Tesla shares 48V architecture with other automakers to move the industry
One of the less obvious features of the Tesla Cybertruck is its vehicle voltage architecture. The Cybertruck is the first EV from the automaker to use a 48-Volt (48V) electrical system implementation throughout the entire vehicle, as compared to the 12V systems that are used in pretty much every other vehicle on the planet. Today, Tesla shared its 48V implementation documentation with other major automakers — including competitors like Ford.
Ford’s own CEO Jim Farley confirmed the news on X, formerly Twitter, last night.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk also chimed in.
The consequences of Tesla’s actions won’t be immediately obvious in any other carmaker’s products, as they will likely take a long time to manifest into any real changes for the industry — if they do at all. But let’s take a step back.
Why does 48V architecture matter?
48V architecture is a huge deal not because it enables any particular feature or capability for any one car, but because it will lead to a step change in how automakers wire, accessorize, and electrically engineer their vehicles.
The first mass-produced vehicles generally used 6V architecture to power things like headlamps, and the industry broadly began to adopt 12V electrics in the 1950s. By the late 1960s, almost every car on sale in the US used 12V electrics — power windows, interior lighting, cigarette lighters, brake lights, ignition spark, batteries, and more all unified around this common voltage standard. This change was a big deal, because it meant that the suppliers who built a lot of these electrically-driven components could easily adapt their products to work with any car. Parts became yet more standardized (plus, more affordable and reliable), and eventually 12V became the universal standard for vehicle electrics.
The problems with 12V architecture, though, have been looming (pun intended) for years. Because of the low voltage of this architecture, delivering sufficient power to all vehicle systems that need electricity became more and more complex. And as cars integrated more and more electrical components over the years, this led to ruinously complicated vehicle wiring layouts. (I want to be clear: I am vastly oversimplifying the nature of the challenges of 12V architecture, and it should be obvious by now I’m not an electrical engineer. I probably shouldn’t be allowed to be too close to a wall outlet, frankly.)
Switching to 48V architecture alleviates a huge number of challenges automakers are facing with 12V. The biggest one, though, is complexity: You need far less complex wiring harnesses to power all your vehicle systems, because each wire can supply far more power and voltage in a 48V system. 48V architecture also potentially improves overall electrical efficiency for reasons that I am not sufficiently qualified to explain beyond a kindergarten level, meaning your car’s accessory systems may require less power overall to operate (quite important for an EV).
12V roadblocks remain despite Tesla’s action
The challenge in adopting 48V architecture primarily lays in the vehicle supplier ecosystem, but that conclusion requires a bit of context setting.
If you cannot convert all of a vehicle’s systems to 48V architecture, the benefits of using such an architecture start to diminish pretty quickly in the form of introducing new complexities (i.e., a hybrid 48V / 12V vehicle architecture). As such, most automakers have clung to 12V because they know it and it works.
If an automaker decides to move to a 48V architecture, whatever car it builds must use 48V-ready accessories. But, suppliers aren’t incentivized to build such accessories without sufficient demand. While carmakers like Ford certainly have the power and scale to commission 48V parts independently, the per-unit cost of those components is likely to be substantially higher than their 12V equivalents — especially if they’re being produced in comparatively low volumes. And, many carmakers would be forced to make such a transition slowly over their entire vehicle lineup (it’s worth noting that ICE vehicles can use and would benefit greatly from 48V systems, too). And so, most carmakers stick with 12V. It’s a chicken-and-egg kind of issue.
Why did Tesla share its 48V architecture?
To be frank, Tesla isn’t sharing its 48V architecture from the Cybertruck for purely altruistic reasons. Once you understand the conundrum around vehicle suppliers in the 12V world and making a transition to 48V, things start to come into greater focus. Tesla knows that transitioning to 48V is going to be incredibly difficult for legacy OEMs, and while there is potentially upside for Tesla in such a change (more on that in a moment), this is something of a PR move.
By publishing its 48V architecture, Tesla is saying “OK, we’ll show you how we did this thing — a thing you say is really complicated and difficult and would take years to replicate. You can just copy us.” But Tesla knows full well that even a powerful and well-resourced company like Ford can’t spin up a 48V accessory supply chain overnight, and that such a change would incur very substantial non-recurring engineering work (NRE, as it’s known in some industries).
For Tesla, though, there are theoretical benefits in the event the wider industry switches to 48V vehicle systems. The biggest one is the supply chain. The more components in the global vehicle supply chain that are designed for 48V vehicle systems, the lower the cost of those components will become over time — through volume, competitive engineering, and increased reliability. The second is a bit more nebulous, but arguably just as important: Engineers and other skilled workers in the industry will coalesce their work and knowledge around 48V systems, reducing the amount of redundant work happening and increasing the number of workers in the hiring pool who can understand and innovate on Tesla’s systems (and who can bring their knowledge to Tesla, barring any intellectual property infringement, of course).
Electrek’s Take
It’s hard to see a downside to this move for anyone — for Tesla, the industry, or for the engineers designing the vehicle systems themselves. And it’s plain that the supplier ecosystem needs a kick in the pants to accelerate the transition to 48V, and that the benefits of such a transition are very substantial.
But it’s much harder to say how much of an impact Tesla’s decision to share its 48V design will actually have. Clearly, automakers are already incentivized to move to 48V, but doing so is challenging for a reason — it’s not just laziness. There are legitimate (if frustratingly financial and logistical) reasons that the 48V transition is moving along slowly.
It’s very possible that providing publicity around this relatively esoteric technical issue will be the greatest factor in instigating more aggressive work to implement 48V vehicle systems, as opposed to any technical know-how gleaned from Tesla’s documentation.
It should also be noted that Tesla has two distinct advantages in transitioning to 48V that legacy automakers do not. The first is being unusually vertically integrated in its approach to building vehicles — Tesla designs almost all of its own vehicle systems, even if they may be procured from third parties who actually manufacture them. The second is that Tesla doesn’t have many legacy vehicle designs to support or consider in deciding to transition electrical architectures. Put another way, Tesla’s focus on independent engineering and low legacy debt are huge reasons it can introduce a 48V vehicle while other auto OEMs continue to stick to 12V and likely will for years from now, even in their EVs. And simply telling other carmakers how it built a 48V system won’t change those realities overnight.
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Tesla shareholders will decide whether to give CEO Elon Musk a stock award that could be worth up to $1 trillion. But another proposal is up for a vote to refill Tesla’s employee stock option pool, and it’s only necessary because that pool was drained to give Musk a payday larger than any other CEO in the history of the world.
(This article is largely excerpted from my previous post, Elon Musk’s $1 trillion pay day gets more ridiculous the more you look into it. For more detail on the various absurdities of the award, click through to read more).
One of the questions being asked on Thursday is whether or not to refill Tesla’s “general share reserve” of shares set aside to be granted to employees as compensation. This is known as “Proposal 3” – the $1 trillion award is Proposal 4.
Proposal 3 not only fills the general share reserve with 60 million shares as compensation for Tesla’s current and future employees (of which the company currently numbers ~120,000 strong), but also fills a “special share reserve” with nearly 208 million shares for one single part-time employee, Elon Musk, who mostly focuses on companies other than Tesla (and whose interests can be directly opposed to Tesla’s).
The board would be able to give these shares, currently worth around $97 billion, to Musk at their discretion. This could happen without further shareholder approval and is not attached to any milestones, unlike the $1 trillion.
Tesla has used shares as an important part of its compensation packages for employees throughout its history, so if it is unable to pay employees in shares, it will have a harder time attracting talent. But it can’t do so anymore, because the reserve has been drained.
This is one of many issues brought up by several pension funds who named their concerns with the shareholder proposals. Normally, it would seem reasonable to split up the “general” and “special” share reserve votes, but Tesla has seen it fit to combine the two – such that if you want Tesla to be able to compensate employees with shares, you must also accept that Musk will have 3.5x as many shares set aside for him personally as will be set aside for every other employee at the company combined.
It must feel incredibly insulting for the engineers who actually design the cars, the manufacturing associates who build them, the software team that continues to improve the best software out there, the best-in-the-biz charging team, et cetera, to see a guy who spends most of his time working for other companies (or pretending to be good at video games on his private jet) and be told that he’s worth hundreds of thousands of times more than you are.
Even worse, the reason this vote is necessary is because the share reserve was only drained… to pay Elon Musk.
When Musk’s friends on the Tesla board decided to hand him an “Interim Award” of $26 billion without a shareholder vote, the process through which they did this was to simply award shares to Musk that had previously been set aside in Tesla’s share reserve.
Those shares had been intended to be available for years to come, as compensation for employees, to help Tesla attract and compensate talent (as the heartstring-tugging videos above suggest). But instead, almost the entire reserve was drained to give to Musk, with only one stipulation: that he continue working at Tesla for two years.
But that’s only part of the shares that Musk would get if these shareholder votes pass, because those 208 million shares aren’t even associated with the separate $1 trillion award in Proposal 4, which would include over 423 million shares. So now we’re up to 630+ million shares for Musk (~276B at current TSLA valuation), and only 60 million for every other employee at Tesla combined, being voted on at this shareholder meeting.
And even if proposal 4 is voted down, if proposal 3 passes, the board could still give Musk $97 billion worth of stock, and it’s holding employees’ compensation hostage to ensure that it be able to do so.
Electrek’s Take
I wanted to split this off as its own article because I consider this to be the most egregious portion of the various ridiculous proposals in front of Tesla shareholders this week. That last article was long, so I understand why some might not have gotten through it – so above is what I consider one of the juiciest parts.
There are plenty of other ridiculous things that will be voted on – whether to retain board members who are completely captured and working in Musk’s favor rather than the company’s, whether or not Tesla shareholders should bail out Musk’s private AI company which he started to compete with his own public AI company and has continually stolen resources from it for, and of course the absurd trillion-dollar award that Musk wants so he can control a robot army.
But this, I think, is exceptional. Not only does the vote value a bad, part-time employee as worth 3.5x as much as every other employee combined; not only does it hold those employees’ compensation hostage against the compensation of said bad employee; but it’s only necessary because of that bad employee was given more money than any other employee in the history of employment, by an order of magnitude, and the source of that money was a pool of shares that had been set aside for Tesla’s actual employees, who aren’t currently on a mission to destroy Tesla’s brand in every way possible.
And somehow, Tesla, Elon, and his friends, have the gall to put in so much effort into marketing this proposal, and suggesting that this is the best path forward for the company, and even for the world, and to suggest that anyone who correctly points out the absurdity of this idea is a “terrorist.”
Kafka couldn’t write this.
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Environment
Verge unveils wild-looking TS Pro electric motorcycle with hubless motor, longer range, and faster charging
Verge Motorcycles just took the wraps off the next evolution of its flagship Verge TS Pro electric motorcycle at the EICMA motorcycle show in Milan, revealing a dramatically upgraded version of its best-selling model. And we’re here to see it firsthand.
The Verge TS Pro first hit the scene in 2022 as a futuristic, hubless-wheeled electric motorcycle packed with power and sleek styling. Now, the company is doubling down with a lighter, more refined, and more powerful version of the TS Pro that improves nearly every aspect of the bike’s design and performance.
At the heart of the upgrade is Verge’s eye-catching hubless Donut Motor 2.0. The patented motor still pumps out a massive 1,000 Nm of torque, but now weighs 50% less, contributing to a total motorcycle weight of 507 lbs (230 kg). That power translates to a 0–60 mph (0-96 km/h) time of 3.5 seconds.
Alongside the motor upgrade, Verge added a new 20.2 kWh battery that delivers up to 217 miles (350 km) of range and supports ultra-fast charging, adding 60 miles (96 km) of range in just 15 minutes. Verge says full charging takes under 35 minutes, and the bike now supports CCS fast charging in Europe and NACS in the US.
Verge also introduced a series of rider-focused upgrades. The TS Pro now sports larger displays, an improved user interface, and better Bluetooth connectivity through its Verge HMI system. The riding posture has been made more ergonomic with a 25-degree angle adjustment, while suspension and damping tweaks promise a smoother ride.
Software takes center stage with the inclusion of Verge’s Starmatter platform, first launched in 2023. Starmatter combines AI, sensors, and OTA updates to tailor each ride and future-proof the bike for new features, no wrenching required.
The updated Verge TS Pro is available for reservation now via Verge’s website and US showrooms, with test rides starting in early 2026. Pricing information to be updated soon.
Electrek’s Take
Verge’s first hubless electric motorcycle took the internet by storm and launched a new style of design. Now the company is showing that its playbook of electric motorcycle innovation is still alive and well. Between the hubless motor tech, blazing-fast charging, and tech-forward design, the TS Pro feels both futuristic and realistic. Sure, it’s still limited in highway range like all electric motorcycles, but for mixed riding, that 20+ kWh pack is going to help alleviate range anxiety – and is twice as large as the pack in my LiveWire, for example.
This is one I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on.
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