Customers have been cancelling orders on Tesla's Model 3 car as production ramped up — which Elon Musk promised. However, the company refuted those claims in a statement to Axios explaining that despite reports, Model 3 reservation counts were still near 420,000 at the end of the second quarter and nearly 30,000 vehicles have been delivered.
The big picture: The report claims customers are canceling their orders for a handful of reasons including extended wait times, the expiration of a $7,500 tax credit on the cars customers were promised, and the fact that the base $35,000 model of the car is not yet available for purchase. Tesla is saying these figures are incorrect.
The fatal duck boat tragedy in Missouri that killed 17 on Thursday could have been prevented, director of the University of Georgia's Atmospheric Science Program, Dr. Marshall Shepherd, writes in Forbes.
The big picture: President of Ripley Entertainment Inc., which owns the duck boat tours, said that the storm responsible for capsizing the boat "came out of nowhere," per CNN. But a thunderstorm warning was issued around Branson, where the incident occurred, approximately 30 minutes before the boat sank.
ERCOT, the electricity grid that serves most of Texas, delivered more power on Wednesday than it ever had, only to deliver even more on Thursday, setting a new system-wide peak demand record of 73,259 megawatts. Friday’s demand is forecasted to be even higher, but the worst might not come until Monday.
Why it matters: The Texas grid is an energy-only market, which, unlike capacity markets, pays power plants only when they produce energy. This summer has been seen as a make-or-break test for this market strategy, and so far it is passing.
