Tesla Wins Big at Annual Awards; Dethrones Ford for 'Overall Loyalty' and Wins 'Most Improved'

By Kevin Armstrong
Tesla wins seven awards at the Automative Loyalty Awards
Tesla wins seven awards at the Automative Loyalty Awards
Tesla

Tesla emerged as the big winner at the S&P Global Mobility's 27th annual Automotive Loyalty Awards, securing seven awards. The electric car maker's most significant win was in the 'Overall Loyalty to Make' category, dethroning Ford for the first time in 12 years.

Customer retention is crucial for automakers since retaining customers is more cost-efficient than attracting new ones, and stealing customers from other automakers is viewed as a significant win. Tesla's recognition is a testament to its commitment to delivering exceptional products and experiences that keep customers returning year after year. It looks like Tesla's unique marketing plan is working.

Tesla Adds to the Trophy Case

The awards analyzed 11.7 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. during 2022 and recognized Tesla for exceptional performance in various categories. For example, Tesla won:

  • Overall Loyalty to Make
  • Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make
  • Most Improved Make Loyalty
  • Highest Conquest Percentage
  • Alternative Powertrain Loyalty to Make

Additionally, the electric car maker won two-segment model loyalty awards, with the Model Y winning the Luxury Small Utility award and the Model 3 taking home the Luxury Small Car award.

What the Wins Mean to Tesla

Tesla's win in the 'Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make' category was notable, with the brand's resonance with ethnic consumers being a key driver in its recognition of loyalty improvement and diversity retention. Ethnic consumers represented 40% of all personal vehicle registrations for 2022, and Tesla won the 'Ethnic Market Loyalty to Make' award as 52% of its loyal volume came from ethnic consumers.

S&P Global Mobility determines loyalty when a household that owns a new vehicle then acquires another vehicle of the same make, model, or manufacturer. Tesla's repeat wins in the 'Highest Conquest Percentage' and 'Alternative Powertrain Loyalty to Make' categories were attributed by S&P Global Mobility to "an active return-to-market consumer base and a majority share of BEV sales," contributing to Tesla's loyalty performance this year.

Legacy Auto Losing the Fight

Ford often boasts of its customer loyalty, but it was not enough to beat Tesla's make loyalty rate of 67.2% for 2022. However, Ford did hold on to the light-duty pickup segment. Meanwhile, General Motors retained its "Overall Loyalty to Manufacturer" title for the eighth consecutive year and 19th win in the last 27 years. S&P Global Mobility credits GM's substantial loyalty gains to the rising inventory levels that met the demand for its SUVs and pickups.

The industry-wide customer loyalty rate fell for the third year due to ongoing supply chain, manufacturing, and delivery disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and other global issues. For the 2022 awards, S&P Global Mobility did not supply raw data for the outcomes.

Tesla’s Q2 2025 Earnings Call: What to Expect and Top Questions

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

Another quarter has passed, and that means it’s time to submit questions and vote for Tesla’s Q2 2025 Earnings Call. While Q1 was a tough quarter for the company, Q2 saw some recovery in sales, although there’s still some work to be done.

However, there’s always a lot to be excited about during Tesla’s Q&A session, where we usually learn a lot about future software improvements and upcoming vehicles. We may hear more about FSD Unsupervised, Robotaxi, or the more affordable vehicle, or its upcoming larger 6-seater Model Y, the Model Y L. Tesla also mentioned a potential FSD price hike back in the Q1 2025 Earnings Call, so that could be something that is brought up as well.

Tesla’s Q2 So Far

Tesla has already released their Q2 2025 Production and Delivery numbers, which were up from Q1 of this year, but still down compared to Q2 last year.

Production

Deliveries

Model 3/Y

396,835

373,728

Model S, X, and Cybertruck

13,409

10,394

Total

410,244

384,122

How to Submit & Vote

Tesla lets shareholders submit a question that will be voted on and may be answered during the Q&A session. To submit your own question or vote on an already submitted question, you’ll need to be a verified shareholder. You can go to Say’s platform and link your brokerage accounts.

Once it is verified, you’ll be able to log in and vote your shares on your own question, or on someone else’s question.

Here’s the link to get started on Say’s Tesla Q&A. You must submit your questions and votes by July 23rd, 2025, at 4:00 PM EDT.

Top Questions So Far

Unsurprisingly, people have already been submitting questions, and here are the top ones so far. 

  1. Can you give us some insight how robotaxis have been performing so far and what rate you expect to expand in terms of vehicles, geofence, cities, and supervisors?

  2. What are the key technical and regulatory hurdles still remaining for unsupervised FSD to be available for personal use? Timeline?

  3. What specific factory tasks is Optimus currently performing, and what is the expected timeline for scaling production to enable external sales? How does Tesla envision Optimus contributing to revenue in the next 2–3 years?

  4. Can you provide an update on the development and production timeline for Tesla’s more affordable models? How will these models balance cost reduction with profitability, and what impact do you expect on demand in the current economic climate?

  5. Are there any news for HW3 users getting retrofits or upgrades? Will they get HW4 or some future version of HW5?

  6. When do you anticipate customer vehicles to receive unsupervised FSD?

And here are some other ones we found interesting:

  • Have any meaningful Optimus milestones changed for this year or next and will thousands of Optimus be performing tasks in Tesla factories by year end?

  • Are front bumper cameras going to be necessary for unsupervised full self driving? If so, what is the companies plan to retrofit vehicles that do not have them?

  • Will there be a new AI day to explain the advancements the Autopilot, Optimus, and Dojo/chip teams have made over the past several years. We still do not know much about the HW4.

Earnings Call Details

Tesla will hold its earnings call on Wednesday, July 23rd, at 4:00 PM EDT. It's still early for an access link, but we’ll make sure we have a link up on the site before the earnings call that day.

If you do miss the earnings call, no worries. We will provide a full recap following the call, and we’ll also do some in-depth dives into what was said and what we know.

First Look at Tesla’s 2025.26 Update [Photos + Videos]

By Karan Singh
DirtyTesla

Tesla’s Summer Update, 2025.26, has finally launched, bringing with it a batch of interesting new features for some, and a bunch of quality-of-life improvements for everyone else.

Grok AI Assistant

The star of the Summer Update is Grok, xAI’s conversational AI assistant, which has now landed in Tesla vehicles. For now, it's available in any Tesla that has an AMD processor and is potentially coming to Intel-based vehicles in the near future. The feature is also only available in the U.S., but it’s expected to expand to other regions — hopefully soon.

Grok is in its first iteration as an in-vehicle assistant, and for now, cannot control the vehicle, which means that Tesla’s voice command system is still intact. However, there is a lot it can do already. Grok is activated by pressing and holding the voice button (right scroll wheel on older vehicles), while a short press of the button is still reserved for voice commands. Grok will support a wake word in the future, letting you activate it without pressing a button.

Grok Options

Once Grok is open, which can also be done by tapping the Grok app icon, users can tailor the AI personality according to their preferences by selecting a persona and voice of their choice.

There are also several other settings for Grok under the settings button. You can enable NSFW mode, Kids Mode, or disable access to your vehicle’s location.

Grok has contextual awareness of your vehicle location, which means it can provide relevant answers to questions like “Where should I go for dinner?”

Logging In Not Required

Grok is free with Premium Connectivity, or if you’re using your phone’s hotspot feature or connected to WiFi, so anyone can try it for free. In fact, you don’t even need to log in to start using Grok. However, logging in adds some additional features.

If you’d like to log in, you can do so by scanning the QR code in the vehicle, which will provide chat management and transcripts, SuperGrok access (if you pay for a subscription), and better privacy control.

Light Sync

Tesla has added a new Light Sync feature that pulses the vehicle’s ambient lighting in sync with the music being played. This option is turned on under Toybox > Light Sync. There are also a few options, including the ability to match the ambient light colors to the album’s artwork, instead of using your selected color.

In addition, in Park you can enable Rave Cave when parked, which cranks up the ambient lighting brightness to the maximum.

Dashcam App Update

The Dashcam app now allows you to adjust playback speeds, just like the older Dashcam Viewer, which is still used on Intel-based vehicles.

In addition to adjusting playback speed, you can now adjust the video view so that it’s displayed without being obstructed by the buttons at the top (video below). The difference is small, but could be useful if you’re trying to see something slightly out of view or that’s hidden behind the top Dashcam buttons.

While the Cybertruck has also received the updated Dashcam Viewer with this update, it does not have the new B-pillar camera recordings like other HW4 cars.

Sentry Mode Glow

Sentry Mode is getting one of the best uses of the vehicle’s ambient lighting that we’ve seen so far. The ambient lighting will now slowly pulse red while Sentry Mode is activated to grab someone’s attention, instead of just relying on the vehicle’s display.

While you can disable Sentry Mode sounds, we’d love to see an even more stealthy Sentry Mode that also disables the ambient lighting and screen, allowing the vehicle to record without anyone being aware.

Since the ambient lighting is being used in this case to make people more aware of a feature, Tesla could also use it in other modes, such as Dog Mode.

There are a lot of potential uses for ambient lighting. Tesla can make it glow while the vehicle is charging, with the brightness potentially related to the vehicle's charge level.

Supercharger Site Info at Arrival

When you navigate to a Supercharger, new icons in the charger list will indicate locations that require valet service or pay-to-park access.

Upon arrival at the location, a notification will appear on your screen, displaying important details such as access codes, parking restrictions, level/floor information for parking garages, and restroom availability. This information will also be available on the site card in the navigation.

Equalizer Presets

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Tesla has moved the audio settings from the music player, directly into the vehicle settings — making them much easier to find. In addition to creating a new “Audio” section in settings, you can now create and save equalizer presets.

Each preset can have a name, custom EQ settings, and a setting for immersive audio.

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Onboarding Guide

Not a Tesla App

Tesla has introduced a new Onboarding Guide for new owners. The guide covers driver settings, touchscreen use, steering wheel and seat setup, and how to control key portions of the vehicle, including lights, wipers, and Autopilot features.

The Onboarding Guide is automatically initiated when a new owner accepts delivery of a Tesla, or can be manually initiated at any time by going to Controls > Service > Onboarding Guide.

This appears to only be available for the new Model 3 and new Model Y.

Rollout

Update 2025.26

FSD Supervised 12.6.4 & 13.2.9
Installed on 1.6% of fleet
3 Installs today
Last updated: Jul 19, 5:45 am UTC

In typical Tesla fashion, this 2025.26 update is rolling out gradually in small waves initially. Three waves have already gone out, so all signs are looking good for it going into a wide release soon.

Latest Tesla Update

Confirmed by Elon

Take a look at features that Elon Musk has said will be coming soon.

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Latest Tesla Update

Confirmed by Elon

Take a look at features that Elon Musk has said will be coming soon.

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