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Tesla poised to bring Model 3 to Hong Kong as GM’s EV push falters in China
Tesla seems to have reached a point in the Model 3 production that it is now confident enough to start promoting the vehicle to other regions. Just a couple of weeks after bringing the car to Australia and New Zealand, Tesla seems poised to showcase the electric sedan in Hong Kong.
Invitations for the Hong Kong event were recently shared online. The Model 3 was not explicitly mentioned by the company in its communication, though the vehicle’s unmistakable outline could be recognized in the invite. The company’s email to the Tesla community in HK reveals that the “Tesla Hong Kong Special Event” will run until August 31, and would include four sessions, at 12 p.m., 3 p.m., 5 p.m., and 7 p.m. The special event would be held at Tesla The Pulse or TML.
The communication from Tesla indicates that attendees would have to RSVP. A product introduction would be conducted, followed by test drive sessions in the Model S and Model X. Following is a screenshot of the email the company sent out to the Tesla community in Hong Kong.
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- An invitation for a special Tesla event in Hong Kong. [Credit: Model 3 Owners Club/Twitter]
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- An invitation for a special Tesla event in Hong Kong. [Credit: Model 3 Owners Club/Twitter]
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- An invitation for a special Tesla event in Hong Kong. [Credit: Model 3 Owners Club/Twitter]
Tesla’s invitation for a special event in Hong Kong. [Credit: Model 3 Owners Club/Twitter]
It is now more than a year into the production of the Model 3, and Elon Musk’s self-imposed “production hell” appears to be nearing its end. Tesla is expected to produce and deliver record numbers of Model 3 this third quarter. Nomura Instinet analyst Romit Shah recently noted that the electric car maker could produce as much as 65,000-70,000 Model 3 this quarter, especially since Tesla appears to have breached the 6,000/week mark this August.
While Tesla appears to be preparing to showcase the Model 3 to Hong Kong, rival General Motors is running into problems with its EV push in China. GM is aiming to compete in the hyper-competitive EV sector in the country, and it has selected its plug-in hybrid Buick Velite 6 — a local variant of the Volt — as one of its key vehicles. An all-electric car is also planned for next year.
Unfortunately for GM, its EV initiative has hit a roadblock after it found that the battery packs supplied by A123 Systems, one of its suppliers, are not up to par in terms of performance and safety standards. A123 Systems is a Livonia, Michigan company that was bought out of bankruptcy by Chinese auto parts giant Wanxiang Group Corp. in 2013. The company operates a battery factory in the city of Hangzhou to supply packs for the Chinese market.
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In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Thomas Barrera, president of LIB-X Consulting, a battery consultancy based in Long Beach, CA, noted that there are risks to some of the inexpensive battery solutions being produced in the Asian country.
“There are concerns with the quality of Chinese-manufactured cells and batteries. Chinese cells are very attractive because they’re inexpensive, but people may not realize that these cells may not have gone through the necessary qualification testing before going to market,” he said.
Tesla is also looking to breach the Chinese electric car market, though it aims to accomplish this using its trademark in-house development strategy. The company is currently looking to start the construction of Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai, which would produce its own batteries and be equipped to handle the production of electric cars. When complete, Tesla estimates Gigafactory 3 to build as many as 500,000 electric vehicles per year.
SpaceX will report second quarter results after the market closes on Tuesday, August 4, marking the first time the company has opened its books to the public since its record IPO in June. Management will host a live audio only webcast at 4:30 p.m. ET, streamed on X, with no dial in option.
The debut carries more weight than a typical first quarter as a public company. Two trading days after the release, on August 6, the first tranche of SpaceX’s lockup expires, freeing roughly 911.5 million insider and employee shares, worth well over $100 billion at current prices and the largest such release in Wall Street history. A second, larger tranche tied to the stock trading 30 percent above its $135 IPO price never triggered, since shares have spent most of July trading below that price.
Wall Street’s models point to revenue near $6.9 billion for the quarter, up sharply from the $4.69 billion SpaceX reported in the first quarter, with a narrower per share loss than the $1.27 posted three months earlier, according to estimates compiled by Motley Fool. Those numbers will be the first look at how SpaceX’s three segments, Starlink, launch and AI, are performing independently.
SpaceX scores another massive Pentagon deal to support military satellites
Investors heading into the call have a specific list of questions. How many net new Starlink subscribers did SpaceX add after ending March with 10.3 million, and is average revenue per user holding up as the service expands into lower income markets. How much of the AI segment’s revenue reflects contract signings with Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI this year, deals that combined could annualize to nearly $28 billion if fully ramped. Whether capital expenditures, which nearly doubled in the AI segment alone between 2024 and 2025, are still accelerating or starting to plateau. And whether management offers any forward guidance at all, something SpaceX has never done publicly.
The report will also land days after Elon Musk publicly denied a Wall Street Journal report describing internal planning to separate Tesla’s China business ahead of a potential Tesla-SpaceX merger. Whether Musk or SpaceX executives address that speculation on the call, even indirectly, maybe something investors will be listening for on Tuesday.
As Teslarati reported after Musk’s own warning to short sellers last week, the CEO has made clear he expects skeptics to be proven wrong over time. Tuesday will be the first chance for the numbers themselves to make that case.
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Elon Musk
SpaceX’s Starship just got filmed by its own cargo
SpaceX released new footage of Starship in space captured by the Starlink satellites it deployed.
SpaceX released a new video Friday evening showing Starship from an angle showcased by its own Starlink satellites, watching the rocket drift away in orbit.
The 65 second clip, posted on X, stitches together footage from four cameras mounted on a single Starlink V3 satellite. It opens with a close view of Starship’s 171 foot upper stage, still catching sunlight, then pulls back as the two spacecraft separate.
The footage comes from Starship’s 13th flight test, which launched July 24 from Starbase after a scrubbed attempt and an abort caused by an engine issue the week before. When Flight 13 finally flew, it carried the first batch of functional Starlink V3 satellites Starship has ever deployed, twenty of them, with six equipped with cameras meant to scan the ship’s heat shield during reentry.
View of Starship in space from a Starlink V3 satellite on Flight 13.
This composite is made of imagery from four separate cameras on a single satellite. Six of the satellites were equipped with cameras to scan Starship’s heat shield and transmit imagery down to operators to… pic.twitter.com/sNTHHz5vLr
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) July 31, 2026
Flight 13 checked most of its boxes. Starship deployed all 20 satellites, relit a Raptor engine in space, and splashed down softly in the Indian Ocean off Western Australia. Musk’s longer term plan calls for a Starlink V3 constellation of 100,000 satellites, according to a recent FCC filing, with Starship as the only vehicle capable of launching them at the volume that requires. Each Starship flight is designed to carry up to 60 V3 satellites once the vehicle reaches routine service, well beyond what Falcon 9 can carry in a single mission.
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Starship is next expected to fly with an attempt at catching the ship itself with the launch tower’s mechanical arms, a maneuver SpaceX has so far reserved for the Super Heavy booster.
Tesla flexed the new features of the Model Y L with a dedicated media event at the company’s Diner on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles.
The Model Y L is the extended-wheelbase version of the all-electric crossover, which has been voted the best-selling car in the world on three occasions. The vehicle is already rolling off production lines at Gigafactory Texas, and first deliveries are slated to take place later this year.
Tesla brings Model Y L ‘Launch Series’ to the U.S. at $61,990
Teslarati was invited to the event, but due to some scheduling conflicts, we could not make it to Los Angeles. Instead, we will have our hands on a media unit sometime in August, so we’ll be able to spend some more extended time with the Model Y L.
However, plenty of those who made it to LA shared some cool features that set the Model Y L apart from the Model Y.
Multi-Row Climate Control
Tesla fitted the Model Y L with full climate control on all three rows on the front screen. It can be adjusted by selecting which row you’d like to modify on the right-hand side of the touch screen:
The Model Y L has a little row of icons on the right side of the climate screen so the front passenger can more quickly jump to whatever row they want to control. pic.twitter.com/uJS44mgCvk
— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 30, 2026
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Better Rear Window Visibility
One of the strangest things about the Model Y, especially the Juniper iteration, is the rear window has extremely limited visibility when looking into the rearview mirror.
Tesla has improved upon this with the Model Y L:
This is a drastic difference. https://t.co/wTdhitD5aA pic.twitter.com/z6hFs0Jkss
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) July 30, 2026
PowerShare will be included
Model Y L will come with PowerShare in North America, with an 11.5kW output to your home. Tesla said it would require Powerwall 3 for operation.
Wireless Charging Pad
There has been some speculation that Tesla would upgrade the wireless charging pads in the United States, but this is not the case.
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Tesla owner fixes common feature complaint with crafty DIY retrofit
Tesla confirmed that it does not come with the cooled pads as the Y L in China does. This is because North America has not adopted Qi charging yet.
Thermal Management Improvements
These improvements in the Model Y L were seen with thermal management:
- Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
- +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather, 7 miles of real-world range gained
- 8x more solar energy reflection off of glass roof
- 30% reduction in solar energy entering the cabin
Some of the thermal management improvements in the new Model Y L Premium:
• Up to 15% faster cabin cooling
• Up to 15 min faster cabin cooling in sunny conditions
• +23% thermal efficiency gained in hot weather +7 miles of real-world range gained
• +10 miles recovered after… pic.twitter.com/jZirFWFdtO— Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt) July 31, 2026
Demand
Tesla said the Model Y L is almost sold out in the U.S. It comes with
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- 1 year of FSD Supervised
- 1 year of Supercharging
- 1 year of Premium Connectivity
- Free exterior paint color, interior, and wheel option at no additional cost
SpaceX’s biggest test yet arrives this week and it’s not a rocket launch
SpaceX’s Starship just got filmed by its own cargo
