News
Tesla Model 3 battery details revealed in partial teardown and analysis
The Tesla Model 3’s battery pack was given a partial teardown treatment recently, thanks to the efforts of automotive veteran Jack Rickard and his team at EVTV. Rickard, a car enthusiast who conducts electric vehicle conversions, was ultimately impressed with how the Model 3’s battery was assembled, as well as the refinement of its design.
Rickard’s team was able to acquire the battery pack from a totaled Model 3. Upon removing the pack from the vehicle, the electric car conversion specialist’s interest was piqued by the covering of the battery modules. According to Rickard, the sections of the battery pack directly above the Model 3’s 2170 cells had a thin pad that was strangely wet.
This particular section mentioned by Rickard appear to be the “fluff” that Elon Musk mentioned during Tesla’s Q1 2018 earnings call. According to Musk, the fiberglass mats, which are placed on top of the battery pack, became one of the scenarios that proved human hands can work better than robots.
“They’re basically fluff. We tried to automate the placement and bonding of fluff to the top of the battery pack, which was ridiculous. ‘Flufferbot,’ which was really an incredibly difficult machine to make work. Machines are not good at picking up pieces of fluff. Hands are way better at doing that,” Musk said.
Another particularly compelling observation highlighted by Rickard was that the four modules of the Model 3 battery pack were not identical, with two modules featuring 25 cell groups in series and the other two featuring 23 cell groups in series. Rickard’s team did not tear down the battery packs down to its individual 2170 cells, but it was mentioned that each one of the cell groups includes 46 2170 cells that are connected in parallel. Overall, the vehicle appears to have a total of 4,416 2170 cells, at least for the Model 3’s long-range RWD configuration.
The Model 3’s battery weighs 1,054 pounds, which, according to the group, places the energy density of the pack at around 168 Wh/kg. The individual modules of the Model 3 battery are lined with a ribbon-like circuit that goes across the top of the modules and into a BMS board. The BMS boards are sub-boards that are installed on each module, and are, in turn, connected to a main board using only two pins.
One of the Model 3 battery pack’s BMS boards. [Credit: Jack Rickard/YouTube]
Ultimately, the EVTV team was impressed with the Model 3’s battery, with Rickard even dubbing it as the “best battery ever built to date.” The electric car conversion specialist also noted that the Model 3 battery would likely be a favorite among the DIY community. Considering that Tesla is attempting to achieve a production rate of 5,000 Model 3 per week by the end of Q2 2018, Rickard noted that the electric car’s batteries would probably be abundant in the market. This bodes well for DIY enthusiasts like Rickard, who could utilize the modules as batteries for RVs, home battery units, and electric car conversions, among other projects.
Jack Rickard and his team’s observations about the Model 3’s battery are in line with the findings of Sandy Munro during his firm’s teardown of the vehicle. In a recent episode of Autoline After Hours, Munro dubbed the Model 3’s pack as the best in the industry, noting the .2 milliamp differential between each of the battery blocks.
“Nobody can balance batteries that close. Nobody. Nobody’s ever done that,” Munro said.
Watch Jack Rickard and his team’s Model 3 battery teardown in the video below.
Elon Musk
Musk bankers looking to trim xAI debt after SpaceX merger: report
xAI has built up $18 billion in debt over the past few years, with some of this being attributed to the purchase of social media platform Twitter (now X) and the creation of the AI development company. A new financing deal would help trim some of the financial burden that is currently present ahead of the plan to take SpaceX public sometime this year.
Elon Musk’s bankers are looking to trim the debt that xAI has taken on over the past few years, following the company’s merger with SpaceX, a new report from Bloomberg says.
xAI has built up $18 billion in debt over the past few years, with some of this being attributed to the purchase of social media platform Twitter (now X) and the creation of the AI development company. Bankers are trying to create some kind of financing plan that would trim “some of the heavy interest costs” that come with the debt.
The financing deal would help trim some of the financial burden that is currently present ahead of the plan to take SpaceX public sometime this year. Musk has essentially confirmed that SpaceX would be heading toward an IPO last month.
The report indicates that Morgan Stanley is expected to take the leading role in any financing plan, citing people familiar with the matter. Morgan Stanley, along with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Chase & Co., are all expected to be in the lineup of banks leading SpaceX’s potential IPO.
Since Musk acquired X, he has also had what Bloomberg says is a “mixed track record with debt markets.” Since purchasing X a few years ago with a $12.5 billion financing package, X pays “tens of millions in interest payments every month.”
That debt is held by Bank of America, Barclays, Mitsubishi, UFJ Financial, BNP Paribas SA, Mizuho, and Société Générale SA.
X merged with xAI last March, which brought the valuation to $45 billion, including the debt.
SpaceX announced the merger with xAI earlier this month, a major move in Musk’s plan to alleviate Earth of necessary data centers and replace them with orbital options that will be lower cost:
“In the long term, space-based AI is obviously the only way to scale. To harness even a millionth of our Sun’s energy would require over a million times more energy than our civilization currently uses! The only logical solution, therefore, is to transport these resource-intensive efforts to a location with vast power and space. I mean, space is called “space” for a reason.”
The merger has many advantages, but one of the most crucial is that it positions the now-merged companies to fund broader goals, fueled by revenue from the Starlink expansion, potential IPO, and AI-driven applications that could accelerate the development of lunar bases.
News
Tesla pushes Full Self-Driving outright purchasing option back in one market
Tesla announced last month that it would eliminate the ability to purchase the Full Self-Driving software outright, instead opting for a subscription-only program, which will require users to pay monthly.
Tesla has pushed the opportunity to purchase the Full Self-Driving suite outright in one market: Australia.
The date remains February 14 in North America, but Tesla has pushed the date back to March 31, 2026, in Australia.
NEWS: Tesla is ending the option to buy FSD as a one-time outright purchase in Australia on March 31, 2026.
It still ends on Feb 14th in North America. https://t.co/qZBOztExVT pic.twitter.com/wmKRZPTf3r
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) February 13, 2026
Tesla announced last month that it would eliminate the ability to purchase the Full Self-Driving software outright, instead opting for a subscription-only program, which will require users to pay monthly.
If you have already purchased the suite outright, you will not be required to subscribe once again, but once the outright purchase option is gone, drivers will be required to pay the monthly fee.
The reason for the adjustment is likely due to the short period of time the Full Self-Driving suite has been available in the country. In North America, it has been available for years.
Tesla hits major milestone with Full Self-Driving subscriptions
However, Tesla just launched it just last year in Australia.
Full Self-Driving is currently available in seven countries: the United States, Canada, China, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.
The company has worked extensively for the past few years to launch the suite in Europe. It has not made it quite yet, but Tesla hopes to get it launched by the end of this year.
In North America, Tesla is only giving customers one more day to buy the suite outright before they will be committed to the subscription-based option for good.
The price is expected to go up as the capabilities improve, but there are no indications as to when Tesla will be doing that, nor what type of offering it plans to roll out for owners.
Elon Musk
Starlink terminals smuggled into Iran amid protest crackdown: report
Roughly 6,000 units were delivered following January’s unrest.
The United States quietly moved thousands of Starlink terminals into Iran after authorities imposed internet shutdowns as part of its crackdown on protests, as per information shared by U.S. officials to The Wall Street Journal.
Roughly 6,000 units were delivered following January’s unrest, marking the first known instance of Washington directly supplying the satellite systems inside the country.
Iran’s government significantly restricted online access as demonstrations spread across the country earlier this year. In response, the U.S. purchased nearly 7,000 Starlink terminals in recent months, with most acquisitions occurring in January. Officials stated that funding was reallocated from other internet access initiatives to support the satellite deployment.
President Donald Trump was aware of the effort, though it remains unclear whether he personally authorized it. The White House has not issued a comment about the matter publicly.
Possession of a Starlink terminal is illegal under Iranian law and can result in significant prison time. Despite this, the WSJ estimated that tens of thousands of residents still rely on the satellite service to bypass state controls. Authorities have reportedly conducted inspections of private homes and rooftops to locate unauthorized equipment.
Earlier this year, Trump and Elon Musk discussed maintaining Starlink access for Iranians during the unrest. Tehran has repeatedly accused Washington of encouraging dissent, though U.S. officials have mostly denied the allegations.
The decision to prioritize Starlink sparked internal debate within U.S. agencies. Some officials argued that shifting resources away from Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) could weaken broader internet access efforts. VPNs had previously played a major role in keeping Iranians connected during earlier protest waves, though VPNs are not effective when the actual internet gets cut.
According to State Department figures, about 30 million Iranians used U.S.-funded VPN services during demonstrations in 2022. During a near-total blackout in June 2025, roughly one-fifth of users were still able to access limited connectivity through VPN tools.
Critics have argued that satellite access without VPN protection may expose users to geolocation risks. After funds were redirected to acquire Starlink equipment, support reportedly lapsed for two of five VPN providers operating in Iran.
A State Department official has stated that the U.S. continues to back multiple technologies, including VPNs alongside Starlink, to sustain people’s internet access amidst the government’s shutdowns.
Musk bankers looking to trim xAI debt after SpaceX merger: report
SpaceX launches Crew-12 on Falcon 9, lands first booster at new LZ-40 pad
