Electrek

Redwood Materials and Rivian are expanding their existing EV battery partnership, adding a fresh battery material recycling effort to the EV startup’s Normal, Illinois, vehicle factory and, potentially, other Rivian-owned sites.

Rio Tinto wants to put Australia’s cheap midday electricity to work at its Yarwun alumina refinery – by storing it in hot bricks and using that heat battery to make steam after the sun sets.

Tesla said today it will sell Cybercab to consumers by the end of this year, raising questions of what end users would do with a vehicle with no steering wheel and no self-driving software.

Tesla now says unsupervised “Full Self-Driving” in customer-owned cars will arrive in Q2 2027. It’s the latest date on a promise Elon Musk has been making to FSD buyers for the better part of a decade.

But there’s a catch. On Tesla’s Q3 2026 earnings call today, AI chief Ashok Elluswamy described it as owners adding their own vehicles to Tesla’s managed Robotaxi fleet, not owners getting a car that drives them anywhere they want to go.

Buried in a press release titled, “Even more colours and even greater convenience for the Cayenne Electric” was news that Porsche, for the first time, would be offering electrically wireless inductive charging on its impressively powerful Cayenne Electric SUV.

Tesla’s energy business deployed more batteries in Q3 2026 but brought in less money. Energy generation and storage revenue fell 16% year-over-year to $2.88 billion, even though storage deployments rose 10% to 13.7 GWh.

Tesla’s shareholder letter blames the drop “partially” on “tariff-related customer refunds.” It doesn’t say how much it refunded, to which customers, or why it was accounted for as reduced revenue.

BYD is set to launch the Denza N8 EV next week, a large five-seat luxury electric SUV with a CLTC range of over 623 miles (1,000 km).

Tesla says it now has 1.74 million active “Full Self-Driving” subscriptions, up 67% from a year ago. A footnote in its Q3 2026 shareholder letter explains how it gets there: the metric follows “our 2025 CEO Performance Award” and “includes both upfront payment and monthly subscriptions.”

So owners who bought FSD outright, some of them years ago, count as subscribers. That matters because 10 million active FSD subscriptions is one of the milestones Elon Musk has to hit to earn his 2025 pay package. It also matters because hundred of thousands of those FSD “subscribers” were sold unsupervised self-driving, which Tesla has yet to deliver.

Tesla says battery supply, not demand, is what’s holding back its car sales. In its Q3 2026 shareholder letter, the automaker wrote that “battery availability continued to be the limiting factor in increasing auto volumes in the quarter.”

It also claims it ended Q3 with “the largest backlog for our passenger vehicles in four years.” But the numbers in the same letter don’t line up with a company that has more buyers than cars.

Tesla (TSLA) released its financial results and shareholders’ letter for the third quarter (Q3) 2026 after market close today. We’re updating this post with all the details from the financial results, shareholders’ letter, and the conference call later tonight.

The earnings call with management is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. ET.

BMW is preparing to introduce its first three-row electric SUV. With its official debut coming up, the iX7 was spotted testing, offering a sneak peek at the full-size luxury SUV.

Our midweek edition is dominated by electric vehicles, starting with two exclusive deals from Heybike to score $289 savings on its upgraded Mars 2.5 Folding Fat Tire e-bike with a FREE large front basket at a new $799 low or $389 savings on the Ranger S 2.0 Folding Fat Tire e-bike with the same FREE bundle at a new $899 low. We also have a returning low price on BougeRV’s Electric Utility Cart with a 660-pound carrying capacity, as well as a deal for Segway’s budget-friendly E2 Pro Electric Scooter, and more for you below. Don’t forget about yesterday’s hangover deals at the bottom of the page, like the the Segway launch deal for the new E3 Go Electric Scooter, the 4-Day Bluetti Member Sale lineup, and others.

Head below for other New 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.

Kia’s electric vehicles could soon be the ones pulling you over. Kia converted the EV5 and PV5 into patrol vehicles as part of its push for greener police cars.

Lucid’s European robotaxi deal now has a driver. Bolt announced today that its fleet of at least 25,000 autonomous Lucid vehicles will run Nvidia’s Alpamayo Stack self-driving software, starting with a data-collection program in Madrid in 2027.

That gives Lucid two robotaxi customers on two different autonomy systems: Nuro’s software for Uber’s Gravity robotaxis in the US, and now Nvidia’s for Bolt in Europe.

Lexus announced prices for its first fully electric three-row SUV, the 2027 TZ, with sales set to begin in the US later this year and in Europe in early 2027.

Volkswagen issued a recall affecting nearly 73,000 EVs globally. Until a remedy is available, VW will limit charging on impacted vehicles to 80% of their maximum battery capacity.

SDLG Brasil has completed its first sale in the South American country, delivering an order of six heavy-duty electric wheel loaders to Brazilian mining, construction, and infrastructure company Grupo Base.

LiveWire is preparing to bring its biggest electric two-wheeler lineup yet to EICMA (Milan Motorcycle Show) next month, including a pair of previously unseen models that will offer a preview of where the electric motorcycle company is headed in 2027.

When Segway launched the original Xyber last year, it was one of those e-bikes that immediately turned heads. With its futuristic styling, oversized frame, and high-performance off-road ambitions, it looked more like a concept vehicle than something you could actually buy.

Now the company is hoping to capture a much wider audience with the new Segway Xyber Air, a lighter, street-legal version that keeps much of the original’s aggressive styling while fitting neatly into the familiar Class 1, 2, and 3 e-bike categories. 

Tesla and SpaceX have both formed special committees within their corporate boards to explore the possibility of merging the two companies according to Elon Musk, who is CEO of both companies.

The merger could have big consequences not just for Tesla and SpaceX shareholders, but could dilute the retirement savings of everyone with exposure to major stock indices.

The new 2027 Mercedes-Benz GLC 400 4Matic EV has an EPA-estimated range of up to 331 miles, but in the real world, it will likely go even farther.

Apartment and condo residents could get more places to plug in their EVs without their buildings needing a costly electrical upgrade. LAZ Parking and EverCharge are launching a charging service that shares available power among vehicles – an approach the companies say can support up to five times as many charging ports on the same power supply.

Tesla reports its third-quarter 2026 financial results tomorrow, October 21, after the market closes. The earnings call follows at 5:30 p.m. ET.

Wall Street expects revenue to come in flat and earnings per share to drop 10% from a year ago, even though Tesla just beat its own delivery consensus by more than 24,000 vehicles.

Rivian is now the #2 EV brand in the US, up from 10th last year, taking Chevrolet’s spot as almost every other automaker tries to slow down the inevitable transition to electric cars.