X Design Configurators from European customers
It will now bring up available inventory for those two vehicles instead of allowing you to build your own config pic.twitter.com/sMnGAr2kuu
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 30, 2025
Tesla simply does not make enough Model S or Model X units to justify the expensive logistics process of shipping custom orders overseas. It almost seems as if they’re that they will essentially build a bunch of random configurations, send them overseas every few months, and let them sell before replenishing inventory.
Inversely, it could also mean Tesla is truly gearing up to sunset the vehicle altogether. It seems unlikely that the company will fade them out altogether in the next couple of years, but it could absolutely think about ending international orders because volume is so low.
Energy
Tesla inks multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution to avoid tariff pressure
Tesla has reportedly secured a sizable partnership with LGES for LFP cells, and there’s an extra positive out of it.
Tesla has reportedly inked a multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution in an effort to avoid tariff pressure and domesticate more of its supply chain.
Reuters is reporting that Tesla and LGES, a South Korean battery supplier of the automaker, signed a $4.3 billion deal for energy storage system batteries. The cells are going to be manufactured by LGES at its U.S. factory located in Michigan, the report indicates. The batteries will be the lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, chemistry.
Tesla delivers 384,000 vehicles in Q2 2025, deploys 9.6 GWh in energy storage
It is a move Tesla is making to avoid buying cells and parts from overseas as the Trump White House continues to use tariffs to prioritize domestic manufacturing.
LGES announced earlier today that it had signed a $4.3 billion contract to supply LFP cells over three years to a company, but it did not identify the customer, nor did the company state whether the batteries would be used in automotive or energy storage applications.
The deal is advantageous for both companies. Tesla is going to alleviate its reliance on battery cells that are built out of the country, so it’s going to be able to take some financial pressure off itself.
For LGES, the company has reported that it has experienced slowed demand for its cells in terms of automotive applications. It planned to offset this demand lag with more projects involving the cells in energy storage projects. This has been helped by the need for these systems at data centers used for AI.
During the Q1 Earnings Call, Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja confirmed that the company’s energy division had been impacted by the need to source cells from China-based suppliers. He went on to say that the company would work on “securing additional supply chain from non-China-based suppliers.”
It seems as if Tesla has managed to secure some of this needed domestic supply chain.
Lifestyle
Tesla brings perhaps the coolest interior feature to cars in latest update
Tesla adds on to the “fun” aspect of its vehicles.
Tesla has brought perhaps the coolest interior feature to its cars in a new update that is rolling out to vehicles now.
The feature will require a newer vehicle that has interior ambient lighting, which is present on the new Model S, Model X, Model 3 “Highland,” and Model Y “Juniper.” The Cybertruck also has ambient lighting strips throughout.
Tesla Model Y’s ambient lighting design changes revealed in leaked video
With the Version 2025.26+ Software Update, Tesla is rolling out a new “Sync Accent Lights w/ Music” feature, which is available on the Tesla Toybox:
Turn your Tesla into a rave cave with the new Light Sync feature 🎶
Rolling out now in software update 2025.26+ pic.twitter.com/IIsQxZ9jDP
— Tesla (@Tesla) July 29, 2025
To enable the feature, you’ll access the Toybox, choose “Light Sync,” and then choose “Sync Accent Lights w/ Music.”
Although it does not improve the performance of the vehicle, it is yet another example of Tesla making one of the coolest cars out there. This is truly a cool add-on that can be used to impress your friends and family.
Tesla takes first step in sunsetting Model S and X with drastic move
Tesla inks multi-billion-dollar deal with LG Energy Solution to avoid tariff pressure
Tesla brings perhaps the coolest interior feature to cars in latest update
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