Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) announced on Saturday that there is now one EV fast charging station for every five gas stations in California.

California has led the US in the number of EVs and EV charging stations every year since 2016, according to the US Energy Information Administration in December.

According to the governor’s office, 105,000 public or shared private EV chargers have been installed throughout California, on top of over 500,000 home EV chargers. Newsom flagged this stat in a tweet when he also highlighted that Tesla Superchargers are now open to non-Tesla EVs:

There are over 10,000 public DC fast chargers in California.

The number of gas stations vs. EV charging stations is not a like-for-like comparison because fueling up with gas is faster than DC fast charging… so far. But EVs can charge at home, meaning that DC fast chargers are used less.

In February, California approved a $1.9 billion plan to deploy 40,000 more public EV chargers statewide – and that’s in addition to the $1.8 billion it’s already invested in EV charging infrastructure.

More than 1.84 million EVs have been sold in California to date, and 34% of new ZEVs sold in the US are sold in California, according to the Veloz EV Market Report. The state ranks fourth in EV sales behind China, the US, and Germany.

Read more: The Las Vegas–LA electric high-speed rail line just broke ground

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Just over a month after launching its first-ever BEV, smartphone developer, Xiaomi is touting some big production numbers for the SU7. Better yet, such output supports encouraging orders to date as the Chinese tech company is off to a hot start in its newly entered vehicle manufacturing segment.

As a Chinese electronics company specializing in smartphones, we never covered Xiaomi here at Electrek. Not until the company announced plans for a new EV arm called Xiaomi Automotive in March 2021.

Since then, we’ve followed the tech company closely to see if it could do something its rival Apple has yet to do… deliver its own branded BEV. We got our first glimpse of Xiaomi’s first model – the SU7 in November 2023, and a month later, it officially launched the BEV as a challenger to Porsche and, of course, Tesla.

At the time, we shared that Xiaomi believed it could entice would-be buyers from its existing customer base of 20 million smartphone users in China by offering a holistic system between the SU7 and other Xiaomi devices as a selling point.

It was correct.

The BEV received over 50,000 orders in the first 27 minutes of going on sale, creating a waitlist of up to seven months. This led Xiaomi to rethink its production strategy and try to crank out more SU7s than originally planned to keep up with demand. Although it is new to EVs, Xiaomi appears to be wielding its manufacturing expertise, and its assembly lines are humming in China, just one month in.

Xiaomi SU7 orders top 75,000 as production ramps up

Per a Weibo post from Xiaomi Automobile today, orders for the SU7 had reached 75,723 units in the first 28 days since its launch in China. To keep up with this growing order book, Xiaomi is ramping up BEV production with hopes of delivering 100,000 SU7 EVs this year.

It is well on its way as the tech company turned automaker is already celebrating its 10,000th build, just 32 days after the SU7 launch. Of those builds, 5,781 SU7s have already been delivered in China, although the company already hinted at plans for expansion into new markets:

We believe that one day, there will be Xiaomi cars riding on every road around the world!

The SU7 originally launched in three separate variants: Standard, Pro, and Max – priced at RMB 215,900 ($29,850), RMB 245,900 ($34,000), and RMB 299,900 ($41,450), respectively. Last week, Xiaomi founder, chairman, and CEO Lei Jun said the company is targeting 10,000 SU7 deliveries in June, which is more evidence of its continued ramp-up.

This is an automaker to keep an eye on; it’s an impressive start so far.

Tesla has unveiled a new Cybertruck software update coming to bring new off-roading features to the electric pickup truck, as well as Cybertent mode, and more.

Despite starting deliveries a few months ago, Tesla has yet to fully develop the electric pickup truck’s software, and it is still missing some important features.

It’s not uncommon for Tesla to deliver a new vehicle program with incomplete software and start to deliver more features after the deliveries.

We reported in February that Tesla released the first big software update for Cybertruck. It improved the truck’s handling, charging, and more.

Now, Tesla announced a new big software update for Cybertruck with a focus on off-road features:

Tesla is introducing two new off-roading modes geared for different terrains:

• Overland Mode – More consistent handling & better overall traction while driving on rock, gravel, deep snow, or sand.
• Baja Mode – Vehicle balance is improved & the vehicle handles more freely when Stability Assist is set to Minimal.

The automaker is also adding locking differentials for better off-roading capability for the dual motor version of Cybertruck:

On uneven or slippery terrain, if a wheel has limited or no traction, Cybertruck can direct that torque to the opposite wheel. In Off-Road Mode, choose from Locking Differentials options on the vehicle status area or in the Off-Road app.

The Cyberbeast, the tri-motor version, is getting a front locking differential:

Go to Off-Road Mode > Overland to enable Locking Differential feature. Cyberbeast tri motor has a virtual rear locked differential which is always working in overland mode.

Keeping with the theme of the update, off-roading, Tesla is releasing a trail assist under off-road mode.

Tesla wrote about the feature:

It’s like cruise control, but for off-roading. Trail Assist helps maintain a set cruising speed so you can focus on steering. Trail Assist works as both a hill ascent and descent control helping to keep the wheels from slipping. Off-Road Mode > Trail Assist

The automaker is also releasing a few new “on road” features.

The first one is called “slippery surface”. The automaker wrote about it in the release notes:

Better traction control on snowy, icy, wet, or slick roads to distribute traction evenly across all tires. Dynamics > Slippery Surface Dynamics > Engage Rear Locking Differential for increased traction (should be used temporarily only)

Still with on road features, Tesla says that it is also improving ride and handling with a load:

Adaptive suspension now estimates payload more accurately & automatically adjusts damping to deliver a more comfortable ride & more consistent, confident handling.

Finally, the upcoming software update also comes with the highly-anticipated “CyberTent Mode”.

We previously talked about the upcoming mode with the first review of the Cybertent.

Tesla confirms that the mode levels the suspension to automatically keeps the surface fla for the CyberTent. It also keeps the tonneau cover open to accommodate tent. Tesla added that “lights, AC amd outlets will stay on as well if enabled.”

There’s no word on the timing of the release of the update other than it is coming “soon”.