An upcoming EV chip manufacturing plant in Germany is poised to finally tackle the chip shortage that has ravaged automakers worldwide.
If one thing has become eminently clear over the past three years, it is the fact that the supply chains that bring us everything from cars to surgical masks are incredibly delicate and, further, can benefit from numerous points of origin. Perhaps nowhere has this been seen better than in the scramble for automotive computer chips in the wake of COVID-19 across the world in 2020. Now, according to a press release from German chip conglomerate ZF Friedrichshafen (ZF) and American chip maker Wolfspeed, the two will be collaborating to meet this demand with a new chip fabrication plant in Germany.
The company itself confirmed the plant this morning. The upcoming factory “will be the world’s largest, utilizing innovative manufacturing processes to produce next-generation Silicon Carbide devices.” But the importance of the factory isn’t just due to its potential to meet the near overwhelming demand of automakers for EV computer chips, but in its strategic location.
Saarland, a German state located on the border with France, will reportedly be the home of the upcoming fabrication location. From there, Wolfspeed and ZF would be able to quickly and efficiently meet the demand for EV chips of Porsche in Stuttgart, BMW in Bavaria, and Mercedes in central Germany. Further, it would also be able to meet upcoming demand from Renault and Stellantis just over the border in France.
Even outside of that immediate radius, Tesla’s massive Giga-Berlin facility and Ford’s numerous production locations found in Northern Germany can benefit from this new supply.
Hier in Ensdorf im Saarland, wo einst Kohle verstromt wurde, entstehen mit der neuen Fertigungsanlage viele Arbeitsplätze und effiziente Halbleiter. Wir brauchen sie für E-Autos, Erneuerbare Energien, für die #Transformation. Wolfspeed und ZF stärken so den Wirtschaftsstandort ?? pic.twitter.com/tEt7jvPsus
— Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz (@Bundeskanzler) February 1, 2023
Neither a production start date nor an estimate of production capacity have been announced, though construction will begin in the first half of this year, pending confirmation from the European Unions. The upcoming plant will supposedly cost €3 billion ($3.27 billion), with ZF holding a minority in the venture. This is part of Wolfspeed’s previously announced $6.5 billion global expansion plan, which included two other production locations in the United States.
German officials also see the new project as a win, one telling Reuters, “Amid the concerns that the U.S. wants to divert investments from Europe with its Inflation Reduction Act, we’re showing that a U.S. firm wants to invest in Germany.” However, it should be noted that Wolfspeed and ZF are likely attracted to Germany following the success of Europe’s own “IRA,” which plans to invest 45 billion euros ($49.03 billion) into computer chip manufacturing throughout the continent. The plan has yet to be finalized by the European Parliament.
“This project is a great transformation driver and a job engine for a traditionally industrial region. Furthermore, it bundles important know-how in Europe and contributes to the implementation of the European Green Deal by reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions,” said Saarland Minister-President Anke Rehlinger. “We’re proud to have Wolfspeed, and have our region play such a vital role in advancing Silicon Carbide semiconductor innovation.”
The company’s press release noted that Wolfspeed specializes in “silicon carbide chips” typically used in high-voltage use cases, such as EV drivetrains. Manufacturers specifically choose the chips for their ability to operate under high loads while retaining energy efficiency. Wolfspeed already produces these chips en masse and has announced “the world’s largest chip plant,” which will be built in the United States and come online by 2030.
Wolfspeed and ZF have clearly chosen the ideal location for their upcoming plant. And with the ongoing battle for cheaper and cheaper EVs, the company is poised to benefit simply due to its physical proximity. Suppliers are finally considering moving away from China as the sole chip supplier, and in the quest for electrifying mobility, this may be key to a faster transition.
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Elon Musk
Ford CEO Farley says Tesla is not who to look at for EV expertise
Interestingly, Farley has been one of the most hellbent CEOs in terms of a legacy automaker standpoint to push the EV effort. It did not go according to plan, as Ford took a $19.5 billion charge and retreated from its EV push in late 2025.
Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a recent podcast interview that Tesla is not who Americans should look at to beat Chinese carmakers.
The comments have sparked quite a bit of outrage from Tesla fans on X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.
Farley said that Chinese automakers are better examples of how to beat competitors. He said (via the Rapid Response Podcast):
“If you’re an American and you want us to beat the Chinese in the car business, you’re all going to want to pay attention, not necessarily to Tesla. Nothing against Tesla—they’ve been doing great—but they really don’t have an updated vehicle. The best in the business for us, cost-wise and competition-wise, supply chain, manufacturing expertise, and the I.P. in the vehicle, was really BYD. In this next cycle of EV customers in the U.S., they want pickups and utilities and all these different body styles. But they want them at $30,000, not $50,000. Like the first inning, they want them affordably.”
Despite Farley’s synopsis, it is worth mentioning that Tesla had the best-selling passenger vehicle in the world last year, and in China in March, as the Model Y continued its global dominance over other vehicles.
Musk responded to Farley’s comments by stating:
“This is before Supervised FSD is approved in China. Limiting factor is production output in Shanghai.”
This is before supervised FSD is approved in China. Limiting factor is production output in Shanghai.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 19, 2026
Interestingly, Farley has been one of the most hellbent CEOs in terms of a legacy automaker standpoint to push the EV effort. It did not go according to plan, as Ford took a $19.5 billion charge and retreated from its EV push in late 2025.
Ford cancels all-electric F-150 Lightning, announces $19.5 billion in charges
Instead, Ford is “doubling down on its affordable” EVs and said it would pivot from its previous plans.
Reaction from Tesla fans was pretty much how you would expect. Many said they have lost a lot of respect for Farley after his comments; others believe he is the last CEO anyone should be taking advice on EVs from.
Nevertheless, Farley’s plans are bold and brash; many consider Tesla the most ideal company to replicate EV efforts from. It will be interesting to see if Ford can rebound from this big adjustment, and hopefully, Farley’s plans to replicate efforts from BYD work out the way he hopes.
Elon Musk
SpaceX wins its first MARS contract but it comes with a catch
NASA awarded SpaceX a $175 million Mars rover contract while the White House proposes cutting the mission.
NASA just signed a $175.7 million contract with SpaceX to launch a Mars rover that the White House is simultaneously trying to defund. The contract, awarded on April 16, 2026, tasks SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy with launching the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosalind Franklin rover from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, no earlier than late 2028. It would mark the first time SpaceX has ever sent a payload to Mars.
Under NASA’s Rosalind Franklin Support and Augmentation project, known as ROSA, the agency is providing braking engines for the rover’s descent stage, radioisotope heater units that use decaying plutonium to keep the rover warm on the Martian surface, additional electronics, and a mass spectrometer instrument, as noted by SpaceNews.
Those nuclear heating units are the reason an American rocket was required at all. U.S. export controls on radioisotope technology mean any payload carrying them must launch on a domestic vehicle, which narrowed the field to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. Falcon Heavy’s pricing made it the practical choice.
SpaceX is quietly becoming the U.S. Military’s only reliable rocket
Falcon Heavy debuted in February 2018 and has 11 launches to its record. The rocket has not flown since October 2024, when it sent NASA’s Europa Clipper toward Jupiter. The three-core design, built from modified Falcon 9 first stages, gives it the lift capacity needed for deep space planetary missions that a single Falcon 9 cannot reach.
The Rosalind Franklin rover has been sitting in storage in Europe for years. It was originally due to launch in 2022 as a joint mission with Russia, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ended that partnership, leaving the rover built but stranded without a launch vehicle or landing hardware. NASA stepped back in through a 2024 agreement with ESA to rescue the mission. The rover is designed to drill up to two meters below the Martian surface in search of evidence of past life, a science objective no previous mission has attempted at that depth.
The contradiction at the center of this story is hard to ignore. The White House’s fiscal year 2027 budget proposal included no funding for ROSA and did not mention the mission at all in the detailed congressional justification document released April 3.
Musk has long argued that reaching Mars is not optional. “We don’t want to be one of those single planet species, we want to be a multi-planet species.” Whether this particular mission survives Washington’s budget fight, the Falcon Heavy contract means SpaceX is now formally on record as the rocket that could get humanity’s next Mars science mission off the ground.
The timing of this contract carries extra weight given that SpaceX filed confidentially with the SEC in early April and is targeting an IPO roadshow in the week of June 8. It would be the largest public offering in history.
Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is set to hold its Earnings Call for the first quarter of 2026 on Wednesday, and there are a lot of interesting things that are swirling around in terms of speculation from investors.
With the company’s executives, including CEO Elon Musk, answering a handful of questions that investors submit through the Say platform, fans want to know a lot of things about a lot of things.
These five questions come from Retail Investors, who are normal, everyday shareholders:
- When will we have the Optimus v3 reveal? When will Optimus production start, since we ended the Model S and Model X production earlier than mid-year? What’s the expected Optimus production rate exiting this year? What are the initial targeted skills?
- What milestones are you targeting for unsupervised FSD and Robotaxi expansion beyond Austin this year, and how will that drive recurring revenue?
- How will Hardware 3 cars reach Unsupervised Full Self-Driving?
- When do you expect Unsupervised Full Self-Driving to reach customer cars?
- When will Robotaxi expand past its current limited rollout?
Additionally, these are currently the three questions that are slated to be answered by Institutional Firms, which also answer a handful of questions during the call:
- Now that FSD has been approved in the Netherlands and is expected to launch across Europe this summer, can you discuss your Robotaxi strategy for the region?
- What enabled you to finish the AI5 tapeout early and were there any changes to the original vision? Last week, Elon said AI5 will go into Optimus and the Supercomputer, but one month ago said it would go into the Robotaxi. Has AI5 been dropped from the vehicle roadmap?
- Given the recent NHTSA incident filings, can you update us on the Robotaxi safety data? If safety validation remains the primary bottleneck, why not deploy thousands of vehicles to accelerate the removal of the safety driver?
The questions range through every current Tesla project, including FSD expansion and Optimus. However, many of the answers we will get will likely be repetitive answers we’ve heard in the past.
This is especially pertinent when the questions about when Unsupervised FSD will reach customer cars: we know Musk will say that it will happen this year. Is Tesla capable of that? Maybe. But a more transparent answer that is more revealing of a true timeline would be appreciated.
Hardware 3 owners are anxiously awaiting the arrival of FSD v14 Lite, which was promised to them last year for a release sometime this year.
The Earnings Call is set to take place on Wednesday at market close.
Ford CEO Farley says Tesla is not who to look at for EV expertise
SpaceX wins its first MARS contract but it comes with a catch
