Tesla’s recent focus on expanding and vertically integrating its battery production is beginning to take global steps, starting with a battery recycling and service center in South Australia. In Marion, a suburb of Adelaide, the council recently voted in favor of a proposal that would see contaminated public land developed and leased to Tesla.
The move promises local jobs and environmental remediation but has garnered a lot of public debate focused on Elon’s moves outside his role as CEO.
The proposal involves a site that’s currently unusable for recreation due to chemical contamination. A local developer plans to acquire and remediate the land, constructing a new facility specifically for Tesla. This site would reportedly serve two purposes: recycling old lithium-ion batteries and serving as a Tesla Service Center.
Tesla’s Commitment to Recycling
Tesla recently announced its intention to ramp up its battery recycling and repurposing efforts. During the Q1 2025 Earnings Call, Tesla’s executives highlighted substantial progress. Tesla had recycled enough materials in Q1 2025 to build approximately 21,000 Model Y RWD vehicles, representing a 136% year-over-year increase from Q1 2024.
Dedicated regional hubs like this one would be a logical next step in expanding the recycling loop and furthering Tesla’s vertical integration while also reducing its reliance on new materials. In addition, local sources also mentioned that Tesla could be repurposing older lithium-ion batteries for other purposes, including their inclusion in stationary battery storage systems like Powerwall or Megapack.
Of course, the facility also has major benefits for the local community, including creating around 100 local jobs, as well as injecting approximately $56 million into the local economy. Further, developing the contaminated land as a renewable facility is one of the safest ways to use the land that’s been sealed off from the public for nearly a decade.
Elon’s Image
The proposal isn’t without its critics. Local opposition was voiced during community consultations, with most of the negative sentiment directed towards Elon rather than the facility itself. Despite these complaints, the local council elected to proceed, arguing that tangible economic and environmental benefits far outweigh any perceived geopolitical or symbolic harm that shutting down the project could cause.
With the council’s endorsement on record, the proposal now moves to the South Australian state government for approvals regarding the change in land classification.
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Tesla’s software updates often hide some undocumented features alongside the official release notes, and software update 2025.20 is no exception. With this update, Tesla has introduced a welcome quality-of-life improvement for the in-vehicle Dashcam Viewer. Users now have the ability to select and delete multiple clips at once (thanks, Max!). However, this addition is limited to the updated Dashcam Viewer for Ryzen-based vehicles.
While it may seem a small change, if you wanted to clear out your Dashcam clips, you’d have to either delete them one by one in the vehicle or remove your Dashcam USB drive and take it to a computer to erase all the clips at once. For those who frequently see Sentry Mode notifications or often record clips with their Dashcam, this is a useful addition.
This feature is currently limited to vehicles that have received the updated Dashcam viewer - which means vehicles equipped with AMD Ryzen processors (how to tell if you have Intel or AMD). This includes all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles with AMD Ryzen, as well as the 2021+ Model S and Model X vehicles.
Unfortunately, since the Cybertruck does not yet have access to the updated Dashcam viewer or support for the additional two cameras in Sentry Mode, it has not received this feature yet either.
This undocumented feature is a very welcomed addition for many users who carefully manage their Dashcam and Sentry Mode videos.
Elon Musk’s relationship with Donald Trump has quickly shifted from cooperation to conflict, as the two exchanged comments earlier today.
Musk’s companies operate in sectors that are either heavily regulated—or, in his view, not regulated enough. His political involvement makes more sense when seen through the lens of shaping policy: he’s pushed for looser regulations around SpaceX, more consistent standards for autonomous vehicles, and more oversight of artificial intelligence.
But after today’s back and forth, Trump is now threatening to eliminate all EV subsidies and cancel SpaceX contracts.
While we don’t usually cover politics, Musk’s recent criticism of Trump’s new spending bill could and likely will negatively affect both Tesla and SpaceX.
The fallout is already impacting Tesla stock, which fell 14.26% today and has dropped another 2% in after hours trading.
Below is a thread outlining the public exchange between Musk and Trump.
On June 3rd, Musk posted a comment to X criticizing Trump’s new bill due to it drastically increasing the nation’s debt.
Not a Tesla App
Today Trump responded on Truth Social saying the bill is necessary to prevent tax increases.
Not a Tesla App
Trump says in an interview that Musk knew the inner workings of the bill, while Musk denies being shown the bill at all.
🚨TRUMP: "I'm very disappointed with Elon. I've helped him a lot. He knew the inner workings of the bill better than anybody sitting here. He had no problem with it. All of a sudden he had a problem & he only developed the problem when he found out we're going to cut EV mandate" pic.twitter.com/aeCcmCAODQ
Trump turns on Musk, and goes back to his anti-EV campaign.
Not a Tesla App
Trump is now threatening to end government contracts for SpaceX, which Musk is calling his bluff on, saying that SpaceX can start decommissioning the Dragon spacecraft immediately.
Not a Tesla App
While we thought this would be the end of political involvement for Musk, he still appears to want to have a larger voice in politics.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Tesla stock reacts tomorrow. We may be in for another rough ride as Trump looks for additional ways to make Musk’s life more difficult. As we saw in the NJ Turnpike case, where Tesla is being forced to decommission all of their Superchargers along the popular route, politics can trump even the best product.
Is it time to create a new political party in America that actually represents the 80% in the middle?
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