News
How Tesla’s Elon Musk dunks on the competition just as their momentum builds
It’s an emotion-filled, intense game. When you’re down the court. In the zone. Elon Musk goes up for the slam and WHAM!
Just when you least expected it.
Oh, that’s gotta hurt.
The script plays out time and time again. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk bursts into action. Like a runaway freight train. But with intent. Strategy. Musk charges in with a timely announcement to derail the momentum of his competition, just as they’re about to gain traction. Cheers for the competition become silence.
We were reminded of Musk’s mastery of the game this past week when a timely leaked email would inform the world that Tesla was preparing for volume production of its highly-anticipated Semi truck. Shares of Tesla shot up past $1,000 to raise the bar on its all-time high, while any trace of attention on a competing rival – Nikola – would be lost.
Electric-hydrogen commercial truck maker Nikola had just come off of a momentous week after going public in its Initial Public Offering.
While Musk’s announcement was surely a positive one for Tesla, there may have been some intent behind it. Just as Nikola’s stock began to climb, Musk derailed their momentum by announcing Tesla’s plan to prioritize the Semi truck production. It’s a classic page out of Musk’s successful playbook to leverage a competitor’s momentum, as media centers the conversation around a particular industry, before ripping the ball away from the competition and go in for the slam dunk. It has happened throughout his storied career. And it will continue to do so.
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Porsche Taycan. We drove it. We appreciated it and we were on the bandwagon that the Porsche Taycan and its “repeatable performance” was destined for the famed Nürburgring. It was one of the first stories I covered as a writer for Teslarati and I can remember it pretty vividly. The Taycan hit the Green Hell in Germany in August and reportedly set a track record for a four-door production vehicle. However, that story wouldn’t last long.
Not more than a couple of weeks later, on September 5, Musk announced the Model S would be arriving at the Nürburgring to test its performance at the notoriously difficult racetrack. But it surely didn’t stop there. Musk then stated that Tesla had been developing an entirely new version of the Model S behind the scenes and that the wide-body design was a brand new tri-motor setup of the company’s flagship sedan. It was called “the Plaid Powertrain,” and it ripped through the Ring in record time.
Just as Porsche was starting to gain some momentum as an EV competitor to Tesla, Musk ripped their title right out from under them. Within a few weeks, everyone was done talking about the Taycan and wanted to know more about the Plaid Model S. As of right now, it is still a car that has is relatively face-value details available, but we all know it is going to be fast.
Next, Rivian’s momentum was surely derailed by Musk when the company decided to unveil the Cybertruck. Rivian’s R1T was going to be “the next big thing” in the consumer pickup truck segment. Personally, I was pretty impressed with how many people knew about Rivian, because many friends who have little interest in the automotive sector as a whole knew who Rivian was. In California, this wouldn’t be as impressive. But I live in Pennsylvania, and it was pretty cool to hear people talk about Rivian in such a mainstream manner.
In November, Rivian had been holding more reservation events, developing its production facilities, filing patents, and really establishing itself as a real leader in the EV pickup market. Then came along the Cybertruck.
The Cybertruck’s design and its dystopian-like unveiling event were enough to derail Rivian’s momentum. Nobody was talking about Rivian, and even to this day nearly eight months later, the Cybertruck is still the hot topic. While Rivian remains a relevant character in the electric pickup truck community, the casual electric car fan is sharing articles about the Cybertruck, and not the R1T.
I’ll be honest, the space race rivalry between Musk and Bezos isn’t something I’ve followed as closely as the automotive stuff. But I remember when Bezos was on CNN in 2015 talking about his Blue Origin rockets being the first fully reusable rockets in the world. But SpaceX had successfully landed a reusable rocket in 2012. Not to mention, Musk’s words were often times reused by Bezos, who would pawn them off as his own idea. A video of that is available here.
https://youtu.be/Qe_TTI64fJA
Anyway, the proof is in the pudding. Musk has used other companies to time his announcements for groundbreaking products. He did it with the Plaid Model S, he did it with the Cybertruck, and he did it with the Semi. Momentum building is especially difficult in automotive manufacturing simply because most companies all share the same features and commonalities. It takes something truly special for people to get excited.
Elon has developed an interesting way to spread the word about his new products, and he’s basically used other companies to do it. Some might call it timely, some might call it rude. I call it smart.
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Cybertruck
Tesla drops latest hint that new Cybertruck trim is selling like hotcakes
According to Tesla’s Online Design Studio, the new All-Wheel-Drive Cybertruck will now be delivered in April 2027. Earlier orders are still slated for early this Summer, but orders from here on forward are now officially pushed into next year:
Tesla’s new Cybertruck offering has had its delivery date pushed back once again. This is now the second time, and deliveries for the newest orders are now pushed well into 2027.
According to Tesla’s Online Design Studio, the new All-Wheel-Drive Cybertruck will now be delivered in April 2027. Earlier orders are still slated for early this Summer, but orders from here on forward are now officially pushed into next year:
🚨 Tesla has updated the $59,990 Cybertruck Dual Motor AWD’s estimated delivery date to April 2027.
First deliveries are still slated for June, but if you order it now, you’ll be waiting over a year.
Demand appears to be off the charts for the new Cybertruck and consumers are… pic.twitter.com/raDCCeC0zP
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) February 26, 2026
Just three days ago, the initial delivery date of June 2026 was pushed back to early Fall, and now, that date has officially moved to April 2027.
The fact that Tesla has had to push back deliveries once again proves one of two things: either Tesla has slow production plans for the new Cybertruck trim, or demand is off the charts.
Judging by how Tesla is already planning to raise the price based on demand in just a few days, it seems like the company knows it is giving a tremendous deal on this spec of Cybertruck, and units are moving quickly.
That points more toward demand and not necessarily to slower production plans, but it is not confirmed.
Tesla Cybertruck’s newest trim will undergo massive change in ten days, Musk says
Tesla is set to hike the price on March 1, so tomorrow will be the final day to grab the new Cybertruck trim for just $59,990.
It features:
- Dual Motor AWD w/ est. 325 mi of range
- Powered tonneau cover
- Bed outlets (2x 120V + 1x 240V) & Powershare capability
- Coil springs w/ adaptive damping
- Heated first-row seats w/ textile material that is easy to clean
- Steer-by-wire & Four Wheel Steering
- 6’ x 4’ composite bed
- Towing capacity of up to 7,500 lbs
- Powered frunk
Interestingly, the price offering is fairly close to what Tesla unveiled back in late 2019.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk outlines plan for first Starship tower catch attempt
Musk confirmed that Starship V3 Ship 1 (SN1) is headed for ground tests and expressed strong confidence in the updated vehicle design.
Elon Musk has clarified when SpaceX will first attempt to catch Starship’s upper stage with its launch tower. The CEO’s update provides the clearest teaser yet for the spacecraft’s recovery roadmap.
Musk shared the details in recent posts on X. In his initial post, Musk confirmed that Starship V3 Ship 1 (SN1) is headed for ground tests and expressed strong confidence in the updated vehicle design.
“Starship V3 SN1 headed for ground tests. I am highly confident that the V3 design will achieve full reusability,” Musk wrote.
In a follow-up post, Musk addressed when SpaceX would attempt to catch the upper stage using the launch tower’s robotic arms.
“Should note that SpaceX will only try to catch the ship with the tower after two perfect soft landings in the ocean. The risk of the ship breaking up over land needs to be very low,” Musk clarified.
His remarks suggest that SpaceX is deliberately reducing risk before attempting a tower catch of Starship’s upper stage. Such a milestone would mark a major step towards the full reuse of the Starship system.
SpaceX is currently targeting the first Starship V3 flight of 2026 this coming March. The spacecraft’s V3 iteration is widely viewed as a key milestone in SpaceX’s long-term strategy to make Starship fully reusable.
Starship V3 features a number of key upgrades over its previous iterations. The vehicle is equipped with SpaceX’s Raptor V3 engines, which are designed to deliver significantly higher thrust than earlier versions while reducing cost and weight.
The V3 design is also expected to be optimized for manufacturability, a critical step if SpaceX intends to scale the spacecraft’s production toward frequent launches for Starlink, lunar missions, and eventually Mars.
News
Tesla FSD (Supervised) could be approved in the Netherlands next month: Musk
Musk shared the update during a recent interview at Giga Berlin.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared that Full Self-Driving (FSD) could receive regulatory approval in the Netherlands as soon as March 20, potentially marking a major step forward for Tesla’s advanced driver-assistance rollout in Europe.
Musk shared the update during a recent interview at Giga Berlin, noting that the date was provided by local authorities.
“Tesla has the most advanced real-world AI, and hopefully, it will be approved soon in Europe. We’re told by the authorities that March 20th, it’ll be approved in the Netherlands,’ what I was told,” Musk stated.
“Hopefully, that date remains the same. But I think people in Europe are going to be pretty blown away by how good the Tesla car AI is in being able to drive.”
Tesla’s FSD system relies on vision-based neural networks trained on real-world driving data, allowing vehicles to navigate using cameras and AI rather than traditional sensor-heavy solutions.
The performance of FSD Supervised has so far been impressive. As per Tesla’s safety report, Full Self-Driving Supervised has already traveled 8.3 billion miles. So far, vehicles operating with FSD Supervised engaged recorded one major collision every 5,300,676 miles.
In comparison, Teslas driven manually with Active Safety systems recorded one major collision every 2,175,763 miles, while Teslas driven manually without Active Safety recorded one major collision every 855,132 miles. The U.S. average during the same period was one major collision every 660,164 miles.
If approval is granted on March 20, the Netherlands could become the first European market to greenlight Tesla’s latest supervised FSD (Supervised) software under updated regulatory frameworks. Tesla has been working to secure expanded FSD access across Europe, where regulatory standards differ significantly from those in the United States. Approval in the Netherlands would likely serve as a foundation for broader EU adoption, though additional country-level clearances may still be required.
Tesla drops latest hint that new Cybertruck trim is selling like hotcakes
Elon Musk outlines plan for first Starship tower catch attempt
