Charged: Tesla completes first fully autonomous Model Y delivery

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From the hotly-debated high-flier Tesla (TSLA), Wall Street’s newest darling Rivian (RIVN), traditional-stalwarts turned EV-upstarts GM (GM) and Ford (F) to the numerous SPAC-deal makers that have come public in this red-hot space, The Fly has you covered with “Charged,” a weekly recap of the top stories and expert calls in the sector.

DELIVERY COMPLETED: Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, “The first fully autonomous delivery of a Tesla Model Y from factory to a customer home across town, including highways, was just completed a day ahead of schedule!!” Musk added in a subsequent post, “There were no people in the car at all and no remote operators in control at any point. FULLY autonomous! To the best of our knowledge, this is the first fully autonomous drive with no people in the car or remotely operating the car on a public highway.”

DISTANCE BEHIND WAYMO: Tesla’s robotaxi service launched in Austin, Texas with fewer than two dozen cars offering rides to handpicked adults in a small area of the city, a launch that serves as a reminder of how much distance remains between the progress made by Tesla compared to Waymo, Reuters reports. Waymo, the robotaxi service majority owned by Alphabet, began offering service in Atlanta, with the program serving a total of five cities with over 1,500 autonomous vehicles in total. Waymo was last valued at $45B while autonomous driving drives most of Tesla’s $1T value, the Journal notes.

SAFETY CONCERN: Austin, Texas reported its first incident with the Tesla Robotaxi service occurring on East Oltorf Street, Business Insider’s Grace Kay reports, citing the city’s autonomous vehicle incident dashboard. The dashboard tracks safety concerns and issues, like collisions or near misses involving self-driving cars and relies on reports from city departments and its 311 service.

Click here to check out Tesla’s recent Media Buzz Sentiment as measured by TipRanks.

JOB CUTS: Rivian has laid off about 1% of its workforce, or around 140 employees, ahead of the R2 SUV launch in 2026, TechCrunch’s Sean O’Kane reports. The cuts were mostly made to Rivian’s manufacturing team and have been ongoing since Wednesday, according to multiple former employees Rivian confirmed the cuts to TechCrunch, saying “We have made the difficult decision to reduce a small number of our salaried manufacturing employees as part of an ongoing effort to improve operational efficiency for R2.”

DELIVERIES: Li Auto (LI) updated its delivery outlook for the second quarter. The company now expects to deliver approximately 108,000 vehicles in the second quarter, compared to its previously issued delivery outlook of between 123,000 and 128,000 vehicles. The adjustment reflects the temporary impact of the company’s sales system upgrade. The company is confident in completing its organizational upgrade before the launch of Li i8.

BUDGET BILL: BMO Capital notes that the Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – OBBBA – is positive for First Solar (FSLR) as it removes the risk to reduction of 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Tax Credit and that the company can continue booking 17c/w of stacked credit vs falling to 7c/w. For SunRun (RUN), the solar lease eligibility for Section 48E ITCs – Investment Tax Credits – is also unexpectedly back in until 2027-end, and given high short interest and greater dependence on ITCs for residential solar economics to support the company’s balance sheet, the firm expects a strong positive reaction. Fluence Energy (FLNC) should also react positively as the Energy Storage/Batteries are largely unscathed from any changes to phase out timeline and FEOC changes that likely curtail utility scale solar in FY27, BMO noted. Ballard Power (BLDP) will likely react positively in sentiment with hydrogen PTC extension, the firm adds. BMO also noted that while lease change is a positive for Enphase (ENPH), investors will focus on continued phase out of section 25D credits that are historically more prevalent for customers, leading to a negative reaction.

The latest version of “The One Big Beautiful Bill” Act released Friday night is “somewhat contrary to the ‘worst is behind us’ expectation,” says Citi analyst Vikram Bagri, who notes that the bill provides “a lifeline to residential solar” by allowing leasing, but adds that the timeline for ITC, PTC, and FEOC was accelerated while a new tax was introduced on violation of material assistance. A more restrictive FEOC and escalating 50B penalties are positive for the analyst’s “top pick” First Solar (FSLR), but the firm remains negative on residential solar and believes there is “room for downside” in Sunrun (RUN), Enphase Energy (ENPH) and SolarEdge (SEDG), the analyst tells investors.

POWER SUPPLY: The Trump administration is readying a package of executive actions aimed at boosting energy supply to power the U.S. expansion of artificial intelligence, according to Reuters, citing four sources familiar with the planning. The moves under consideration include making it easier for power-generating projects to connect to the grid, and providing federal land on which to build the data centers needed to expand AI technology, the sources said. Stocks that could be impacted include Vertiv (VRT) and utilities such as NextEra Energy (NEE), Constellation Energy (CEG), Southern Company (SO), Duke Energy (DUK), Vistra (VST), American Electric (AEP), Sempra Energy (SRE) and Dominion (D).