Fred Lambert

BMW is planning an all-electric i4 Convertible for 2028, according to a new report from BMWBLOG citing sources close to the automaker.

That would make it one of a small handful of electric convertibles anywhere in the world. Right now, you can buy exactly one new EV convertible in the US, and it starts at $206,095.

Out of Spec Reviews put a Rivian R2 Performance and a Tesla Model Y Performance on the same roads on the same afternoon. The R2 used 18% to 26% more energy at every single speed they tested.

That’s awkward, because the two SUVs carry identical EPA efficiency ratings, and Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe has been telling media the R2 matches the Model Y.

Tesla has confidentially settled with three of the five named plaintiffs in the racism lawsuit that has been hanging over its Fremont factory since 2017.

That doesn’t end much. Up to 580 Black workers are still suing over conditions at the same plant, and California’s civil rights agency is taking its own case to a jury.

Elon Musk says Tesla expects to have self-driving working on the Tesla Semi “probably around the end of this year or early next year.”

Going by Tesla’s record on self-driving deadlines, it is: their jobs are safe for a long time.

Elon Musk says Tesla plans to “open source” the Model S and Model X, and he’s pointing to the original Roadster as the template.

The problem is Tesla’s Roadster release amounted to eight files on GitHub plus five document packages behind a login, with no open-source license attached to any of it.

In the Electrek Podcast, we discuss the most popular news in the world of sustainable transport and energy. In this week’s episode, we discuss Tesla’s earnings debacle, FSD getting me a speeding ticket, Toyota potentially waking up to the future being electric, and more.

Tesla has closed the mysterious ~$2 billion acquisition of an AI hardware company that it first hinted at in April — and it did so, again, without naming the target or issuing a press release.

The deal was confirmed in a single passage buried in Tesla’s Q2 2026 10-Q filing, which for the first time attached a final price: $1.95 billion, paid entirely in Tesla stock and equity awards.

NHTSA has denied a petition asking it to open a defect investigation into the hidden manual door releases on the Tesla Model 3. But in the same decision, the agency agreed to start writing new door-safety rules for the entire auto industry.

The denial, published today, covers 179,031 model year 2022 Model 3 vehicles. NHTSA said it found exactly one complaint matching the petition’s allegation — and it came from the same owner who filed it.

Tesla stock is down more than 12% today, wiping out over $140 billion in market value, after the automaker’s Q2 2026 earnings missed on profit and free cash flow turned negative.

The slide got worse during the earnings call, when Elon Musk repeated the same robotaxi and Optimus promises he’s been making for years.

A Tesla solar customer went to pull up their lease agreement in their Tesla account this month and found something other than a contract waiting for them: the Book of Enoch, an ancient apocalyptic text about fallen angels.

Not a scanned copy of their agreement. Not an error page. The full text of a roughly 2,000-year-old religious book, sitting exactly where their legally binding solar lease was supposed to be. Electrek confirmed it.

Elon Musk was asked directly on Tesla’s Q2 2026 earnings call whether the company still plans to upgrade Hardware 3 (HW3) cars so they can run its latest “Full Self-Driving” software. His answer made one thing clear: Tesla still has no concrete plan.

Instead of committing to a fix, Musk floated a grab-bag of options and timelines — none of them firm — for the millions of vehicles Tesla sold with the promise that they had “all the hardware necessary” for self-driving.

Elon Musk hinted at a merger between Tesla and SpaceX on Tesla’s Q2 2026 earnings call, pointing to “more and more overlap” between the two companies he controls.

He stopped short of confirming anything, deferring to Tesla’s general counsel and “the appropriate process” — but the exchange is the closest Musk has come to addressing the merger speculation directly.

Tesla told shareholders this week that its Robotaxi service is expanding. The company’s own chart proves it isn’t.

In its Q2 2026 update, Tesla leaned on a cumulative “paid Robotaxi miles” chart climbing past 2.4 million miles as its headline proof of momentum. But break that curve into quarters and the growth flatlines: Robotaxi added roughly 900,000 paid miles in Q2 2026, the same as it did in Q1.

Tesla (TSLA) released its financial results and shareholders’ letter for the second quarter (Q2) 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.

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

France’s Transport Minister, Philippe Tabarot, says the country won’t authorize Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” (Supervised) “as it currently stands,” pointing to two safety problems: the system lets drivers speed, and it doesn’t keep them attentive enough in cities.

But this isn’t France slamming the door on Tesla. It’s France refusing to rubber-stamp the Netherlands’ national approval and holding out for a proper EU-wide sign-off.

Tesla reported 207 crashes involving its driver-assist systems in a single month — the most it has ever logged. The figure comes from Tesla’s own crash reports to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

The record month lands as Tesla pushes Full Self-Driving harder than ever, and as the company continues to redact nearly every detail of what actually happened in these crashes.

Laos did something no other country has tried: it banned the import of new gas and diesel passenger cars outright. As of June 1, nearly every new car cleared for import has to be electric.

It’s the most aggressive EV mandate on the planet right now, and it has almost nothing to do with consumer demand.

NHTSA is now demanding a Tesla internal document titled “Radar Saves Us” as part of its investigation into “Full Self-Driving” crashes in low-visibility conditions.

The request is buried in a new 24-part information demand sent to Tesla on July 2, and it points the probe straight at the decision that started all of this: Tesla removing radar from its cars.

Tesla reports its second-quarter 2026 financial results tomorrow, July 22, after the market closes, with the earnings call to follow at 5:30 p.m. ET.

The setup is different this time. Tesla just posted its best-ever second quarter on deliveries, so now Wall Street wants to know whether all those cars actually made money.

Electra is putting $850 million into its first aircraft factory, and it picked Springfield, Ohio to build the EL9 Ultra Short, its nine-passenger hybrid-electric plane that can take off in as little as 150 feet.

The plant will eventually build up to 800 aircraft a year and create nearly 2,000 jobs, the company said Tuesday. That’s a big commitment for a plane that hasn’t flown yet.

Tesla started rolling out its 2026 Summer Update, and the automaker published the full release notes on X.

The headline additions: Grok can finally control more of the car, Caraoke now keeps score, navigation learns your routine, and several features move to the mobile app. Here’s every item in the release notes, with some context on each.

Tesla switched on its “Robotaxi” service in Tampa and Orlando on Monday, adding two Florida cities to a driverless network that still runs on a couple dozen cars. The company’s @robotaxi account announced it in a four-word post: “Robotaxi now in Tampa & Orlando!”

The timing isn’t subtle. Tesla reports second-quarter earnings on Wednesday, and Robotaxi is the story Elon Musk keeps selling to investors. Two new city names the day before make for a nice slide. The fleet behind them tells a different story.

Tesla and Starlink say SpaceX’s satellite internet is now “directly integrated” into the Cybercab, Tesla’s dedicated robotaxi.

The reveal came through a pair of posts on X on Monday, with a cutaway diagram showing a Starlink antenna sitting in the vehicle’s roof. Neither company explained why a car that drives itself on its own computer needs internet from space.

I got a speeding ticket this weekend while using Tesla’s Full Self-Driving. The car was driving itself in Standard mode on FSD when it took me up to 78 km/h in a 50 km/h zone.

A police officer coming the other way clocked me on radar and pulled me over on the spot. I’d turned FSD on less than two minutes earlier.