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Tesla registers more than 6k new Model 3 VINs, estimated ~100% dual motor AWD

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Tesla recently registered a large batch of 6,032 new Model 3 VINs, with almost all of the filings corresponding to the Dual Motor AWD variant of the compact electric car. The new vehicle identification registrations come at a time when Tesla is actively pushing its deliveries for the Model 3.

The new batch of Model 3 Dual Motor AWD VINs was reported by Twitter watchdog group @Model3VINs, which tracks Tesla’s registrations for the vehicle. According to the group, Tesla’s recent filing — which numbers 6,032 new VINs that are estimated to be ~100% Dual Motor AWD — has brought the company’s total number of Model 3 registrations to 69,601 units.

This recent filing stands as yet another sign that Tesla is well on its way to sustaining its production rate of 5,000 Model 3 per week this third quarter. The production milestone was finally attained by the company during the final week of June, but it did not escape criticism from the company’s doubters, some of whom predicted that the Model 3’s 5,000/week “burst” production would be unsustainable. These doubts, together with lower than expected Model 3 deliveries revealed in Tesla’s Q2 2018 delivery and production report, ultimately caused the company’s stocks to tumble last week.

Since then, however, signs have emerged pointing to the idea that Tesla would be able to sustain its 5,000/week production rate for the Model 3 this third quarter. Just recently, reports emerged from the Tesla community that the company had rolled out configurator emails to all Model 3 reservation holders. This was followed by an encouraging trend displayed by Bloomberg‘s Model 3 production tracker, which currently forecasts that Tesla would be able to sustain its “burst” production rate of 5,000 vehicles per week for the next three weeks. Bloomberg‘s Model 3 production tracker has become more accurate over the past few months, with the system only being 2% off its estimates for Tesla’s Q2 figures for the compact electric car. With this in mind, there is a pretty fair chance of the tracker’s favorable forecast for Model 3 production would prove to be accurate.

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Bloomberg’s Tesla Model 3 tracker as of 7/11/18. [Credit: Bloomberg]

Tesla has also started changing its strategy for the Model 3. Since the vehicle reservations exceeded the company’s estimates, Tesla has embarked on an initiative to anti-sell the compact electric car. CEO Elon Musk, for one, noted on Twitter that the Model 3, while newer than the Model S, is not a superior vehicle. Tesla’s official website also included a table comparing the Model S favorably to the Model 3, both in features and in availability. Despite this anti-selling, however, Model 3 reservations remained high, with Tesla most recently confirming that it still has a backlog of 420,000 orders for the electric car.

With the release of configurator emails for reservation holders and the rollout of programs such as test drives in selected stores, as well as a new 5-minute “Sign & Drive” delivery system, Tesla appears to have stopped anti-selling the Model 3. The Model 3, after all, would likely determine whether Tesla could achieve its target of becoming profitable this third or fourth quarter.  

Overall, filings such as today’s batch of 6,032 new Model 3 Dual Motor AWD VINs are encouraging for Tesla. The company, after all, is only producing the Model 3 Performance with Dual Motor AWD for now. Among the Model 3’s variants, the Performance trim, which comes with Dual Motor AWD as default, features a healthy profit margin, with the vehicle starting at $64,000. With this in mind, this newest batch of Model 3 filings, provided that the cars do get delivered this third quarter, could definitely help Tesla’s profitability goals this Q3 2018.

Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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Elon Musk gives his most telling Tesla-SpaceX merger conversation yet

Elon Musk hinted a Tesla-SpaceX merger could be coming, and Wall Street is taking notice.

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Elon Musk gave his clearest signal yet that Tesla and SpaceX could eventually combine, telling the All-In Summit in Los Angeles that the two companies’ deepening collaboration makes the question worth asking. Sawyer Merritt first surfaced the highlight on X Tuesday.

Asked directly why Tesla and SpaceX remain separate given how closely they already work together, Musk told hosts at the summit: “Great question there. With all this collaboration, on so many levels, who can imagine what action one might take when there’s so much close collaboration in so many areas.” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell, who joined Musk on stage, added that SpaceX personnel have already moved into xAI to fill leadership and engineering gaps, saying the businesses are integrating “faster than I thought,” though “not fully integrated yet,”

The comments landed on top of merger speculation that has been building on Wall Street for months. JPMorgan has called a tie-up “strategically coherent on paper,” pointing to overlapping ambitions in AI, robotics, energy, transportation and space. Jefferies went further, estimating Musk could retain roughly 55.3 percent voting control in a deal structured without a premium, a scenario that would still leave room for Tesla shareholders to come out ahead. On Kalshi, traders now put the odds of a merger before 2028 at 66 percent.

Tesla’s stake in SpaceX, still under one percent, traces back to its earlier investment in xAI, which converted to SpaceX equity after SpaceX absorbed the AI company. The two are also jointly building Terafab, a chip facility in Austin meant to serve both Tesla’s AI computing needs and SpaceX’s satellite ambitions. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has stood by a 2027 merger timeline for months, and Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest recently floated a similar case, an idea Musk pushed back on directly at the time.

Another Tesla SpaceX merger prediction by ARK Invest has Elon Musk talking

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The timing adds another layer. Tesla has scheduled an October 1 unveiling for its next generation Roadster at a venue near SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas test site, using the phrase “Go for launch” in its promotional material. Both stocks dipped roughly 2 percent Monday before recovering slightly in premarket trading Tuesday, with SpaceX shares up about 0.4 percent and Tesla essentially flat.

Musk stopped short of confirming anything is in motion. But unlike his past denials of a corporate restructuring, this response didn’t rule one out, and it came with Shotwell sitting next to him describing an integration that’s already underway.

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Tesla Cybercabs narrowly miss deadly Amazon cargo plane crash

An Amazon cargo plane crash near Miami’s airport stopped feet from dozens of Tesla Cybercabs.

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Photorealistic depiction of the Amazon Prime plane crash in Miami on Sep 3, 2026 near a fleet of Tesla Cybercab
Photorealistic depiction of the Amazon Prime plane crash in Miami on Sep 3, 2026 near a fleet of Tesla Cybercab

An Amazon Prime Air Boeing 767 cargo jet overran the runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday afternoon, killing five people and injuring five more. The jet, operated by North Carolina based carrier 21 Air as Flight 7598, touched down around 2 p.m. after arriving from San Juan, Puerto Rico, then crossed the airport perimeter, plowed across NW 67th Avenue and struck multiple vehicles before catching fire, according to the Associated Press.

Photos and video from the scene show the aircraft’s nose stopped within meters of a fenced staging lot holding dozens of gold painted Tesla Cybercabs, the steering wheel free robotaxi Tesla began putting on public roads in Austin last week. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue has confirmed the plane struck “multiple vehicles” but has not said whether any Cybercabs were among them, and neither Tesla nor airport officials have addressed the fleet directly.

The Cybercabs had not yet entered commercial service in Miami. Tesla’s existing Robotaxi operation there runs on modified Model Y vehicles and has been unsupervised since Ashok Elluswamy confirmed the detail on X in July.


Elon Musk offered the briefest of reactions. Replying to a Zero Hedge post about the Cybercabs sitting so close to the wreckage, he wrote a single word: “Weird.” He has not commented further, and Tesla has not issued a statement.

The timing puts Tesla’s newest vehicle near an unrelated but highly visible tragedy just days after its Austin debut, a launch that had already drawn scrutiny from federal regulators. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an audit how Tesla certified the Cybercab as compliant with federal vehicle safety standards, a process Teslarati covered after the vehicle’s September 3 launch event. That inquiry concerns the car’s lack of a steering wheel and pedals, not the Miami crash.

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Investigators from the FAA and NTSB are focused on the plane, not the parking lot beside it. Flight data reviewed by outlets including Simple Flying show the 767 touched down around 170 knots, well above the 135 to 140 knot range typical for the aircraft, though investigators have not determined a cause. Amazon said it is working with authorities and that its priority is the safety of everyone affected.

Whether any Cybercabs were damaged, and what Tesla plans for the fleet parked near one of the country’s busiest airports, remain open questions.

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Tesla Cybercab is coming to Asia this month as US service officially begins

Tesla Asia says Cybercab will be on display in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai this month.

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Concept image of Tesla Cybercab in the streets of Hong Kong via Grok
Concept image of Tesla Cybercab in the streets of Hong Kong via Grok

Tesla’s Cybercab is heading to Asia. The official Tesla Asia account posted on X Thursday, inviting Cybercab fans to “Come experience the future of autonomy in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing & Shanghai.” The post went up within hours of Tesla’s own Cybercab milestone in Texas, where the company said Thursday it had begun offering rides in across Austin.

Exact dates and venues for the Asia tour haven’t been released yet, though Tesla Hong Kong replied to the announcement with “Cybercab will be on display in Hong Kong soon,” while Tesla Japan’s response pointed fans to a sign up page for updates. Neither post mentions test rides or a service area, and nothing so far suggests Tesla is launching Robotaxi operations in any of the four cities. Based on how Tesla has run past Cybercab tours, in Europe in late 2024 and at US shopping centers that same December, the Asia stops are almost certainly static displays at Tesla stores or public venues as a means to stimulate buzz for its future driverless ride-hailing service in the big cities.

The timing lines up with Tesla’s only prior Cybercab appearance in the region, a booth at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai last November, which Teslarati covered at the time. At that event, Tesla’s regional general manager for Shanghai framed the car as evidence of the company’s broader mission, a message Tesla has since formalized in its Master Plan Part IV, which states that “autonomous vehicles have the capacity to dramatically improve the affordability, availability and safety of transportation while reducing pollution, particularly in our increasingly dense global cities.” The same document is where Tesla lays out its “sustainable abundance” framing for Cybercab and Optimus alike, describing the two as the hardware behind an AI driven push to cut the cost of transportation and labor at scale.

Whether Cybercab actually operates as a robotaxi anywhere in Asia remains an open question, considering China has already pushed an autonomous ride-hailing market that’s run on homegrown players like Baidu’s Apollo Go and Pony AI. For now, the four city tour reads as a marketing push timed to Austin’s momentum.

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