Author: Anan Ashraf

Audi’s Deliveries Drop 12% In 2024: Tesla Takes The Lead In Global Sales

By Anan Ashraf•

German automaker Audi delivered around 1.7 million vehicles worldwide last year, marking a drop of about 12%, allowing American EV giant Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) to overtake it in global vehicle sales.

What Happened: Audi pinned the decline in overall deliveries to challenging economic conditions, a competitive market, and limited availability of parts.

Though the company launched new models, including all battery electric vehicles, in 2024, they are only gradually having an impact on global sales, the automaker said. The company witnessed a 21% decline in Germany, a 13% drop in North America, and an 11% drop in China.

Audi EV Sales: Out of its overall deliveries, over 164,000 were fully electric models, marking a decline of 8% as compared to 2023, the company said.

“Challenging economic conditions and the in transparency in terms of government incentive structures are currently causing a certain reluctance to buy affecting the entire industry, especially when it comes to fully electric vehicles,” Marco Schubert, Board Member for Sales and Marketing, said in a statement.

Why It Matters: While a fall in EV sales managed to drag Audi’s overall deliveries lower, Tesla overtook it in global vehicle deliveries by delivering about 1.79 million vehicles in 2024.

Tesla’s deliveries fell by about 1.1% in 2024 as compared to the 1,808,581 deliveries reported for 2023, marking its first fall in annual vehicle deliveries. However, the company still managed to overtake its rival and legacy brand Audi.

Tesla shared its achievement over Audi in a post on social media platform X and wrote, “Thank you to our owners around the world – you rock!”

Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

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Tesla Prepares For Holiday Rush, Tapping Into Global Supercharger Demand To Drive Revenue Growth

By Anan Ashraf•

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) executive Max de Zegher said on Sunday that the company is forecasting an increase in the use of its supercharger network over the next two weekends as the holidays near.

What Happened: “The next 2 weekends are busy,” de Zegher said in a post on social media platform X. The Director of Charging for North America, Europe Middle East & Africa as well as the Asia Pacific said that the company is now predicting 20+ GWh/ day use across North American, Asia Pacific and European Superchargers.

Tesla is now trying to ensure 100% uptime for all of its superchargers while also deploying attendants and Tesla Megapack-powered chargers at its busiest sites. The company will also continue to open new superchargers through the holidays, he said.

As of the end of the third quarter, Tesla had 6,706 supercharger stations around the globe and 62,421 connectors.

Why It Matters: The revenue from superchargers alone is difficult to determine from Tesla’s quarterly reports. The revenue from superchargers is included in a segment called “services and other revenue” which includes revenue from repairs and other services.

In the quarter ended September, Tesla reported services and other revenue of $2,790 million, significantly higher than the $2,166 million reported in the corresponding period of last year. The revenue from the segment accounted for about 11% of the company’s total revenue in the last quarter.

However, Tesla reduced supercharging prices earlier this month in the U.S., minimizing the revenue otherwise possible during the busy holiday season.

de Zegher then reasoned the reduction in supercharging prices as aimed at accelerating EV adoption while being financially sustainable to invest in expanding the network.

Earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the company would invest $500 million into expanding the supercharging network this year.

Tesla has a consensus “buy” rating based on the ratings of 33 analysts. Wedbush securities analyst Dan Ives on Sunday hiked Tesla’s price target from $400 to a whopping $515.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

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Image via Shutterstock

Elon Musk Outlines Future Starship Goals After Successful Fourth Flight Test

By Anan Ashraf•

Elon Musk‘s SpaceX on Thursday successfully completed the fourth flight test of its Starship launch vehicle, checking all its test flight goals, and the CEO is already outlining future launch objectives.

What Happened: The vehicle lifted off at 7:50 a.m. CT from Starbase in Texas on Thursday. The two stages of the vehicle- the Starship spacecraft and the Super Heavy booster- separated and the booster subsequently had a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The spacecraft ignited its own engines and went on to space, made a controlled re-entry to Earth, and had a soft splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The entire flight lasted one hour and six minutes from launch.

The key objective of this test flight was to re-enter Earth. The mission achieved it but lost many hexagonal heat-shield tiles designed to protect against the extreme heat of reentry to Earth’s atmosphere in the process.

“Despite loss of many tiles and a damaged flap, Starship made it all the way to a soft landing in the ocean!” Musk wrote on social media platform X afterward.

“A fully and immediately reusable orbital heat shield, which (as you know) has never been made before, is the single toughest problem remaining,” he wrote in another post.

Past Flight Tests: SpaceX has launched the Starship thrice before. During Starship’s previous flight test on March 14, the spacecraft lost contact and broke apart while re-entering the atmosphere instead of splashing down in the Indian Ocean as planned. The booster also lost contact before achieving a soft splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The entire flight lasted about an hour.

Starship did not reach space at all on its first flight test. On the second flight, it reached space but blew up soon afterward.

Looking Forward: Starship is still in its development phase and will require further testing before it takes humans back to the surface of the Moon as part of NASA’s Artemis mission. In March, Musk said that the company will ‘hopefully’ have at least six flights of the Starship this year.

For upcoming flights, Musk said that SpaceX will further hone its SX300 alloy to withstand higher temperatures. A newer version of the vehicle also has the forward flaps shifted leeward to help improve reliability and ease of manufacturing, he added.

“I think we should try to catch the booster with the mechazilla arms next flight!,” Musk said, hinting that on the next flight, the company will attempt to land the booster back at the Starbase launch tower instead of splashing it down into the Gulf of Mexico in what would be a significant demonstration of its reusability.

SpaceX’s Falcon rocket is about 80% reusable, and the company is currently looking to ensure full reusability for its Starship rocket. Reuse of rockets, the company believes, is integral to bringing down the costs of spaceflight as the most cost is taken up in building the launch vehicle.

Starship is touted as the world’s most powerful launch vehicle, standing 121 meters tall and weighing approximately 5,000 tonnes. NASA is currently relying on the success of Starship to land humans back on the moon as part of its Artemis program. The last crewed lunar mission occurred in 1972 with Apollo 17. Since then, no crew has traveled beyond low-Earth orbit.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

Read More: Forget Tesla And Rivian: America’s Iconic School Bus Maker Smokes EV, Auto Giants With 117% Stock Surge

Image: Created with artificial intelligence on MidJourney and Official SpaceX Photos on Flickr

Tesla CEO Elon Musk Reveals Secret Of Manufacturing Success Strategy: ‘Tactics Win Battles But Logistics Wins Wars’ (UPDATED)

By Anan Ashraf•

Editor’s note: This story was updated with Elon Musk’s latest comments about manufacturing processes.

Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk boasted that he might have overseen the construction of a wider range of manufacturing systems than anyone else. Musk’s comment comes hours after he blamed the movie industry for manufacturing being underappreciated as compared to invention.

What Happened: Responding to a Tesla enthusiast who requested an interview with the CEO on the company’s manufacturing practices, Musk on Friday reflected on the difficulties involved in managing a global supply chain.

“Managing a global supply chain is also very difficult and underrated. Tactics wins battles, but logistics (supply chain) wins wars,” the CEO said.

There’s A Cultural Gap: Musk also noted a significant gap between the number of movies focusing on invention and the number of movies looking at manufacturing. This attention, Musk said, is not proportional to the hardship behind each of the two processes.

“Compared to the insane pain of reaching high-volume, positive-margin production, prototypes are a piece of cake,” Musk wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The CEO responded to a user who noted that despite the large number of movies made on cars, none focus on manufacturing.

Musk agreed, “Many movies exist about a lone inventor in a garage having a eureka moment, but almost none about manufacturing.”

Why It Matters: The EV giant CEO has often discussed how production is way harder than prototypes.

In March 2022, Musk said that making an electric car was relatively simpler for Tesla than scaling production, given that many players, such as General Motors, had tried to make an EV before.

“The extreme difficulty of scaling production of new technology is poorly understood. It’s 1000% to 10,000% harder than making a few prototypes. The machine that makes the machine is vastly harder than the machine itself,” Musk wrote in a September 2020 post on X.

Overhauling Old Ways? As per a report from Bloomberg on Thursday, Tesla is currently attempting to replace the traditional production line with an “unboxed” approach for its new and upcoming cheaper EV expected to be priced around $25,000. If the new process succeeds, the company can cut its costs in half, the report said.

During Tesla’s fourth-quarter earnings call in January, Musk said that both the company’s new-gen EV and its manufacturing system would be “revolutionary.” The CEO, however, did not provide more details. The unboxed approach reportedly aims to assemble vehicle parts simultaneously at dedicated areas and put them all together in the end.

Tesla is also currently attempting to scale up the production of its stainless steel Cybertruck. The company began delivering the vehicle in late November and aims to deliver 250,000 units annually. However, Musk has previously said that this delivery target will not be met in 2024 but in 2025, citing production challenges.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

Read More: Tesla CEO Elon Musk Wants German Authorities To ‘Absolutely Find A Way’ To Catch Giga Berlin Arsonists

Image made via photos on Shutterstock

Tesla Bull Says He Knows Why Wall Street Doesn’t ‘Yet Get How Great FSD’ Is: ‘Won’t Add Value To TSLA’s Valuation Unless…’

By Anan Ashraf•

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) investor and Future Fund Managing Partner Gary Black has said that the valuation of the EV giant will only be influenced by its full self-driving (FSD) software once it achieves fully autonomous driving capabilities.

What Happened: Black emphasized that although Wall Street acknowledges Tesla’s progress with the FSD software, it will not impact the valuation until the software achieves fully autonomous driving.

Presently, Black views the FSD software as a remarkable driver assist tool rather than a fully autonomous driving solution. He stated that for the software to truly deliver autonomous driving capabilities, Tesla must assume full liability for any injury or damage incurred. 

“Since I don’t see that happening anytime soon, WS won’t add incremental value beyond the normal take rate math in every analyst’s TSLA valuation model,” Black said.

To date, Tesla has attributed responsibility for all incidents involving FSD to the driver, emphasizing that the software remains in its testing phase and requires active driver supervision. Earlier this week, Tesla said all its U.S. vehicles with FSD compatibility will have the feature enabled free for a month.

Why It Matters: Tesla CEO Elon Musk previously stated that FSD “should be really shining bright” by late April or May, as the company plans to roll out three significant improvements to the software every two weeks.

Additionally, Black has advocated for Tesla to consider adding a fourth segment focused on its artificial intelligence endeavors to its earnings reports to garner greater investor attention for its FSD project and other initiatives such as FSD licensing, robotaxis, Optimus, and Dojo.

Currently, all attention is on Tesla’s first-quarter delivery numbers, expected next week, according to Black. He believes that any figure surpassing last year’s delivery number of 423,000 will be well received, with his own estimate sitting around 425,000 units.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

Read More: Tesla CEO Elon Musk Wants German Authorities To ‘Absolutely Find A Way’ To Catch Giga Berlin Arsonists

Image via Shutterstock

EV Owners May Have Bigger Cool Factor, But Their Tires Are Literally Tiring Them Out More Than Gas Car Drivers

By Anan Ashraf•

A J.D. Power report released on Monday revealed a widening satisfaction gap between electric vehicle (EV) and gas-powered vehicle owners regarding tires. This gap stems from EV owners experiencing faster tire wear despite having similar expectations for tire life.

The report highlights that EV tires wear out faster due to greater vehicle weight and higher torque. However, EV owners are often unaware of these performance differences.

“Because of the inherent conflict of maximizing vehicle range and optimizing tire wear for EVs, tire manufacturers, and automakers need to work together to overcome the challenge without completely sacrificing tire performance in other areas, especially as the EV market continues to increase,” said Ashley Edgar, senior director of benchmarking and alternative mobility at J.D. Power.

Michelin & Falken Lead In Tire Customer Satisfaction

The study, based on responses from 31,414 owners of 2022 and 2023 model-year vehicles, ranked Michelin (OTC:MGDDF) the highest in tire customer satisfaction for luxury, passenger car, and performance sports segments. Falken secured the top spot in the truck/utility segment. Notably, Michelin is the only tire company to perform above the segment average in the performance sports vehicle category.

Proactive Players

Goodyear (NASDAQ:GT) has been a leading force in the EV tire market. In 2022, they launched the ElectricDrive tire and expanded their ultra-high-performance tire offerings for EVs. These tires boast a 60,000-mile warranty, increased load capacity, and noise-reduction technology. Notably, the ElectricDrive tires now fit a wider range of EVs, including the Nissan Leaf, Kia Niro, and Chevrolet Bolt/Volt.

Even earlier, in 2021, Tesla released a software update to inform drivers about low or uneven tire treads and recommend tire rotations.

Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

Read Next: YouTuber MKBHD Gives Thumbs Down To VinFast VF8 As It Has A ‘Shocking Amount Of Similarities’ With Fisker Ocean: ‘But It’s Different’

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

Photo via Shutterstock