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Tesla is coming out with a new owner’s referral program after completely revamping the program, which was initially costly.

It’s a rare demand trigger that the automaker is pulling.

The automaker doesn’t like to spend on marketing or advertising, and instead, relies on its user base to promote its vehicles and reward them in the process.

At the core of the referral program, new buyers can use referral links from current owners when buying a new Tesla, and each party gets prizes.

The prizes have changed a lot over the years.

At the peak of the program, Tesla was giving away free new Roadsters to owners who accumulated enough referrals.

An impressive number of people ended up reaching that level, and we estimated that Tesla would be giving away about 80 new Roadsters on top of giving out significant discounts to many more.

CEO Elon Musk later announced that Tesla is killing its referral program due to cost concerns associated with all those Roadsters, which the automaker has yet to deliver.

Tesla didn’t end up killing the program, but it did reduce the prizes to 1,000 free Supercharging miles on both sides of the transaction, though that went away, too. Over the last two years, the only referral incentives left were for solar products.

However, we reported last year that Tesla was starting to work on a new version of its referral program for vehicles.

According to a source familiar with the matter, Tesla planned to eliminate or reduce the use of referral links, which owners often spam on social media, and instead turned to an app-based referral program promoting in-person referrals.

The plans were not entirely clear at the time, but Tesla planned to update its mobile app to have more features for non-Tesla owners as it moves to allow non-Tesla EV owners to use the Supercharger network and integrate referral features through the app.

Now a year later, Teslascope, which can dig into Tesla’s mobile app software update, found that there was some code in the background of Tesla’s latest app update that shows a new referral program:

It appears that Tesla is working on bringing back free Supercharging miles and adding new prizes for vehicle referrals.

This is a rare demand trigger that Tesla would be pulling amid some rumors that the automaker is having demand issues, despite achieving record deliveries.

We might hear more about the new referral program during the conference call following the release of Telsa’s earnings today.

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A 100-MW solar farm just broke ground in Wisconsin

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A 100-MW solar farm just broke ground in Wisconsin

National Grid Renewables has broken ground on its 100 MW Apple River Solar Project in Polk County, Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin solar farm, which will use US-made First Solar Series 6 Plus bifacial modules, will be constructed by The Boldt Company, creating 150 construction and service jobs. Apple River Solar will generate over $36 million in direct economic benefits over its first 20 years.

Once it comes online in late 2025, Apple River Solar will supply clean energy to Xcel Energy, which serves customers throughout the Upper Midwest. According to National Grid Renewables, the solar farm will generate enough energy to power around 26,000 homes annually. It will also offset about 129,900 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year – equivalent to taking 30,900 cars off the road.

“We are excited to see this project begin as it underscores our dedication to delivering clean, reliable and affordable energy to our customers,” said Karl Hoesly, President, Xcel Energy-Wisconsin and Michigan. “This project is an important step in those goals while bringing significant economic benefits to Polk County and the local townships.”

Electrek reported in February that Xcel Energy, Minnesota’s largest utility, expects to cut more than 80% – and possibly up to 88% – of its emissions by 2030, putting it on track to hit Minnesota’s goal of net zero by 2040. It also says it’s on track to achieve its clean energy goals for all the Upper Midwest states it serves – Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Michigan.


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Tesla announces 500 kW charging as it finally delivers V4 Supercharger cabinets

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Tesla announces 500 kW charging as it finally delivers V4 Supercharger cabinets

Tesla has announced that it will finally deliver 500 kW charging as it is about to install its long-awaited V4 Supercharger cabinets.

The rollout of Supercharger V4 has been a strange one, to say the least.

Tesla has been deploying the new charging stations for two years and calling them “Supercharger V4”, but it has only been deploying the charging stalls.

Supercharger stations are made of two main parts: the stalls, which are where the charging cable is located, and the cabinets, which are generally located further back and include all the power electronics.

For all these new “Supercharger V4”, Tesla was actually using Supercharger V3 cabinets. This has been limiting the power output of the charging stations to 250 kW – although

Today, Tesla officially announced its “V4 Cabinet”, which the automaker claims will enable of “delivering up to 500kW for cars and 1.2MW for Semi.”

Here are the main features of the V4 Cabinet as per Tesla:

  • Faster charging: Supports 400V-1000V vehicle architectures, including 30% faster charging for Cybertruck. S3XY vehicles enjoy 250kW charge rates they already experience on V3 Cabinet — charging up to 200 miles in 15 minutes.
  • Faster deployments: V4 Cabinet powers 8 posts, 2X the stalls per cabinet. Lower footprint and complexity = more sites coming online faster.
  • Next-generation hardware: Cutting-edge power electronics designed to be the most reliable on the planet, with 3X power density enabling higher throughput with lower costs.

Tesla reports that its first sites with the new V4 Cabinets are going into permitting now. The company expects its first sites to open next year.

We recently reported about Tesla’s new Oasis Supercharger project, which includes larger solar arrays and battery packs to operate the charging station mostly off-grid.

Early in the deployment of the Supercharger network, Tesla promised to add solar arrays and batteries to all Supercharger stations, and Musk even said that most stations would be able to operate off-grid.

While Tesla did add solar and batteries to a few stations, the vast majority of them don’t have their own power system or have only minimal solar canopies.

Back in 2016, I asked Musk about this, and he said that it would now happen as Tesla had the “pieces now in place” with Supercharger V3, Powerpack V2, and SolarCity:

It took about 8 years, but it sounds like the pieces are now getting actually in place with Supercharger V4, Megapacks, and this new Oasis project.

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Hyundai is launching an AI-powered EV next year to keep pace in China

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Hyundai is launching an AI-powered EV next year to keep pace in China

Hyundai has a new secret weapon it’s about ready to unleash. To revamp the brand in China and counter BYD’s surge, Hyundai is launching a new AI-powered EV next year. The new model will be Hyundai’s first dedicated electric car for the world’s largest EV market.

With the help of Haomo, a Chinese autonomous startup, Hyundai will launch its first EV equipped with generative AI. It will also be its first model designed specifically for China.

A Hyundai Motor official said (via The Korea Herald) the company is “working to load the software” onto the new EV model, “which will be released in the Chinese market next year.” The spokesperson added, “The level of autonomous driving is somewhere between 2 and 2.5.”

In comparison, Tesla’s Autopilot is considered a level 2 advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) on the SAE scale (0 to 5), meaning it offers limited hands-free features.

With Autopilot, you still have to keep your eyes on the road and hands on the steering wheel, or the system will notify you and eventually disengage.

Hyundai-AI-powered-EV
Hyundai IONIQ 5 with Waymo autonomous driving tech (Source: Hyundai)

Haomo’s system, DriveGPT, unveiled last spring, takes inspiration from the OpenAI’s popular ChatGPT.

The system can continuously update in real-time to optimize decision-making by absorbing traffic data patterns. According to Haomo, DriveGPT is used in around 20 models as it looks to play a bigger role in China.

Hyundai-AI-powered-EV
Hyundai at the Beijing Auto Show 2024 (Source: Hyundai Motor)

Hyundai hopes new AI-powered EV boosts sales in China

Electric vehicle sales continue surging in China. According to Rho Motion, China set another EV sales record last month with 1.2 million units sold, up 50% from October 2023.

Over 8.4 million EVs were sold in China in the first ten months of 2024, a notable 38% increase from last year.

Hyundai-AI-powered-EV
Hyundai IONIQ 6 (Source: Hyundai)

BYD continues to dominate its home market. According to Autovista24, BYD accounted for 32.9% of all PHEV and EV (NEV) sales in China through September, with over half of the top 20 best-selling EV models.

Tesla was second with a 6.5% share of the market, but keep in mind these numbers only include plug-in models (PHEV).

2025-Hyundai-IONIQ-5-prices
2025 Hyundai IONIQ 5 (Source: Hyundai)

Like most foreign automakers, Hyundai is struggling to keep up with the influx of low-cost electric models in China. Beijing Hyundai’s sales have been slipping since 2017. Through September, Korean automaker’s share of the Chinese market fell to just 1.2%.

Last month, Hyundai opened its first overseas digital R&D center in China to help kick off its return to the region.

According to local reports, Hyundai is partnering with other local tech companies like Thundersoft, a smart cockpit provider, and others in China to power up its next-gen EVs

With its first AI-powered EV launching next year, Hyundai hopes to turn things around in the region quickly. The new model will be one of five to launch in China through 2026.

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