News
Tesla’s updated deadline for referral program winners shows focus on logistics
Tesla has announced that all winners of the recently-concluded Referral Program must select their prizes by February 28. After this date, those eligible for rewards would not be able to redeem their prizes anymore. Based on the deadline cited by Tesla, it appears that the electric car maker is aiming to start the second quarter of 2019 on a clean slate, as it pursues sustainable profits and a steady Model 3 ramp.
Prior to the recent update, Tesla’s deadline for the selection of referral program prizes was listed on April 1, 2019. Tesla has not revealed its reasons behind its updated deadline, though based on the company’s recent challenges in Europe, there is a good chance that the February 28 date was set as a means to optimize logistics in the coming quarters. Despite most of the items related to the rewards system likely being in Tesla’s inventory (such as wall connectors and wheels), the processes involved with ordering, processing, and shipping the prizes are no joke. Factor in possible returns and other fulfillment issues and the logistics involved in the referral program’s distribution of prizes becomes even more notable.
By moving the deadline for the referral program’s prize selection to February 28, Tesla appears to be ensuring that its logistics capabilities are not weighed down unnecessarily in the coming months, especially as the company prepares for the upcoming rollout of the Mid Range Model 3 RWD to international markets. Tesla learned in its first European Model 3 shipment that the processes involved in moving vast numbers of vehicles to customers in a foreign country are no joke. That said, these recent challenges are but the tip of the iceberg for Tesla, as thousands more would be coming to China and Europe in the coming months.
Tesla appears set to operate using a lean, optimized team this year, as evidenced by the 7% workforce reduction that the company implemented last month. As it tackles its most ambitious year yet, Tesla seems set on focusing its workforce in pursuing high-value tasks such as expanding its service network and helping ensure a smooth Model 3 ramp. In this light, it would be far more preferable for Tesla’s logistics team to busy itself with tasks far more urgent than fulfilling referral program prizes.
Below are the timelines for the redemption of Tesla’s referral program awards.
- Launch Your Photo into Deep Space Orbit: Additional details will be emailed ahead of the launch.
- Signature Black Wall Connector: Current shipping times are 6-8 weeks.
- Model S for Kids: Model S for Kids will be shipped directly from Radio Flyer in April. Those who choose to donate to a children’s charity will receive an email from the organization when the donation has been completed.
- 21” Arachnid Wheels for Model S or 22” Turbine Wheels for Model X: Wheels are shipped to your selected Service Center 6-8 weeks after award selection. Your Service Center will contact you once your wheels are available for pick-up.
- Forged Performance Wheels for Model 3: Model 3 wheels will be available for installation beginning Summer 2019.
- One Week with Model S or Model X: You will be contacted by your selected location based on availability. If you do not use this award, it may be given to a friend.
- Priority Access to Vehicle Software Updates: Priority software access will automatically be granted until December 31, 2020.
- Unveiling Event Invitations: Invitations will be emailed ahead of each unveiling event. Once each event is at capacity, remaining winners will be invited to the following unveiling event, prioritized by time of award qualification.
- Tesla Credit: Credits are applied to your account within 1-2 weeks of selection from the app or solar referral email survey. All credits expire after 12 months.
- Cash: Once survey responses are selected, checks will be issued within 4-6 weeks.
- Founder Series Powerwall 2: Founder Series Powerwalls will be shipped in 2019. In Europe, Middle East and Asia-Pacific, customers can select credit toward other products in lieu of this award.
Tesla’s recent update on the referral program’s awards selection deadline could be accessed here.
Elon Musk
SpaceX (SPCX) IPO is live today at $135: Here’s exactly what you need to know
SpaceX priced its historic IPO at $135 per share today, raising a record $75 billion.
SpaceX officially priced its initial public offering at $135 per share, offering 555,555,555 shares of Class A common stock and raising $75 billion in what is the largest IPO in stock market history. Shares are set to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on Friday, June 12, under the ticker symbol SPCX. The previous record holder was Saudi Aramco’s 2019 offering at $29 billion, followed by Alibaba’s $22 billion offering in 2014.
At $135 per share and roughly 555.6 million shares, the implied valuation sits near $1.75 trillion, which would make SpaceX roughly the seventh largest company in the United States, just above Tesla’s current market cap. Regular investors can request shares at the IPO price through Robinhood, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, SoFi, and E*TRADE, though the deal is heavily oversubscribed and most retail allocations will be partial or unfilled. Once trading opens June 12, anyone with a brokerage account can buy SPCX on the open market.
SpaceX’s amended S-1 is sparking a major Tesla merger conversation
The valuation is anchored primarily by Starlink. Starlink crossed 10 million subscribers as of February 2026 and is adding 750,000 to 1.5 million new users per month, with the connectivity segment already posting a $1.19 billion profit last quarter. The offering also bundles in xAI following SpaceX’s all-stock merger earlier this year, adding Grok and the Colossus supercomputer to the investment thesis. As Teslarati reported, Starlink ended 2025 with $10 billion in revenue, a figure analysts project could reach $24 billion by end of 2026.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has been vocal in his support. “I think the time is right,” Ives said, adding that the offering expands the Elon Musk ecosystem rather than competing with Tesla. An average 12-month price target of $165 per share represents roughly 22% upside from the IPO price. Not everyone agrees – Motley Fool noted xAI is spending $1 billion per month playing catch-up to OpenAI and Anthropic.
Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with a single stated purpose. “Elon founded SpaceX with a goal to change humanity, to make us a multi-planet species,” CFO Bret Johnsen said in the company’s retail roadshow video this week. Musk himself has been more direct: “We are building the systems and technologies necessary to provide global connectivity on Earth and beyond, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars.”
Investor's Corner
Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”
Tesla’s folding Supercharger just arrived in Europe and it changes how fast charging expands.
Tesla’s Folding Unit Supercharger has officially landed in Europe, with the company teasing a new installation in its effort for a broader rollout targeting major motorway rest stops across the European continent in Q3 2026. The arrival marks a notable shift in how Tesla is thinking about network expansion, moving from hardware performance alone to engineering the logistics chain itself.
While Tesla did not reveal the exact location for the new folding Supercharger in Europe, the photo shared on X heavily suggests that this maybe somewhere in Norway. Historically, whenever Tesla rolls out an entirely new infrastructure architecture in Europe, whether it was the original Supercharger stalls years ago or these brand-new modular V4 “Folding Units”, Norway is almost always the designated launch pad because of its unmatched EV adoption rate and supportive infrastructure
The Folding Unit, introduced in March 2026, is a factory pre-assembled V4 charging station built on an industrial hinge system mounted to a heavy-duty concrete base. The entire assembly arrives on site ready to unfold and connect. Tesla confirmed the units feature telescopic light poles specifically designed for easy transportation and fast on-site deployment, a detail that signals how carefully the logistics chain has been engineered alongside the hardware itself. The design allows 33% more stalls per delivery truck, cuts installation time roughly in half, and reduces overall deployment costs by more than 20% compared to traditional installations.
Tesla’s newest “Folding V4 Superchargers” are key to its most aggressive expansion yet
Tesla also noted telescopic light poles which provide benefits over traditional Supercharger installations that require fixed-height poles that are awkward to ship, slow to position on site, and often require separate crews and equipment to erect before charging hardware can even be staged. By engineering poles that compress for transit and extend on arrival, Tesla has removed one of the quieter bottlenecks in the physical deployment process. Every hour saved on a light pole installation is an hour redirected toward getting stalls energized. At scale, across dozens of new sites per quarter, those hours add up to a meaningful acceleration in how quickly a location goes from approved permit to serving its first customer.
Each Folding Unit pairs a single V4 power cabinet with eight charging posts. The V4 cabinet delivers up to 500 kW per stall for passenger vehicles and up to 1.2 MW for the Tesla Semi, supporting twice the stalls per cabinet at three times the power density of its predecessor. Longer cables make every new station immediately usable by non-Tesla vehicles, a priority as Tesla continues opening its network to Ford, GM, Rivian, Hyundai, Stellantis, and others.
As Teslarati reported when the Folding Unit was first unveiled, Tesla’s Gigafactory New York produced its final V3 Supercharger cabinet in March 2026 after more than seven years and 15,000 units, completing a full pivot to V4 production. The European arrival of the folding design is the next chapter in that transition.
Faster and cheaper deployment means Tesla can justify building in markets and corridors that were previously too expensive to serve, filling the coverage gaps that have slowed EV adoption outside major urban centers.
First Folding Unit Superchargers in Europe 🇪🇺 https://t.co/KNfYWJukkL pic.twitter.com/YR1udIpH1i
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) June 10, 2026
Tesla has stunned by gaining yet another approval for its Full Self-Driving suite in Europe, its second in two days and its fifth overall.
Belgium will be the latest country to allow Tesla owners to utilize FSD on public roads in Europe, joining a quickly growing list that started with the Netherlands, Lithuania, and Estonia.
On Tuesday, Denmark announced its approval of the FSD suite, which has now been followed by Belgium just one day later.
The country’s Minister of Mobility, Annick De Ridder, announced the approval on her X account, stating that she had just signed the approval of Tesla FSD. It now goes to the country’s homologation department for the last step of the approval process.
De @Tesla community houdt hier al geruime tijd de vinger aan de pols over de toelating voor de FSD-technologie op onze Vlaamse en Belgische wegen.
Uit waardering voor jullie niet-aflatende interesse (en aanmoediging 😉), krijgen jullie hierbij de primeur: ik heb net de toelating… pic.twitter.com/Yrps4OHTj8— Annick De Ridder (@AnnickDeRidder) June 10, 2026
The Belgian approval is one of mighty importance because it truly shows how quickly countries in Europe could greenlight the FSD suite consecutively. Approvals are already coming in relatively quickly, which is a great sign.
Perhaps the next big development that could come from FSD approvals in Europe is an approval from a country like England, Italy, France, Spain, or Germany. It would be something to see how FSD would perform in a major European metro, such as London, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Rome, or Berlin.
Getting Full Self-Driving in Spain and England will be such huge milestones for Tesla. I am so excited to see how FSD performs in Madrid, Barcelona, and London, specifically.
The ultimate test will always be Mumbai or New Delhi. Excited for India’s eventual approval! https://t.co/paw9Ch1qmL pic.twitter.com/9RdDERVSSJ
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 9, 2026
Full Self-Driving does an excellent job of roaming around major U.S. cities like New York and Los Angeles, but other high-profile international cities of significance would truly mark a line in the sand for Tesla, which can simply enable any vehicle in its customer-owned fleet to run FSD with the correct approvals.
SpaceX (SPCX) IPO is live today at $135: Here’s exactly what you need to know
Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”
