News
Tesla owners in Europe take Christmas Eve deliveries of their Plaid Model S and X cars
Tesla owners in Europe took delivery of the Plaid Model S and X vehicles on the days leading up to the Christmas holiday. In August, European reservation holders for the Tesla Model X and Model S Plaid vehicles shared that they received delivery updates from Tesla.
Tesla’s online configurator for some European countries showed that deliveries for the premium vehicles would begin in December 2022. Those deliveries have now begun, and many customers took deliveries right on Christmas Eve.
In the tweet below, Twitter user @Berlinergy shared Plaids being handed over to their new owners on Christmas Eve in France and Germany.
More Plaids handed over to customers yesterday Dec 24 2022🎄
Here Essen 🇩🇪 France 🇫🇷
TFF pic.twitter.com/lZnlXF8vIK— Berlinergy (@Berlinergy) December 25, 2022
One of our readers, Kees Verruijt, took delivery of a Tesla Model S Plaid on December 23 in the Netherlands and shared his thoughts in a YouTube video. He also told Teslarati that the delivery process was “much like a normal car delivery, just as it was when we got our ‘first batch in EU’ Model 3 in early 2019.’”
“This was 195 km away at the time, and they just said, ‘yup, just within 200km, so that is where we are delivering.’
“Even though the service station in Groningen where we took delivery now was just 70 km away, We just have to get used to being ‘second, by a lot’ with Tesla. In fact, the delivery experience has gone through a deep bit here, at the end of 2020, they delivered many thousands of M3s in a parking lot in Amsterdam, with 2000 cars a day being delivered.” Kees said.
He added that the delivery event was special for the Tesla employee who was assisting with the delivery. He also had a bit of constructive feedback for Tesla regarding the delivery location, noting that compared with a German brand, it wasn’t “up to spec,” but that was fine with him.
He added that the car was “mostly great/fine,” with the exception of a small issue on the dashboard and that the performance was great. There were also improvements in how the vehicle operated on the highway.
“It merges and changes lanes a lot more confidently than the Model 3,” Kees said.
In the U.S., Tesla was preparing for a massive end-of-the-quarter delivery on Christmas Eve. A drone flyover of the Fremont Factory on the morning of Christmas Eve showed that the factory was buzzing with activity. The staging area was filled with electric vehicles, and a massive number of vehicles were seen around the factory. There were also car carrier trucks loading and transporting vehicles from the site.
Disclosure: Johnna is a $TSLA shareholder and believes in Tesla’s mission. Â
Your feedback is welcome. If you have any comments or concerns or see a typo, you can email me at johnna@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter at @JohnnaCrider1.
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Elon Musk
Brazil Supreme Court orders Elon Musk and X investigation closed
The decision was issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes following a recommendation from Brazil’s Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet.
Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court has ordered the closure of an investigation involving Elon Musk and social media platform X. The inquiry had been pending for about two years and examined whether the platform was used to coordinate attacks against members of the judiciary.
The decision was issued by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes following a recommendation from Brazil’s Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet.
According to a report from Agencia Brasil, the investigation conducted by the Federal Police did not find evidence that X deliberately attempted to attack the judiciary or circumvent court orders.
Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet concluded that the irregularities identified during the probe did not indicate fraudulent intent.
Justice Moraes accepted the prosecutor’s recommendation and ruled that the investigation should be closed. Under the ruling, the case will remain closed unless new evidence emerges.
The inquiry stemmed from concerns that content on X may have enabled online attacks against Supreme Court justices or violated rulings requiring the suspension of certain accounts under investigation.
Justice Moraes had previously taken several enforcement actions related to the platform during the broader dispute involving social media regulation in Brazil.
These included ordering a nationwide block of the platform, freezing Starlink accounts, and imposing fines on X totaling about $5.2 million. Authorities also froze financial assets linked to X and SpaceX through Starlink to collect unpaid penalties and seized roughly $3.3 million from the companies’ accounts.
Moraes also imposed daily fines of up to R$5 million, about $920,000, for alleged evasion of the X ban and established penalties of R$50,000 per day for VPN users who attempted to bypass the restriction.
Brazil remains an important market for X, with roughly 17 million users, making it one of the platform’s larger user bases globally.
The country is also a major market for Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet service, which has surpassed one million subscribers in Brazil.
Elon Musk
FCC chair criticizes Amazon over opposition to SpaceX satellite plan
Carr made the remarks in a post on social media platform X.
U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Brendan Carr criticized Amazon after the company opposed SpaceX’s proposal to launch a large satellite constellation that could function as an orbital data center network.
Carr made the remarks in a post on social media platform X.
Amazon recently urged the FCC to reject SpaceX’s application to deploy a constellation of up to 1 million low Earth orbit satellites that could serve as artificial intelligence data centers in space.
The company described the proposal as a “lofty ambition rather than a real plan,” arguing that SpaceX had not provided sufficient details about how the system would operate.
Carr responded by pointing to Amazon’s own satellite deployment progress.
“Amazon should focus on the fact that it will fall roughly 1,000 satellites short of meeting its upcoming deployment milestone, rather than spending their time and resources filing petitions against companies that are putting thousands of satellites in orbit,” Carr wrote on X.
Amazon has declined to comment on the statement.
Amazon has been working to deploy its Project Kuiper satellite network, which is intended to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink service. The company has invested more than $10 billion in the program and has launched more than 200 satellites since April of last year.
Amazon has also asked the FCC for a 24-month extension, until July 2028, to meet a requirement to deploy roughly 1,600 satellites by July 2026, as noted in a CNBC report.
SpaceX’s Starlink network currently has nearly 10,000 satellites in orbit and serves roughly 10 million customers. The FCC has also authorized SpaceX to deploy 7,500 additional satellites as the company continues expanding its global satellite internet network.
Energy
Tesla Energy gains UK license to sell electricity to homes and businesses
The license was granted to Tesla Energy Ventures Ltd. by UK energy regulator Ofgem after a seven-month review process.
Tesla Energy has received a license to supply electricity in the United Kingdom, opening the door for the company to serve homes and businesses in the country.
The license was granted to Tesla Energy Ventures Ltd. by UK energy regulator Ofgem after a seven-month review process.
According to Ofgem, the license took effect at 6 p.m. local time on Wednesday and applies to Great Britain.
The approval allows Tesla’s energy business to sell electricity directly to customers in the region, as noted in a Bloomberg News report.
Tesla has already expanded similar services in the United States. In Texas, the company offers electricity plans that allow Tesla owners to charge their vehicles at a lower cost while also feeding excess electricity back into the grid.
Tesla already has a sizable presence in the UK market. According to price comparison website U-switch, there are more than 250,000 Tesla electric vehicles in the country and thousands of Tesla home energy storage systems.
Ofgem also noted that Tesla Motors Ltd., a separate entity incorporated in England and Wales, received an electricity generation license in June 2020.
The new UK license arrives as Tesla continues expanding its global energy business.
Last year, Tesla Energy retained the top position in the global battery energy storage system (BESS) integrator market for the second consecutive year. According to Wood Mackenzie’s latest rankings, Tesla held about 15% of global market share in 2024.
The company also maintained a dominant position in North America, where it captured roughly 39% market share in the region.
At the same time, competition in the energy storage sector is increasing. Chinese companies such as Sungrow have been expanding their presence globally, particularly in Europe.