News, deep dives, and analysis — every Slate story, newest first.
I keep seeing Elon Musk’s 2022 Baron Conference clip resurface on X, where he explains why Tesla is a better investment than Mercedes-Benz using “net present value of future cash flows.” The same argument he made at the March 2025 All-Hands meeting when Tesla stock was down 40%: “It’s very difficult for people in the…
ZYT is betting that the same computer vision approach that made DJI drones dominant can now disrupt the autonomous trucking race – and they’re targeting the same H1 2026 mass production timeline as Pony.ai, but with a fraction of the computing power. The Shenzhen-based company, formerly DJI’s autonomous driving division, announced Tuesday that it will…
We’ve been tracking Tesla’s 4680 battery saga since Elon Musk unveiled it at Battery Day in 2020, promising it would enable a $25,000 EV within three years. Five years later, we have the clearest evidence yet that those promises have collapsed: a $2.9 billion supply deal reduced to $7,386. That’s not a typo. That’s a…
I’ve been covering the EV battery fire saga for months, from Li Auto’s 11,000-vehicle recall to cargo ships sinking with burning EVs. Now China has done something no other country has attempted: mandating that EV batteries simply cannot catch fire or explode under any test conditions. This isn’t incremental regulation. It’s Beijing declaring that Chinese…
I’ve been tracking the “Chinese EV Invasion” narrative for years now, and this new data from China Customs finally reveals exactly how it’s playing out: not through US ports, but through America’s southern border. While mainstream coverage focuses on the headline 87% year-over-year surge to 199,836 EVs exported globally in November, the number that matters…
We’ve reported on Volkswagen’s “affordable EV” promises for years now, and I’ve learned to translate corporate timelines into reality. When VW says the ID.Cross is coming “mid-2026,” I hear “maybe late 2026, if nothing else goes wrong at a company that just posted a €1.3 billion quarterly loss.” New spy photos from Auto Express show…
Fiat will bring its ultra-compact Topolino EV to the United States in Spring 2026, CEO Olivier Francois announced at Miami Art Week. Why it matters: The tiny EV costs just $11,500 in Europe, but US regulations may limit it to low-speed neighborhood roads. The Details Topolino Specs EVXL’s Take The Topolino arrives as Europe actively…
Tesla is rolling out a free 40-day trial of its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) V14 software to approximately 1.5 million HW4-equipped vehicles across North America. The trial, which began November 29, 2025, expires January 8, 2026, covering the entire holiday travel season. We’ve been tracking Tesla’s FSD push all year, and this is the company’s most…
One email with the EV news that matters — Tesla, Rivian, BYD, and everything in between, straight from the newsroom. No spam, no fluff.
