News
Toyota, Stellantis, Ford, and other OEMs begin serious battery production push
It seems like legacy automakers, including Toyota, Stellantis, Ford, and General Motors, are starting to embrace the EV transition. Detroit’s Big 3 and Toyota all announced investments in battery plants these last few weeks. These indicate that veteran automakers are taking a serious step toward mass electric vehicle production.
Toyota’s US Battery Plant
On Monday, Toyota announced plans to invest $3.4 billion in battery development and production within the United States. The Japanese automaker plans to strengthen its position in North America with the investment, including a $1.3 billion EV battery plant to produce in-house cells under a new company.
The battery facility will initially produce batteries for hybrids. It will work with Toyota Tsusho Corporation, which has a Metals Division that focuses on vehicle weight reduction and electrification functionalities. Toyota expects the battery plant to start production in 2025 and expand through 2031, offering about 1,750 jobs.
Stellantis & LG’s Partnership
On the same day Toyota announced its North American investment, Stellantis made one of its own. In a press release, Stellantis announced a joint venture with LG Energy Solution to produce lithium-ion batteries in North America. The automaker plans to start building a new battery plant by Q1 2024.
Stellantis expects its new battery plant to have an annual production capacity of 40 GWh. The cells produced at the plant will supply Stellantis assembly plants in the United States, Canada, and Mexico to produce electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.
-->The remaining two automakers that make up the Detroit 3—Ford and General Motors—announced battery investment plans a few weeks before Stellantis.
Ford plans to invest $11.4 billion in electric vehicle production, and most of the investment will go towards battery development. Along with SK Innovation, the legacy automaker plans to invest in three battery plants in Tennessee and Kentucky.
Meanwhile, General Motors announced it would be building a battery cell research and innovation facility in Michigan called the Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center. The facility is already under construction. GM expects the center to be entirely built by mid-2022.
Legacy auto and the EV transition
The announcements mentioned above are a significant step for legacy OEMs in terms of the EV transition. It was only recently that traditional automakers even took the electric vehicle market seriously. Even now, some automakers are unsure about the future of EVs in the global car market.
“All of us are trying to get a fix on how customers will accept electric vehicles,” said Chris Reynolds, chief administrative officer for Toyota in North America, to The Associated Press. “We don’t know for sure, but we have to be ready.”
However, consumers are showing more interest in new energy vehicles. According to consulting firm Alix Partners, EV sales could increase by 11% in 2025 and 24% in 2030. Currently, electric vehicles sales make up only ~4.8% of about 80 million new vehicles sales worldwide, based on LMC Automotive research.
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News
Tesla Europe rolls out FSD ride-alongs in the Netherlands’ holiday campaign
The festive event series comes amid Tesla’s ongoing push for regulatory approval of FSD across Europe.
Tesla Europe has announced that its “Future Holidays” campaign will feature Full Self-Driving (Supervised) ride-along experiences in the Netherlands.
The festive event series comes amid Tesla’s ongoing push for regulatory approval of FSD across Europe.
The Holiday program was announced by Tesla Europe & Middle East in a post on X. “Come get in the spirit with us. Featuring Caraoke, FSD Supervised ride-along experiences, holiday light shows with our S3XY lineup & more,” the company wrote in its post on X.
Per the program’s official website, fun activities will include Caraoke sessions and light shows with the S3XY vehicle lineup. It appears that Optimus will also be making an appearance at the events. Tesla even noted that the humanoid robot will be in “full party spirit,” so things might indeed be quite fun.
“This season, we’re introducing you to the fun of the future. Register for our holiday events to meet our robots, see if you can spot the Bot to win prizes, and check out our selection of exclusive merchandise and limited-edition gifts. Discover Tesla activities near you and discover what makes the future so festive,” Tesla wrote on its official website.
-->This announcement aligns with Tesla’s accelerating FSD efforts in Europe, where supervised ride-alongs could help demonstrate the tech to regulators and customers. The Netherlands, with its urban traffic and progressive EV policies, could serve as an ideal and valuable testing ground for FSD.
Tesla is currently hard at work pushing for the rollout of FSD to several European countries. Tesla has received approval to operate 19 FSD test vehicles on Spain’s roads, though this number could increase as the program develops. As per the Dirección General de Tráfico (DGT), Tesla would be able to operate its FSD fleet on any national route across Spain. Recent job openings also hint at Tesla starting FSD tests in Austria. Apart from this, the company is also holding FSD demonstrations in Germany, France, and Italy.
News
Tesla sees sharp November rebound in China as Model Y demand surges
New data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) shows a 9.95% year-on-year increase and a 40.98% jump month-over-month.
Tesla’s sales momentum in China strengthened in November, with wholesale volumes rising to 86,700 units, reversing a slowdown seen in October.
New data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) shows a 9.95% year-on-year increase and a 40.98% jump month-over-month. This was partly driven by tightened delivery windows, targeted marketing, and buyers moving to secure vehicles before changes to national purchase tax incentives take effect.
Tesla’s November rebound coincided with a noticeable spike in Model Y interest across China. Delivery wait times extended multiple times over the month, jumping from an initial 2–5 weeks to estimated handovers in January and February 2026 for most five-seat variants. Only the six-seat Model Y L kept its 4–8 week estimated delivery timeframe.
The company amplified these delivery updates across its Chinese social media channels, urging buyers to lock in orders early to secure 2025 delivery slots and preserve eligibility for current purchase tax incentives, as noted in a CNEV Post report. Tesla also highlighted that new inventory-built Model Y units were available for customers seeking guaranteed handovers before December 31.
This combination of urgency marketing and genuine supply-demand pressure seemed to have helped boost November’s volumes, stabilizing what had been a year marked by several months of year-over-year declines.
-->For the January–November period, Tesla China recorded 754,561 wholesale units, an 8.30% decline compared to the same period last year. The company’s Shanghai Gigafactory continues to operate as both a domestic production base and a major global export hub, building the Model 3 and Model Y for markets across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, among other territories.
Tesla bear Michael Burry got blunt with his beliefs over the company’s valuation, which he called “ridiculously overvalued” in a newsletter to subscribers this past weekend.
“Tesla’s market capitalization is ridiculously overvalued today and has been for a good long time,” Burry, who was the inspiration for the movie The Big Short, and was portrayed by Christian Bale.
Burry went on to say, “As an aside, the Elon cult was all-in on electric cars until competition showed up, then all-in on autonomous driving until competition showed up, and now is all-in on robots — until competition shows up.”
Tesla bear Michael Burry ditches bet against $TSLA, says ‘media inflated’ the situation
For a long time, Burry has been skeptical of Tesla, its stock, and its CEO, Elon Musk, even placing a $530 million bet against shares several years ago. Eventually, Burry’s short position extended to other supporters of the company, including ARK Invest.
Tesla has long drawn skepticism from investors and more traditional analysts, who believe its valuation is overblown. However, the company is not traded as a traditional stock, something that other Wall Street firms have recognized.
While many believe the company has some serious pull as an automaker, an identity that helped it reach the valuation it has, Tesla has more than transformed into a robotics, AI, and self-driving play, pulling itself into the realm of some of the most recognizable stocks in tech.
Burry’s Scion Asset Management has put its money where its mouth is against Tesla stock on several occasions, but the firm has not yielded positive results, as shares have increased in value since 2020 by over 115 percent. The firm closed in May.
In 2020, it launched its short position, but by October 2021, it had ditched that position.
Tesla has had a tumultuous year on Wall Street, dipping significantly to around the $220 mark at one point. However, it rebounded significantly in September, climbing back up to the $400 region, as it currently trades at around $430.
It closed at $430.14 on Monday.
Tesla Europe rolls out FSD ride-alongs in the Netherlands’ holiday campaign
Tesla sees sharp November rebound in China as Model Y demand surges
