Tesla sells $100 million of its Superchargers to bp pulse
bp pulse
Tesla has taken a groundbreaking step in its mission to expand its reach and impact. In an unprecedented $100 million deal with bp pulse, Tesla's ultra-fast charging units will find their place for the first time in an independent EV charging network.
Why This Deal is Pivotal for Tesla
This collaboration signifies Tesla's commitment to manufacturing electric vehicles and shaping the entire EV ecosystem. Tesla's Superchargers boast up to 350 kW output with v4 units, although bp is officially announcing it as 250 kW units. The charger stalls will include the 'Magic Dock,' ensuring compatibility with the North American Charging Standard (NACS) and Combined Charging System (CCS) connectors. bp pulse is one of the largest charging networks in the UK. This could be seen as a way for Tesla to expand NACS use in Europe, where CCS is the dominate charging connector.
Rebecca Tinucci, Tesla's Senior Director of Charging Infrastructure, highlighted the importance of this new direction, "Selling our fast-charging hardware is a new step for us, and one we're looking to expand in support of our mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy."
bp Brand & Design
Tesla is white-labeling their chargers for the first time in this unique deal, meaning that although Tesla is manufacturing the hardware, the brand and design will be bp's. The chargers will be completely owned and run by 'bp pulse,' with no mention of Tesla or Superchargers on the hardware itself.
Automated Payments
The chargers' support for the "Plug and Charge" protocol will enable automated payments, much like Tesla's Superchargers, leading to a seamless payment solution. The units are also expected to come with card readers and a screen as we've seen on other Tesla v4 Superchargers.
Maintenance
Tesla has previously shown how they monitor Superchargers that help them achieve extremely high reliability ratings. However, in this deal, bp owns the chargers and will be responsible for their maintenance and monitoring. It's not clear whether Tesla is offering bp any software or tools that could help them maintain the chargers.
Will They Show Up For Tesla Owners?
These 'Superchargers' will be completely run by bp and will be considered third-party chargers. In the U.S. this means that they won't show up in the vehicle's navigation system or app, and Tesla will not automatically route to these chargers during longer trips. However, in Europe, Tesla has already starting showing third-party chargers in their navigation system, meaning that users can find and navigate to these new bp chargers when they're installed in 2024. Tesla recently started showing destination chargers in the Tesla app in Canada, and it appears that Tesla will slowly expand the chargers that show up in the car and the app.
In Europe, Tesla closely monitors third-party chargers for speed and uptime and will continously adjust which chargers are displayed in their vehicles and app.
This partnership with bp pulse could pave the way for more collaborations where Tesla supplies its industry-leading hardware to other networks, potentially globally. As Tesla pushes forward to drive the world's transition to sustainable energy, deals like this underscore its unwavering commitment and showcase its readiness to explore uncharted territories.
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For the first time in quite a while, Tesla has increased the price of one of its vehicle offerings. The Model S Long Range and the Model S Plaid have both received a hefty price increase. However, not all is bad - as Tesla also added a new benefit for buyers.
Price Increase
The price increase for the Model S is $5,000 - currently only in the United States. This price increase will likely impact other markets, including Canada, in the coming days.
The Model S Long Range now starts at $79,990, while the Model S Plaid now starts at $94,990. The Model S and Model X now have the same starting price. Interestingly, that’s also the same pricing point for the Cybertruck AWD and Cyberbeast Trimotor non-Foundation Series.
The vehicle configuration does not appear to have changed, so the new pricing is simply an increase rather than the addition or removal of features. Tesla previously cut the price of the Model S and Model X by 15% in 2023, so this could simply be an adjustment to ensure that the vehicle pricing stays in line with inflation and other factors.
Free Lifetime Supercharging
For those on the fence about ordering a Model S, Tesla has brought back Free Lifetime Supercharging when you order a new Model S on or after December 13, 2024. As always, Free Lifetime Supercharging is restricted to the buyer’s Tesla account and to that specific vehicle. It cannot be transferred to another vehicle or another owner after ownership transfer. It’s worth noting, that it also doesn’t exclude the owner from receiving Supercharger idle fees or congestion fees. There is currently no end date for this promotion.
There are currently no changes to the Model X, neither a price increase nor the addition of Lifetime Superchargering. However, when Tesla makes changes to one of their premium vehicles, it usually affects the other one as well. So be on the lookout for potential changes to the Model X offering in the coming days.
We’ve seen Tesla value Lifetime Supercharging at $5,000, so this falls in line with the price increase we’re seeing. It’s possible that Tesla will begin to bring back Lifetime Supercharging as a perk for buying into their more premium Model S and Model X cars, or this could be another temporary promotion to get buyers who are on the fence to go ahead and make their purchase while this promotion lasts.
Tesla recently showed off a demo of Optimus, its humanoid robot, walking around in moderately challenging terrain—not on a flat surface but on dirt and slopes. These things can be difficult for a humanoid robot, especially during the training cycle.
Most interestingly, Milan Kovac, VP of Engineering for Optimus, clarified what it takes to get Optimus to this stage. Let’s break down what he said.
Optimus is Blind
Optimus is getting seriously good at walking now - it can keep its balance over uneven ground - even while walking blind. Tesla is currently using just the sensors, all powered by a neural net running on the embedded computer.
Essentially, Tesla is building Optimus from the ground up, relying on as much additional data as possible while it trains vision. This is similar to how they train FSD on vehicles, using LiDAR rigs to validate the vision system’s accuracy. While Optimus doesn’t have LiDAR, it relies on all those other sensors on board, many of which will likely become simplified as vision takes over as the primary sensor.
Today, Optimus is walking blind, but it’s able to react almost instantly to changes in the terrain underneath it, even if it falls or slips.
What’s Next?
Next up, Tesla AI will be adding vision to Optimus - helping complete the neural net. Remember, Optimus runs on the same overall AI stack as FSD - in fact, Optimus uses an FSD computer and an offshoot of the FSD stack for vision-based tasks.
Milan mentions they’re planning on adding vision to help the robot plan ahead and improve its walking gait. While the zombie shuffle is iconic and a little bit amusing, getting humanoid robots to walk like humans is actually difficult.
There’s plenty more, too - including better responsiveness to velocity and direction commands and learning to fall and stand back up. Falling while protecting yourself to minimize damage is something natural to humans - but not exactly natural to something like a robot. Training it to do so is essential in keeping the robot, the environment around it, and the people it is interacting with safe.
We’re excited to see what’s coming with Optimus next because it is already getting started in some fashion in Tesla’s factories.
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