Tim Levin

@TeslaCharging Are all 168 stalls solely solar powered and operating off grid?

All Superchargers now operational. Safe Thanksgiving travels!

@Jordan_Schiefer @Out_of_Spec @itskyleconner Congrats!

UPDATE — This was the last press car I tested for @Out_of_Spec, & maybe the best. 😮‍💨 It’s been an incredible journey, learning SO much nerd level stuff. I’m now taking a new step, joining Kelley Blue Book! The fun continues, and I’ll still nerd out with @itskyleconner when I can!

@hamids @RJScaringe Thanks for sharing. This was a fascinating part of our conversation. Find the full episode here: linktr.ee/insideevspodca…

I just increased my $RIVN position by another 43%. This is my largest single Rivian purchase ever, because over the weekend, I got convinced that Rivian is on the verge of becoming a $100 Billion+ company. Here's how I came to that conclusion: In a new interview of @RJScaringe released Friday by @InsideEVs, RJ said that $RIVN is likely to have Full Self Driving (FSD that is hands-free, point-to-point) in 2026. THIS. IS. HUGE. NEWS! The interview is actually packed with incredibly bullish info about Rivian, but let's focus on self-driving for a minute and talk about why I think Rivian is not far behind Tesla in having FSD: The FSD Approach V1 vs. V2 Prior to 2021/22 timeframe, all assisted and self-driving capabilities by Tesla, Rivian and others approached the problem by taking sensor (camera/radar/etc.) input, labeling all the things the cameras/radar see, calculate velocity vectors on each object, provide all that info to a route planning system, which would then use a massive set of rules coded by programmers to come up with a safe route for the car. This approach is now DEAD! All money/research/time/etc. spent on the V1 approach is worthless (other than to tell the researchers that it won't work). Around 2022, especially with the advent of GPT-based products showing what's possible in AI, the self-driving approach changed to the following: - Build massive Neural Net (NN) AI systems - Feed the NN systems A TON of real-world driving from real drivers - Let the NN AI figure out how to drive based on its learnings from all the captured real-world data This is the "V2" approach to self-driving and this is what $TSLA is doing today and has achieved amazing results with its FSD. But here's the problem: to do the V2 approach, you need to be able to capture A TON of real-world driving, from real drivers, in real situations, all over the country, encountering all kinds of unique and unusual circumstances. There are only 2 car companies that have access to a massive amount of training data: Tesla and Rivian. ALL of Rivian's R1 vehicles made in the last year have high-resolution cameras that are capable of capturing 360 surround video that is even higher quality than Tesla vehicles! This is huge. So Rivian is in the unique position to have access to data needed for self-driving. And apparently, it's getting close! RJ said "in 2026, we'll be hands-free, point-to-point." That's where Tesla is today. So essentially RJ is claiming that Rivian is roughly a year behind Tesla! And I believe RJ. RJ's timelines are not Elon timelines. I have never seen him make massive promises and miss the timeline by years. He seems to be conservative with estimates and appears to nail the target dates within reason. RJ is actually an under-promise and over-deliver type of Founder/CEO. So if Rivian is close to having Full Self Driving capabilities what should $RIVN be worth? Well, let's look at some other estimates for self-driving successes: - Google's Waymo division has been estimated to be worth ~$200 Billion to as much as $300 Billion for its self-driving robotaxi technology and fleet. Its revenue is estimated to be around $2-300 Million in 2025. - Tesla's $1 Trillion+ market cap is estimated to be as much as 40 or 50% due to its FSD and Robotaxi potential. That puts an estimated $400-500 Billion value on Tesla's FSD & Robotaxi business today. RJ is planning an AI/Autonomy day in December of 2025 where Rivian will show off what it's been working on. If they show that they are a real player in the Autonomy/Self-Driving world, and could possibly participate in Robotaxis in the future... ...Rivian could get repriced to $100 Billion+ valuation. And that might be conservative. In my opinion, Rivian would be in a better position than Waymo to capitalize on Robotaxis since Waymo does not make their own vehicles. Today, Rivian's market cap is just $16 Billion (based on ~$13/share). At $100 Billion valuation, Rivian could become an $80+ stock, or ~500%+ return. Of course, it's high risk and Rivian might never deliver - but I think the upside potential is enormous. I'll discuss this more on the next episode of the @BuyHoldRant podcast. (keep in mind, I have lots of opinions, but none of it is investment advice)

@charles_rqi What does the door release button that the safety chaperones have access to do? Does it brake? Flag a particular scenario to the Tesla team? Thanks!

Tesla Robotaxi: A New Era Begins I’ve (very fortunately) been part of multiple robotaxi launches. But this one is different and feels much more profound. It’s a paradigm shift. It’s the GPT moment for real-world autonomy. Tesla’s robotaxi runs vision-only -- no lidar, no radar, no HD maps. Just video in, actions out. A single large model trained end-to-end. Many experts in autonomy doubted this could ever reach L4. Some still do. But from 10/10 We, Robot to factory driverless ops, and now a live service in Austin, Tesla keeps proving them wrong. What made this possible isn’t more sensors or more complex engineering, but a different philosophy. We bet on end-to-end learning, powered by massive data and fleet-scale reinforcement. This is the Bitter Lesson for physical-world AI: Hand-coded rules, curated maps, and engineered pipelines don’t scale. Data and compute do. Now, let the scaling begin.

@murphymike Thanks for sharing the story, Mike!

It is almost like the Republicans in the Congress and in the White House, are actively trying to help China own the future of the auto manufacturing business and wipe out the US. So incredibly stupid and shortsighted. This Plan Could Break The EV Market insideevs.com/news/759621/ev…

@cybertruck How many did you sell in America?

The truck that “they won’t make” & that “nobody will buy” … has become America’s bestselling electric pickup truck in 2024 Thank you Cybertruck owners!

Tomorrow night's #Tesla #EV "Robotaxi event" will be eagerly watched. But there appears to be little indication the company has actually solved the very difficult challenges of safe, robust, autonomous vehicles ... as @InsideEVs details in a superb piece. insideevs.com/news/736711/te…

@johnvoelcker @InsideEVs Thanks for sharing, John!

No, the Hyundai Kona Electric doesn't have the crazy spaceship specs of the Ioniq 5 or Ioniq 6. But it's still charming and easy to use—and there are some reasons we like it better. Our review: insideevs.com/reviews/731498…

EV cost of ownership is critical and often misunderstood. This tool from @EnergyInnovLLC that I wrote about for @InsideEVs shows how much drivers who go electric can save on fueling. It can be a lot. Over $80 per fill up, depending on the state!

Spoke with @T_Levin about the many, many areas that @Tesla could look at if it wants to improve its US standing. While still the largest US EV automaker by far, the company has put the brakes on new models and upgrades for consumers. Check out his piece: insideevs.com/news/725330/te…

Pikes Peak efforts are usually years in the making. Not so at Hyundai, which put together a team around the Ioniq 5 N in just six months. Then it ate Tesla's lunch. Here's the story of how Hyundai spun up a team and won on one of racing's biggest stages: insideevs.com/features/72479…

There's been a lot of EV slowdown talk, and some of it's warranted. But look at the global, long-term picture, and a clear trend emerges that gets less airtime: EV sales will keep skyrocketing, as sales of regular gas cars dwindle to new lows. Good thread on some big takeaways:

There it is. There were only a couple of models that Biden's new 100% tariff on Chinese EVs would impact in the near term, one being the Volvo EX30. Fortunately for those who might like a stylish $35,000 EV someday (me!), the EX30 is delayed by a year, not canceled altogether.

Surprising deal today between @Rivian and @VW. But it makes a lot of sense. VW is struggling with software but has $$. Rivian needs money to scale but excels at software. Win-win? insideevs.com/news/724544/vo…

@JesseJenkins Agreed. I just wonder how challenging it will be from a marketing/consumer education standpoint. It's a novel way of thinking about fueling and unclear if Ram can actually convince people to buy this. Especially given that the best use case is people who are least likely to go EV

So what do you think? Are range-extended EVs w/ 100+ mi range the electrified vehicle Americans are waiting for? Especially those that demand big vehicles, towing capacity and long-distance travel away from cities & interstates--eg exactly segments hardest to satisfy w/a pure EV?

I cant get this idea out of my head: range-extended electric vehicles w/100+ mile electric range and a small efficient combustion engine/generator to power an all-electric drive train seem like the ideal near-term product for the American truck & giant SUV market. Here's why...

2025 Rivian R1S and R1T: Better in many small ways, but is that enough? insideevs.com/reviews/722301… via @InsideEVs

New from me @InsideEVs a review of a car we don’t get here: the @Zeekr 007. For the TL, DR folks — it’s fantastic and once again proves just how cooked we are. It offers Lucid Air like driving dynamics in a package that is cheaper than a Model 3. insideevs.com/reviews/722124…

The $35,000 Kia EV3 is the electric car America has been waiting for. insideevs.com/news/720934/ki…

Just how good are these new electric, software-driven cars in China, compared to their “foreign” competitors? Reporter Kevin Williams (@gaytonaUSA) puts it plainly: “Western automakers are cooked. And a lot of this is probably their damn fault.” insideevs.com/features/71901…