Video of the Week: Tesla previews ‘solid metal snake’ robot charger

Published by

Amid headlines about Telsa’s downgraded delivery outlook causing its stock to have the worst day in nearly two years, the Californian prestige electric vehicle maker and smasher of cleantech boundaries quietly released a video of a prototype of its robotic car charger in action, slinkily finding its own way to a Model S socket and plugging in.

The video, which you must watch, below, was posted to Instagram on the same day that Tesla warned of fewer car deliveries for the year, sending its stock on a 13 per cent slide.

It follows up on a Tweet, last December, from the electric car maker’s billionaire founder and chief boundary smasher, Elon Musk, advising that they were working on a charger “that automatically moves out from the wall and connects like a solid metal snake. For realz.”

The robo-charger is currently in testing and finer details are few, but Tesla says it could work with every Model S on the road. As the Washington Post notes, “it helps that the Model S has a charge-port door that opens automatically when it senses a nearby charging nozzle, using the same technology that pushes the car’s door handles out when the driver approaches with the keys.”

For realz.

Sophie Vorrath

Sophie is editor of Renew Economy and editor of its sister site, One Step Off The Grid . She is the co-host of the Solar Insiders Podcast. Sophie has been writing about clean energy for more than a decade.

Share
Published by

Recent Posts

The great big solar soak: Batteries are starting to drive up midday electricity prices

Middle of the day wholesale electricity prices are rising, and prices in the evening peak…

8 October 2026

Australian researchers set new efficiency record for perovskites, hope secret molecule can solve stability issues

UNSW groups set new perovskite efficiency record but the real secret sauce is a new…

8 October 2026

Energy Insiders Special: Bigger turbines and battery hybrids

Envision Australia’s Peter Cowling talks their plans and the state of the energy transition.

8 October 2026

Australian wind farm starts hit record levels, but the technology is dead in the state that needs it most

Australia can now boast of record amounts of wind farm construction starts this year, but…

8 October 2026

Squadron shrinks size of wind farm it wants to build in epicentre of Victoria’s anti-renewable activity 

Andrew Forrest-owned Squadron wants to build a massive wind farm in western Victoria and connect…

8 October 2026

Rooftop solar smashes output records in two states, as home batteries dull grid impact in sunny Spring

A sunny Spring has delivered two new output records for rooftop solar in two Australian…

8 October 2026