Elon's Pay Package Denied...Again

[00:00:21] Hello everyone and welcome to Kilowatt, a podcast about electric vehicles, renewable energy, autonomous driving, and much, much more.

[00:00:27] My name is Bodine, I am your host and friends, I am busy. I am overwhelmed.

[00:00:33] This show was supposed to go out on Friday. I had most of the show actually written on Thursday.

[00:00:40] And yeah, things are just crazy over here at the old Kilowatt Studios.

[00:00:47] So, I won't go into it, but a lot of late nights. A lot of late nights trying to get things done, trying to get things caught up.

[00:00:54] And, you know, still trying to spend time with my kids during the holiday season and my wife, not just the kids.

[00:01:01] And yeah, it's nutty. Right now I am recording on Sunday night at 9.40pm.

[00:01:08] Everybody has gone to sleep because they are all also tired.

[00:01:11] So, but I need to get this episode out because it's a new week, so I am behind.

[00:01:20] So let's go ahead and jump into our EV news.

[00:01:25] Lucid Motors has just built its first Lucid Gravity SUV that was last week.

[00:01:31] If this excites you and you want to pick one up, you can order a Gravity Ground Tourine starting at $94,900.

[00:01:41] That'll get you 440 miles of range and a very attractive posh EV.

[00:01:48] Eventually Lucid is going to sell the Tourine variant of the Gravity, which will cost a very affordable $79,900.

[00:01:59] In all seriousness though, congratulations to the Lucid team.

[00:02:03] This is a huge milestone for the company.

[00:02:07] Back in May of 2024, I sat down with Jason Marks and Forrest North of Telo Trucks.

[00:02:15] They're the founders of two of the three founders of Telo Trucks.

[00:02:19] If you're curious, you can go back.

[00:02:21] It's episode 502 if you want to listen to the interview.

[00:02:24] And I'll try to remember to put a link in the show notes as well.

[00:02:27] If you don't know, Telo is working on a very useful truck that's about the size of a Mini Cooper.

[00:02:35] Which is, you know, not the biggest truck in the world.

[00:02:39] But they've done some really cool things to make the truck super useful.

[00:02:44] Even though it's the size, like I said, of a Mini Cooper, it's a four-door pickup.

[00:02:49] And it will fit four adults in the pickup comfortably, according to Telo.

[00:02:53] The other thing is the bed of the Telo pickup truck is about the size of the bed on the Hummer EV.

[00:03:04] Which is not, that's not the biggest bed in the world.

[00:03:06] But there's a mid-gate and it folds down.

[00:03:09] Anyway, they're doing really cool things.

[00:03:10] Go to telotrucks.com if you want to see what they're up to.

[00:03:13] But Telo announced this week, or last week now, that their configurator is now open.

[00:03:20] So you can get a single motor base model of the Telo truck for $41,520.

[00:03:29] That's $41,520 if you didn't hear it the first time.

[00:03:33] That'll get you a 260 mile range.

[00:03:37] Now, if you're like, well, that's not quite enough.

[00:03:39] Telo says, hey, give us another $4,000 and we'll increase your range to over 350 miles.

[00:03:45] Now we'll see what that looks like when the truck actually comes out.

[00:03:49] That seems optimistic to me.

[00:03:50] If you want the dual motor variant, then you're looking at $46,019 for that dual motor.

[00:03:58] And then again, the starting range is 260 miles for the dual motor.

[00:04:03] But if you don't mind spending an extra $4,000, you can get that long range battery pack.

[00:04:09] Telo is expecting to qualify for the $7,500 federal tax credit, provided that's still around

[00:04:16] when they actually start shipping these vehicles.

[00:04:19] But, you know, if you're interested, take a look.

[00:04:21] I love what Telo's doing.

[00:04:22] I love it when companies do something unique.

[00:04:26] And Telo's truck is certainly unique.

[00:04:29] And if you haven't heard that episode, like I said, it's Kilowatt episode 502.

[00:04:33] But I'll also put a link in the show notes so it's easier to find.

[00:04:38] And if I don't, Allison Sheridan will tell me.

[00:04:42] So thank you, Allison.

[00:04:43] I have a very bad habit of not including the links that I promise.

[00:04:47] And Allison keeps me straight.

[00:04:49] So thank you very much, Allison.

[00:04:51] No sarcasm.

[00:04:52] Just genuine thanks over here.

[00:04:54] By the way, if you're not listening to the No Silicast, you absolutely should.

[00:04:58] On episode 1021, Allison had Pat Dangler on to talk about a really elaborate phone scam that one of her neighbors almost fell victim to.

[00:05:11] Thankfully, Pat stepped in and she didn't fall victim.

[00:05:15] But she could have lost tens of thousands of dollars.

[00:05:18] It was a really good interview and a really good episode.

[00:05:21] Now, will I put a link in the show notes?

[00:05:23] Check and find out.

[00:05:25] Maybe.

[00:05:25] But I found that particular interview to be really good and super relevant because we're going to be all hanging out with family soon.

[00:05:32] And this is a good cautionary tale to share with your family members.

[00:05:38] And honestly, based on how Pat explained how this whole scam worked, anybody could fall for it.

[00:05:45] It was a very believable, very elaborate.

[00:05:48] All right, let's get back to our EV news.

[00:05:52] And we're going to talk about NIO.

[00:05:55] NIO's 10th annual NIO Day will soon be upon us.

[00:05:59] That day is December 21st.

[00:06:00] And on that day, they are going to show off their super affordable Firefly EV brand and vehicle.

[00:06:08] Now, if you're saying to yourself right now, wait a minute, I know NIO just came out with an affordable EV brand.

[00:06:15] They did.

[00:06:16] That's called the Envo.

[00:06:18] And they have the L60, which looks like a Model Y.

[00:06:21] And it's super cool looking.

[00:06:22] And it costs around $23,000.

[00:06:24] This is going to be super affordable rather than just affordable.

[00:06:28] NIO says that the Firefly models will be priced between 100,000 and 200,000 won, which in US dollars is $13,800 to $27,500.

[00:06:44] So super affordable for an EV.

[00:06:47] Deliveries will start in China in the first half of 2025.

[00:06:50] And then other markets will follow.

[00:06:52] So just as a side note, NIO sales increased 28.9% in November.

[00:06:59] So congrats to the NIO team on that.

[00:07:03] And that brings us to our final story in the EV segment.

[00:07:08] GM and Hyundai are partnering on new vehicle development as well as manufacturing.

[00:07:14] A report from Korean media outlet Pulse claims that Hyundai and GM are working on an EV pickup truck.

[00:07:23] And if this news made you like super excited, I have really good news for you.

[00:07:28] If you live in Latin America, the truck is said to be marketed towards or built towards the Latin American market.

[00:07:35] Now, if you don't live in Latin America, then feel free to be sad because it's unlikely you're going to get this vehicle or at least not anytime soon.

[00:07:45] One other little bit of GM news.

[00:07:47] GM and EV Go have doubled their DC fast chargers to 2000 across 390 different locations in 45 metro areas.

[00:07:58] And that's just over the last 16 months.

[00:08:01] GM and EV Go have a goal of 2850 DC fast chargers nationwide.

[00:08:09] Okie doke.

[00:08:10] That concludes our EV news segment.

[00:08:13] Hey, did you know that you could support this podcast even though I'm sometimes late on producing episodes?

[00:08:20] You can support the show one of two ways.

[00:08:22] The first way is go to patreon.com forward slash kilowatt or support kilowatt.com and become a patron.

[00:08:28] But if you don't like Patreon, that's cool.

[00:08:30] There are plenty of people who don't.

[00:08:32] You can look for a link in the show notes that shows a cast plus and you can support the show there and you get an ad free experience just like you would on Patreon.

[00:08:42] And I feel like everybody knows this by now, but it bears repeating all of the money from Patreon goes back into the show.

[00:08:49] None of that money goes into my own pocket.

[00:08:51] It allows me to do things like pay for different subscription services for the show.

[00:08:57] I don't know go to CES in January, that kind of thing.

[00:09:01] So to all the patrons who support the show.

[00:09:04] Thank you very much.

[00:09:05] And to everybody who's thinking about supporting the show.

[00:09:08] Go give it a look.

[00:09:10] All right.

[00:09:10] Let's move on to our Tesla news.

[00:09:13] In October, the Society of Automotive Engineers International released the J3400 connector standard.

[00:09:21] And on December 3rd, the White House officially announced that the J3400 standard will be the official federal EV charging standard here in the US.

[00:09:32] Now, if you're not familiar with this particular standard, it's the one that's based on Tesla's charging connector and charging port.

[00:09:39] But instead of Tesla controlling the connector, it is an open standard, which you know what?

[00:09:46] I applaud Tesla for doing this because there's a ton of technology in that particular connector.

[00:09:53] And it seems like, by all accounts, they're not making any money off of this other than letting other car manufacturers charge on their network.

[00:10:02] It doesn't seem like they're making much money off the hardware.

[00:10:04] If any, it doesn't seem like there's any sort of licensing fees that companies have to pay if they want to make these connectors outside of what Tesla's doing.

[00:10:14] So, yeah.

[00:10:14] I mean, if I'm wrong on this, let me know.

[00:10:16] You can email me, Bode, B-O-D-I-E at 918digital.com.

[00:10:21] Speaking of Tesla superchargers and allowing third-party manufacturers to charge on them, Nissan Aria owners now have access to the supercharger network in US and Canada.

[00:10:33] So, if you're keeping track, we have Ford, GM, Rivian, Volvo, Polestar, and the Nissan Aria.

[00:10:41] All have access to the supercharger network.

[00:10:44] More to come, obviously.

[00:10:47] As of right now, we don't know if Nissan will be providing free adapters or not that would allow the Arias to charge on the supercharger network.

[00:10:59] I would imagine that they would either offer it free or at least a reduced price for a little bit.

[00:11:05] But we don't have any word on that as of yet.

[00:11:08] And I should say that if you are out there and you don't have one of the car brands I mentioned, you can still charge at a supercharger network if that particular supercharger has a magic dock connector, which would allow you to plug directly into your CCS connector or port.

[00:11:28] And then I just want to mention this does not include the Nissan Leaf because the Nissan Leaf uses a CHAdeMO standard and not the CCS standard.

[00:11:39] So, only the Aria at this time.

[00:11:44] Tesla's holiday update is rolling out.

[00:11:47] I just got it today.

[00:11:49] I do love that Tesla does this every year.

[00:11:52] It's fun and something that I look forward to and I know a lot of other Tesla owners look forward to as well.

[00:11:58] Here are some highlights from the update.

[00:12:01] First, it's got a new light show.

[00:12:03] I haven't actually used it yet, but the light shows are just kind of those fun, nerdy things that Tesla likes to include in their holiday updates.

[00:12:13] It's super cool, but not really something that we're going to talk about today.

[00:12:18] We're just going to talk about what I find to be the most useful parts of the update.

[00:12:22] The first thing is, first and foremost, if you are an Apple Watch owner, you can pair your watch to your car.

[00:12:31] And it's super simple to do.

[00:12:33] It only took two clicks.

[00:12:34] I had to say pair on my watch and then at some other point in time I had to say pair on the car.

[00:12:40] But yeah, I love this feature.

[00:12:42] I should let you know that you need to have the update installed before you can do this.

[00:12:46] Like the Tesla app for your Apple Watch is already out.

[00:12:52] But if you haven't updated your car with the new software, it's not going to work even if you have it on your Apple Watch.

[00:12:58] Because I had the Apple Watch app for I think two days and it wouldn't work.

[00:13:04] I had to wait for the update.

[00:13:06] And I was very impatient about it.

[00:13:08] But now I can.

[00:13:09] So that's super cool.

[00:13:11] The other cool feature is you can save dash cam and sentry mode clips to your phone.

[00:13:17] And you do this through the Tesla app.

[00:13:19] If you own a Model 3 that doesn't have a stock, the Model 3 will automatically shift between forward and reverse based on where you're parked.

[00:13:28] If you're a Sirius XM fan, you can now listen to Sirius XM on your Model 3, your Y, or your Cybertruck.

[00:13:35] So that's cool.

[00:13:36] I am a Sirius XM fan, but I won't pay for the service.

[00:13:42] Let's see.

[00:13:43] If you're on a road trip, you can set how much energy you would like to have when you arrive at your destination.

[00:13:49] So if you're, let's say, driving from Arizona to California and you have some running around to do after you get to your destination,

[00:13:56] you can say, I want to be at 70% when I get to my destination.

[00:14:02] And it will plan accordingly for you.

[00:14:05] Super cool.

[00:14:05] The other one I think is really good is rear cross traffic alert.

[00:14:11] So you'll hear an audible alert when you are backing up and a vehicle or pedestrian is behind you while you're backing up.

[00:14:19] You'll also get that red outline indicating that there is a car in that spot or a person in that spot.

[00:14:27] And then finally, this isn't something I'm super jazzed about, but some of you who live in climates that change, you know, it's either hot here or it's not.

[00:14:38] We don't get a lot of different weather in Arizona.

[00:14:43] But you'll have weather at destination and precipitation amounts.

[00:14:48] So that is a cool feature if you live in, like, Oregon or New England or something like that.

[00:14:53] But overall, super cool update.

[00:14:56] Again, I haven't had an opportunity to try out the light show, but here in a little bit, my kid will be here with her Tesla.

[00:15:02] So maybe we'll put both Teslas in the garage and we'll see if we can't connect them and produce a cool light show between their Model Y or their Model 3 and my Model Y.

[00:15:14] And that brings us to our final story.

[00:15:17] Many of you have probably already heard that Elon's $56 billion pay package.

[00:15:23] And by the way, the amount of that pay package changes depending on the stock price.

[00:15:28] But that pay package has once again been rejected by Delaware Chancellor Kathleen McCormick.

[00:15:36] So for those who aren't up to speed on this, I'm just going to give you a real quick breakdown.

[00:15:40] A long time ago, Tesla's board negotiated a pay package that was based on performance incentives for Elon.

[00:15:47] And Tesla shareholders approved that pay package.

[00:15:50] That was a long time ago.

[00:15:52] Like, I can't even remember the year, but I want to say 2017, 2018, somewhere around that time period.

[00:15:58] Tesla wasn't doing great when the pay package was negotiated.

[00:16:02] Some or all of those incentives that Elon had to meet were met.

[00:16:07] And earlier this year, Elon was set to receive a large sum of money.

[00:16:12] But Tesla shareholder Richard Tonata sued because he felt the pay package was excessive and the board was too close to Elon.

[00:16:20] And they didn't negotiate the pay package in good faith.

[00:16:24] Now, Elon has all sorts of friends and a family member on the board.

[00:16:30] So I can see where shareholders might get this impression.

[00:16:33] So anyway, Toneta sued and Chancellor McCormick agreed with Toneta that the sum should not be paid.

[00:16:43] The chancellor or judge, I've seen it both ways, actually called it an unfathomable sum and it was unfair to shareholders.

[00:16:52] So she denied the pay package.

[00:16:55] That was before June.

[00:16:57] Now we're into June.

[00:16:59] It's the Tesla shareholder meeting.

[00:17:01] Tesla asked shareholders again to vote on Elon's pay package.

[00:17:06] Without any changes to the pay package, shareholders again voted to approve it.

[00:17:11] And Chancellor McCormick denied it again just last week.

[00:17:15] And this is what she had to say.

[00:17:17] Were the court to condone the practice of allowing defeated parties to create new facts for the purpose of revising judgments lawsuits would become interminable.

[00:17:28] So what it looks like to me is that Tesla's board needs to find a more reasonable way to reinstate the package or renegotiate the package altogether.

[00:17:37] I don't know what this ultimately looks like or what the best way around this is.

[00:17:41] This is way outside of my purview of expertise like many things.

[00:17:47] And yeah, I would imagine that Tesla's got a lot of smart people who want to get Elon his money.

[00:17:54] Now, Tesla is ordered to pay $345 million in legal fees to Toneta and other shareholders' lawyers.

[00:18:06] Not to the shareholders themselves, just to the lawyers.

[00:18:10] Now, $345 million, I think we can all agree, is a large sum of money, right?

[00:18:17] Just like $56 billion is a ridiculous sum of money.

[00:18:22] Well, the lawyers for the plaintiffs, they would like their actual first proposal is for them to get paid in Tesla stock to the tune of $5.5 billion.

[00:18:39] Like these jokers wanted $5.5 billion for, I don't know, let's call it a year's worth of work.

[00:18:48] They got $345 million in legal fees, but they wanted $5.5 billion in Tesla stock for one year's worth of work.

[00:18:58] Even, let's say it's two years worth of work.

[00:19:03] I'm not a Tesla shareholder.

[00:19:05] But it's no secret, like I said earlier, that Tesla has stacked the board with people that are loyal to him.

[00:19:12] And the Tesla's board typically recommends rejecting any shareholder proposal that would make that change in any dynamic way, right?

[00:19:24] If a shareholder puts forth a proposal to be voted on and the Tesla board doesn't like it, whether that's term limits or, you know, there's all sorts of things that they've done over the years that we've talked about.

[00:19:37] You know, Tesla's board is typically like, we recommend you vote against this.

[00:19:43] It does seem skewed if the board that's supposed to keep you in check has a bias because they're your friends and family.

[00:19:55] Although I do like Tesla chair Robin Denholm.

[00:20:00] Yeah, it's weird.

[00:20:02] And I'm not sure if this is different in any other companies out there.

[00:20:06] I would imagine that Ford's CEO doesn't have Jim Farley's brother on the board.

[00:20:11] Or Ford's board doesn't have Jim Farley's brother, the CEO's brother on the board.

[00:20:19] But, yeah, you know, I find cronyism in all forms to be gross.

[00:20:25] I don't know if that's what's happening in this instance.

[00:20:30] But there does seem to be an element of this that is gross to me.

[00:20:35] Like, I'll give you an example.

[00:20:37] Right before the Tesla shareholder meeting, Tesla was offering, like, experiences.

[00:20:43] They're raffling off experiences to shareholders if they voted.

[00:20:46] They didn't tell them which way to vote, but come on now.

[00:20:50] If they voted their shares, then they could win, like, a tour of Giga Texas with Elon and Franz von Holzhausen.

[00:20:57] I think that was one of the things that could be raffled.

[00:21:03] They're not telling you how to vote, but doing that did seem pretty gross to me.

[00:21:08] And I was not a fan of that.

[00:21:10] By the way, in all fairness here, those lawyers trying to get $5.5 billion in Tesla stock, or at least asking for it, first of all, the chutzpah.

[00:21:22] Second of all, super gross.

[00:21:24] Like, you take, in one fail swoop, you take any of the credibility that you have away.

[00:21:36] You throw it right out the window.

[00:21:38] And, you know, at least from the outside, you feed into that stereotype of, you know, what we think of lawyers are.

[00:21:48] And I know a few lawyers, and I know that the lawyers that I've had are not necessarily like that.

[00:21:54] So, Annie Hooser, that's enough for me.

[00:21:58] We've hit our time for the day, folks.

[00:22:00] I want to thank everybody for listening to this episode.

[00:22:04] Because I'm putting this out so late, I will include the links that I said I would include, but I'm not going to put links to the stories.

[00:22:14] If you need a link to the story, just email me and I'll give it to you.

[00:22:19] It is now, you know, 10.30.

[00:22:22] And I got other things to do tonight on top of that before going to bed.

[00:22:26] So, I'm going to try to make this as easy on myself as possible.

[00:22:30] But I do appreciate everybody's...

[00:22:32] Getting tired.

[00:22:33] I do appreciate everybody's patience.

[00:22:35] And I will talk to you on Tuesday.

[00:22:38] Not bright and early on Tuesday.

[00:22:40] Kind of more towards the evening on Tuesday.

[00:22:42] But thank you, everybody.

[00:22:44] I'm going to get off the line now.

[00:22:47] Peace out.

[00:22:48] Peace out.

[00:22:48] But they have感情 on obviously.

[00:22:48] Please wanna be Grand Theoun or Elegant.