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Peter Rawlinson is still enjoying the laurels Lucid and his team got for delivering the Air, an impressive new electric sedan. In an interview about it with IEEE Spectrum, he took the chance to talk about something people view as a major competitive edge from Tesla: 4680 cells. According to the Lucid CEO, looking at them as a huge breakthrough is a fantasy.
At Tesla’s Q3 2021 earnings call, Lars Moravy said fans should not worry about the $25,000 car that some still insist on calling the Model 2. Not because it is on its way but rather because we live in a “cell constrained world.” That explains a lot of the backstage in the automotive industry and raises an alert: we’re running out of cells.
Tesla recently increased the prices for the Model 3 and Model Y in the U.S. by up to $2,000. That made the lowest prices listed on the website be those for the Cybertruck: $39,990 against $41,990 for the most affordable Model 3. That led to some claiming the Cybertruck was the cheapest Tesla for sale, which was not right: you can’t sell what you can’t deliver. Tesla solved this misconception in an unusual way: it removed the Cybetruck prices from its website.
Volkswagen had an emergency meeting on October 1, 2021, to discuss Tesla’s Giga Grünheide, apparently afraid that Tesla is much more efficient at building cars. On October 9, Tesla held the Giga Fest to present its German factory. No members of the press were allowed in it, only fans. And they shared pictures that may show Tesla has created a structural battery pack with 2170 cells, because the 4680 are not ready yet.
Tesla sued Rivian in July 2020, saying its rival was poaching employees with access to trade secrets. In August 2020, Rivian filed a motion asking the lawsuit to be dismissed alleging the accusations were unsubstantiated and false. In March 2021, the motion's refusal allowed Tesla to move forward. On September 28, a judge allowed Tesla to broaden the case.