Quick Charge

On today's extraordinary episode of Quick Charge, we reflect on the fact that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and both Donut Labs AND Tesla are a long long way from turning everyone into believers.

While Donut Labs' allegedly groundbreaking solid state battery tech gets put to the test, Tesla engineer Victor Nechita, who served as Tesla’s vehicle program manager for the Cybercab, has announced he is leaving the company as part of the recent exodus of the brand's top staff. Plus, a new study of 5,000 home sales showed that rooftop solar really does pay for itself – almost as soon as you put it in!

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Donut Lab’s ‘miracle’ solid-state battery confirms 0-80% charge in 4.5 min — but there’s a catch

Verge unveils 370-mile electric motorcycle with solid state battery; sounds too good to be true?

This battery is about to change the world in 3 months, or make this guy a fool

Tesla Cybercab program manager exits ahead of launch

Tesla rolls first steering wheel-less Cybercab unit off the line before solving autonomy

Tesla launches legal war over ‘Cybercab’ name against seltzer company

Report: solar could increase your home value by $39,500 to $79,000

EIA: 62% more renewable energy capacity is coming in 2026

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are (allegedly) recorded several times per week, most weeks. We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage podcast series.

Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at [email protected]. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

On today's high-dollar episode of Quick Charge, Tesla is reeling from a $243 million judgement against it in a high-profile wrongful death case involving the company's Autopilot system, and has a hard time getting the relevant data to NHTSA.

We've also got news that Waymo its expanding its L4 autonomous and driverless taxi operations into four new US cities across Florida and Texas, bringing its total to 10 compared to Tesla's 0 total cities with driverless electric vehicles in operation.

Plus: the US Air Force has deployed the world's first portable 5MW nuclear reactor – which seems like the kind of thing we should all know about, you know?

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Tesla has to pay historic $243 million judgement over Autopilot crash, judge says

Tesla avoids 30-day California sales suspension after dropping misleading ‘Autopilot’ marketing

Tesla sues California DMV to reverse ‘Full Self-Driving’ false advertising ruling

Tesla is having a hard time turning over its FSD traffic violation data

Waymo adds 4 more cities to its robotaxi service, now 10 total (Tesla: still 0)

Tesla admits it still needs drivers and remote operators — then argues that’s better than Waymo

Waymo founder trashes Tesla safety as Waymos illegally pass school buses

World’s first: US Air Force deploys portable nuclear power station

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are (allegedly) recorded several times per week, most weeks. We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage podcast series.

Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at [email protected]. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

On today's smarter episode of Quick Charge, we've got CEO Daniel Hilson here to give us an in-depth look at how BetterFleet can help fleets and utilities manage their charging schedules to keep both energy costs and downtime to a minimum.

We also take a look at Amazon's Rivian electric van fleet and how their goal of reaching 100,000 vans by 2030 is coming along, as well as a new solar-powered semi trailer that's using Australia's sunshine to keep food fresh from farm to store to table.

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Amazon grew its Rivian electric delivery van fleet by 50% in 2025

California’s Helix water district gets state-of-the-art managed charging [Q&A]

ACT Expo 2025 – one step forward, two steps back for clean trucking

Check out BetterFleet

GENIUS: adding solar panels to semi trailers is an idea so obvious it hurts

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are (allegedly) recorded several times per week, most weeks. We'll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage podcast series.

Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at [email protected]. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

On today's labor-intensive episode of Quick Charge, Germany's largest union IG Metall is squaring off with Tesla in a major dispute involving a toxic work culture, criminal charges, defamation, and more – but at least they can still sell cars in California (for now).

That's right, gang – Tesla has managed to avoid a sales ban in California by pivoting away from the use of the word "Autopilot" in its marketing (which explains that $99 FSD Supervised deal too, btw). Plus: Polestar is rolling out FOUR new production cars in then next THREE years and if you just can't wait for that, there's a whole lot of great deals on a new EV you can drive home today.

That featured image up there, by the way, comes courtesy of IG Metall.

Source Links

Tesla calls police on IG Metall rep at Giga Berlin works council meeting before critical vote

German union accuses Tesla ‘toxic’ environment, files defamation against plant manager

Tesla avoids 30-day California sales suspension after dropping misleading ‘Autopilot’ marketing

Polestar goes on the offensive with FOUR new models in THREE years

Hyundai cuts EV prices in response to BYD and Tesla

Toyota is already offering a $5,000 discount and 0% financing on its new EVs

With a $10,000 discount, the Chevy Equinox EV is hard to pass up

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are (allegedly) recorded several times per week, most weeks. We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage podcast series.

Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at [email protected]. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

On today's crash-tacular episode of Quick Charge it's been a rough, rough week for Tesla stans as new data out of Austin shows Robotaxis crashing at rates more than 4x higher than humans, new data out of China shows sales crashing more than 45%, and a new video seems to show a Tesla trying to crash into a lake.

We've got some of Fred's in-depth analysis of what's going on over at Tesla as they start rolling Cybercabs or Cybervehicles or whatever they're calling it off an assembly line, too – and even something the house that Elon built is doing right!

Source Links

Tesla ‘Robotaxi’ adds 5 more crashes in Austin in a month — 4x worse than humans

Tesla rolls first steering wheel-less Cybercab unit off the line before solving autonomy

Chinese state media amplifies viral Tesla failure amid 45% sales crash

Tesla ‘Full Self-Driving’ tried to drive owner into a lake, viral video shows

Tesla announces Powerwall 3P with native three-phase inverter

Prefer listening to your podcasts? Audio-only versions of Quick Charge are now available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, and our RSS feed for Overcast and other podcast players.

New episodes of Quick Charge are (allegedly) recorded several times per week, most weeks. We’ll be posting bonus audio content from time to time as well, so be sure to follow and subscribe so you don’t miss a minute of Electrek’s high-voltage podcast series.

Got news? Let us know!
Drop us a line at [email protected]. You can also rate us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or recommend us in Overcast to help more people discover the show.

If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.