Electrek

On today’s charged up episode of Quick Charge, we’ve got Franklin WH co-founder and CEO Gary Lam here to talk us through some of the benefits of a home battery system, and what it takes to make the most of one – with, or even without a home solar panel system.

Tesla lists Giga Berlin’s Model Y production capacity at more than 375,000 units per year — roughly 93,000 per quarter. The plant manager just celebrated a “record” Q1 2026 of 61,000 units and announced a 20% production increase. None of that adds up.

André Thierig, Tesla’s senior director of manufacturing at Gigafactory Berlin, announced today that the plant will increase Model Y production by 20% starting in July, hire approximately 1,000 new employees beginning in May, and convert 500 temporary workers to permanent positions.

Tesla has fully drawn down its China Working Capital Facility to $5.8 billion, according to its Q1 2026 10-Q filing — a 35% increase in a single quarter. The facility, which didn’t exist two years ago, now represents 64% of all Tesla’s non-recourse debt.

The company tapped every available dollar from the Chinese credit line while sitting on $44.7 billion in cash and short-term investments in the US — and while its retail sales in China crashed 16% year-over-year.

A group of Microsoft suppliers just helped push a small solar farm over the finish line in North Carolina – and it shows how corporate buyers can band together and boost projects that might otherwise stall.

New York is putting more money behind a key piece of the EV transition that often gets overlooked: the people who keep chargers running.

Today’s 9to5Toys Green Deals is headlined by meross’ recently-released 18-circuit electrical panel monitor as well as Amazon undercutting beating out the official NAVEE sale on its own 34-mile G5 Pro electric scooter. That’s just a couple of the headliners you’ll find, so continue reading to see them all.

Head below for other Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek‘s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

A Tesla Model YL test mule has been spotted driving on Interstate 280 in the San Francisco Bay Area, marking the first time the longer-wheelbase, 6-seat SUV has been photographed on American roads.

The sighting comes despite CEO Elon Musk’s suggestion that the Model YL might never come to the US — and it strongly suggests Tesla is actively preparing the vehicle for the North American market.

US EV fast-charging networks are heading into 2026 looking… steady, with reliability up, pricing stable, and utilization holding in a tight range even as more chargers come online.

A new e-bike drive system in development is aiming to do something pretty radical: get rid of the mechanical connection between your pedals and the rear wheel entirely and replace it with a copper wire. Or more accurately, a few copper wires.

Tesla agreed to acquire an unnamed AI hardware company for up to $2 billion in stock and equity awards, according to a single sentence buried in its Q1 2026 10-Q filing. The company never mentioned the deal in its shareholders’ letter or during last night’s earnings call.

The disclosure appeared in Note 14 — Subsequent Events, the very last note in the financial statements, in what may be the most expensive one-sentence disclosure Tesla has ever made.

During Tesla’s Q1 2026 earnings call, CEO Elon Musk revealed that Tesla is planning an “AI4.1 or AI4 Plus” upgrade to its self-driving computer that doubles the RAM from 16 gigabytes to 32 gigabytes per chip — taking the total system memory to 64 gigabytes.

The announcement came on the same call where Musk confirmed (or rather reconfirmed after backing away from the admision last year) that HW3 “simply does not have the capability” for unsupervised FSD.

For the millions of Tesla owners currently driving HW4 cars, the timing raises an uncomfortable question.

CEO Elon Musk confirmed during Tesla’s Q1 2026 earnings call that Cybercab production has officially begun at Giga Texas.

VP of Vehicle Engineering Lars Moravy confirmed that the Cybercab will not be subject to NHTSA’s 2,500-vehicle annual production cap for autonomous vehicles.

During Tesla’s Q1 2026 earnings call today, CEO Elon Musk confirmed that Optimus robot production will begin at Fremont in late July or August — just four months after the last Model S and X roll off the line in early May.

Musk warned, however, that initial output will be “quite slow,” calling it “literally impossible to predict” the production rate this year given Optimus has 10,000 unique parts across an entirely new production line.

China’s solar exports surged to unprecedented levels in March as a global energy shock is pushing countries to rapidly pivot away from fossil fuels.

There are millions of Tesla vehicles on the road today which were sold on the promise of full autonomy, but without hardware capable of doing so.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk just proposed the company could build “microfactories” in urban areas in order to upgrade the computers and cameras in those videos, adding high costs for a company that is already running thin on profitability – but we’ll see if it actually happens.

Elon Musk has once again pushed back the Tesla Roadster unveiling. During yesterday’s Q1 2026 earnings call, the CEO said the car might debut “in a month or so” — blowing past the late April timeline he had set just weeks ago.

It marks at least the eighth time Musk has moved the goalposts on the Roadster since the prototype was first revealed in November 2017, nearly nine years ago.

During Tesla’s Q1 2026 earnings call today, CEO Elon Musk confirmed that unsupervised Full Self-Driving for consumer vehicles won’t arrive until Q4 2026 at the earliest — pushing the timeline yet again after years of broken promises.

When asked directly when FSD unsupervised would reach customer cars, Musk replied: “I’m just guessing here, but probably in the fourth quarter.”

Tesla has released quarterly earnings, and the announcement was accompanied by what seems to be a backpedaling on availability of Robotaxis in 5 of the 8 cities Tesla has announced availability in.

Tesla’s Q1 2026 earnings beat looks impressive on the surface — 21.1% gross margin, 136% operating income growth, $0.41 non-GAAP EPS. But dig into the shareholders’ letter and a pattern emerges: Tesla pulled every accounting and financial lever available to make a stagnant quarter look like a turnaround.

One-time warranty reserve releases, tariff refund windfalls, stretched supplier payments, and new debt all contributed to headline numbers that mask a fundamental problem — Tesla’s core auto business isn’t growing.

Tesla (TSLA) released its financial results and shareholders’ letter for the first quarter (Q1) 2026 after market close today.

We are updating this post with all the details from the financial results, shareholders’ letter, and the conference call later tonight. Refresh for the latest information.

Today’s 9to5Toys Green Deals has some fresh markdowns for you to scope out. A couple of noteworthy mentions include $1,050 off Bluetti’s 2,048Wh AC200L power station with two 200W solar panels alongside the beastly Hiboy beastly Titan PRO electric scooter with up to an 80-mile range at up to $500 off. Head below to sell all of your options in detail.

Head below for other Green Deals we’ve found today and, of course, Electrek‘s best EV buying and leasing deals. Also, check out the new Electrek Tesla Shop for the best deals on Tesla accessories.

BMW gave its flagship electric sedan an overhaul for the 2027 model year. The new BMW i7 offers nearly 450 miles of range, advanced new tech, and an updated Neue Klasse design.

CATL’s new sodium-ion batteries will begin launching in passenger EVs later this year, offering a more efficient and sustainable solution.

Rivian officially started production of its R2 electric SUV at its Normal, Illinois plant today, marking the most critical milestone in the company’s history.

The production launch comes just five days after an EF-1 tornado ripped through the same facility, collapsing a section of the roof in Building 2 — the very area dedicated to R2 operations.