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SpaceX’s Starship Mk1 rocket already has three Raptors installed, says Elon Musk

A Teslarati artist's impression of a triple-Raptor Starship and a September 23rd photo of the spacecraft's bottom half taken by Elon Musk. (NASASpaceflight - bocachicagal, Elon Musk, Teslarati)

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In a few late-night tweets, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk offered a rare view inside the company’s Boca Chica Starship fabrication building and revealed that technicians had already installed all three Raptor engines on Starship Mk1.

SpaceX is in the midst of a frenetic few weeks of activity as technicians and engineers – some likely flown in from Florida – work around the clock to ready Starship Mk1 for its first flight tests. Musk is also scheduled to present an official update on Starship’s latest design on September 28th and likely wants to have a complete Starship (or nearly so) as an imposing backdrop for the media event.

The news that SpaceX has already installed all three Raptor engines on Starship Mk1 comes as a surprise, an exceedingly rare instance thanks to near-continuous coverage provided by several local residents and 24/7 livestreams. On September 22nd, at least one Raptor engine was spotted arriving in Boca Chica, but no onlookers noticed engine installation operations.

Capable of producing 600+ metric tons (1.3M lbf) of thrust, those three Raptors were attached to a custom-fabricated thrust structure that was installed inside Starship Mk1 on August 14th, barely a month ago. There’s a chance that one or several of the Raptors installed are nonfunctional spares, but it’s likely that the engines installed are ready for flight and have completed static fires in McGregor, Texas. As such, they could very well be the engines that will power Starship’s inaugural flight tests, the first of which will involve a suborbital launch to an altitude of more than 20 km (12.5 mi).

Musk says that Starship Mk1’s three segments could be stacked atop each other as early as Wednesday, September 25th, also implying that the spacecraft prototype’s nose section should be fully outfitted with batteries, header tanks (small propellant tanks), its own actuating fins, and more in the next 2-3 days.

Additionally, Musk published a brief video inside SpaceX’s recently-completed Boca Chica Starship fabrication building, the only semi-permanent building the company has built at its South Texas facilities. Featuring an abstract series of mirror-like steel panels that created a bit of a house-of-mirrors effect, Musk says the items pictured will be combined to form Starship Mk1 wing hinges and raceways, an external tunnel used for plumbing and cable routing.

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SpaceX installed both of Starship Mk1’s aft wings/flaps over a 48 hour period, wrapping up the basic mechanical integration on September 22nd. Work has started on the prototype’s raceway and the frames of the first two wing hinge covers were spotted on Friday. As of midnight local time on September 23rd, SpaceX technicians were welding propellant feed lines to the outside of Starship’s tank section and installing the rocket’s header tanks – small secondary propellant tanks – inside its pointed nose section.

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Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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Tesla Supercharger left offline as Swedish court backs union strike

The completed Supercharger has been stalled for nearly two years amid Tesla’s conflict with the IF Metall union in Sweden.

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Credit: NicklasNilsso14/X

Tesla’s Supercharger station in Ljungby, Sweden will remain without power after a Swedish administrative court rejected the company’s appeal to force a grid connection to the site. The completed Supercharger has been stalled for nearly two years amid Tesla’s conflict with the IF Metall union in Sweden.

The court ruled that the ongoing union strike against Tesla Sweden is valid grounds for the Supercharger’s connection delay, as noted in an Allt Om Elbil report. 

The Ljungby Supercharger was one of the first charging stations that were denied grid access after IF Metall launched its strike against Tesla Sweden in late 2023. Electricians at local grid operator Ljungby Energinät were pulled into a sympathy strike by the Seko union, preventing the site’s connection.

Tesla reported both Ljungby Energinät and Gävle Energi Elnät AB to the Swedish Energy Market Inspectorate, arguing that grid operators failed to meet their legal obligation to provide connection to the location within a reasonable time frame.

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The regulator ruled that the strike represented a valid exception under Swedish law, however, citing constitutional protections for industrial actions.

Tesla responded by appealing to the Administrative Court in Linköping, claiming it had the right to connection within a reasonable period, generally no more than two years. Tesla Sweden also argued that the country’s Electricity Act conflicts with EU law. The court rejected those arguments.

“The Administrative Court today finds that granting the company’s request in practice applies to the same thing as the blockade and that it would mean that the blockade would be ineffective. 

“Such a decision would contradict the principle that labor market conflicts should be resolved to the greatest extent possible by the labor market parties, not by the state. The industrial action is also constitutionally protected,” Chief Councilor Ronny Idstrand stated.

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The court also concluded that the Electricity Act does not conflict with EU regulations and that special reasons justified the extended delay.

While the ruling was unanimous, Tesla Sweden may appeal the decision to a higher administrative court.

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Tesla China exports 50,644 vehicles in January, up sharply YoY

The figure also places Tesla China second among new energy vehicle exporters for the month, behind BYD.

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Credit: Tesla China

Tesla China exported 50,644 vehicles in January, as per data released by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).

This marks a notable increase both year-on-year and month-on-month for the American EV maker’s Giga Shanghai-built Model 3 and Model Y. The figure also places Tesla China second among new energy vehicle exporters for the month, behind BYD.

The CPCA’s national passenger car market analysis report indicated that total New Energy Vehicle exports reached 286,000 units in January, up 103.6% from a year earlier. Battery electric vehicles accounted for 65% of those exports.

Within that total, Tesla China shipped 50,644 vehicles overseas. By comparison, exports of Giga Shanghai-built Model 3 and Model Y units totaled 29,535 units in January last year and just 3,328 units in December. 

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This suggests that Tesla China’s January 2026 exports were roughly 1.7 times higher than the same month a year ago and more than 15 times higher than December’s level, as noted in a TechWeb report.

BYD still led the January 2026 export rankings with 96,859 new energy passenger vehicles shipped overseas, though it should be noted that the automaker operates at least nine major production facilities in China, far outnumering Tesla. Overall, BYD’s factories in China have a domestic production capacity for up to 5.82 million units annually as of 2024.

Tesla China followed in second place, ahead of Geely, Chery, Leapmotor, SAIC Motor, and SAIC-GM-Wuling, each of which exported significant volumes during the month. Overall, new energy vehicles accounted for nearly half of China’s total passenger vehicle exports in January, hinting at strong overseas demand for electric cars produced in the country.

China remains one of Tesla China’s most important markets. Despite mostly competing with just two vehicles, both of which are premium priced, Tesla China is still proving quite competitive in the domestic electric vehicle market.

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Tesla adds a new feature to Navigation in preparation for a new vehicle

After CEO Elon Musk announced earlier this week that the Semi’s mass production processes were scheduled for later this year, the company has been making various preparations as it nears manufacturing.

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Credit: Uber

Tesla has added a new feature to its Navigation and Supercharger Map in preparation for a new vehicle to hit the road: the Semi.

After CEO Elon Musk announced earlier this week that the Semi’s mass production processes were scheduled for later this year, the company has been making various preparations as it nears manufacturing.

Elon Musk confirms Tesla Semi will enter high-volume production this year

One of those changes has been the newly-released information regarding trim levels, as well as reports that Tesla has started to reach out to customers regarding pricing information for those trims.

Now, Tesla has made an additional bit of information available to the public in the form of locations of Megachargers, the infrastructure that will be responsible for charging the Semi and other all-electric Class 8 vehicles that hit the road.

Tesla made the announcement on the social media platform X:

Although it is a minor development, it is a major indication that Tesla is preparing for the Semi to head toward mass production, something the company has been hinting at for several years.

Nevertheless, this, along with the other information that was released this week, points toward a significant stride in Tesla’s progress in the Semi project.

Now that the company has also worked toward completion of the dedicated manufacturing plant in Sparks, Nevada, there are more signs than ever that the vehicle is finally ready to be built and delivered to customers outside of the pilot program that has been in operation for several years.

For now, the Megachargers are going to be situated on the West Coast, with a heavy emphasis on routes like I-5 and I-10. This strategy prioritizes major highways and logistics hubs where freight traffic is heaviest, ensuring coverage for both cross-country and regional hauls.

California and Texas are slated to have the most initially, with 17 and 19 sites, respectively. As the program continues to grow, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Washington, New York, and Nevada will have Megacharger locations as well.

For now, the Megachargers are available in Lathrop, California, and Sparks, Nevada, both of which have ties to Tesla. The former is the location of the Megafactory, and Sparks is where both the Tesla Gigafactory and Semifactory are located.

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