Investor's Corner
Tesla seemingly registers batch of Left Hand Drive Model 3 VINs for EU region
Tesla appears to be laying the foundations for its upcoming international Model 3 push. Amidst the company’s ongoing initiative to produce the Model 3 at scale, Tesla has registered a batch of 1,481 new Model 3 VINs, 19 of which include references suggesting that the electric cars could be intended for the EU region.
The latest batch of Model 3 VINs filed by the company was posted by watchdog group @Model3VINs on Twitter. The group noted in a follow-up post that 19 of the new VINs are listed with a different code (“7”) for their “Restraint System.” The “7” code for the Restraint System has been used by Tesla in the past, particularly when denoting a Model S configured for the EU.
“The first 19 VINs (108730-108748) contain a new code (‘7’) in the 6th position, which represents the “Restraint System” for the vehicle. Although the code is not incl. in the decoder submitted to NHTSA, it appears to be used in Model S to denote an EU car.“
#Tesla registered 1,481 new #Model3 VINs. ~50% estimated to be dual motor. Highest VIN is 110210. https://t.co/jT70ob6Z7o
— Model 3 VINs (@Model3VINs) August 31, 2018
That said, the 19 Model 3 VINs with “7” listed in their Restraint System were still Left Hand Drive, suggesting that the release of the region’s highly-anticipated Right Hand Drive variants would likely still follow Elon Musk’s mid-2019 estimate. Among the EU-designated vehicles are Model 3 that are RWD and AWD. A list of the VINs with EU references provided to Clean Technica indicates that no Model 3 Performance (“4” in the 8th digit of the VIN) has been registered for the region yet.
Tesla appears to be preparing the Model 3 for an international release. Earlier this month, the electric car maker brought over the electric sedan to Australia and New Zealand to give reservation holders and potential customers a hands-on experience with the vehicle. The Model 3 unveiling events were quite successful, with some reservation holders from Australia traveling for hours just to see the electric car in person.
Following up on the success of its Australia and New Zealand event, Tesla also appears to be bringing the Model 3 to Hong Kong. This was revealed in an email sent to the Tesla community in the Asian nation, inviting them to a “Special Event.” A header in the invite for the Hong Kong event featured the outline of a vehicle that is unmistakably a Model 3.
This third quarter appears to be a breakthrough period for Tesla, which has struggled since July 2017 to mass produce the electric car. After missed deadlines and a series of manufacturing problems that comprised Elon Musk’s self-dubbed “production hell,” the company finally seems to have hit its stride this Q3. Since producing 5,000 Model 3 per week at the final week of June, the company has not let up in its efforts, with Elon Musk confirming during the Q2 2018 earnings call that the 5,000/week pace had been sustained during “multiple weeks” in July.
Tesla’s Model 3 production this August also shows encouraging signs. During the month, Tesla’s Model 3 VIN filings passed the 100,000-vehicle mark. Bloomberg‘s Model 3 production tracker, which has gotten more accurate over the past few months, also estimated that Tesla was able to manufacture 6,000 of the electric cars in one week. The company’s progress in the production of the Model 3 has become a point of confidence for Nomura Instinet analyst Romit Shah, who recently noted that Tesla could produce as many as 65,000-70,000 of the electric cars this third quarter.
Investor's Corner
Tesla gets its latest short from Michael Burry: ‘Happy it jumped back to this level’
Tesla short seller Michael Burry, the subject of the film “The Big Short,” where he was portrayed by Steve Carell, has revealed he has opened a new bet against the stock.
In a new update to his Substack newsletter in a post titled “Trading Post June 30, 2026,” Burry revealed a new set of bets against Tesla, Caterpillar, NVIDIA, Applied Materials Inc., and the iShares Semiconductor ETF.
In regard to Tesla, Burry wrote:
“And finally I shorted Tesla at 416.22. Happy it jumped back to this level.”
This means Burry likely opened his new short position after the company’s recent rally on Wall Street, which saw Tesla shares sink in mid-May, only to recover to well over the $400 mark. Currently, shares trade at around $427.
The company saw a big Tuesday as shares climbed considerably, over 10 percent. The size of the Tesla short was not provided, nor did Burry give any information on the position’s structure, the number of shares, dollar value, or whether options were used in the short.
The Tesla and SpaceX merger everyone is talking about is quietly building
Over the years, Burry has been one of the more vocal critics of Tesla, calling its share price “media inflated,” and saying it was “ridiculously overvalued” as recently as December.
The company has largely transitioned away from being known as an automotive company and instead is much more widely regarded as an AI play, mostly due to its Full Self-Driving efforts, Optimus robot development, and data collection related to both.
This has not pulled those skeptics away from being vocal about their distaste for how Tesla is valued, but there’s no denying that the company is a global force in many things, including sustainable energy, automotive, and AI.
Wedbush Securities is initiating stock coverage on SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX), marking the first comments on the company since it went public several weeks ago. Wedbush and its analyst handling coverage, Dan Ives, are widely bullish on fellow Musk company Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA).
Ives wrote his first note initiating coverage of SpaceX shares on Wednesday with a $190 price target and an ‘Outperform’ rating. The firm believes the company is well positioned off of its IPO because of its wide array of projects, including AI compute power and infrastructure, connectivity projects, and launches.
“We view SpaceX as one of the most differentiated assets within the tech market with a strong footprint across its three core markets, with Starlink driving success with connectivity,” Ives wrote, “Starship launches leading to a demand flywheel and increasing deal flow for its Colossus clusters.”
Elon Musk called it Epic: The full story of SpaceX’s Starship Flight 12
Wedbush leans heavily on Starlink, which they say is the “profitability driver given the strength of its recurring revenue base of ~12 million subscribers as of June 5th.” Ives believes Starlink is still in the “early innings” of penetrating the global telecommunications and broadband market, as it only holds less than a 1 percent share. However, this number is sure to increase over time.
It also highlights the importance of Starship, which it says is an “essential layer” of SpaceX’s overall success. SpaceX developing and displaying the ability to reuse rockets is a major cost and reliability advantage “as it reduces the necessary hardware launch costs while generating a feedback loop for future flights to improve their launch flight rate without accelerating capex spend.”
Finally, SpaceX’s recent AI/Compute projects are also very elementary, Ives writes. It is worth mentioning Wedbush said its $190 price target is derived from a valuation forecast that sees the company yielding roughly $2.48 trillion of implied enterprise value.
There are also some factors that Wedbush did not take into account with its initial coverage. The firm wrote in the note:
“We note that there is optional value coming from Starship’s accelerating scale towards sub-$200/kg unit economics, orbital data centers, and enterprise AI monetization as these factors could drive meaningful upside but these face major hurdles, so we do not take that into account with our valuation.”
SpaceX shares are down just over 2 percent today, trading at around $167 at the time of publication.
For years, there have been images and videos across social media platforms that have reminded me of when I was a 15-year-old kid teased by “Xbox 720” videos on YouTube. These videos are of the supposed “Tesla Phone” that Elon Musk was secretly developing in between leading Tesla with its electric cars and SpaceX with its reusable rockets.
Would you buy a Tesla phone ? pic.twitter.com/aaTwvvIJit
— Tesla Owners Silicon Valley (@teslaownersSV) October 6, 2023
Although Musk has put those rumors to bed several times, it was never completely out of the realm that he could get involved in cell phones in some capacity. Think outside the box and more macro-level, though. Instead of reinventing the computer, Musk reinvented connectivity by developing Starlink with SpaceX.
It could be something similar, TD Cowen analyst Gregory Williams said in a note last week, where he hinted SpaceX could be gathering some steam to acquire T-Mobile.
Williams said it would be the “clear choice” for SpaceX if it decided to go through with a network acquisition. He also suggested AT&T.
The move would be possible through selling more of its own stock, which would help SpaceX raise the money to purchase T-Mobile, which would cost roughly $300 billion. It could be one of the moves SpaceX makes post-IPO in terms of an acquisition: it already acquired Cursor AI for $60 billion.
Other analysts, like Dan Ives of Wedbush, believe SpaceX and Tesla will eventually merge into one anyway, and that conglomeration could come as soon as this year, some have said.
The implications of SpaceX purchasing T-Mobile are massive. A combined entity would create a truly ubiquitous network: T-Mobile’s terrestrial 5G towers and Starlink’s growing constellation of Direct-to-Cell satellites. This would essentially eliminate dead zones across the U.S. and potentially globally.
SpaceX would instantly become a full-scale facilities-based carrier with satellite differentiation; a huge advantage. This would pressure AT&T and Verizon heavily.
There are also concerns like a potential reduction in long-term competition, and of course, a deal of that size would face intense scrutiny from government agencies.
The strategic fit is compelling due to the existing Starlink–T-Mobile partnership and complementary technologies (space + terrestrial). It could create a dominant integrated communications player. However, the regulatory, financial, and execution hurdles are enormous — this remains highly speculative with no indication SpaceX is actively pursuing it right now.
Tesla Optimus project fires up as Musk sees production line progress
Tesla gets its latest short from Michael Burry: ‘Happy it jumped back to this level’
