Stories by Sarah Lee-Jones

Electric automaker Rivian announced on Friday it has closed a $2.5 billion USD funding round, led by Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, D1 Capital Partners, Ford Motor Company and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. Others in this private funding round included Third Point, Fidelity Management and Research Company, Dragoneer Investment Group, […]

NASA announced on Friday it has selected SpaceX and the latter’s Falcon Heavy for “Earth’s first mission to conduct detailed investigations of Jupiter’s moon Europa.” According to NASA, the Europa Clipper mission is pegged for launch in October 2024, from Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy will send NASA’s Europa […]

The new Tesla Model S refresh and its yoke steering wheel, in particular, have drawn mixed opinions, as the new design requires revamped muscle memory from those that have actually tried it. Will Tesla offer a regular round steering wheel option for the Tesla Model S refresh? In a response to MKBHD’s review of the […]

Tesla has increased the price of its Model 3 and Model Y, yet again. This time around, the Long Range versions of each vehicle have increased in price by $1,000 USD (via @SawyerMerritt). Model Y  Long Range: $53,990 USD (+$1000; was $52,990) Performance: $60,990 USD – no change Model 3 Standard Range Plus: $39,990 USD; […]

According to Reuters, electric automaker Rivian plans to build a second assembly plant in the United States. Unnamed sources say the second plant would also include battery cell production. A Rivian spokesperson confirmed to the publication it is indeed “exploring locations for a second U.S. manufacturing facility,” adding it was an early and evolving process. […]

Tesla has started a major hiring spree in the United States, according to unnamed sources speaking with Electrek. “Sources familiar with the matter told Electrek that Tesla is embarking on a new hiring spree for sales staff in North America,” reports Fred Lambert. Tesla job listings have surged lately, now showing over 250 sales positions open in […]

Tesla and the world’s largest nickel miner, BHP in Australia, have signed a new deal to supply the electric automaker with nickel for its batteries. According to BHP, it will supply Tesla with nickel from its Nickel West mine in Western Australia, which it says is “one of the most sustainable and lowest carbon emission […]

Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. is now seeking partners to help build electric vehicles, instead of pushing forward alone, says the company’s CEO. Chief Executive Officer Toshihiro Mibe said it would be “extremely risky” for the company to shift to EVs alone, in an interview Tuesday with Bloomberg. “It’s meaningful to form alliances, mass-produce and […]

On Wednesday, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk joined Square CEO Jack Dorsey and ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood on a panel discussing Bitcoin, at The B Word online conference. Musk revealed he holds a “significant” amount of Bitcoin, without revealing the number, while also acknowledging he also holds a smaller quantity of Ethereum and […]

Tesla has started rolling out its 2021.12.25.6 software update to owners in the United States and Europe. Software version 2021.12.25.6 was just detected on a Tesla Model 3 Long Range DM in Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on https://t.co/uh4cmhSoAQ. Follow the release at https://t.co/J9nOFfe9pK — TeslaFi (@teslafi) July 21, 2021 This latest update comes less than one week […]

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed the company will be opening up its Supercharger network to other electric vehicles, later this year. Responding to a Twitter post by @TesLatino about Tesla Superchargers and the proprietary plug, Musk said, “we created our own connector, as there was no standard back then & Tesla was only maker of […]

Image via Reddit Tesla has dropped the price of its Full Self-Driving hardware upgrade from $1,500 USD down to $1,000 USD. The upgrade is required for customers seeking to purchase a Full Self-Driving subscription, as the company’s 3.0 hardware is required. FSD subscriptions start at $199 USD per month and currently are only available in […]

Tesla’s Model S comes with a feature called Auto Shift out of Park, which has the vehicle automatically select the car’s gear without driver input. This feature is currently in beta and disabled by default on Tesla’s Model S refresh lineup. Here’s how Tesla describes the feature in the 2021 Model S owner’s manual: If […]

Image credit: Tesla’s Christopher Bousigues Tesla has announced the launch of the first V3 Supercharger in Southeast Asia, debuting in the island city-state of Singapore (via @TeslaOwnersSG). Country Manager for Tesla in Singapore, Christopher Bousigues, made the announcement on Monday morning local time. “Delighted to announce that ahead of deliveries beginning soon in Singapore we […]

Tesla has started rolling out its 2021.12.25.5 software update, first made available on early Saturday morning. Software version 2021.12.25.5 was just detected on a Tesla Model 3 Performance in North Brabant Netherlands on https://t.co/uh4cmhSoAQ. Follow the release at https://t.co/1Jovp9FGhR — TeslaFi (@teslafi) July 17, 2021 According to @TeslaFi, the update was detected on a Model […]