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Tesla Model 3 Performance 0-60 mph put to the test in latest acceleration run

[Credit: DÆrik/YouTube]

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Tesla Model 3 Dual Motor Performance is marketed as an electric car that is quick, nimble, and capable of dominating track legends such as the BMW M3 and Porsche Boxster. With a 0-60 mph time of 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 155 mph, the Model 3 Performance packs some serious speed, thanks to its dual electric motors that feature a combined 450 hp and 471 lb-ft of torque. 

Tesla owner-enthusiast DÆrik of YouTube, who is known for installing a life-size working Supercharger for his Model S in his garage, was able to borrow one of the first Model 3 Performance units in Colorado. The YouTube host noted that the carbon fiber rear spoiler of the vehicle, as well as its underlined Dual Motor badge, have not been fitted on the electric car yet.

DaÆrik’s 0-60 mph tests of the Model 3 Performance were conducted from a dead stop with the vehicle’s battery having 220 miles of range left. The first launch was immediately impressive, with the electric car hitting 60 mph in 3.22 seconds. The second launch was even better, with the Model 3 Performance doing the 0-60 mph sprint in 3.15 seconds. This time around, the Model S owner opted to push the car further, hitting 90 mph in 6.28 seconds. DÆrik noted that he was able to get the numbers of the two 0-60 mph runs by starting the video clip at 0 mph, ending it at 60 mph, and measuring the section frame-by-frame in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

The Model 3 Performance has been earning much praise from professional auto reviewers such as Dan Neil of the Wall Street Journal, who lauded the car as a “magnificent” piece of automotive engineering that is “representative of the next step in the history of autos.” Other reviewers from Motor Trend and CNET Roadshow also praised the vehicle for its quickness and performance. While test drives of the Model 3 Performance reveal that the vehicle already has impressive acceleration, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has stated that the electric car could get even faster with a wider set of rear wheels and tires.

In an announcement on Twitter, Musk noted that the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires the Model 3 Performance come equipped with are maximized for a balance of range and performance. For those who do not mind sacrificing a little range in exchange for raw power, Musk advised that stickier and wider tires at the rear might lower the car’s 0-60 mph time to 3.3 seconds.

The Model 3 Performance starts at $64,000 before any options. Buyers of the electric car can add on Tesla’s Performance Package, a $5,000 upgrade that includes 20″ Performance Wheels, Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tires, a carbon fiber rear spoiler, aluminum alloy pedals, and a top speed boost that enables the electric car to max out at 155 mph. With all options including White Seats, premium paint, Enhanced Autopilot, and Full Self-Driving, the cost of the Model 3 Performance rounds out at $80,000, which is far more than the $35,000 price of the Standard Range RWD Model 3 but more affordable than comparable ICE-powered high-performance cars in its class, such as the BMW M3, Audi RS5, and the Mercedes AMG C 63 S Coupe, which can cost north of $100,000 with all options.

Watch DaÆrik’s 0-60 mph tests of the Model 3 Performance in the video below. 

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Simon is an experienced automotive reporter with a passion for electric cars and clean energy. Fascinated by the world envisioned by Elon Musk, he hopes to make it to Mars (at least as a tourist) someday. For stories or tips--or even to just say a simple hello--send a message to his email, simon@teslarati.com or his handle on X, @ResidentSponge.

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The Boring Company’s newest tunnel vehicle runs on Tesla parts and no one is driving it

The Boring Company’s new tunnel vehicle runs on Tesla Model 3 batteries and drive units.

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The Boring Company just introduced a new piece of hardware, and it runs on parts pulled straight from a Tesla showroom. Liner Truck 3, unveiled in a post from the tunneling company’s official X account, is an all electric vehicle built around Tesla Model 3 battery packs and drive units, purpose built to move concrete tunnel segments to the boring machine face without a single person underground.

The job itself is unglamorous but critical. Each precast segment run weighs more than 22,000 pounds, roughly the load of a full cement mixer, and Liner Truck 3 hauls that weight repeatedly between the surface staging area and wherever the Prufrock machine happens to be cutting.

The Boring Company said Liner Truck 3 is piloted remotely out of its Global Operations Control Center in Texas, extending the Zero-People-In-Tunnel approach the company has spent years building toward. An earlier version of a ZPIT liner truck was already tested at the company’s Bastrop, Texas research tunnels, and a factory tour released last month showed an employee flying a fully loaded liner truck with a PlayStation controller. Liner Truck 3 looks like the production version of that same idea, cleaned up and pushed into daily use.

The timing lines up with a company digging in more places than it ever has before. The Boring Company now has multiple Prufrock machines active or arriving in Nashville, where Music City Loop construction has been accelerating since February, and its Vegas Loop network keeps adding tunnel mileage on a near monthly basis. Every one of those projects depends on getting concrete segments to the cutting face fast enough to keep the boring machine from idling, which is exactly the bottleneck Liner Truck 3 is designed to remove.

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It also reinforces something Tesla owners have watched happen gradually across Musk’s companies: passenger car hardware finding a second life in heavy equipment. Model 3 drive units already move people through the Vegas Loop, and now the same components are hauling concrete underground in Nashville and wherever The Boring Company digs next. Whether that kind of component reuse extends further into TBC’s equipment lineup, or into other Musk owned industrial hardware, is the next thing worth watching.

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Elon Musk and SpaceX shrugs off the trading day Wall Street feared most

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Rendering of Elon Musk overlooking a Starship fleet (Credit: Grok)

SpaceX stock did the opposite of what most of Wall Street expected this week, when the day designed to be its most dangerous turned into a rally, and the rally kept going.

Thursday marked the first major lockup expiration since SpaceX’s June IPO, making roughly 911.5 million insider held shares eligible to trade for the first time, more than doubling the company’s public float. Analysts and short sellers had spent weeks bracing for a flood of selling, especially after the stock fell 13 percent following its first earnings report as a public company on Tuesday. Instead, shares rose 6.1 percent Thursday to close at $114.92, and by Friday they were trading near $129, up more than another 12 percent on the day.

SpaceX shorts get warned by Musk ally, echoing Tesla’s early struggles

The setup made the outcome notable. Short interest had climbed to roughly 34 percent of the float heading into earnings, among the highest of any large cap stock, with about 95 percent of available shares to borrow already on loan. CEO Elon Musk warned short sellers twice in the weeks before the lockup, writing on X that “the survival probability of firms who maintain a significant short position in SpaceX over time is very low,” then following up on the morning of earnings with “I try to warn them, but they just double down.”

When the newly unlocked shares hit the market and the selloff never showed up, some of that short position appears to have started unwinding. TipRanks reported that options activity shifted toward bullish strategies like put selling and risk reversals following the rally, with roughly $600 million in options premium trading Thursday alone. Retail buyers also stepped in during the earnings dip, according to Vanda Research.

The fundamentals behind the stock have not changed much in a week. SpaceX’s revenue nearly doubled year over year to $7.8 billion, with Starlink subscribers doubling to 12 million and the company’s AI segment growing 247 percent. What spooked investors on Tuesday was the spending side. Capital expenditures jumped to more than $18 billion for the quarter, up from $2.8 billion a year earlier, with AI investment alone rising from $749 million to $15.8 billion. Wall Street remains split on whether that spending is building infrastructure SpaceX needs or outrunning what the business can currently support, a debate Teslarati has tracked since shares first came under pressure.

None of that resolves the bigger question hanging over the stock. Thursday’s release was only the first of nine staggered lockup tranches, with roughly $800 billion worth of additional shares scheduled to become eligible through October, and Musk’s own stake stays locked until next June. If this week is any indication, the market is treating that supply as something it can absorb rather than something to fear, at least for now.

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The Boring Company’s newest Vegas Station has a permit quietly waiting behind it

Sahara Las Vegas opened a new Vegas Loop station, joining an exclusive two resort transit club.

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Sahara Las Vegas opened a new Vegas Loop station Thursday, giving The Boring Company’s underground transit system its northernmost stop yet on the Strip. The station sits at Sahara’s Paradise Road entrance, on the southeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara Avenue, and connects riders to the Las Vegas Convention Center, other Strip resorts on the network and, eventually, Harry Reid International Airport.

The addition makes Sahara the second resort, after Fontainebleau opened its own station in January, to get a stop built at street level rather than tucked into the property itself. Sahara now joins Westgate as the only two Strip resorts offering both a Vegas Loop station and a stop on the Las Vegas Monorail, giving guests two separate ways to get around without leaving the property.

The Boring Company just doubled its tunneling power in Nashville

The bigger news buried in Thursday’s announcement is what comes next. Boring Company has already secured its first permit to tunnel north of Sahara Avenue, extending the network beyond where it currently ends, even though permits to push the Loop toward downtown Las Vegas still haven’t been granted. Crews are also working on a two mile dual tunnel line running from Westgate to a planned station at 4744 Paradise Road, just north of Tropicana Avenue, that Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority CEO Steve Hill has said the company hopes to open in time for November’s Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Ridership has grown alongside the buildout. The Loop moved roughly 82,000 passengers during CONEXPO in early March, a total the company highlighted on its own X account at the time, and the system has now carried more than 4 million passengers through 11 open stations since it began running in 2021. The airport connector tunnels, meant to give the Loop a direct link to Harry Reid, have slipped past their original first quarter target and remain under construction, with Boring Company director Mike Baier saying that a full opening is still a few months out.

For Sahara, the calculation is straightforward. Convention traffic drives a large share of Loop ridership, and a station at the property’s front door gives conventiongoers one more reason to book rooms on the Strip’s north end instead of closer to the convention center itself.

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