The employee immediately informed Tesla, and the company contacted the FBI, which launched a sting operation. Agents arrested Kriuchkov in Los Angeles as he was attempting to leave the US. 

As Electrek points out, during the sting operation, FBI agents obtained info about previous attacks led by Kriuchkov’s associates. They didn’t confirm which companies were impacted, but a similar ransomware attack was carried out against CWT Group in July. That company paid a $4.5 million ransom. Tesla could have been in a similar situation if its employee had not acted quickly or thought to inform the company. 

Earlier this month, the cruise company Carnival and Garmin revealed that they suffered ransomware attacks. Travelex recently paid $2.3 million to resolve a ransomware attack, and of course, multiple cities — Atlanta, Baltimore and New Orleans — have been hit by similar cybercrimes. Dentist offices and DSLR cameras are not immune either.

So what’s next after making a million Teslas? According to Elon Musk, a Cybertruck gigafactory that could be placed in “central USA,” and Model Y production “for East Coast too.” These tweets came just hours after the exec polled followers on whether or not the Berlin factory Tesla is building should include a “mega rave cave” so we’ll see what, if any, of these things come true.

Understandably, a lot of the country’s Model 3 owners weren’t happy to find out their brand new car had left the Gigafactor 3 floor with older hardware. According to the BBC, the new chip is up to 21 times faster at processing images than its predecessor. A lot of that has to do with the fact Tesla built the new chip from the ground up to handle autonomous driving tasks.

Teslarati says Chinese Model 3 owners discovered the discrepancy after comparing vehicle controller hardware codes. Tesla, however, quickly apologized for the decision and said it will offer free upgrades to affected Model 3 owners once supplies become available. The coronavirus outbreak has had other effects on the company’s Chinese operation. Just a few weeks after it started producing vehicles at its new Gigafactory plant in Shanghai, Tesla had to pause work following a government-mandated order. It reopened the plant on February 10th.

Consumers outside of China have felt the effects of the coronavirus epidemic as well. For instance, Valve recently said supplies of its Index VR headset would be limited ahead of the highly anticipated launch of Half-Life: Alyx. Tech conferences have also had to adapt, with Google cancelling its annual I/O developer conference on Tuesday.

Last week, Tesla was ordered to stop clearing the forest plot while the court reviewed a complaint from the environmental group Green League of Bradenburg. Activists were upset that Tesla was allowed to begin clearing the land before the company received all of the necessary building permits, and they accused the court of granting Tesla preferential treatment. The court rejected those arguments, stating “the decision is final.”

While Tesla now has permission to continue clearing, protestors remain concerned that the factory will cause chemical pollution and excessive water consumption, as well as disrupt bat colonies and ant hills. Musk has addressed those concerns and promised to plant three trees for every one that the company cuts down. Many hail this as economic progress and say it is one of the most important industrial developments in eastern Germany to have happened in a long time.

Ultimately, Tesla hopes to improve the environment by replacing gas-powered cars with electric vehicles, but the company will have to mitigate short-term environmental impacts and fears in order to do so.

The court cautioned that it “should not be assumed” the Green League’s complaint was going to fail. Campaigners are concerned that wiping out that much forest could have a significant impact on drinking water and wildlife.

We’ve asked Tesla for comment.

This might only be a temporary setback, but it comes after hundreds-strong protests over the possible effects of the Gigafactory. It also illustrates the balancing act Tesla and other EV producers frequently need to strike. While Tesla hopes to ultimately improve the environment by replacing gas-powered cars with electric rides, it also has to convince others that its factories won’t significantly harm the planet in the process. VW is in a similar position — on February 14th, it unveiled plans to shut down the coal power stations at its Wolfsburg factory.

The good news continued on Wednesday when the company released its Q4 2019 earnings and 2020 financial forecast. Thanks to a quick turnaround in building its Shanghai Gigafactory, which was completed in just 10 months, Tesla can now focus on ramping up production of its new crossover SUV, the Model Y, at its existing production plant in Fremont, California. The Ys, which were expected to begin shipping in Fall of 2020 are now slated for delivery by the end of Q1 instead. The company also announced that it is boosting the range of its $51,000 Model Y AWD variant from 280 miles to 315. Tesla did not note whether the $47,000 long-range version, the AWD or the $60,000 performance version are being built first.

Tesla plans to have a 500,000-unit production capacity of Model 3s and Model Ys at the Fremont plant by year’s end. That makes sense since the 3 and Y share more than 75 percent of their components.

Additionally, the company announced that its solar power business is booming. Tesla 54 MW of solar capacity in Q4, 26 percent more than in the prior quarter. Over the course of 2019, the company rolled out 1.65 GWh of energy storage, more than the previous four years put together.

In the fourth quarter alone, Tesla broke its records by producing almost 105,000 vehicles and delivering 112,000 vehicles. Much of that success can be attributed to the Model 3 sedan’s popularity. In Q4, Tesla delivered 92,500 Model 3s — a 46 percent increase over the final quarter of 2018 — and 19,450 Model S/X.

Earlier in 2019, Tesla said it hoped to deliver 360,000 to 400,000 cars by the end of the year. The company did reach that goal, but it was on the low end. Still, this suggests that the market for Teslas is growing and that the company has worked out some production kinks.

That trend should continue as Tesla begins delivering the first Model 3s made in its Shanghai Gigafactory 3. It says the factory has already produced nearly 1,000 customer salable cars, and it has demonstrated a production run-rate capability of more than 3,000 units per week — excluding local battery pack production.

Tesla also plans to manufacture its Model Y crossovers at the plant, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk previously said he expects the Model Y to outsell the S, X and 3 combined. There’s also the Cybertruck, which already has more than 200,000 deposits.

Tesla began construction on the plant this past January and started making vehicles there in October. The company told Reuters it plans to manufacture approximately 250,000 cars per year at Gigafactory 3 once it ramps up production. In addition to the Model 3, it also plans to make Model Y crossovers at the plant.

While the deliveries likely won’t affect Tesla’s Q4 financials, China could be a significant driver of Model 3 sales starting next quarter. Despite a recent slowdown in demand, the electric vehicle (EV) market in China is the largest in the world. According to Reuters, Chinese consumers bought approximately 1.3 million new EVs in 2018. With help from the Chinese government, which will offer new EV subsidies to Chinese consumers who want to buy the vehicle, Tesla is in a good position to succeed in the country. And success in China would help the company while it works on new vehicles like the Cybertruck.

After launching manufacturing facilities in the US and China, Tesla’s next location is apparently in Europe. Reuters and CNBC report that while speaking at an awards ceremony in Germany, Elon Musk announced the company’s ‘Gigafactory 4’ will be located in the Berlin area. Musk later tweeted out “Giga Berlin,” and said that the location “Will build batteries, powertrains & vehicles, starting with Model Y.”

This follows its current facilities in Nevada, Buffalo and its newest addition in Shanghai, China. Apparently this one will also include an engineering and design center. Tesla bought a German engineering firm in 2016 to help build the Model 3, and it appears those efforts will grow as it launches production of the Model Y, and, presumably, the electric “cybertruck” that’s supposed to be revealed next week.

Today the company announced that it made $6.30 billion in quarterly revenue. That’s down 1 percent from last quarter and 8 percent from last year at this time. Tesla says it was able to turn a $143 million profit by lowering operating costs.

During that time, the company produced 97,000 vehicles a two-percent increase over the second quarter. Model S and X deliveries declined 1 percent quarter-over-quarter 37 percent year over year showing a long-term decline in demand for the two high-end Teslas. Model 3 deliveries increased 3 percent quarter-over-quarter and 42 percent year-over-year.

Today’s numbers are just shy of the company’s hope to produce 100,000 during the quarter. Still, it’s the largest amount of Tesla’s being built in a single quarter. In its letter to investors, the company announced that it was beginning vehicle production in its new Shanghai Gigafactory on a trial basis. Once that’s up and running hitting 100,000 deliveries a quarter should be no problem.

China is a huge market for EVs and completing that plant and bringing it up to full production should help Tesla with its production goals. The factory news was also joined by vehicle information.

Tesla said that it’s ahead of schedule with Model Y production. The EV crossover should launch in the summer of 2020. Meanwhile, it noted that the Tesla Semi will begin limited production also in 2020.

The company is still hoping it can deliver 360,00 to 400,000 cars by the end of the year. But it’s going to be tough to achieve that number this late in the year.

Today’s news pushed the stock up to $299.44 in after-hours trading when this piece was published.

Developing.