Tesla Reveals Features in Holiday Update: License Plate Vis, Apple Watch, Weather Overlay, Cross Traffic Alert

By Not a Tesla App Staff
Not a Tesla App

Late last night, Tesla announced the huge holiday update that will be part of update 2024.44.25. Unsurprisingly, this is a big one and includes several of the features we included in our wishlists.

It looks like Tesla wanted to get out ahead of any potential leaks and covered what looks like will be most, if not all of the features in this year’s Holiday update. Employees started receiving the update last night, and customers will likely start receiving it in the next week or two.

Tesla App on Apple Watch

Not a Tesla App

This one was leaked through an app update earlier this year, but we had no idea what the Watch app would look like, or whether it could be used as a phone key. Today, we had our first look at the app, and Tesla also confirmed that the Apple Watch could be used as a phone key.

The Watch app includes buttons at each corner, and it looks like you’ll be able to swipe between multiple vehicles. However, there are still many questions about how the app will function. Will the buttons be customizable? Are these same buttons available to add to the main screen of WatchOS?

Save Dashcam & Sentry Mode Clips to Phone

Not a Tesla App

This is a much-requested feature. You’ll now be able to view your dashcam and Sentry Mode footage on your phone. In addition to viewing the footage, you’ll also be able to save 30-second clips directly to your device.

Sentry Mode and Dashcam footage normally live on the USB drive in the vehicle, but Tesla didn’t mention how they’re getting the footage onto your phone. It seems like the vehicle will need to be awake, which would allow Tesla to stream videos from the USB drive directly to Tesla’s servers and then onto your phone.

It’d be very similar to what Tesla already does when streaming video from Actually Smart Summon to your phone. However, expect this feature to require Premium Connectivity.

Autoshift Between Drive & Reverse on New Model 3

Not a Tesla App

It would have been a big deal if this was applied to all Tesla models, but unfortunately, it only includes the New Model 3, which was already expected to receive this feature after the 2021+ Model S and Model X did earlier this year. In 2021, Musk said that Autoshift would eventually apply to all vehicles. Obviously, things can change, so we’re not sure whether Tesla still plans on making it available on older vehicles. For now, the new Model 3 can now automatically switch between Drive and Reverse when the vehicle comes to a stop.

SiriusXM

Not a Tesla App

Over the summer, it was leaked that SiriusXM would be available as a streaming service in Teslas in the future. This was the perfect Holiday addition, so we’re not surprised to see this one listed. Tesla says that it will be available for the Model 3, Model Y and the Cybertruck. While the Model S and Model X already have satellite hardware, the other models will receive the streaming version of the service, which includes additional content.

While the dedicated hardware in the Model S and Model X can be nice since it doesn’t require a reliable internet connection, it does not include all content, so we’d love to see the streaming app come to the other models in the future.

We’ll have more details on this new addition, such as pricing, promos and more later today.

Set Arrival Energy at Destination

Not a Tesla App

We’ll now finally be able to choose our desired state of charge when arriving at our destination. This will let the vehicle do the hard work of figuring out when, where, and how long to charge in order to get us to our destination with our desired amount of energy.

The image Tesla shared is from within the vehicle, which is definitely where this feature will be used more often, but due to recent changes to the iOS app, we expect this feature to also be added to the Tesla app with the Holiday update.

Search Along Route with Estimated Detour Times

Not a Tesla App

Tesla has recently been improving its navigation system by adding a lot of features that are available in popular map apps. This latest addition lets you search for stops along your route, like a restaurant or coffee shop.

We would have much rather have seen improved maps with 3D buildings like Google Maps and Apple Maps use nowadays, or even the new maps that were launched in China, but looks like we’ll have to ask for that next Holiday season.

Precipitation Map & Weather at Destination

Not a Tesla App

In addition to Superchargers, Points of Interest, Traffic and Satellite views, Tesla is introducing a new map overlay - Weather Precipitation.

When you tap on the weather icon on the far side of the screen, the map view switches to show precipitation levels, allowing you to view areas with rain or snow.

As is typically done in weather apps, the map shows an animation of precipitation over a time period, in this case, three hours.

Tesla’s headline says that you’ll also be able to view the weather at your destination, which sounds like a really nice addition, especially if Tesla uses an hourly weather chart and shows you the weather at the time of your arrival instead of current conditions.

We don’t have an image of what that will look like yet, but cover these features in more detail as soon as we have images and videos.

While Tesla didn’t point out which features will require Premium Connectivity, definitely expect this one to be a premium feature.

Rear Cross Traffic Alert

Not a Tesla App

Rear cross-traffic alerts are finally coming. We had a lot of users asking for this over the years, and honestly, we’re surprised to see it since the camera’s field seems smaller than other vehicles that have dedicated sensors for such features. We’re not sure how early this feature will be able to warn drivers, but it’s a great addition. Even if someone is in view of your rear camera, there’s a chance you won’t see them, so getting a visual and audible reminder is a great thing.

Looking back through our archives, Musk actually said Tesla would add this feature back in 2020. Sometimes these features take a long time to come to fruition because of other priorities, but Musk actually has a decent traffic record when he says a feature is coming.

We feel it’s important to note here that HW4 vehicles feature cameras with a much higher resolution. Due to the higher resolution, Tesla actually crops the video that’s displayed on the screen more than they do on HW3 cars.

This rear cross-traffic feature is very likely looking at the uncropped video feed, letting it alert you of objects that aren’t viewable on the screen yet. However, due to the difference in resolution and the fact that Tesla is cropping the video more on HW4, it’s not clear whether this feature will be available on HW3 vehicles.

We suspect it will because, as we said, even if a person is in view, it’s still a good idea to warn the driver if they’re actively backing up.

TuneIn

Tesla says that TuneIn is going to see some improvements, but unfortunately don’t go into details on what the improvements are. They do mention that it’s free and doesn’t require you to sign in. For users who haven’t used TuneIn, it allows you to listen to radio stations from around the world. We feel that it’s an underutilized service.

There’s a lot of great content, but it’s not always easy to find, so we’re hoping some of the improvements are around discovery. If you have a sports team you follow that still airs on AM station, this could be your way to listen to games.

Schedule Light Show

While we were secretly hoping to create Light Shows directly from the Tesla app, Tesla has added some other great additions. You can now start a Light Show directly from the app. Last year, Tesla added the ability to start a Light Show at a specific time, which lets you synchronize light shows across many vehicles.

In addition to being able to start the Light Show from the app, Tesla is also introducing two new Light Shows in the Christmas update, but we’ll have to wait and see what they are.

Boomerang Fu - The Game

A new game will be available called Boomerang Fu. I know — another game. However, this game, already available on major platforms, gets rave reviews for its great local multiplayer play.

This game will likely require MCU 3 with AMD Ryzen’s chip, but we’ll have to wait for confirmation.

Fart When Someone Sits

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The fart jokes will keep coming. With this addition to Tesla’s Emissions Testing, we’re all gaining a new option — the ability to have the vehicle play a fart noise when someone sits down. While we don’t think anyone had this on their Christmas list, it sounds fun for those unsuspecting guests.

Control Seats From the Screen

Tesla is finally adding the ability to adjust seats through the screen. As someone who recently broke their seat controls on the driver seat, we’re excited to see this. However, the capabilities of this feature are really clear.

The headline Tesla used says “Adjust Passenger Seat,” but then the description says there’s a new Seats control panel, so we’re not sure right now what capabilities it will have besides being able to adjust the “unoccupied passenger seat, including the second-row seats.”

We’d love this to be a fully configurable seat panel, allowing you to adjust any powered seat in the vehicle and even create presets.

Maintenance Summary

This new Maintenance Summary sounds a lot like the Service History feature we covered last month. It may be the same thing, but potentially with an interface that doesn’t require you to dive into Service Mode.

Traffic Along Route No Longer Requires Premium

Not a Tesla App

In a surprise move, Tesla has made some live traffic features available to everyone. It sounds like this will include two things:

Traffic Overview: There’s a trip overview near your arrival time that displays traffic along your route.

Traffic Along Route: This option, originally included as part of Premium Connectivity in update 2024.36, displays the vehicle’s navigation path in different colors, depending on the traffic in that area. This also affects the Tesla app, which displays a similar feature under the Location tab when the vehicle is traveling to a destination.

While Tesla always considered live traffic when determining routes, even if the vehicle didn’t have Premium Connectivity, it didn’t display traffic details to the driver. This is a huge addition for anyone who doesn’t subscribe to Tesla’s subscription service. Honestly, these are the two biggest features of live traffic. However, it does not seem like it’ll include the feature where you can see live traffic on all surrounding streets, which is enabled with the Traffic map overlay option.

Improvements to Sentry Mode

Tesla is making another improvement to Sentry Mode for the holiday update. If you enable Sentry Mode, Tesla will send you notifications if there are any critical events, like the vehicle’s alarm going off. Tesla is now adding another critical event and will now notify you if Sentry Mode is enabled and one of the door handles is pulled.

This will likely be specific to the Model 3 and Model Y, which feature pull-able door handles. Unfortunately, the reduced power consumption feature of Sentry Mode that was launched on the Cybertruck is not part of this year’s Holiday update; however, expect it in the first half of 2025.

Supercharging

When you arrive at a Supercharger, Tesla will now display on your screen if any Superchargers are out of order. Tesla could actually figure out which stall you’re parked on thanks to the vehicle’s cameras, so it’d be nice if it actually let you know if you were parked at a stall that was out of order.

Vehicle to Fleet Communication

With the launch of FSD V13.2, Tesla added the ability for vehicles to dynamically route around road closures by letting your vehicle communicate with the Tesla fleet. Essentially, when a Tesla encounters a road closure, it’ll report the data back to Tesla, allowing Tesla to share that closure with other vehicles. In FSD V13, Tesla described the feature as:
“Dynamic routing around road closures, which displays them along an affected route when they are detected by the fleet.”

It looks like this same feature is now available to everyone with the Holiday update. Tesla says the Christmas update will let the navigation “dynamically route around road closures.” So Tesla’s navigation will now not only consider routing based on traffic and construction data it receives, but also data gathered by other Tesla vehicles.

Energy App for Model S/X & Cybertruck

Tesla’s Energy app will now include the Consumption tab for the Model S, Model X, and Cybertruck. The Consumption tab displays and graphs the amount of energy used over a selectable time period.

It’s useful to see your real-time energy consumption or the amount of energy you used or generated over a set period. While these vehicles had the Energy app before, they were missing the Consumption tab that’s been available on the Model 3 and Model Y for some time.

Update: We have updated this feature description to accurately reflect the feature being added. It does not add the energy app to the legacy Model S/X.

Parking at Destination

This is another feature closely tied to FSD. With FSD V13.2, the vehicle will now attempt to park at its destination. It appears that the vehicle will navigate to the pin on the map and then scan for parking spots nearby. However, sometimes parking is not visible from the destination location, or it’s not nearby, so with the holiday update, Tesla is adding the ability to find nearby parking at your destination.

There aren’t any additional details yet on how this is being implemented. Is Tesla using fleet data it’s collected over the years, or is there a known source that Tesla is tapping into? Either way, this problem will obviously need to be solved for FSD, but it will also come in handy when driving manually.

Lower Music In Reverse

Your Tesla’s music will now be automatically lowered when reversing. Humans find it easier to think and focus when it’s quieter, so it seems like a good idea to lower the volume automatically when reversing. This will be optional if there are drivers who prefer not to use it.

Tesla has been adding several safety features when reversing, including blocking other apps from being used while in reverse and enabling Automatic Emergency Braking when backing up.

Rear Screen Remote Improvements

If your vehicle includes a rear screen, Tesla is making it easier to turn on video for rear passengers. With this update, you can now view video playback controls when controlling the rear screen from the main display. This should make it easier to turn on or pause a video

Cybertruck Santa Mode

Not a Tesla App

Just in time for the holidays, Tesla has added a Cybertruck-inspired Santa Mode for the Cybertruck. Tesla has changed the Cybertruck Santa Mode so that it features unique assets for the reindeer and Santa’s sleigh.

The sled itself is now a convertible Cybertruck, and the driver is no longer Santa himself but a Santa-hat-wearing Optimus robot.

The reindeer have also been replaced with robotic reindeer (Robo-deer?). The thrusters underneath the sleigh also indicate the ride height of the Cybertruck.

Besides the unique assets, this Santa Mode appears to be the same as other vehicles.

Cybertruck Rearscreen

The Christmas update helps the Cybertruck catch up with a lot of features that are available on other vehicles. Besides Santa Mode and the Energy App, the Cybertruck is also gaining the ability to play games on the rear screen.

Zoom In & Out On Rear Camera

Tesla is making some improvements to the Cybertruck’s rear camera. In addition to the camera feed being larger, you can now zoom in and out of the video, making it easier to see details. We’d love to see this feature come to other vehicles, but it could be specific to vehicles with AI4 (HW4) since those feature much higher-resolution cameras.

Cybertruck Custom Wraps

Not a Tesla App

Tesla is the king of customization. Over the years, they’ve added so many features. From custom light shows to the Colorizer, Custom Lock Sounds, and others, you can personalize your vehicle more than any other.

This year, they’re adding two additional features, the ability to create a custom “skin” for your vehicle and the ability to add your license plate. Tesla said both of these features are for the Cybertruck, but we’d be surprised if the license plate visualization didn’t apply to other vehicles.

For the Cybertruck wraps, Tesla allows you to pick from a preloaded selection or create your own. The UI at the top has a button for “Create Your Own,” and Tesla said it’d release details on GitHub later.

It sounds like creating your own Cybertruck wrap will require a computer to design a wrap to certain specifications. It’ll likely work similarly to other games, where a single image file contains all sides of the Cybertruck, and Tesla’s software will then interpret and render the skin on the vehicle.

Tesla will likely provide a template to make it easy to create a custom wrap. All you’ll need is some image editing software to create your own design. While you can use your own design, you’ll also be able to download someone else’s designs. This feature is expected to use your own USB drive, like custom lock sounds.

License Plate Visualization

Not a Tesla App

While Tesla says the license plate visualization is just for the Cybertruck, this doesn’t match up with what we’ve seen. We believe other Tesla models will also gain the ability to display a custom visualization for the vehicle’s license plate. Greentheonly initially found source code in Tesla’s firmware that pointed out that the feature is available in China, where the Cybertruck isn’t available.

With the custom license plate feature, you can choose the text and, presumably, the color displayed on the plate. It could be your actual license plate or something completely different; emojis should also work.

In addition to displaying just the text, you can also choose a background for the license plate. This could be a simple color, or you can use an image for the background. Tesla provides several options, but you can also upload your own image, so you can find an image that perfectly matches your license plate.

These are amazing features in this year’s holiday update, but there are a lot of questions that we’ll have to wait to be answered.

The good news is that the Christmas update started going out to employees yesterday, so it shouldn’t be long before we get some additional images of some of these features.

We all have a lot to look forward to, but keep in mine that Tesla didn’t outline any restrictions for these features. Some features may be limited to Premium Connectivity, certain models or regions, or certain hardware such as MCU 3 or HW4.

Tesla Shares New Details on FSD Unsupervised, Robotaxi, Potential FSD Price Hike During Q1 2025 Earnings Call

By Karan Singh
Not a Tesla App

In case you missed Tesla’s Q1 2025 earnings call last night, or just want to see the cliff notes, we’ve got you fully covered. While Tesla called this event a “Company Update” on their Investor Relations website, we covered all the usual aspects of a regular earnings call.

Tesla had a rough Q1, but managed to pull through even in the face of one of the most financially difficult quarters in recent memory. There’s also a lot of exciting news as Tesla shared updates and key information on some of its upcoming products.

Tesla actually started this event relatively on time, with the call beginning just seven minutes after the scheduled start time. If you prefer to listen to the call, you can listen below with the call starting at the 7 minute, 9 second mark.

FSD Supervised & Unsupervised

  • FSD Supervised launched in China, received positive reception.

    • Tesla launched FSD in China without access to country-specific data, and it is performing extremely well.

    • They expect this will make it easier to launch elsewhere.

    • FSD Supervised for Europe still on track for 2025.

  • FSD Unsupervised is now running Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertrucks from the production line to the outbound logistics lots at Fremont and Giga texas.

  • As of this quarter, FSD has been driving people in North America and China for 7.7 Million miles per day.

  • Tesla will consider pricing options for Unsupervised FSD vs Supervised FSD

    • In the meantime, Tesla plans to gradually lighten the supervision requirements

    • Executive team believes FSD is too cheap at $99/mo as it currently stands

  • Glare, Sand, Dust, Fog

    • Cameras are not fully blinded by glare or other obstacles

    • Tesla’s photon-count analysis happens before digital signal processing - the image you see on the dash may be washed out, but FSD can see fine.

  • Snow and Inclement Weather

    • These are still a challenge for scaling out to areas that experience snow.

    • Tesla is looking at implementing localized parameters to deal with snow or other localized conditions in the future

      • Not essential, but a “nice-to-have”

      • These parameters will be focused on improving reliability for certain tasks, like driving in snow

  • Waymo

    • Tesla doesn’t see Waymo as a challenger

    • LIDAR is expensive, can’t solve many problems

    • Pure vision is the key (along with audio now)

    • Tesla isn’t just doing a software solution and attaching hardware to a pre-existing vehicle, Tesla is building the vehicles ground-up with autonomy in mind

  • Validation is still a challenge, due to edge cases.

    • QA fleet is driving in Austin, and can go many days without an intervention

    • Difficult to tell whether improving or regressing

    • Deeper and broader simulation systems are being built

    • Seeing an intervention every 10,000 miles means they need 10,000 miles of data on average to address it

    • Need as much data as possible - 10,000 miles is the average distance covered by a driver in North America in a year

    • The executive team noted that Chinese FSD testers are doing a fantastic job testing edge cases

Unsupervised FSD & Robotaxi Fleet

  • Tesla is on track for the pilot launch of Robotaxi in Austin for June 2025.

    • These will move the financial needle in the 2nd half of 2026.

    • The first vehicles will be Model Y’s, not Cybercabs.

    • Aim is to start in Austin and roll out elsewhere in the United States by the end of the year

    • Focus is to ramp quickly, and have millions of vehicles operating autonomously by the end of 2026.

  • Remote Support for robotaxi fleet could happen, not 100%

  • 10-20 vehicles on Day 1 for Robotaxi fleet

    • Scale-up will happen slowly

    • By the end of June or early July, anyone will be able to go to Austin and use a robotaxi

  • Vast majority of Tesla’s existing fleet will be capable of Unsupervised FSD

    • Elon specifically mentioned the Model S, 3, X, and Y

    • This is the fourth event (We, Robot, Q4 Earnings 2024, All-Hands, and Q1 Earnings 2025) without mention of the Cybertruck being capable, likely meaning that FSD development for the Cybertruck is further behind as we’ve seen.

  • Tesla’s generalized solution to autonomy means that once they verify it works in a few North American locations, it should work in any North American city

    • Key limitation is regulatory approvals

    • This also applies for other areas of the world - the generalized solution will make it easy to apply it elsewhere

  • Tesla is providing autonomous supervised vehicles today that are capable of:

    • Cutting commute effort

    • Improving lives for customers with disabilities

    • Tesla’s executive team wants to get these stories out and get people to experience FSD

  • Unsupervised FSD should launch for customers in the US, ideally by end of year

    • Safety is a key concern, Tesla needs to continue reducing interventions per mile

    • Tesla will be careful with rolling this out outside of dedicated fleets

    • It must be meaningfully (10x or more, as per Q4 2024) safer than a human

    • Will likely be geofenced to specific cities or locations

  • Elon expects the first Model Y will drive itself from Fremont or Giga Texas all the way to a customer by the end of 2025

Affordable Vehicle

  • The plan for the new more affordable model (identified as a new vehicle), remains on schedule for production beginning in the first half of 2025.

    • These will utilize aspects of the next-generation platform as well as current platforms, and be produced on the same manufacturing lines as current vehicles.

    • This approach will result in less cost reduction, but will enable Tesla to manage capital expenditures.

  • This model will start production as soon as June and be in the market shortly thereafter.

    • Ramping will be slower than hoped due to global tariff and financial impacts

    • Production timeline is still on track overall

    • Tesla is aiming for a lower initial cost of ownership and lower monthly payments

  • Tesla will use its existing lines - reducing the overall form factor difference between this new model and what Tesla already exists

    • Likely based on the Model 3 or Model Y

    • Will resemble the overall form and shape

Cybercab

  • Cybercab will use the unboxed manufacturing strategy, and is scheduled for volume production in 2026.

  • Sample production validation is ongoing now

    • First builds will happen near the end of Q2

    • Production is on-schedule at Giga Texas

    • No new building is being built, it will be built inside already planned space

  • Unboxed method is progressing well

    • It is the basis for the Cybercab’s manufacturing process

    • It lowers the cost of production and increases the level of automation considerably

    • Tesla is working on marrying large assemblies together, fixing vehicle ceiling connections, and recently completed corrosion testing

  • Unboxed methodology will eventually be incorporated into other lines

    • Cybertruck is already benefiting from some aspects of this method

  • Long term goal is a 5 second cycle time for Cybercab

    • Giga Shanghai currently has a 33 second cycle team for Model Y

Current Vehicles

  • Giga Texas produced its 400,00th vehicle in April, and Tesla launched the Cybertruck Long Range (RWD).

  • Giga Nevada achieved record battery pack production this quarter.

    • Model 3 and Model Y deliveries in the US (and Canada) are now made with 100% US-built battery packs.

  • Tesla achieved record orders in a single day in the Asia-Pacific region with the launch of the Refreshed Model Y.

    • This is the most competitive region for EVs, and a validation of Tesla’s cost structure and positioning.

  • Giga Berlin built its 500,000th Model Y this quarter.

  • Tesla has officially opened the first overseas market for the Cybertruck - Saudi Arabia.

  • Q1 is historically the worst quarter for auto sales, and the best quarter to do production swaps

    • Tesla used this as an opportunity to do the swap at all 4 factories around the world at the same time

    • Never been done before - especially as 1.1 million Model Y’s are built per year globally.

Optimus

  • Tesla’s Fremont factory is preparing production for the Optimus pilot line for 2025, and wider deployments of Optimus for internal Tesla use is expected this year.

  • There has been good progress on finalizing Optimus so far, still in prototyping stages

    • Tesla expects its pilot production line to begin running near the end of 2025

    • Several thousand units should be working in Tesla’s factories by the end of the year

    • Optimus ramp will be challenging, lots of new and unique components Tesla doesn’t make already

    • Optimus will use the AI4 computer

    • Shoulder actuators use permanent/rare earth magnets

      • Working with China to get a license for use

  • Goal is 1 million units per year by 2030

Batteries

  • The 4680 Cell (Cybercell) is IRA-complaint and eligible for the US Federal EV Rebate.

    • It is the lowest cost-per-kWh cell.

    • Tesla has diversified and protected the supply chain, and each component for the 4680 is sourced from at least two countries.

    • Lowest cost cell of any cell available on the market right now

    • Easy to build a flashy product that does one thing (e.g. charging fast) well, but difficult to scale it up and be profitable

  • Tesla’s lithium refining and cathode production plans will start production in 2025, moving critical battery production to the US.

    • Will be the biggest lithium refinery outside of China, and could potentially expand to be the biggest.

    • Cathode production will also make a big impact

    • Anode production or removing anodes entirely is being worked on

  • Tesla is no longer supply constrained for vehicle batteries, but is constrained on LFP batteries for North America due to tariffs.

Supply Chain

  • Tesla is continuing to localize supply chains where possible

    • Makes sense from a cost and logistics risk standpoint

      • Supply chains should be located on the continent of which the vehicle is built

    • Tesla is the least impacted car company in respect to tariffs

      • Places Tesla in a stronger position than their competitors

    • Elon believes in lower tariffs, and advocates for them

      • Tesla will be impacted by the May tariffs due to part production in Canada and Mexico, no way around this right now

    • Tesla has to buy equipment from outside the US and import it - it is expensive to bring in equipment from China

      • China has the most capacity to provide this equipment

  • Tesla is working to on-shore production of LFP, as most Tesla Energy batteries are supplied from China

    • There is an outsized tariff impact on Tesla Energy at the current time, and Tesla is looking at non-China suppliers of Lithium

  • Tesla is continuing to focus on adapting to policy changes

    • 85% of US-built vehicles have North American content

    • 95% of Asia-Pacific vehicles have Asian-Pacific content

    • Vertical integration and local partnerships are the key to increasing these

    • Tariff risks are higher for low-volume platforms (S, X, Cybertruck)

    • Tesla can bridge and cover production for other regions in times of crisis

    • Tesla is building strategic banks of parts they cannot vertically integrate, such as processors and microelectronics

    • Tesla is working to reduce or stop the reliance on rare earth magnets as much as possible

Energy

  • There was a 154% increase in energy storage deployed YoY, for a total of 10.4GWh.

  • Tesla is experiencing continued rapid growth in the energy market, but deliveries remain volatile due to the nature and scale of the projects.

  • Megapack expands grid capabilities

    • Tesla is expecting more demand for Megapack in the near future due to the increasing use of AI. 

      • Megapack itself is extremely useful for many industrial use cases, not just AI.

    • It can effectively double grid capacity by buffering energy usage during off-peak hours

    • Tesla has many orders in the GWh range already, and is expecting demand in the TWh range in the future.

    • Tesla is supply constrained on Megapack

  • Tesla deployed 1 GWh of Powerwall this quarter.

    • Extremely positive reception from customers; Tesla is supply constrained.

  • Tesla delivered 1.4TWh of electricity by Supercharging this quarter, with a 26% YoY growth.

  • Megafactory Shanghai is now online and producing Megapacks, over 100 are on-site and produced, ready to be shipped (not counted this quarter!)

    • Tesla expects 20GWh of annual production due to the localized supply chain, and up to 40GWh in the future.

Misc.

  • Tesla is working on getting into India, cars going in are subject to 70% tariffs and 30% luxury tax

    • Would be an excellent market, aimed at India’s middle class

    • No discussion about localizing production in India at this time

      • Giga Berlin and Giga Shanghai likely have enough capacity

  • Tesla acknowledged that vandalism, unwarranted hostility, and brand image have suffered in several markets, and likely played an impact, but did not have a functional impact on demand

    • In Q&A, Tesla’s executive team mentioned:

      • Biggest impact was reduced Model Y production

      • Tesla remained a best seller in Q1 in multiple regions, and interest remained high

      • Tesla experienced the highest number of test drives in this quarter, ever

      • Tesla isn’t immune to macro economic effects

Elon’s Opening Statement

Elon’s opening statement was interesting - and normally we just integrate it right into the rest of the points, but we’ll break it out here because it is fairly important.

  • Elon acknowledges blowback for his time at DOGE

    • He believes that his work there is still important

      • DOGE team has made a lot of progress

    • Elon wanted to focus on fighting waste and fraud to benefit the US

  • Most of the work with DOGE is done

    • Time with DOGE will drop significantly as of next month

    • Elon will continue to work with DOGE throughout the current term 

      • 1-2 days per week as needed

    • Elon says he will return to focusing on Tesla

    • DOGE’s mandate ends in July 2026, so Elon will likely have to step away entirely then unless it is extended

  • This will be a bumpy year for Tesla

    • Elon is optimistic about the future of the company, but acknowledges 2025 will be challenging, but he doesn’t go into details

    • Still believes the future of the company is on large-scale autonomy

      • Both cars and humanoid robots

    • If Tesla can execute on autonomy, it is well placed for the future

Financial

  • Tesla saw a 20% YoY decline in total automotive revenues

    • Partially due to a 15% decline in gross profit, and 9% rise in operating expenses

    • Tesla saw non-GAAP earnings per share drop to $0.27, from $0.45 in Q1 2024, and $0.60 in Q4 2024.

  • Tesla attributed the majority of the decline in its vehicle deliveries due to the ramp of the Model Y across all four of its factories globally. The first time any automaker has launched a new model across all factories at the same time.

  • Tesla’s average selling price (ASP) also declined due to a mix of sales and financing incentives.

  • Overall, operating income decreased 66% YoY to $0.4B, which is a 2.1% operating margin.

  • Tesla saw growth in the energy generation and storage sectors (Tesla Energy), and also a higher regulatory credit revenue for this quarter.

  • Tesla’s continued ramp of the Cybertruck has seen a lower cost associated with its production as of Q1 2024.

  • Tesla’s CAPEX for 2025 will be in excess of $10 Billion

    • Tesla is still evaluating what and where to invest.

Listen to Event

You can listen to the entire event below, which starts at the 7 minute, 9 second mark.

Tesla's 2025 Q1 Earnings Call: How to Listen [Listen to Replay]

By Not a Tesla App Staff
Not a Tesla App

Tesla is holding its 2025 Q1 earnings call today at 2:30 pm PT / 5:30 pm ET / 9:30 pm UTC. The earnings call will be followed by a Q&A session with Tesla executives, including Elon Musk.

We expect the focus to be on Tesla sales for the quarter, FSD Unsupservised and the Robotaxi network. Tesla may also discuss its upcoming, more affordable model, Optimus, and other products.

Update: If you prefer a recap of everything that was announced during Tesla’s earnings call, take a look at our bullet point list of everything Tesla announced.

Listen to Replay

The event will be live-streamed on Tesla’s site. It is also expected to be streamed on X and YouTube like it has been in the past. Tesla has changed this from an Earnings Call to a Company Update, but it’s unclear whether the phrase change holds any significance in what will be shared.

Update: You can listen to Tesla’s earnings call live below. If you prefer, you can also listen live on Tesla’s website.

Start Time

Tesla's live stream starts at 2:30 pm PT, which is the following times around the world:

2:30 pm Pacific Time

5:30 pm Eastern Time

9:30 pm UTC

10:30 pm - London, England

11:30 pm - Berlin, Germany

7:30 am (April 23rd) - Sydney, Australia

Q&A Questions

The questions asked during the Q&A portion of the call come directly from investors. These are currently the top-voted questions, so we’ll likely see answers to several of these questions:

  1. What are the highest risk items on the critical path to robotaxi launch and scaling?

  2. When will FSD unsupervised be available for personal use on personally-owned cars?

  3. Is Tesla still on track for releasing “more affordable models” this year? Or will you be focusing on simplified versions to enhance affordability, similar to the RWD Cybertruck?

  4. Does Tesla see robotaxi as a winner-take-most market, and as you approach the Austin launch, how do you expect to compare against Waymo’s offering, especially regarding pricing, geofencing and regulatory flexibility?

  5. Can you please provide an update on the unboxed method and how that is progressing?

  6. How is Tesla positioning itself to flexibly adapt to global economic risks in the form of tariffs, political biases, etc.?

  7. Does Tesla still have a battery supply constraint (noted on Q4 ER call) and how does this change w/tariffs?

  8. Did Tesla experience any meaningful changes in order inflow rate in Q1 relating to all of the rumors of “brand damage”?

  9. Regarding the Tesla Optimus pilot line, could you confirm if it is currently operational? If so, what is the current production rate of Optimus bots per week? Additionally, how might the recent tariffs impact the scalability of this production line moving forward?

  10. Robotaxi still on track for this year?’

Look Back at 2025 Q1 Numbers

Most of Tesla’s Q1 deliveries, 323,800 units, were unsurprisingly for the Model 3 and Model Y, while the “Other Models” category (including the Cybertruck, Model S, and Model X) accounted for 12,881 deliveries.

Comparing these numbers to Q1 2024, the Model 3/Y is down about 13%, while the Model S/X and Cybertruck are down about 24%.

In terms of production, Tesla built 345,454 Model 3/Y vehicles and 17,161 from its “Other Models” line. The company attributed the production drop to the Model Y changeover but stated that the ramp is “going well.” However, deliveries and production were both down year over year.

Q1 2025

Q1 2024

Q4 2024

Model 3/Y Deliveries

323,800

369,783

471,930

Model 3/Y Production

345,454

412,376

436,718

Other Models Deliveries

12,881

17,027

23,640

Other Models Production

17,161

20,995

22,727

Total Deliveries

336,681

386,810

495,570

Total Production

362,615

433,371

459,445

Although Tesla doesn’t officially break down its numbers by region, Troy Teslike, who closely monitors Tesla's delivery and production numbers has provided estimates that show Tesla’s deliveries across regions. Tesla delivered the most vehicles in China this past quarter, so it’ll be interesting to see if this trend continues.

His estimates for the regional break down are below:

US/Canada

Europe

China

Rest of World

Total

Model S/X

5,134

401

250

364

6,149

Cybertruck

6,732

-

-

-

6,732

Model 3

44,600

21,748

52,718

10,254

129,320

Model Y

68,191

31,715

81,889

12,685

194,480

Q1 Total

119,864

53,864

134,857

23,303

336,681

We expect a large portion of Tesla’s earnings call to focus on the long-awaited launch of its Robotaxi, and we will hopefully receive an update on its upcoming, more affordable model, which is rumored to be delayed.

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