• The US is trying to cut itself off from China's green tech like solar, EVs, and batteries.
• The moves could hit China's economy and risks slowing down the green transition.
• The US and China, as the world's largest polluters, are key to solving the climate crisis.

There will be a long list of grievances when China's top climate envoy, Liu Zhenmin, visits the US this month for his first formal talks with US officials.

The meeting comes as the US and China jockey for power in the green-energy transition. The Biden administration is trying to cut itself off from Chinese goods that are key to solving the climate crisis — such as solar panels, electric vehicles, batteries, and semiconductors. The US wants to protect its factories against competition from cheaper products, which, in turn, could hit China's economy and risk slowing down the green transition. China is also under pressure to stop building new coal plants, the dirtiest form of power production, because the expansion undercuts the country's promise that its greenhouse-gas emissions will start dropping after 2030.

"The recent moves by the US to connect the climate issue with trade measures, industrial competition, and national security is something I'm sure the Chinese will raise because they have a lot of concerns on this policy direction," Li Shuo, the director of China Climate Hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told Business Insider.

Li said China's view was that the US prioritized economic competition at the expense of mitigating the climate emergency. The world needs affordable green technology for the energy transition, and China's record levels of investment have driven down the costs, he added.

A recent example is the remarkable rise of BYD, a Chinese automaker that briefly eclipsed Tesla this year as the world's largest seller of EVs.

However, the US views China as a threat to both national security and the climate. The country's boom in green-tech manufacturing was largely powered by dirty energy, with coal still accounting for about 60% of China's electricity, an S&P Global analysis found. And even though China is adding renewable energy to its grid faster than any other country, it's also building new coal-fired power plants at a rapid clip.

Coal is a major source of tension between the US and China, Li said. China has no policy to signal a coal slowdown, undermining its climate promises.

The issue could be inflamed following a deal this week among seven of the world's wealthiest countries to stop burning coal for power by 2035. During a G7 meeting in Italy, Japan, another major coal user, endorsed the timeline for the first time and was joined by the US, Canada, and several European nations.

For its part, the US in late April finalized stricter emissions limits on power plants, which are expected to speed up the shift away from coal. About 16% of US electricity comes from coal, a steep drop over the past decade largely due to the fracking boom that made gas a cheaper source of power.

But neither the US nor China is in a position to compromise, Li said.

China defends its coal expansion as a matter of energy security. Last year, sky-high temperatures and drought in regions reliant on hydropower forced rolling blackouts and factory closures.

Biden-administration officials, including the climate envoy John Podesta and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in recent months have said the US is evaluating new strategies to counter China's dominance over green technology. Former President Donald Trump said he would impose tariffs of more than 60% on China if he won the election in November.

Given the tension, there likely won't be any major breakthroughs during this month's talks, Li said. But the fact that the world's two largest polluters are meeting in person shows that the climate still carries special weight. Few Chinese senior officials travel to the US.

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• Chubb, the Baltimore bridge insurer, is set to pay out $350 million, per The Wall Street Journal.
• The bridge's collapse in March killed six people and shut down the port of Baltimore.
• Chubb, the state of Maryland, and victims' families will likely sue the ship's owners, per the Journal.

The insurer of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge is gearing up to issue a $350 million payout to the state of Maryland, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Chubb has opted to pay the full coverage amount quickly and could approve it within weeks, per the outlet, which cited Henry Daar, the head of US property claims for the bridge's broker WTW.

"I am confident that Chubb will pay the full limits of liability," Daar told the Journal.

"I give Chubb kudos for recognizing that this is clearly going to be a full-limits loss," he added. "They could spend millions and millions of dollars in fees for accountants and adjusters over the next few years, or they could pay the claim."

Chubb's payment would be the first related to March's disaster. The Lloyd's of London insurance syndicate previously warned that the bridge's collapse could trigger the "largest single maritime insurance loss ever," with Barclays analysts estimating that the damage caused could lead claims worth up to $3 billion.

The bridge collapsed after the Dali container ship collided with one of the bridge's support beams in the early hours of March 26, killing six people and shutting down the port of Baltimore, which analysts have estimated cost the economy about $15 million a day.

Chubb, the state of Maryland, and the victims' families are likely to sue the Dali's Singaporean owners to recover some of their losses from the crash, per the Journal.

Chubb didn't immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. WTW confirmed the Journal's reporting but declined to elaborate.

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• Ukraine wants to limit companies taking satellite imagery of its territory, according to reports.
• Russia could access the images through shell companies, a Ukrainian defense official said.
• This comes a month after the US warned that China is providing geospatial intelligence to Russia.

Ukraine says it is cracking down on satellite images of its territory over fears that they could be used by Russia against it, according to reports.

"Every day, satellite companies take images of Ukrainian territory. These images can be used by the enemy," Ukraine's deputy defense minister, Kateryna Chernohorenko, said in a statement relayed by multiple media outlets.

Chernohorenko said that "in times of war, we must minimize the risks of the enemy using images of Ukraine," adding that Russia can access them through shell companies, per Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Ukraine's defense ministry has signed a memorandum of understanding with unnamed satellite companies to limit the distribution of such images, per the Kyiv Independent, and met with the leadership of one of them, according to Ukrainska Pravda.

The ministry also said it had struck a deal with one satellite company, which it refused to name for security reasons, to provide high-resolution imaging for security and defense purposes, per the Kyiv Independent.

Ukraine's Ministry of Defense didn't immediately reply to a request for comment from Business Insider.

The news comes a month after the US warned its allies that China is providing geospatial intelligence to Russia, as Bloomberg reported.

Satellite imagery has proven a crucial resource for capturing and verifying the movements of naval assets, Russia's advances into Ukraine, the war's death toll, and the trail of destruction left by fighting across the front line.

Both Ukraine and Russia have used satellites, notably Elon Musk's Starlink network, for military purposes, to allow soldiers to communicate on the front lines and for weapons systems and drones to function.

Elon Musk has denied Ukrainian claims that Russians are using Starlink, saying that the network is inoperable in Russia, but a complex black market has allowed terminals to fall into the hands of Russian soldiers and those of other armed forces, according to The Wall Street Journal.

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• Business Insider asked interior designers and gardeners to share the best and worst backyard trends.
• Experts said fun umbrellas, outdoor pergolas, and edible gardens are rising in popularity.
• But monoculture lawns and large outdoor kitchens are out this year.

Upgrading your outdoor space is a great way to increase the resale value of your home.

Business Insider spoke to interior designers and gardeners to learn which trends are best to add or eliminate from backyards this year.

Here's what they said.

Wabi-Sabi-inspired outdoor spaces are on the rise.

Wabi-Sabi design, which embraces weathered materials, rustic elements, and organic shapes, is in, according to Kelsey Ross, designer, landscape architect, and owner of Garden Party Landscape Design.

"In practice, this can mean opting for natural, unstained cedar fencing that fades from tan to silver over time," she said.

Other opportunities to embrace the trend include choosing weathered brick for your patio and planting trees with a naturally weathered or gnarly shape.

People are embracing cold-plunge tubs in their backyard spaces.

Jessica Holmes Holiday, founder and principal designer of HSH Collective Home and Design, told BI that personal cold-plunge tubs "have taken over the outdoor design world."

Use of the tubs, typically available at spas and wellness facilities, can help reduce inflammation and improve mental health.

Personalizing a backyard with a fun umbrella is in.

People are adding flair to backyard design by introducing pops of color and creative shapes — and a fun and colorful umbrella is a great way to lean into the trend.

"When clients design their dream outdoor space, they look for individuality. What better way to do that than in their shade solution? " Holmes Holiday told BI. "We see many bold colors and scalloped designs."

Outdoor pergolas are having a major moment.

According to Marisa Bettencourt, founder of North + Fair Interior Design, outdoor pergolas are all the rage right now.

"Outdoor pergolas provide additional shade and can help define an area in your yard that's meant for entertaining and mingling," she said.

The outdoor structure, typically made from wood and topped with a slatted roof, can be built in several styles. But Bettencourt said pergolas with retractable shades (for privacy and sun protection) are especially popular.

Edible gardens are top of mind for many this year.

Lindsey Hyland, expert gardener and founder of Urban Organic Yield, expects to see more edible gardens in backyards this year.

"The idea is to integrate fruits, vegetables, and herbs into landscaping in a way that's not only practical but also aesthetically pleasing," she told BI.

The gardens can be more sustainable and give people access to fresh, home-grown foods.

On the other hand, large outdoor kitchens are a fading trend.

Lara Hermanson, principal and cofounder of Farmscape, told BI that people are moving away from large outdoor kitchens to preserve the natural feeling of a backyard.

"Clients are more interested in reconnecting with nature in their space than having their backyard feel like an extension of their family room," she said.

Artificial turf lawns are out.

Ross said she's seeing more clients remove and replace artificial turf lawns.

"When artificial turf was trending a few years back, people assumed it was a shortcut to a maintenance-free outdoor space," she told BI. "But in reality, it can get blisteringly hot when exposed to direct sun and tends to hold on to pet odors."

The designer recommended using artificial turf as a last resort in deeply shaded areas or where other groundcover solutions are not an option.

Monoculture lawns are on the decline.

According to Alice Moszczynski, an interior designer at Planner 5D, monoculture lawns with uniform grass fields are declining in popularity.

"The monoculture lawn trend is falling out of favor due to its high water consumption, chemical dependency, and lack of biodiversity, which can contribute to ecological imbalances," she told BI.

Firepits are becoming a thing of the past.

Holmes Holiday said most modern firepits are trending out — despite their practicality for evenings outdoors.

"While firepits can create a cozy atmosphere, oversized designs have been left in the past," she told BI. "They dominate smaller outdoor areas, taking away from the overall space."

Industrial-style, minimalist design is out.

Hyland said people are swapping industrial-style, minimalist designs for natural touches to create cozier backyards.

"People are moving away from cold, hard materials like concrete and steel in favor of warmer, more inviting settings that include a mix of natural elements," the gardener told BI.

This trend also includes a move toward more biodiverse and wild gardens.

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• Newly minted billionaire Taylor Swift has collected an impressive real estate portfolio.
• One of her properties, a townhouse in NYC, was the recent target of an attempted break-in.
• Take a look at the properties she currently owns in Nashville, California, and more.

Taylor Swift will never be out of style — or at least out of homes.

The superstar has built up a real estate portfolio that is worth at least $100 million, according to property records seen by Business Insider. She's used trusts and limited liability companies (LLCs) to buy homes throughout the US.

Swift reached billionaire status last year, and her record-breaking Eras Tour is a big factor in her fortune. 

Some of her most recognizable abodes are her multiple apartments in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City and the sprawling Rhode Island mansion where the star hosts her famous friends for summer parties.

Check out some of the homes where T-Swift might've written or recorded her new album, "The Tortured Poets Department."

In 2009 at age 19, Swift made her first major purchase: a 4,000-square-foot, three-bedroom penthouse in The Adelicia in Nashville, Tennessee for $1.99 million.

Not only is The Adelicia close to Nashville's Music Row, but it also has a private garage, heated pool, and fitness center, according to the building's website. 

As of 2021, the appraised value of the apartment is over $3.7 million, according to public property records viewed by BI.

Swift told Vulture that she designed the penthouse herself. When she spoke to the publication in 2013, she had a photo on display of Kanye West interrupting her at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Under the photo she reportedly wrote, "Life is full of little interruptions."

 

Swift reportedly bought the Northumberland Estate in Forest Hills, Tennessee in 2011 for $2.5 million.

The estate has an appraised property value of about $3.7 million as of 2021. Although multiple outlets — including The Wall Street Journal — have reported that Swift owns the mansion, BI was unable to confirm her ownership via property records in 2024. (We've reached out to her representatives in an attempt to clarify if she still owns the property.)

The Northumberland Estate is a Greek Revival-style home that was built around 1934. It formerly belonged to Guilford Dudley Jr., who served as the US ambassador to Denmark, WSJ reported.

Swift bought an 11,000-square-foot colonial-style mansion in Watch Hill, Rhode Island for $17.75 million in 2013.

The home, formerly known as Holiday House, was built in 1904. Swift wrote "the last great american dynasty" on her "folklore" album about the home's former owner, Rebekah Harkness.

She reportedly paid for the home in cash.

"I got the house when I was in my early twenties as a place for my family to congregate and be together," Swift told Entertainment Weekly, saying that she learned about Harkness "as soon as I was being walked through [her former Rhode Island] home."

Swift is known for throwing Fourth of July parties at the house, which is at the highest point of Watch Hill and has views of Little Narragansett Bay. The mansion has eight bedrooms, eight fireplaces, and a pool.

It now has an assessed value of $20,434,100, according to property records.

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Swift bought the Beverly Hills mansion known as the Goldwyn Estate in 2015 for $25 million.

The property now has an assessed value of just under $30 million, according to property records. 

Swift reportedly bought the estate through an LLC from the Goldwyn family. It belonged to the legendary Hollywood producer who was part of the iconic Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio, and reportedly hosted old Hollywood stars such as Clark Gable and Bette Davis.

The mansion has six bedrooms, a tennis court, a whole apartment for guests, and a swimming pool.

In 2017, the home was granted historic landmark status, WSJ reported.

 

Swift welcomed herself to New York by buying two penthouse units in Tribeca's Sugar Loaf building in 2014 for $19.95 million.

She had the penthouses converted into an 8,309-square-foot duplex, which now has 10 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms.

Swift bought the penthouses from "The Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson through an LLC.

Three years later in 2017, she bought the townhouse next door for $18 million, and in 2018, she purchased yet another apartment in the Sugar Loaf building for $9.75 million. All four of her reported NYC apartments can be linked by LLCs that share the same tax addresses on property records.

Andrew Azoulay, a real-estate agent in Manhattan, told The Wall Street Journal that he advised Swift to buy the townhouse to act as a private garage and to buy the second-floor apartment to connect the garage to her duplex in the Sugar Loaf building. 

Her townhouse has been the target of break-in attempts over the years. In January, a man was arrested for trying to gain access to the building while Swift was attending the Kansas City Chiefs game versus the Bills in Buffalo.

 

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• New graduates in Austin, Atlanta, and Houston earn the highest cost-of-living-adjusted starting salaries, per Gusto.
• New York City attracts the largest share of new grad hires despite offering a smaller adjusted salary.
• More Americans are migrating South for better cost-of-living and job opportunities.

Recent college graduates are flocking to New York City for their first jobs, but their degrees may go the furthest in Texas or Georgia.

New data from small business payment platform Gusto reveals new grads in Austin, Atlanta, and Houston have the highest cost-of-living-adjusted starting salaries when factoring in housing and other expenses.

Though New York City accounts for nearly 10% of new grad hires — the largest share of all the major cities — its adjusted starting salary gives a new grad half of what they'd earn in Austin.

The report used real-time data from over 300,000 businesses that use Gusto and defined "new grads" as full-time salaried employees aged 20 to 24.

Between April 2023 and March 2024, new graduates in Austin earned an average of over $58,000 in cost-of-living-adjusted dollars, given the city's slightly below-average cost of living compared to the national average. New grads in Atlanta earned an adjusted $57,500, while Houston grads earned $56,250.

New York City, comparatively, came in at less than $28,500, well below the next-highest city on the list, Washington, DC, at $40,800. New York City's cost of living is over 125% more than the national average, meaning a salary of over $61,100 gets reduced by over half. Boston and Los Angeles were also at the bottom of the list, given living costs nearly 50% higher than the national average.

While recent graduates were most likely to flock to cities like New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco to start their careers, cost-of-living challenges may eventually push them South, to cities like Austin and Atlanta, where the Gusto report found salaries go the furthest. It's a decision many Americans have made in recent years.

Between July 2022 and 2023, Florida, Texas, and South Carolina were the three fastest-growing states by population in the nation, per the Census Bureau. Over the past year, BI has spoken with several people who've moved to the South — better weather, lower cost of living, and ample job opportunities were among the reasons they said they did so.

The Gusto report also found that new grads are also less likely to be remote workers compared to millennials — 21.5% of those aged 20-24 compared to 29.6% of those 30-39. Many recent grads are choosing to work full-time at the office for additional networking and mentorship opportunities. That tracks how different generations view in-office time: Younger and older workers tend to go into the office, while the workers in the middle — millennials — are pushing the continued remote work boom.

But even as younger workers may find themselves stuck in cities with a higher cost-of-living, those jobs represent opportunities that have become harder to come by in the last few years.

It comes as higher-wage, white-collar workers see their own brutal job market. Gusto said that hiring was "frantic" in 2021 and 2022, the peak years of the Great Resignation and firms beefing up headcounts; last year, though, hiring fell "sharply." Now, that new grad hiring rate has stabilized — which isn't necessarily all bad news, but simply just shows how trends have changed from the frenzied firms trying to staff up, no matter what it took, to being a bit more measured.

Are you a new grad trying to stretch your paycheck in any of these cities? Contact these reporters at jzinkula@businessinsider.com, nsheidlower@businessinsider.com, and jkaplan@businessinsider.com.

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• A Deliveroo driver who bit off a customer's thumb in 2022 has been seen delivering food again.
• At the time of the attack, the rider was working as a substitute using someone else's account.
• The incident exposes a loophole in the safety of delivery app services. 

A food delivery driver who pleaded guilty to grievous bodily harm after biting off a customer's thumb has been spotted delivering food again, the BBC reported.

The woman, who, according to a court document, is named Jeniffer Rocha, was delivering food for the UK delivery app Deliveroo in December 2022 when she got into an argument with Stephen Jenkinson, the customer she was delivering pizza to, per the BBC.

Jenkinson told the BBC that Rocha had arrived at the wrong location and that when he went to collect his order, he didn't bring his phone, leading to an argument about his delivery code number.

Jenkinson told the outlet that he raised his hand to Rocha's motorcycle helmet, and she then bit his thumb. "She'd taken it clean off," he told the BBC.

Jenkinson, a plumber, previously said that he had been unable to work since then and was financially "ruined." He said that he'd had months of surgery to reconstruct his thumb using part of his big toe and that he had no sensation in it.

In March, Rocha pleaded guilty to one count of grievous bodily harm without intent. She's set to be sentenced on Friday, a spokesperson for Winchester Crown Court confirmed to Business Insider.

A concerning loophole in app safety

When Rocha delivered to Jenkinson, she was working as a substitute for another rider.

Deliveroo classes its riders as "independent contractors," meaning they're self-employed, and because of this, they're able to appoint other people as substitutes. The substitutes can complete deliveries using a rider's account without registering.

This incident highlights the concerns around the potential dangers of substitute drivers, given that it can be hard for delivery companies to verify the identities of these substitutes.

Though Deliveroo riders have to be over 18 with no unspent criminal convictions, it's historically been up to individual riders, not Deliveroo itself, to check that their substitutes meet this criteria.

A Deliveroo spokesperson told BI that the company had "immediately" canceled the account Rocha was using when the "terrible incident" — the attack on Jenkinson — occurred.

But after Rocha appeared in court, the BBC spotted her twice collecting food for delivery on her moped, it reported.

On the second occasion, on April 18, it said that the manager of the takeaway she collected an order from said that she was delivering it for Deliveroo.

The Deliveroo spokesperson said that it had also canceled an alternative account that Rocha was using. It's unclear whether this was her own account or whether she was delivering as a substitute again.

"We take our responsibilities extremely seriously and are committed to preventing misuse of our platform," the spokesperson told BI. "We have strengthened our processes and recently introduced a new registration process and identity verification technology for substitute riders." This includes right-to-work checks rolled out by Deliveroo in April.

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• Sam Altman told MIT Technology Review we may not need hardware to engage with AI in the future.
• The OpenAI CEO has been rumored to be developing his own AI device.
• Recent AI hardware launches have been met with mixed reviews.

Sam Altman isn't sure our AI future requires new hardware.

Despite a flurry of new devices hitting the market, the OpenAI CEO told MIT Technology Review that we may not need to buy a separate device to engage with AI in the future.

"I don't think it will require a new piece of hardware," he said in Cambridge, where he was attending events hosted by Harvard University and venture capital firm Xfund.

Altman told the outlet that the type of app he envisioned for future AI agents could live in the cloud.

He described the futuristic app as a "super-competent colleague that knows absolutely everything about my whole life, every email, every conversation I've ever had, but doesn't feel like an extension."

Although Altman thinks AI devices are exciting, he told MIT Technology Review that consumer hardware for new technology was "so far" from his expertise.

The OpenAI CEO has been rumored to be considering the development of his own AI device.

Last year, The Information reported that Altman was in talks with Jony Ive, the designer of Apple's iPhone, about building a new AI hardware product. According to the report, Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, was also brought into their conversations.

Representatives for OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Inisder, made outside normal working hours.

Recent AI hardware launches have been met with mixed reviews.

Humane's AI Pin was widely criticized — especially by Marques Brownlee, the YouTuber known as MKBHD.

Brownlee didn't mince words in his review of Humane's AI Pin, titling the video: "The Worst Product I've Ever Reviewed… For Now."

While Rabbit's competing R1, a pocket-sized AI device, sold out within 24 hours of its January launch, many have speculated it could just be a smartphone app.

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• Gen Z is feeling disillusioned over the prohibitive cost of having kids or buying a home.
• Past generations earned less, owned homes at lower rates, and spent more of their money on housing.
• But Gen Z is living at home for longer and received a financial boost during the pandemic.

Gen Z may not be thrilled with the state of the world or their position in it — but they are faring better than past generations on some key measures.

Gen Z, born between 1997 and 2012, have had to contend with pandemic disruptions and shutdowns, inflation spiking to 40-year highs, and interest rates surging to 2007 levels in recent years — with less time than their predecessors to build up resources to ride out the storms.

Many Zoomers feel that having kids or buying a home is out of reach given the increased expense of everyday living, the brutal cost of childcare, and the painful combination of near-record home prices and much higher mortgage rates. Stocks are also trading close to record highs, depressing long-term returns for new investors.

But things might not be as bad for Gen Z as they seem. A recent Federal Reserve working paper found that the median 25-year-old in the US earns a real household income of more than $40,000 after taxes and government transfers. That's a higher average sum than any of the past six generations earned at that age.

Moreover, a Redfin study last year found that 30% of 25-year-olds owned their home in 2022, compared to 28% of millennials and 27% of Gen X at that age. Baby boomers came out on top with 32% ownership.

Members of Gen Z are projected to spend more on housing costs like rent, mortgages, insurance, and utilities after inflation between the ages of 22 and 30 than millennials did, a recent RentCafe analysis found.

Yet Gen Z's typically higher earnings mean they'll only spend an estimated 30% of their income on housing compared to 36% for millennials.

It's a similar story if you include college loans. On average, under-25s spent 43% of their after-tax income on housing and education (including interest payments on student debt) in 2022 — less than what the typical under-25 paid between 1989 and 2019, per The Economist.

Success may be short-lived

It's worth digging into why Gen Z is doing well financially. They may be better educated and qualified than previous generations. They've also enjoyed above-average wage growth and high employment levels in recent years, reflecting in part the labor shortages caused by the pandemic, the pay increases and bonuses offered by desperate employers, and historically low unemployment overall.

Stimulus payments, temporary and permanent relief from student-loan repayments, and saving on rent by living with family during lockdowns also helped the generation amass cash for down payments and other expenses.

The latter trend has continued with the Fed paper finding that more than 30% of Gen Zeds aged 24 live in the homes of their parents or their spouse's parents, versus about 15% of boomers when they were that age.

Gen Z's relatively high homeownership rate might also be less impressive than it seems. Young people tend to buy smaller, cheaper houses, as they're usually more flexible regarding how many rooms they need and where they're located if they don't have kids or a commute.

Rock-bottom mortgage rates before 2022 undoubtedly helped too, and now they've risen sharply it'll be far tougher for younger members of the cohort to afford their own place.

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• Tesla has quietly backed away from plans to build EVs with a revolutionary new "gigacasting" method, per Reuters.
• This manufacturing innovation was seen as a key part of Tesla's plans to produce cheaper EVs. 
• It raises further doubts over Elon Musk's plans for an affordable EV. 

Elon Musk's transformation of Tesla continues at pace.

The automaker has reportedly pulled back on plans to roll out a revolutionary new manufacturing method for its electric cars, per Reuters. A move that casts further doubt on Elon Musk's low-cost EV ambitions.

Tesla had been developing a new "gigacasting" method that would allow it to use enormous presses to cast the underbody of an EV in a single piece to simplify manufacturing and cut costs in the long term.

However, sources told Reuters that the company had backed away from the plans and decided to stick to the method of casting that it used to build the Model Y and the Cybertruck, with the underbody made in three separate pieces.

The gigacasting innovation was seen as a key part of Tesla's plans to produce cheaper EVs. Tesla's top engineers told investors last year that the company's next generation of electric models would cost 50% less to make.

Musk has been hinting at plans to build a $25,000 electric vehicle for years. In December, he told automotive expert Sandy Munro that plans for an affordable Tesla were "quite advanced."

"The revolution in manufacturing that will be represented by that car will blow people's minds," Musk said. "It is not like any car production line that anyone's ever seen."

However, reports earlier this month suggested that the billionaire had abandoned plans to build a cheaper model in favor of a Tesla robotaxi.

Musk denied this and said in Tesla's latest earnings call that the company would accelerate construction of cheaper EVs.

While sales of EVs continue to rise in the US, hitting record levels last year, EVs remain more expensive on average than their combustion counterparts — something that has proved an issue for many consumers.

That has made the race to build an affordable mass-market electric car the crucial next frontier for automotive companies, with Ford also pursuing its own cheap EV plans.

It's especially important for Tesla, which has come under pressure from Chinese manufacturers abroad, such as BYD, which offer cheaper models.

The Musk-run automaker has experienced significant upheaval in recent weeks, with Tesla conducting layoffs and being hit by a recall of nearly every Cybertruck shipped to customers.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment made outside normal working hours.

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