Tesla Giga Berlin will have a battery cell production facility, and the question just comes down to when. Appropriately enough, when the company finds the help it needs to get the cell production portion of the facility underway, Tesla will start manufacturing batteries. The real shortcoming is the fact that the required talent isn’t available, and high rates of employee turnover could lead to delays in the company’s plans to produce cells in Germany.
Jefferies analyst Philippe Houchois asked Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Senior VP of Powertrain and Energy Engineering Drew Baglino what issues Tesla may encounter on its journey toward full-scale cell production at the future German plant.
“Will there be the battery capacity consistence with the amount of assembly volume you expect to come out of the — And if not, would you be able to source your battery requirements out of Europe? Or would you have to import batteries from outside Europe to ensure production in Berlin,” Houchois asked the two Tesla execs during the Q2 2020 Earnings Call.
Musk confirmed that Giga Berlin would have cell manufacturing that would handle the production load that comes out of the facility, but Drew Baglino gave more detail on what the delays could be. Hint: It has to do with a lack of available talent.
Baglino mostly added onto Musk’s comment, confirming that a cell production facility would be in Berlin eventually. Still, it depends on when the company can put together a sufficient battery manufacturing team at the new Gigafactory.
“Like the same goes in all areas of cell, supply chain, manufacturing materials, design, we are solving this problem, and we’re treating it like any other problem that we have solved. We will solve this problem, talented people to join us as we solve this problem,” Baglino said.
Once the workers get there, they need to stay. They can’t be in “the garden,” as Musk calls it.
“My biggest concern for getting our talented people is just probably Berlin because the labor mobility in Europe is not as low. I would recommend changing this. Like somebody wants to leave and join another company,” Musk said. “Sometimes they have to spend six months on garden leave. It’s called garden, hanging out in the garden basically, and like this is not a good use of people’s time. I mean, if they want us to hang out on the garden, that’s fine, but they shouldn’t have to.”
Interestingly enough, workers leaving Tesla to join other companies is a relevant issue. Tesla has filed multiple lawsuits, most recently against fellow electric carmaker Rivian, that accused the company of poaching employees. Tesla also has an open case with China-based Xpeng.
But either way, Tesla needs the workforce, and manufacturing jobs for Giga Berlin are of high availability, according to the company’s Career page.
Earlier in the call, Musk and Baglino both talked about the need for manufacturing workers who would be willing to help the company improve production lines.
For a long time, Musk has stated that Tesla is looking for brilliant minds to help revolutionize the way the company manufactures vehicles. The CEO has said that too many smart people end up going into medicine or law, and improvements to manufacturing are needed as well.
Battery cell shortages were inhibiting Tesla from starting projects in other locations. One of those projects was the Tesla Semi, which Elon Musk indicated would begin a “volume production” push later this year.
The issue with producing the Semi beforehand was a shortage of battery cells. But now that the company has openly committed to building the commercial truck at Giga Texas, there is an indication that battery shortages are not an issue any longer.
The cells are there, but the workers are not. Tesla will eventually build these cells in Germany. Still, there needs to be an accommodating team to handle the workload, especially considering half a million vehicles a year will be rolling off the production lines starting in July 2021.
SpaceX has announced a new target date for the thirteenth test flight of Starship: Monday, July 20, with the launch window opening at 6:45 p.m ET/5:45 p.m. CT.
This is the first rescheduling attempt of Starship’s 13th test flight. It was set to launch last night, but SpaceX scrubbed the launch attempt.
🚨 SpaceX is now looking at Monday, July 20th at 6:45 p.m ET/5:45 p.m. CT for the 13th test flight of Starship pic.twitter.com/7s8aMJV5Ge
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 17, 2026
CEO Elon Musk revealed that some of the engines on Starship did not start, which automatically triggers a launch abort. Two of the Raptor engines will be removed and replaced.
To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed & replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 17, 2026
SpaceX officially announced the new launch window this morning.
Starship’s 13th test launch comes with a few new objectives, but SpaceX does not plan to attempt a catch of the booster, which it has done several times in the past.
For Starship’s Upper Stage, there are some adjustments to ensure engine reusability that will be assessed during the ascent, and 20 operational Starlink V3 satellites are also set to make their way into space. SpaceX also plans to attempt an in-space relight of a single Raptor engine, which is a critical demonstration for future orbital deorbit, refueling, and deep space maneuvers.
Ultimately, it will splash down in the Indian Ocean.
The continuous tests help SpaceX advance the Starship program toward eventual full reusability, operational Starlink V3 deployment, and future missions, which include NASA’s Artemis program.
Elon Musk
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 aborted at Zero and Musk just told us what broke
Four Raptor engines failed to ignite at T-zero, forcing SpaceX to scrub Starship Flight 13 Thursday.
SpaceX scrubbed the Starship Flight 13 launch attempt Thursday evening at the last possible moment, after four of the Super Heavy booster’s 33 Raptor 3 engines failed to ignite during the startup sequence. The 90-minute window had opened at 6:45 p.m. EDT from Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, and the countdown had proceeded without issue all day, with more than 11.5 million pounds of liquid methane and liquid oxygen being fully loaded into the rocket before the automated abort triggered. SpaceX’s launch directors posted on X, “Standing down from today’s flight test attempt,” and shut down the livestream shortly after.
Musk confirmed the root cause within hours. “Some of the engines didn’t start, triggering an automatic launch abort,” he wrote on X. “To be confident of a good flight, 2 Raptors will be removed and replaced. Most probable launch timing is early next week.” SpaceX engineers began draining propellant tanks immediately and Booster 20 was rolled back to its hangar for inspection.
The timing adds a layer of significance that did not exist during any of the previous 12 Starship flights. This is the first time SpaceX has attempted to launch Starship since the company made its stock market debut in June, listing under ticker SPCX at $135 per share. Public investors are now watching every Starship outcome in real time, and a last-second abort carries more visibility than it would have six months ago.
Flight 13 was designed to be one of the most consequential tests in the program’s history. It was set to carry 20 Starlink V3 satellites, the first operational payload Starship has ever attempted to deploy. Six of those satellites carried external cameras to photograph Starship’s heat shield from the outside during flight, which would act as a self-inspection approach SpaceX has never attempted before. The mission also needed to complete a Raptor engine relight in space, a step SpaceX skipped on Flight 12 in May after losing an engine during ascent. That Flight 12 booster also flipped 90 degrees off course during its boostback burn when five engines failed to reignite.
SpaceX has not announced an official next launch date. Musk’s “early next week” window points to July 21 or 22 at the earliest, pending the engine swap and a return to the pad.
Elon Musk flew under the radar with his recent purchase of a $1 billion energy company, according to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) documents.
Transaction number 202612350 listed Tesla and SpaceX frontman Elon Musk as the acquiring party and CF APR Super Holdings LLC as the seller, with New APR Energy, LLC as the acquired entity. The deal, which closed without public announcement, came to light on May 14.
BREAKING: Elon Musk acquires Jacksonville power company APR Energy in a deal valued at more than $1,000,000,000.00.
— Polymarket Money (@PolymarketMoney) July 15, 2026
Analysts inferred the deal’s scale from minority stakeholder disclosures, including one report of a 5 percent interest sold for approximately $50.4 million. Fortress Investment Group had purchased APR’s assets in late 2024, rebranded the operation as New APR Energy, and subsequently transferred ownership to Musk.
APR Energy specializes in rapidly deployable power infrastructure. The company maintains one of the world’s largest fleets of mobile gas and diesel turbines, with more than 1.1 gigawatts of generation capacity. Its modular units, which are often trailer-mounted, enable turnkey installations ranging from 20 MW to over 500 MW.
APR provides full engineering, procurement, construction, operation, and maintenance services for behind-the-meter power plants, serving everything from data centers, utilities, and industrial clients.
The firm has expanded aggressively to meet surging demand, recently adding turbines and deploying over 100 MW for a major AI hyperscaler. Its solutions bridge critical gaps where grid interconnections face delays of two to five years, according to Yahoo.
The acquisition means something more for Musk. As he continues to expand projects in artificial intelligence, especially xAI, his AI venture, there is a greater need to supply energy-intensive supercomputing clusters, including the Colossus project, with what they need: reliable and high-capacity power.
Ownership of APR provides immediate access to flexible generation assets that can be deployed adjacent to data centers, reducing dependence on a strained infrastructure. It also complements Tesla’s energy storage business, so Musk will be able to pull from his own entities to address the rapid scaling demands of AI training and compute.
SpaceX announces new Starship 13 test flight target date
SpaceX Starship Flight 13 aborted at Zero and Musk just told us what broke
