News
VW prepares to spend first $300M of $2B on EV charging infrastructure project
Volkswagen will designate $300 million by 2019 to establish a network of more than 450 electric vehicle charging stations in 11 U.S. major metropolitan areas and along high traffic highways. The announcement came this week through Volkswagen’s new wholly owned subsidiary called Electrify America, which will support increased use of zero emissions vehicles (ZEVs) in the U.S.
The initiative is part of the Federal Trade Commission agreement with Volkswagen to compensate for “Dieselgate,” the systematic and willful deceit of U.S. emissions regulators through special software in Volkswagen’s diesel vehicles. Electrify America is a product of Volkswagen’s 2016 court settlement with the California Air Resources Board and the U.S. EPA. We recently reported that the VW emissions scandal has given life to a new generation of electric vehicle start ups like Rivian Automotive. The Illinois-based electric car company has leased land to a logistics company that’s using the space as a temporary holding area for the Dieselgate VWs. Teslarati commissioned a videographer to capture drone shots showing roughly 14,000 affected cars waiting to be disposed of as a result of the scandal.
Thousands of VW Diesels being Stored at Rivian Factory, Photo: Jim Finch for Teslarati
Electrify America will support and promote greater availability of customer-friendly infrastructure in areas with high demand for ZEVs. With hundreds of stations with non-proprietary chargers across the U.S., Electrify America‘s first National ZEV investment cycle will make it easier and faster for millions of Americans to charge their electric vehicles while also “encouraging more drivers to explore and embrace electric driving.”
Electrify America‘s first stage plans
Electrify America has released information through a press release and website that it will establish a network of 2,500+ non-proprietary electric vehicle chargers at more than 450 station sites.
- Approximately 240 charging station sites will be installed or under development outside of California by the end of the first cycle.
- These sites will be located along high-traffic corridors between metropolitan areas, including multiple cross country routes.
- They will include between four and ten 150 kW and 320 kW individual DC fast chargers at each location.
- Charging sites will be present in 39 U.S. states.
- They will be built along corridors with a high correlation with the EV Charging Corridors recently designated by the Federal government.
- Sites will be, on average, about 66 miles apart, with no more than 120 miles between stations.
Comparisons to Tesla’s Supercharger network
The extent and speed of Electrify America‘s planned installation schedule roughly parallels the early years of Tesla’s DC Supercharger network in the U.S., which began in late 2012.
The new Electrify America chargers will be non-proprietary. Tesla vehicles use a proprietary plug design, although the company sells compatible adapters. Tesla’s DC CHAdeMO adapter is limited to 50 kilowatts of power.
With proposed charging power set at 320 kilowatts, the Electrify America network would be the first high power contender, at scale, to the Tesla Supercharger network. Tesla is the only EV manufacturer right now capable of charging vehicles at up to 120 kW, which equates to about 170 miles of range in as little as 30 minutes. Tesla has built a fast DC Supercharger network that supports maximum theoretical charging rates of up to 145 kilowatts, according to the company’s website.
The Electrify America network will provide 2500+ chargers at more than 450 stations. At this writing, Tesla Superchargers are at over 2,200 charging stalls at 350 locations across the U.S.
The proximity of Electrify America‘s chargers along frequently traveled corridors means that many shorter range ZEVs available today will be able to use this network. Most Tesla sites are located along highways away from large metropolitan areas and are primarily intended for use by travelers on long-distance trips.
It seems likely that the Electrify America chargers will be located in existing public infrastructure like rest stops. Tesla has a growing network of Destination Charging Partners with dedicated Tesla Wall Connectors at their properties. The company’s website describes how these are primarily destinations where a Tesla owner would stay for several hours at a time, such as ski resorts, restaurants, hotels and others. They are safe, well-lit, and infuse a feeling of security when Tesla owners need to recharge their vehicles.
Electrify America stations will be designed to support many existing and anticipated charging technology needs, including evolving industry standards like the Combined Charging Standard (CCS) and the Open Charge Point Protocol. Last year, Tesla joined the European CharIN consortium that is leading the development of CCS.
Tesla reminds its owners that there are many factors that affect the actual charge rate, including ambient temperature, utility grid restrictions, and charging traffic. Tesla constantly incorporates owner feedback into its maintenance and research and development efforts, offering a distinct consumer experience for Tesla owners who use its Superchargers.
Tesla is starting to truly tease and hype its groundbreaking Cybercab event, which takes place tomorrow in Austin, Texas. It will be the first time members of the public will be able to ride in a Cybercab, a vehicle without any manual controls, on public roads.
Tesla has been dropping some hype on X over the past several days, but this morning, the excitement has truly started to build up for the event. Although Cybercab has been unveiled before, this is truly Tesla’s announcement that it is ready to start offering autonomous rides for public passengers in its new ride-hailing-geared vehicle for the first time.
The hype has started with a variety of different social media posts that are a true indication that Tesla is preparing for something big. Teasing so much of the potential of Cybercab, including its ability to truly revolutionize how people hail rides for local travel, is what the big idea for the event entails. The time that many Tesla owners, fans, and investors have been waiting for is potentially here:
— Tesla (@Tesla) September 2, 2026
The event has remained slim on details. Even invitees are still awaiting true details about what the event will entail, where they’ll go, and what is in store for the evening. This is pretty typical for an event run by Tesla; they keep things under wraps for the most part until the very last minute.
However, there is no secret about what the real intention of Tesla is for this event: it is going to be a huge reveal party for a vehicle that has no steering wheel and no pedals. It is a truly massive step for the company moving forward.
No steering wheel, no pedals
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) September 2, 2026
Speculation persists as to whether this is going to be an event that simply announces that rides will begin with the Cybercab, or it will be something more substantial. Tesla has said in the past that they plan to sell the Cybercab to the general public in what could become a great way to earn passive income by adding it to a more global fleet of Robotaxi-geared vehicles.
Tomorrow, the show begins in Austin, and the Cybercab goes live at some capacity; we just don’t know exactly how quite yet.
News
SpaceX tells the FCC that Starship Flight 14 is going to orbit
SpaceX filed with the FCC for Starship Flight 14, its first true orbital launch attempt.
SpaceX has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to fly Starlink terminals during Starship’s fourteenth flight test, and the filing lays out a genuine trip to orbit, something the program has never attempted.
Every Starship flight so far, including Flight 13’s successful splashdown in the Indian Ocean on July 24, has flown a suborbital arc that ends with the ship reentering the atmosphere within the same hour it launches. The FCC paperwork describes a mission profile built around an actual orbital insertion instead.
The payload is the other half of the story. Flight 13 carried 20 production Starlink V3 satellites, but because that mission never reached orbit, the satellites reentered along with the ship rather than joining the constellation, something Teslarati covered in detail after SpaceX released footage shot from one of those satellites as it drifted away from Starship in space. Flight 14 is designed to close that gap. If the orbital insertion holds, the roughly 20 V3 satellites onboard would separate into an operational orbit and could eventually go into service, each one rated for about 1 terabit per second of downlink capacity by SpaceX’s own account.
SpaceX announces new Starbase for ‘thousands of Starship launches annually’
Elon Musk first flagged the orbital attempt during SpaceX’s August 4 earnings call, the company’s first as a public entity following its June IPO under the ticker SPCX. He also floated catching the ship with the Starbase tower on the same flight, an idea he walked back on August 20, saying the catch attempt would more likely come “in a few months,” as Teslarati reported at the time. Flight 14 will instead target a splashdown for the ship in the Indian Ocean, the same recovery method used since Flight 12.
Hardware has been catching up to the ambition. Booster 21 completed a full 33-engine static fire on August 28, and Ship 41 finished its own six-engine test the week before. An airspace briefing circulated to pilots on August 20 listed September 15 as the target date, later than the end of August window Musk mentioned on the earnings call, though SpaceX has not confirmed a launch date publicly and Starship schedules routinely slip while hardware and FAA paperwork line up.
The FCC filing itself does not guarantee a launch date. It covers communications authority, and not flight readiness, considering SpaceX still needs Ship 41 fully stacked and cleared by the FAA before Flight 14 can fly. But the filing is a real marker of intent and it puts a specific regulatory process behind what had so far only been Musk’s word on the earnings call.
Tesla is set to launch Cybercab on Thursday at an event in Austin, Texas, which will officially bring the company’s first steering wheel-less and pedal-less vehicle to a limited number of consumers for the first time.
The event, which is invite-only, is still thin on details: we’ll be there, and it seems the event will be held at Gigafactory Texas, but the launch of this vehicle truly relies on it being operational outside of the factory and on public roads.
🚨 Close-Up look at Tesla Cybercab without steering wheel: pic.twitter.com/9TXCDeDCz7
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 3, 2026
Nevertheless, there are some big things to expect, and other things to temper expectations on. For what it’s worth, we believe this event could be perhaps the biggest indication that Tesla is ready to truly enter a new phase and chapter in its historic story.
Tesla Cybercab’s First Foray into the Public with Real-World Riders
Cybercab will likely hit the streets of Austin and the surrounding areas, likely in the established geofence that Tesla has expanded on for the past 14 months. Just yesterday, Tesla expanded it once again by 9 percent.
Tesla will put, for the first time, a vehicle without any manual controls on public roads, likely without any help from teleoperators. This is a truly groundbreaking development if it comes through in this fashion: it would be groundbreaking for Tesla to roll out a truly driverless ride-hailing vehicle.
Cybercab Has Already Been Unveiled
This is not an unveiling event. Cybercab has been released for nearly two years, as Tesla first showed it to the public on October 10, 2024.
FIRST LOOK: Tesla ‘Cybercab’ Robotaxi makes its global debut
While there is some small speculation that Tesla could release the Roadster at the event as a surprise, it seems more likely the focus will be on the Cybercab and the huge accomplishment that will come with releasing a vehicle with no manual controls.
There Will Be a Lot of Hype
What’s important to remember about the Cybercab event is that Tesla will continue to prioritize safety and the rollout will likely be slow, just as it has been with Robotaxi.
One of the biggest complaints about Robotaxi is vehicle population, and the fact that the wait for a ride, at least in some instances, has been longer than most want to admit.
It will take time for this project to truly scale. It will take time for Tesla to roll this out in a large fashion. The important thing to note is that they are doing it, and they’re doing it with a vehicle that is completely engineered and built internally. That’s something no other ride-hailing service can say.
Tesla starts teasing and hyping groundbreaking Cybercab event
SpaceX tells the FCC that Starship Flight 14 is going to orbit
