For comparison, in California, Tesla previously listed a 7.56 kW medium-size solar system for $19,500 or $2.58 per watt before incentives, and $14,430 after the federal tax credit.

With the new solar panels, which are 10% more powerful according to a source familiar with the matter, Tesla’s medium-size solar system outputs now 8.16 kW and it costs just $16,000 before incentives or $1.96 per watt.

Prices vary by state and specific locations. More specific pricing is going to be available once the configurator is fully updated. We should have more information later today.

Update: Tesla has now updated the configurator and confirmed the new solar panel:

JD Power scored Tesla vehicles the worst among 32 major brands in its annual quality study. It’s the first time that Tesla’s cars have been ranked by the influential customer survey now in its 34th year.

According to the JD Power Initial Quality Study, which measures vehicle quality in the first 90 days of ownership, Tesla cars suffered 250 problems per 100 vehicles as reported by customers, compared to an industry average of 166 problems. Land Rover was the second-worst-performing brand with 228 problems per 100 vehicles. Dodge and Kia were tied for the top-rated brand with just 136 issues per 100 vehicles.

The new study is based on responses from 87,282 purchasers and lessees of new 2020 model-year vehicles. It was fielded from February through March 2020. The results follow news of a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation into early Model S touchscreen failures, and a separate report claiming early Model S cars shipped with a dangerous battery pack flaw.

Tesla receives a special callout in the list because the survey doesn’t cover all 50 states. However, increased sales of the Model 3 allowed JD Power to collect enough data to measure quality for the first time. “Unlike other manufacturers, Tesla doesn’t grant us permission to survey its owners in 15 states where it is required,” said JD Power’s Doug Betts. “However, we were able to collect a large enough sample of surveys from owners in the other 35 states and, from that base, we calculated Tesla’s score.”

Last summer, reports emerged that Tesla was cutting corners on Model 3 production to meet aggressive goals. The company had to build a temporary tent to meet Musk’s ambitious target of producing 6,000 Model 3’s per week. Concerns that Musk has prioritized quantity over quality are a recurring theme for Tesla, that have recently been extended to the Model Y. The data collected by JD Power bears this out.

“What we call the blocking and tackling of building the car, that’s what Tesla is not good at according to this data,” said Betts in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. Tesla customers surveyed complained of body panel accuracy, rattles, wind noise, and paint jobs, according to Betts.

Here’s the full ranking, showing the problems per 100 vehicles as reported by owners in JD Power’s 2020 IQS:

1. Dodge (136)
2. Kia (136)
3. Chevrolet (141)
4. Ram (141)
5. Genesis (142)
6. Mitsubishi (148)
7. Buick (150)
8. GMC (151)
9. Volkswagen (152)
10. Hyundai (153)
11. Jeep (155)
12. Lexus (159)
13. Nissan (161)
14. Cadillac (162)
15. Infiniti (173)
16. Ford (174)
17. Mini (174)
18. BMW (176)
19. Honda (177)
20. Toyota (177)
21. Lincoln (182)
22. Mazda (184)
23. Acura (185)
24. Porsche (186)
25. Subaru (187)
26. Chrysler (189)
27. Jaguar (190)
28. Mercedes-Benz (202)
29. Volvo (210)
30. Audi (225)
31. Land Rover (228)
32. Tesla (250)

DETROIT (AP) — Tesla says it delivered more electric vehicles worldwide in the second quarter than it did in the first. The increase came even though coronavirus restrictions forced it to shut down its only U.S. factory for much of the period.

The company says it delivered 90,650 vehicles from April through June as it rolled out the new Model Y SUV in the U.S. and China. That’s a 2.5% increase over the first quarter’s 88,400. But it was a 4.8% drop from the second quarter of 2019, when Tesla delivered 95,200 vehicles.

Coronavirus restrictions adopted in the San Francisco Bay Area forced Tesla to close its only U.S. assembly plant in Fremont, California, for almost two months starting March 23. It didn’t reopen until May 11. Its factory in Shangai was closed for only a few days.

The Palo Alto, California, company said it delivered 10,600 of its older Models, the S sedan and X SUV. The newer Y small SUV and Model 3 smaller car accounted for the bulk of the sales at 80,050.

The sales performance beat Wall Street estimates of 72,000 for the second quarter, according to FactSet.

It came with a feverish push to crank out and sell more vehicles in the U.S., and it gives the company a shot at breaking even when second-quarter financial results are released.

The push came with numerous quality problems reported on Tesla owner forums and social media. Many Model Y buyers reported rejecting their SUVs due to mismatched paint and body panels that didn’t fit properly. Many others reported that their vehicles were flawless.

At the end of the second quarter, CEO Elon Musk told employees in an emailed note that prospects for the company breaking even for the period are tight, and he’s asked them to go all-out to make it happen.

In the message to Tesla’s roughly 48,000 workers, Musk wrote that it “really makes a difference for every car you build and deliver.”

In the first quarter, the company eked out a $16 million net profit, its third-straight profitable quarter.

Tesla is building mobile "molecule printers" to help make the potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by CureVac in Germany, the electric-car maker's chief executive, Elon Musk, tweeted on Wednesday.

CureVac, an unlisted German company, has said it is developing portable, automated mRNA production units that it calls printers and which Musk described as "RNA microfactories."

They are being designed to be shipped to remote locations, where they can churn out CureVac's vaccine candidate and other mRNA-based therapies depending on the recipe fed into the machine.

But for the immediate pandemic use — should its vaccine candidate win market approval — CureVac has production sites with regulatory approval in Germany with a capacity to produce hundreds of millions of doses. CureVac is also building a new stationary site that could increase its output tenfold to billions of doses.

The company, based in Tuebingen, Germany, and backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is a pioneer of the so-called messenger RNA approach, which is also pursued by BioNTech and its partner Pfizer as well as Moderna.

RNA molecules are single-stranded versions of the DNA double-helix. Thanks to their recurring molecular pattern, they can be produced in a relatively simple biochemical process that do not require genetically modified living cells, which are needed to produce most other biotech drugs.

The "microfactories" would be built at Tesla Grohmann Automation in Germany, Musk said in a Twitter thread late on Wednesday night. Tesla acquired the company, which develops automated manufacturing systems for batteries and fuel cells, in 2016 to expand its production.

CureVac has been working with Tesla Grohmann to develop the mobile printer technology, a person familiar with CureVac said.

Musk did not elaborate on his plans. Tesla and CureVac were not immediately available to comment.

Musk, who is known to make impromptu announcements on Twitter, had said in March that Tesla has extra FDA-approved ventilators that can be shipped free of cost to hospitals within regions where the electric-car maker delivers.