Update: Pre-2024 Model 3 trunk specs added on 9/16/23.
The Tesla Model 3 Highland has been making headlines in the past several weeks, as many have been able to take their first looks at the refreshed vehicle. Ahead of initial deliveries, some specifications for the refreshed Model 3 have surfaced — most recently including measurements for the frunk and trunk.
X user @DerCaspar shared photos of the Model 3 Highland on display at the Mall of Berlin on Friday, along with measurements for the newly redesigned vehicle’s frunk and trunk. Additionally, Caspar shared details about the sub-trunk, the small space beneath the floor of the trunk.
Check out the trunk, sub-trunk and frunk measurements below, according to Caspar:
Tesla Model 3 Highland trunk
– back row up 107 cm (~42.1 inches)
– back row down till seat 187 cm (~73.6 inches)
– back row down till seat moved 210 cm (~82.7 inches)
– back row down till front screen 270 cm (~106.3 inches)
– width between wheel covers 94 cm (~37 inches)
– width between back row hand bars 129.5 cm (~51 inches)
– height trunk opening 46 cm (~18.1 inches)
Tesla Model 3 Highland sub-trunk
– height till sub-trunk cover 29 cm (~11.4 inches)
– narrowest width 63 cm (~24.8 inches)
– narrowest depth 32 cm (~12.6 inches)
Tesla Model 3 Highland frunk
– frunk height 23 cm (~9.1 inches)
– frunk width 72 cm (~28.3 inches)
– frunk depth 35 cm (~13.8 inches)
You can see Caspar’s full thread on X below, where he details his initial impressions of the Model 3 Highland.
Tesla Model 3 Highland
I am seeing it first hand for the first time and will post measurements during the next hour as go through the car – it looks and feels awesome 🤩
Come along pic.twitter.com/d1lXQT1T3v
— Caspar – creating a positive future ✨ (@CasparThomale) September 15, 2023
Caspar also updated the thread with a German forum showing the pre-Highland Model 3’s trunk, sub-trunk and frunk dimensions. It’s worth noting that the measurements aren’t all taken the exact same way. As one example, Caspar measured the sub-trunk width and depth at its narrowest points, while the forum user measured the old Model 3’s depth at its deepest point.
Still, comparing the two sets of dimensions can provide a pretty good comparison point for the refreshed Highland Model 3.
You can head to the forum to see pictures showing how each dimension was measured.
Pre-2024 Tesla Model 3 (non-Highland) trunk
– back row up 107 cm (~42.1 inches)
– back row down till seat 190 cm (~74.8 inches)
– back row down till seat moved completely forward 206 cm (~81.1 inches)
– width between wheel covers 94 cm (~37 inches)
– height trunk opening 46 cm (~18.1 inches)
Pre-2024 Tesla Model 3 (non-Highland) sub-trunk
– height 30 cm (~11.8 inches)
– deepest depth 46 cm (~18.1 inches)
– width 61 cm (~24 inches)
Pre-2024 Tesla Model 3 (non-Highland) frunk
– frunk height 20 cm (~7.9 inches)
– frunk depth 38 cm (~15 inches)
– frunk width at 71 cm (~28 inches)
Other features in the Tesla Model 3 Highland
In addition to providing measurements for the trunk, sub-trunk and frunk spaces, Caspar later noted a few of his favorite features in the Model 3 Highland. These included the infotainment screen in the back row, the updated headlights and general Model S-like exterior appearance, and the car’s upgraded sound dampening.
He also notes the ability to control climate and seat heating separately for the right and left rear passengers and the customizable ambient lighting strip across the front interior of the car as impressive updates. Later in the thread, a few users also pointed out that the rear fog lights flash when the trunk is opened, which is another new feature for the refreshed Model 3. When asked if he was able to try the new ventilated seats, Caspar said he hasn’t, though he plans to.
In recent weeks, users have also pointed out the Model 3 Highland’s new features, such as Auto-Shift out of Park, updated airbag placement, a blindspot indicator and several other upgrades. Earlier this week, the Model 3 Highland’s size was also revealed after the vehicle was officially registered with the China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send your tips to us at tips@teslarati.com.
Elon Musk
Tesla and SpaceX merger talks hit a new stage, and one hurdle remains
Tesla and SpaceX merger talks are reportedly advancing, and a deal could arrive by December.
Tesla and SpaceX are moving closer to a combination, with a deal announcement possible as soon as December, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The companies have also discussed a scenario in which the announcement slips into early 2027.
Boards and advisers on both sides are now working through the terms of the deal and the governance structure of the combined company, according to the report. One open item is how many SpaceX shares Tesla investors would receive. Bloomberg had previously reported that the two companies were aiming to announce a deal in the first half of next year and close it before the end of President Donald Trump’s term, so a December announcement would pull that schedule forward by months.
Tesla shares rose as much as 1.9% to $398.35 after the report, while SpaceX gained 0.6% to $140.63. SpaceX carries a market value of about $1.9 trillion following its June IPO, and Tesla is valued at about $1.55 trillion, which would make a combination the largest corporate deal on record. Neither company responded to requests for comment.
The talks became official on October 20, when Elon Musk said on SpaceX’s third quarter earnings call that both companies had formed special committees of independent directors to study a merger, as Teslarati reported. Musk said he could not take part because he is “a conflicted party” and called the process “an odd kabuki dance.” He also noted that Tesla would need approval from 50 percent of all outstanding shares, a bar the company missed in 2025 when a board declassification proposal won support from only 39.4 percent.
China remains the biggest structural problem. Bloomberg’s sources said the companies still need to work out how to isolate Tesla’s large and profitable manufacturing business in China from SpaceX’s U.S. government and defense contracts. JPMorgan analyst Rajat Gupta described those two factors last month as “key dynamics that are at odds with each other” for regulatory and shareholder approval. Musk has repeatedly said Tesla has no plans to separate its China business, a position he restated in August after ARK Invest predicted a merger announcement before the end of the year.
Washington adds another layer. Democrats took control of Congress in this month’s midterms and have pledged to investigate Musk’s business and political activities, which could bring added scrutiny to a deal involving one of the Pentagon’s most important launch and satellite contractors.
The report also lands three weeks before Tesla’s December 3 annual meeting at Giga Texas. That ballot has only three items, led by the re-election of Musk, board chair Robyn Denholm and JB Straubel, and includes no merger proposal. Any deal announced in December would likely require a separate special meeting for Tesla shareholders to vote on it.
The two companies already share a growing list of projects, including the Terafab semiconductor plant in Texas. Tesla’s next generation Roadster, which uses cold gas thrusters built on SpaceX hardware, turned up on display at SpaceX headquarters last month and has become one of the clearest public examples of that overlap.
News
SpaceX hid behind another name in the Arizona desert, and now it’s going big
SpaceX puts a $50 billion price on its Arizona supercompute campus ahead of December’s hearing.
SpaceX has put a price tag on the supercomputer campus it wants to build in the southern Arizona desert. In a statement Thursday, the company said it is pursuing a roughly $50 billion supercompute campus in Cochise County, about 80 miles east of Tucson. Together with a separate facility planned at Starbase, Texas, the two projects add up to more than $74 billion in planned investment.
The Arizona figure had not been disclosed before. SpaceX’s involvement only became public on November 4, when company representatives hosted a packed town hall at Cochise Elementary School for an application filed under the name Tombstone Resources LLC. A SpaceX representative told residents the filing used another name because putting SpaceX on it “draws attention” from outside the county, local station KVOA reported.
The application describes a 747-acre site near the Willcox Playa with up to nine buildings of about 493,000 square feet each. SpaceX plans to bring the campus online in four phases of roughly 1.5 GW, reaching 6 GW at full build, backed by a 24 GWh battery system and about $3.6 billion in grid upgrades. At that size, it would draw about 2.5 times more power than every data center in Maricopa County combined, according to an Arizona Republic analysis.
SpaceX says the project will create about 5,500 construction jobs and 1,000 permanent jobs, and that it could cut electricity bills for members of the local cooperatives by up to 20 percent. The campus would use dry cooling with no industrial groundwater use. Its application estimates ongoing water needs of 7 to 10 acre-feet a year, roughly what 20 to 30 homes consume.
Power is the bigger question. The site sits next to the Apache Generating Station, a coal and natural gas plant with about 1 GW of capacity that had been slated to retire by 2028. SpaceX told residents its investment could expand the station to more than 6 GW.
Local opposition is organized. A petition asking the county to deny the permit has gathered about 2,400 signatures, and the nearby playa is a landing spot for federally protected sandhill cranes, which SpaceX says its design accounts for. The Cochise County Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing on December 9 in Bisbee, with written comments due November 27. If approved, construction could start in March 2027.
The Texas project faces a vote the same day. The Starbase City Commission will consider a property tax abatement for SpaceX’s $24 billion gas plant and supercompute facility at its own December 9 hearing, as Teslarati reported. SpaceX said Thursday the Starbase site has already generated more than 3,000 construction jobs, and it committed $220 million to Brownsville’s water and wastewater systems, $40 million of which has been paid.
Both campuses would expand a footprint still centered on the Memphis area, where SpaceX’s Colossus data centers run largely on gas turbines and the company won a permit for a power plant in Southaven, Mississippi earlier this year. SpaceX ended the third quarter with 1.7 GW of nameplate compute. The Arizona campus alone, at full build, would be more than three times that size.
Elon Musk
Nvidia’s board meets on Jensen Huang, and Elon Musk already has an answer
Elon Musk says it would be an honor to hire Jensen Huang amid Nvidia turmoil.
Elon Musk says he would welcome Jensen Huang at one of his companies if Nvidia’s board decides to push out its longtime chief executive.
On Wednesday evening, the financial account ZeroHedge posted “Elon please hire Jensen” on X. Musk replied roughly two hours later: “That would be an honor.” Neither Huang nor Nvidia had responded publicly as of Wednesday night.
Musk’s reply came as Nvidia’s board met to decide Huang’s future. The Wall Street Journal reported that directors were preparing to oust him following reports of two extramarital relationships. One involves Alice Huang, a Singapore-based businesswoman whom U.S. intelligence officials reportedly believe was working for China’s Ministry of State Security. The New York Times separately reported a relationship with Kimberly Powell, Nvidia’s vice president of health care. Huang acknowledged being unfaithful in a memo to employees on Sunday but gave no details.
@zerohedge That would be an honor
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 12, 2026
Under Nvidia’s bylaws, a majority of its 11 directors can remove the CEO with or without cause. Bloomberg reported that the board has been working with an outside firm on possible replacements and may name an interim chief, with CFO Colette Kress seen as the likely pick. Nvidia shares fell more than 8 percent in extended trading, according to CNBC, and the company is scheduled to report quarterly earnings on November 17.
Musk has more riding on Nvidia’s leadership than most tech executives. In August, he told investors on SpaceX’s first earnings call as a public company that it would build its AI infrastructure exclusively on Nvidia hardware, calling Vera Rubin “the best architecture.” SpaceX is also working with Nvidia on the compute payload for Starmind, its planned orbital AI constellation. In October, SpaceX said it had a binding commitment for a roughly $40 billion lease of Vera Rubin GPUs and related equipment, with the leases expected to begin in the first half of 2027.
The scale of that dependence is already enormous. On its Q3 call, SpaceX said it was bringing roughly 200,000 to 220,000 Nvidia GB300 GPUs online each month and expects 2.5 to 3 GW of nameplate compute by the end of the year. That buildout is now reaching new sites like the proposed $24 billion power plant and supercomputer campus at Starbase.
The relationship between the two executives also goes back nearly a decade. Huang has often told the story of personally delivering Nvidia’s first DGX-1 AI supercomputer to Musk in 2016, when no other customer wanted one. “Nobody wanted to be part of it, except for Elon,” Huang said on the Joe Rogan Experience last December.
Musk did not say what role Huang might fill, and his reply stops short of a formal offer. Huang co-founded Nvidia in 1993 and still owns about 3.6 percent of its stock, so any move to a Musk company would depend on whether, and how, he leaves the chipmaker he has run for more than three decades.