Investor's Corner
Auto experts share insights on Tesla Model Y wiring and how Maxwell’s supercapacitors can improve batteries
There is no doubt that the adoption of electric vehicles is already underway. Key auto markets such as China and Europe have adopted aggressive goals for a zero-emissions future, and electric cars continue to improve with every iteration. Yet, inasmuch as the EV segment has grown since the early days of the original Tesla Roadster, the evolution of electric cars is only just beginning. Over the years, there will be more breakthroughs for all-electric propulsion, and automakers that refuse to acknowledge this will probably find themselves in dire straits.
These, as well as the upcoming EV technologies that are set to make a debut within the next few years, was the focus of an extensive interview with Sandy Munro and Mark Ellis from Munro and Associates. Conducted by Tesla owner-enthusiast Sean Mitchell of All Things EV, the interview touched on several topics, including the breakthroughs that will likely be seen in the Model Y crossover, the potential of Maxwell’s supercapacitors for electric vehicles, and what traditional automakers can do to be more competitive in the emerging EV market.
Munro, who has extensive experience with the early-build Model 3 and several other vehicles like the BMW i3 and the Jaguar I-PACE, noted that the EV he is most excited about is the Model Y. Munro noted that the Y will be an interesting EV because it would likely show just how much Tesla learned from the Model 3 and its challenging ramp. The teardown expert also stated that he is immensely interested to see just what Tesla did to reduce the wiring of the Model Y to 100 meters from 1.5 km in the Model 3.
One thing that Munro and Ellis emphasized in the interview was that when it comes to electric cars, battery technology is key. Munro noted that at this point, any company that aims to push EV batteries further would best be advised to take on emerging technologies such as supercapacitors, which could have great implications for electric car technology. This is where Tesla’s acquisition of Maxwell Technologies could come into play. Maxwell, after all, is primarily noted for two of its innovations: dry electrode batteries and supercapacitors.
Both of these have the potential to improve Tesla’s electric cars significantly. “The dry battery technology is game-changing if it comes to pass and they can put it in a car,” Ellis said while discussing Maxwell’s potential for Tesla. The veteran also provided a scenario where Maxwell’s supercapacitors could play a part in the operation of an EV.
“One of the issues with the battery is, when I step on the throttle hard, I’m pulling a lot of energy from the battery. And then, when I brake hard, I’m pulling a lot of energy out of the regen, but the batteries can’t take it fast enough. The batteries get really stressed when you try to pull it up too much, so if I had supercapacitors that I could use as a cushion; so when I need energy quickly, (I can) pull it from the supercapacitors and then fill the supercapacitors back up with the battery slowly; and then when I brake, I can capture more of that regen energy and do the supercapacitors faster. I think that just makes logical sense, because now all of a sudden I’ve got a sponge in front of my main energy source and I’m not stressing (the battery) so much,” Ellis said.
As for the underwhelming range from competing EVs such as the Audi e-tron and the Jaguar I-PACE, Munro noted that this is simply because of their lack of vertical integration. “(It’s) because they’re buying them from somebody else,” the teardown expert mused. When asked if a good way for traditional automakers to be more competitive in the EV market is to start developing their own battery tech, Ellis warns that adopting such a strategy will likely take a long time.
“That would be a 10-year project. There are going to be leaders in the battery industry, and a lot of the electric chemistries are under patent. They’re gonna have to be licensed. Whoever comes out on top is probably going to win. But just due to the sheer volume of batteries that are going to be needed in the next five years, you basically have three or four battery (cell) companies that are out there. You got Panasonic, you got Samsung, you got LG, and you’ve CATL from China. Those are the big four. Everybody else is going to find a niche in there,” Elli said.
With companies such as Tesla already making headway into the mass market with vehicles like the Model 3 and the upcoming Model Y, it would be easy to perceive the EV segment as having sufficiently matured. It should be noted that this is not the case, as EVs, including Tesla’s electric vehicles like the 370-mile Model S Long Range or the bang-for-the-buck Model 3 Standard Range Plus, still have far more to improve in the years to come. And it is exactly these improvements that make the electric car market just so compelling.
Watch Sean Mitchell’s extensive sit-down interview with Sandy Munro and Mark Ellis in the video below.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX’s biggest earnings test yet lands Tuesday, and Tesla shareholders should be watching
SpaceX reports earnings Tuesday as Wall Street watches AI spending, Starlink growth and Tesla merger
SpaceX reports third quarter results after the market closes Tuesday, with a webcast at 4:30 p.m. ET streamed on X, and Tesla follows a day later. Bloomberg consensus, cited by Pepperstone, calls for revenue of $12.89 billion, adjusted EBITDA of $6.62 billion and adjusted EPS near $0.15. That would be about 65% growth from the second quarter and SpaceX’s first profitable quarter since its IPO. Analysts expect roughly $6.4 billion from AI and $4.9 billion from Starlink, which is projected to reach 14.3 million consumer subscribers. Capital spending is forecast at $19.6 billion, leaving free cash flow near negative $11.6 billion.
The numbers matter because SpaceX has spent months trying to win over a skeptical market. It priced its record IPO at $135, spiked to $225.64, then sank near $105 in early August. Friday’s close of $146.03 sits about 28% below the June high. The Q2 report beat on revenue at $7.8 billion and put Starlink at 12 million subscribers, but $18.4 billion of capex hurt the stock. Since then SpaceX reached orbit on Starship Flight 14 with 26 Starlink V3 satellites, agreed to buy 800 MHz spectrum for about $8 billion as part of its Starlink Mobile push, and signed a fourth compute hosting deal in four months worth roughly $13 billion a year from December. Management is targeting more than 2 gigawatts of compute by year end and a $100 billion annualized revenue run rate. Evercore ISI, which raised its target to $275, said the quarter may be judged more on those targets than the reported figures
All of this sits under the Tesla merger question. Barclays analyst Dan Levy expects an all stock deal in which SpaceX buys Tesla at a premium, using reference values of $2.1 trillion and $1.5 trillion, and said an announcement would need to come by late October or early November to be voted on at Tesla’s December 6 annual meeting. Barclays estimates Musk would hold about 37% of the combined company and 56% of the votes. Musk said in July that combining companies cannot be discussed on an earnings call, but an investor question asking when SpaceX will merge with Tesla is sitting on SpaceX’s Q&A platform, and Teslarati has tracked how the Roadster demo revived the talk.
If a deal happens, Tuesday’s result would effectively set the price Tesla holders would receive. Their shares would convert into SpaceX stock, along with exposure to a company with a heavy investment on AI, while Tesla itself expects 2026 capex above $25 billion. A strong quarter and calmer spending would make that exchange easier to sell. Another round of heavy capex and a falling stock would make it harder.
Investor's Corner
Tesla’s flying Roadster just revealed something bigger than the car
Analysts say the Roadster demo puts a Tesla and SpaceX merger back on the table.
The Roadster unveiling near Waco ended Thursday night, and by Friday morning much of the investor reaction had less to do with the car than with who owns the rocket technology inside it.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said the event “puts the Tesla/SpaceX relationship on the table in a tangible way,” pointing to the propulsion, pressure vessel and control hardware sitting on a Tesla product. Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management called the demo “a ridiculous display of engineering” with “no commercial value” beyond embarrassing traditional automakers, though he said it showed Musk wants the two companies together.
The more specific forecast came a day earlier from Barclays. Analyst Dan Levy told clients a deal could be announced before Tesla’s annual meeting, which must happen by December 6, and that an announcement in late October or early November could make shareholder approval harder. Barclays expects SpaceX to be the buyer in an all stock deal, with Tesla holders receiving SpaceX shares at a premium, based on market values of roughly $2.1 trillion for SpaceX and $1.5 trillion for Tesla. If nothing lands around the meeting, the bank still sees an announcement within 6 to 12 months.
The Roadster demo just added more weight to merger speculations. Tesla’s demo used cold gas thrusters and pressure tanks of the kind SpaceX uses on Falcon 9, and Musk described the car as a collaboration between Tesla and SpaceX engineers, as we mentioned in our breakdown of the three Roadster configurations.
Musk has not publicly addressed a deal since the event, as far as we have seen. His most direct answer remains the one he gave at the All In Summit, when he said that with so much collaboration, “who can imagine what action one might take” without ruling anything out. Ives has held to a 2027 timeline since his March note, and Musk pushed back on the China piece of the speculation when ARK floated a year end announcement in August.
The next test is Tesla’s third quarter earnings call on October 21. However, we recall in July that Musk told analysts, “we can’t talk about combining companies and that kind of thing on an earnings call,” so a clear answer wouldn’t be expected.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk breaks his silence on the Starlink impact to Ukraine drones
Musk says the US military and president set Starshield limits, not SpaceX, amid Ukraine complaints.
Elon Musk says the speed limit cutting out Ukraine’s military Starlink terminals is not SpaceX’s decision. In a post on X Wednesday, Musk wrote that “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.” He added that Starlink is a commercial service limited to civilian or defensive activities and “cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.”
He was replying to Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s former defense minister, who had thanked Musk for restoring connectivity at speeds up to 160 km/h and said removing the Starshield limit entirely is “now critical for Ukraine’s defense.”
Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.
Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 14, 2026
The complaint started Tuesday night, when Ukrainian officials said military terminals began losing service above roughly 100 mph. Presidential adviser Serhiy Beskrestnov said the defense forces got no warning and several missions were disrupted, as Teslarati reported earlier Wednesday. The 7th Rapid Reaction Corps told Reuters connections dropped for 10 to 20 seconds at speeds well below the limit, which made drones harder to control. Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, asked Musk on X whether he is “playing politics with your products again.”
That is why the Starlink and Starshield distinction matters. SpaceX introduced Starshield in 2022 as the government version of Starlink, with an initial focus on Earth observation, communications and hosted payloads. It won a Space Force contract in 2023 with a $70 million ceiling. In December 2024, the Pentagon moved Ukraine’s terminals onto Starshield, covering about 3,000 units across two contracts. Ukraine’s military connections therefore run through a service that Musk now says sits under Washington’s control.
While Musk’s post describes who holds authority, it does not infer that anyone ordered the limit, and neither SpaceX nor the US government has confirmed who set it. Ukrainian officials have pointed to the timing, which follows President Trump’s push for an energy ceasefire and Musk’s Saturday post that “Zelensky has gone too far.” The BBC noted Trump denied threatening to restrict intelligence sharing with Kyiv, and no evidence has been presented that Washington requested the cap.
The episode also revives a promise from 2025. After Poland accused him of threatening Ukraine’s access, Musk said Starlink “will never turn off its terminals” and would not be used as a bargaining chip. Poland has since supplied more than 29,000 terminals to Ukraine. Teslarati also covered Kyiv’s search for Starlink alternatives in 2025, and the latest dispute gives that search new urgency.
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