The clearest result of the day is a table. J.D. Power's sixth public charging study, presented at IONNA's North Carolina headquarters and covered by State of Charge, puts IONNA first with 807 points and the Tesla Supercharger network fourth with 701. The reasons IONNA's own executives give for the win are barely about charging. Its CFO lists ease of payment, ease of finding the site, whether the equipment works, and what is nearby. Its CEO talks about canopies. Tesla did not get worse to lose this. State of Charge reports its scores have moved only around 5 percent across all six years of the study. The measurement stayed still. The thing being measured grew.
That is the day's pattern, and Tesla is on the winning side of it in the other story. Top Gear Tech's tour of the Nevada plant building the production Semi is less about the truck than about the truck and the factory being drawn together. There is no paint shop, because the hoods are powder coated. The cab is loaded through an open rear instead of squeezed through the doors. One machine fits all ten lug nuts at once. None of that appears in a range figure, and all of it exists to reach a cost per mile the video puts at 34 cents in California against roughly a dollar for diesel.
The home battery story is the same argument in a smaller box. On the numbers in Everyday Chris's comparison, the Tesla Powerwall 3 is the stronger single device, with 11.5 kW of continuous output against 7.68 kW for the Anker SOLIX E10. What the Anker setup has instead is a dock, a battery and a generator built to act as one thing, so a long outage ends with the generator starting itself. He owns two Powerwalls, and he would still shop wider today.
The other two stories are judged the old way, on their own. Autogefühl's new Nissan Leaf is a car sold against a list price, and it loses marks for wind noise and a suspension with no adaptive setting. The Ariel Rider Grizzly is one object with almost everything on it adjustable, and it arrives limited to 20 mph until the buyer signs a waiver. Neither is worse for that. But the competition each faces is organising itself around packages, and a list price is a thin place to stand.
Three questions come out of that. Does Tesla answer the J.D. Power result by changing what its sites contain rather than how many stalls they hold. Does Nissan push the 18-inch wheel as the efficiency choice now a reviewer has measured what the 19s cost. And does the Semi's cost per mile survive markets where electricity is not 20 cents and diesel is not seven dollars a gallon.
Tesla Built the Semi and Its Factory as One Object
Top Gear Tech went to Tesla's Nevada plant to ride in the finished Semi, eight years after the truck was first shown. Host Jack Scarlett puts the factory at 1.7 million square feet and $3.6 billion, built for 1,000 trucks a week at full rate. The standard range battery is given as 548 kWh and the long range as half again, for 325 or 500 miles, with 60 percent of charge added in 30 minutes. Efficiency is quoted at 1.7 kWh per mile, against a diesel lorry the video says uses around three times the energy. Three motors do the work, two tuned for torque on one axle and one for efficiency on the other, and the torque axle decouples once the truck is up to speed. Tesla staff describe a plant designed alongside the vehicle, down to a battery structure that carries load with the frame. The cost case a Tesla representative sets out is California-specific, at 20 cents per kWh and 1.7 kWh per mile for 34 cents, against about a dollar for a diesel at $7 a gallon and 7 mpg, or $65,000 a year over 100,000 miles. He says payback runs under five years for most operators and varies by country, which European buyers will have to redo before deliveries scheduled for 2027. Our Sept 16 edition looked at the same logic of building capacity ahead of demand.
The New Leaf Is Efficient Until You Reach 130 km/h
Autogefühl drove the new-generation Nissan Leaf on German motorways and came back with two very different figures. At 100 km/h host Thomas recorded 16 kWh per 100 km, which he calls similar to the VW ID.3 Neo. At 130 km/h he recorded 23, worse than the ID.3 by his account, and he puts that down to the wider 19-inch wheels on the test car. The real-world ranges are 470 km at the lower speed and 330 km at the higher. The big battery is 75 kWh and the small one 52 kWh, charging at 150 kW and 105 kW DC, with 30 minutes quoted for 20 to 80 percent. It is 4.35 metres long, shorter than the outgoing Leaf, front-wheel drive, and quoted at 7.6 seconds to 100 km/h. His complaints are wind noise around the A-pillar at speed, a fixed suspension that bounces on 19s, and tight rear legroom. Pricing is €36,000, €43,000 and €49,000 as tested in Germany, and $30,000 to $39,000 in the United States. Our Sept 10 edition had the same channel running the same two speeds on an ID. Polo.
IONNA Scored 807 and Ended Tesla's Five-Year Run
State of Charge's Tom Moloughney attended the award event at IONNA's North Carolina headquarters and reports the full table. IONNA scored 807, the highest any network has recorded in the six years of the study by his account. The Mercedes-Benz network took second at 797, the Rivian Adventure Network third at 755 and the Tesla Supercharger network fourth at 701, against a segment average of 666. Red E, Electrify America, EVgo and ChargePoint all finished below that line, ChargePoint last at 583. Brent Gruber of J.D. Power says the trophy reflects ten categories covering the whole public charging experience, from finding the site to availability, speed, reliability and cost. PlugShare is the route to drivers, he says, while surveying and analysis stay with J.D. Power. Asked about PlugShare being owned by EVgo, he notes EVgo does not score well. On the top four places all going to networks backed by carmakers, he suggests the newer operators got to learn what the older ones got wrong. CEO Seth Cutler describes the result in terms of site design rather than hardware, and says canopies are going in at 30 percent of sites. The number worth more than the ranking: failed charging attempts fell from 19 percent in 2024 to 14 last year and 12 now. Our Sept 18 edition made the amenities argument in reverse, at a Rivian stop charging more per kWh and offering more to do.
A Powerwall Owner Prices the Alternative
Everyday Chris runs about 9.3 kW of solar and two Tesla Powerwalls, and spends this video, which he states is sponsored by Anker, arguing with his own purchase. Anker supplied the reference configuration and its price: one SOLIX E10 power module, two battery packs, the power dock and installation, at around $11,000, against the roughly $15,000 he cites for an installed Powerwall 3, generator extra. On output the Tesla wins, 11.5 kW continuous against 7.68 kW with a boost to 10 kW, and each Powerwall 3 holds 13.5 kWh where he says the Anker system scales from 6 kWh to 90. The difference he keeps returning to is day three of an outage. He says Anker's compatible smart DC generator can start itself when the battery runs low, recharge it and shut down again. Chris says the Powerwall manual allows a backup generator but that the two are not integrated and the generator does not recharge the battery. Warranties run ten years on the Powerwall 3, five on the Anker module and battery and ten on its dock. His conclusion is not a switch. He keeps the Powerwalls at his house in Southern California, and says he would shop wider buying a first system today.
A 60 MPH Ebike That Arrives Locked at 20
CitizenCycle ran the new 72 volt Ariel Rider Grizzly through a set of performance tests and recorded 61 mph on GPS, with the bike's own display reading 63. That figure carries a condition the host states: his bike is fully unlocked for off-road use, and the Grizzly ships as a class two bike limited to 20 mph until the buyer signs a waiver and enters a passcode. The specifications he gives are dual 72 volt packs totalling 45 Ah, or 3,240 Wh, an oil-cooled 3,000 W direct drive motor rated at 8,000 W peak and 250 Nm, six-piston brakes on 220 mm rotors, 186 lb on his own scale and a 400 lb payload, at a price he gives as $3,199. The complaints are a display he cannot read through polarized sunglasses, buttons that are fiddly in gloves, and a kickstand that lets the bike lean further than he would like. What the video does not have is range, which he says is coming in a follow-up, and on a bike this heavy that is what decides whether the top speed is usable.
Bottom line: IONNA's 807 is the most useful number today, because it was won with canopies and payment that works, a bar any network can clear if it decides to. Tesla's answer sits on the other page, in a truck whose cost per mile was designed into a factory layout. Of the two consumer buys here I would still take the Powerwall on output and warranty, and I would take an 18-inch Leaf over the 19s every time. The Grizzly needs to publish a range figure before the 60 mph means much.
Commentary on third-party videos. Figures and claims are as presented in the sources and have not been independently verified. Spotted an error? Tell us and we will correct it.