Investor's Corner
Tesla’s Model 3 production ramp is here, and the US auto market is starting to feel it
Since hitting its Q2 target of producing 5,000 Model 3 per week, Tesla appears to have accelerated its efforts to build and deliver the electric car to as many reservation holders as possible. The vehicle’s ramp has been anything but smooth over the past year, but now that Tesla is focusing on sustaining its production of the car, it seems like the results of the Model 3 push are finally starting to bear fruit.
Tesla noted in its Q2 2018 production and delivery report that the Model 3 had a line of about 420,000 reservations as of the final week of June. Deliveries of the Model 3 rose steadily since Tesla started ramping the production of the vehicle. Over Q1 and Q2, sales of the electric sedan increased, culminating in July when Tesla is estimated to have sold as many as 14,250 Model 3 in one month.
With such numbers, the Model 3 became the best-selling electric car in the United States in July, bar none. The rise of the Model 3 was so prominent that last month, it was listed as 7th place in GoodCarBadCar‘s list of America’s Top 20 Best Selling Cars, which included gas-powered vehicles like the Toyota Camry and the Honda Civic. These are vehicles that have held their places in the US’s auto industry for years, and the vast majority of them are more affordable than the Model 3.
Yet, despite this, the Model 3’s sales show that more and more people are starting to commit to Tesla’s electric car. In the company’s Q2 2018 earnings call, Tesla global head of sales Robin Ren stated that the top five vehicles being traded in for a Model 3 were rather surprising, as they were comprised of mostly lower-priced cars such as the Toyota Prius, BMW 3 Series, Honda Accord, Honda Civic, and the Nissan Leaf. Among these vehicles, only the BMW 3 Series is an actual competitor in the midsize luxury segment. The other four are from a more affordable price point.
According to Elon Musk, these trends in the sales of the Model 3 suggest that customers are quite open to spending a little bit more than their usual budget to purchase the electric car. This, Musk believes, is encouraging overall.
“It’s just interesting that people are trading up into a Tesla, so they’re choosing to spend more money on a Tesla than their current car, just based on the trade-in values. A Civic is a very inexpensive car compared to particularly the Model 3 today. So that’s promising from a market access standpoint,” Musk said.
Tesla’s Model 3 ramp appears to be well on its way to sustaining the optimum manufacturing level displayed by the company during its “burst production week” at the end of June. Apart from Tesla announcing that it was able to maintain its 5,000/week Model 3 target in “multiple weeks” in July, the company has also registered an astounding 16,000 new Model 3 VINs in a seven-day period this August. That’s a number that took the company roughly eight months to achieve when the vehicle started production in mid-2017.
As the Model 3 continues to make its presence known in the US auto industry, Tesla appears to be looking into expanding the Model 3’s reach to other countries. Deliveries to Canada have already started in Q2, and just recently, Tesla also announced that it would be offering the Model 3 for viewing in Australia and New Zealand. The company also showcased the Model 3 at the 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it attracted a good deal of attention from the festival’s attendees.
What then, of competing electric vehicles from other manufacturers? The Model 3’s main rival, the well-reviewed Chevy Bolt, has appears to have plateaued its sales in 2018. Estimates of the Chevy Bolt’s sales this year show that the vehicle has likely sold around 1,100-1,700 units every month since January, putting it below the Model 3’s numbers in 2018 so far. By July, the Model 3 is estimated to have outsold the Chevy Bolt EV 12:1.
Particularly notable is that Tesla’s production ramp for the Model 3 is still just halfway towards its actual target. Tesla aims to eventually produce 10,000 Model 3 per week — a pace the company is seeking to achieve sometime next year. It took a very long time for Tesla to build up the Model 3’s lines to produce 5,000 vehicles per week, but with the milestone achieved, it appears that Tesla’s ramp for its most ambitious electric car is going nowhere but up. Once the Model 3 hits 10,000 per week, even America’s top-selling vehicles like the Toyota Camry could start seeing their sales get taken over by Telsa’s electric sedan.
Elon Musk
SpaceX just filed for the IPO everyone was waiting for
SpaceX filed its public S-1, revealing $18.7 billion in revenue and billions in losses.
SpaceX publicly filed its S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 20, 2026, making its financial details available to the public for the first time ahead of what could be the largest IPO in history.
An S-1 is the formal document a company must submit to the SEC before going public. It includes audited financials, risk factors, business descriptions, and how the company plans to use the money it raises. Companies are required to file one before selling shares to the public, and it must be published at least 15 days before the investor roadshow begins. SpaceX had already submitted a confidential draft to the SEC in April, which allowed regulators to review the filing privately before it went public.
The S-1 reveals that SpaceX generated $18.7 billion in consolidated revenue in 2025, driven largely by its Starlink satellite internet division, which posted $11.4 billion in revenue, growing nearly 50% year over year. Despite that growth, the company lost about $4.9 billion in 2025 and has burned through more than $37 billion since its founding.
SpaceX just forced Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile to team up for the first time in history
A significant portion of those losses trace back to xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, which was recently merged into SpaceX. SpaceX directed roughly 60% of its capital spending in 2025 to its AI division, totaling around $20 billion, yet that division lost billions and grew revenue by only about 22%.
SpaceX plans to list its Class A common stock on Nasdaq under the ticker SPCX, with Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Bank of America leading the offering. The dual-class share structure means going public will not meaningfully reduce Musk’s control, as Class B shares he holds carry 10 votes per share compared to one vote for public Class A shares.
The company is targeting a raise of around $75 billion at a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion, which would make it the largest IPO ever. The investor roadshow is reportedly planned for June 5.
Elon Musk
Tesla ditches India after years of broken promises
Tesla has ditched its plans to build a factory in India after years of failed negotiations.
Tesla’s long-running effort to establish a manufacturing presence in India is officially over. India’s Minister of Heavy Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy confirmed on May 19, 2026 that Tesla has informed authorities it will not proceed with a manufacturing facility in the country.
Tesla first signaled serious interest in India around 2021, when it began hiring local staff and lobbying the Indian government for lower import tariffs. The ask was straightforward: reduce duties enough for Tesla to test the market with imported vehicles before committing capital to a local factory. India’s position was equally firm, with an ask of Tesla to commit to manufacturing first, then receive tariff relief. Neither side moved, and the talks quietly collapsed.
Tesla to open first India experience center in Mumbai on July 15
India had offered a policy that would reduce import duties from 110% down to 15% on EVs priced above $35,000, provided companies committed at least $500 million toward local manufacturing investment within three years. Tesla declined to participate. The tariff standoff was only part of the problem. Analysts pointed to significant gaps in India’s local supply chain, inadequate industrial infrastructure, and a mismatch between Tesla’s premium pricing and the purchasing power of India’s automotive market as additional factors that made the investment difficult to justify.
First signs of an unraveling relationship came in April 2024, when Musk abruptly cancelled a planned trip to India where he was set to meet Prime Minister Modi and announce Tesla’s market entry. By July 2024, Fortune reported that Tesla executives had stopped contacting Indian government officials entirely. The government at that point understood Tesla had capital constraints and no plans to invest.
The more fundamental issue is that Tesla’s existing factories are currently operating at approximately 60% capacity, making a commitment to building new manufacturing capacity in a new market difficult to defend to investors. Tesla will continue selling imported Model Y vehicles through its existing showrooms in Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, and Bengaluru, but local production is no longer part of the plan.
Elon Musk
SpaceX just forced Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile to team up for the first time in history
AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon just joined forces for one reason: Starlink is winning.
America’s three largest wireless carriers, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, announced on On May 14, 2026 that they had agreed in principle to form a joint venture aimed at pooling their spectrum resources to expand satellite-based direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity across the United States in what can be seen as a direct response to SpaceX’s Starlink initiative. D2D, in plain terms, is technology that lets a standard smartphone connect directly to a satellite in orbit, the same way it connects to a cell tower, with no extra hardware required.
The alliance is widely seen as a means to slow Starlink’s rapid expansion in the satellite internet and mobile markets. SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile service launched commercially in July 2025 through a partnership with T-Mobile, starting with messaging before expanding to broadband data. SpaceX secured access to valuable wireless spectrum through its $17 billion deal with EchoStar, paving the way for significantly faster satellite-to-phone speeds.
SpaceX was not shy about its reaction. SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell responded on X: “Weeeelllll, I guess Starlink Mobile is doing something right! It’s David and Goliath (X3) all over again — I’m bettin’ on David.” SpaceX’s VP of Satellite Policy David Goldman went further, flagging potential antitrust concerns and asking whether the DOJ would even allow three dominant competitors to coordinate in a market where a new rival is actively entering.
Weeeelllll, I guess @Starlink Mobile is doing something right! It’s David and Goliath (X3) all over again — I’m bettin’ on David 🙂 https://t.co/5GzS752mxL
— Gwynne Shotwell (@Gwynne_Shotwell) May 14, 2026
Financial analysts at LightShed Partners were blunt, saying the announcement showed the three carriers are “nervous,” and pointed to the timing: “You announce an agreement in principle when the point is the announcement, not the deal. The timing, weeks ahead of the SpaceX roadshow, was the point.”
As Teslarati reported, SpaceX’s next generation Starlink V2 satellites will deliver up to 100 times the data density of the current system, with custom silicon and phased array antennas enabling around 20 times the throughput of the first generation. The carriers’ JV, which has no definitive agreement, no financial structure, and no deployment timeline yet, will need to move quickly to matter.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is targeting a Nasdaq listing as early as June 12, aiming for what would be the largest IPO in history. With Starlink now serving over 9 million subscribers across 155 countries, holding 59 carrier partnerships globally, and now powering Air Force One, the carriers’ joint venture announcement landed at exactly the wrong time to look like anything other than a defensive move.
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