News
Strikes against Tesla Sweden leave over 100 charging stalls waiting for power
Tesla drivers and others with electric vehicles (EVs) have had to wait in line to access the company’s Supercharger stations in Sweden during holiday travel in recent weeks, as ongoing sympathy strikes against the company have blocked more than 100 new stalls from getting energized during the winter season.
Sweden’s largest auto and metalworkers union, IF Metall, has been lodging strike efforts against Tesla for over a year now, and ongoing sympathy strikes with the country’s electric utility operators have managed to prevent the company from bringing new Supercharger stalls online.
In response to a video showing long lines at one Swedish Supercharger station, Tesla Charging Director Max de Zegher said in a post on X on Sunday that the company is still working to roll out new stations, despite the situation leaving over 100 new stalls without electricity.
The executive also said that there was currently “no clear path yet to [the chargers] getting turned on,” adding that Swedish EV drivers are suffering in having to wait, while the move was also preventing the country’s EV infrastructure from keeping up with other regions.
“When Tesla Sweden signs the collective agreement, the strike and sympathy strike ends immediately,” an IF Metall spokesperson wrote in an email to Teslarati.
Specifically, de Zegher said that the company was still rolling out new stations in Malung, Käppen, Vansbro, Idre, Särna, and Sunne, and he encouraged the public in Sweden to reach out to elected officials to help get added sites energized as soon as possible. The news also comes after Tesla officially opened the Supercharger network to all EV brands in Sweden in November.
Teslas (mostly) in the middle of ??Sweden waiting in line at a Superchargerstation in Malung.
Can you count how many there are in line?Because of IF Metall, Tesla can’t connect new stations to the grid.
Crazy, isn’t it!@MdeZegher pic.twitter.com/86XFMUKBSS— Nicklas ???T??♻️? (@NicklasNilsso14) January 5, 2025
You can read de Zegher’s full comment on the matter below:
As forecasted, Swedish EV drivers are suffering and EV infrastructure is not keeping up unless Superchargers get energized by the utilities blocking them from getting energized. Tesla Superchargers are critical infrastructure, especially for peak travel days like this. 100+ stalls in Sweden would have been energized this winter, if it wasn’t for sympathy strikes. Despite no clear path yet to getting turned on, we will also continue to invest and build sites for Swedish EV drivers, including more capacity in Malung, Käppen, Vansbro, Idre, Särna, and Sunne. We appreciate the support from the public to help us get Superchargers energized asap. Waiting in line like this is super painful, hurts EV adoption and totally fixable!
At the time of writing, Swedish utility provider Svenska kraftnät has not yet responded to Teslarati’s request for comment.
READ MORE ON TESLA SWEDEN: Tesla Model 3 named Sweden’s Car of the Year for 2024
Tesla Sweden license plates withheld, with repairs blockade lifted
IF Metall initially launched strike efforts against Tesla Sweden in November 2023, after the company refused to sign a collective bargaining agreement. The labor efforts have since evolved into multiple phases, including efforts to cease imports, withhold Tesla’s license plates for newly registered vehicles, and to halt service and maintenance operations.
Prior to sympathy strikes breaking out over Tesla’s Supercharger stalls connecting to the electrical grid, the company first saw a dockworkers’ union attempt to block vehicles being imported into the country. Tesla later found workarounds for this by delivering the vehicles via ferry from Germany, bypassing the dock’s handling of the units.
Early last year, IF Metall also effectively had a blockade in place on repairs and maintenance at many Sweden-based Tesla service sites, though that was lifted in May as most repairs were approved to continue.
Tesla has also had to find workarounds for IF Metall encouraging PostNord, the country’s leading mail provider, to withhold the delivery of license plates for the company’s newly registered vehicles. Despite the efforts, Tesla has been able to sign a purchase agreement or leasing contract with buyers in advance, having them retrieve their plates and registration documents directly from PostNord and bring them to pick up their vehicles.
What are your thoughts? Let me know at zach@teslarati.com, find me on X at @zacharyvisconti, or send us tips at tips@teslarati.com.
Updated 1/6/25: Added response from an IF Metall spokesperson.
Swedish union pissed off because Tesla is still thriving despite strike: “It’s bullsh*t”
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Investor's Corner
SpaceX and Nvidia team up on Musk’s orbital AI bet
SpaceX revealed a new Nvidia satellite partnership, then Musk pledged an exclusive Nvidia hardware commitment.
SpaceX and Nvidia are now working together on the hardware that will power Musk’s orbital data center ambitions. SpaceX announced on X on Tuesday that it is partnering with Nvidia to design the compute payload for Starmind AI1, the first satellite in a planned constellation built to run AI workloads directly in orbit. Each Starmind satellite will carry Nvidia’s Rubin GPUs and Vera CPUs, according to the post, which included renderings of the payload design.
The announcement landed hours before SpaceX’s first earnings call as a public company, where Musk went further, saying the company has committed to building its AI infrastructure exclusively on Nvidia hardware. “We think the Vera Rubin architecture is the best architecture. We think it’s the best AI computer, and we greatly value our close cooperation and partnership on many levels with Nvidia,” Musk told investors on the call,. “So we’re exclusive to Nvidia.”
Musk said SpaceX plans to deploy Nvidia’s Vera Rubin NVL72 rackscale system, codenamed Kyber, both on the ground and in space. He set a target of 2 gigawatts of compute capacity online by the end of this year, scaling to roughly 10 gigawatts by the end of 2027.
SpaceX’s newest Starmind will make earth data centers obsolete
Starmind has been in development since Musk confirmed the name in June, following an xAI trademark filing that tipped off the project before SpaceX made it official. The idea is massive in scope and instead of moving data down to ground based servers, satellites equipped with onboard processors and large solar arrays would compute AI workloads in orbit and beam results back to Earth. SpaceX has already filed with the FCC for a constellation of up to one million satellites to support the effort, citing constant solar power and the absence of zoning restrictions as advantages over terrestrial data centers.
The Nvidia exclusivity marks a shift in tone from just two weeks ago, when Musk was busy knocking down a report that SpaceX had ordered $52 billion worth of Nvidia GPUs through Foxconn, calling it fake news at the time. The dollar figure in that rumor may have been wrong, but the underlying direction seems correct. SpaceX’s AI division already leases Colossus compute capacity to Anthropic and Google, and Tuesday’s earnings report showed AI revenue climbing sharply as those deals ramp up.
Nvidia shares rose roughly 3% in Tuesday trading on the news, while SpaceX stock climbed nearly 9% during the day before giving back gains after hours as investors digested the earnings report’s capital spending figures.
Investor's Corner
SpaceX reports beat in first earnings while minimizing losses
SpaceX (NASDAQ: SPCX) reported a beat in revenues and EBITDA in its first earnings call report while also minimizing losses as its business continues to gain momentum.
After its IPO in July, SpaceX saw some tough losses on Wall Street due to a major selloff after a delay in its 13th Starship test flight. The ship launched later that week and completed what was arguably the most successful IFT operation in the Starship program’s history.
Nevertheless, the company is continuing on and reported some encouraging financials while also promoting what appears to be a robust outlook moving forward in its Space, AI, and Connectivity divisions.
SpaceX to report first-ever earnings today: here’s what to expect
Earnings Results
- Revenues: $7.8 billion reported vs. $6.7 billion expected
- Adjusted EBITDA: $3.5 billion vs. $2 billion expected
- Net loss of $541 million, an improvement of $467 million from net loss of $1.0 billion
Additionally, CFO Bret Johnsen had these comments:
“2026 has been a momentous year so far, and the second quarter demonstrated the true power of SpaceX. Revenue growth accelerated across all our business segments and we delivered strong operating leverage, with significant margin expansion led by our new AI compute agreements. Our unparalleled leadership in launch, Starlink subscriber growth, new enterprise and government partnerships, and best-in-class AI infrastructure underscore our ability to drive meaningful scale and deliver attractive returns. As a newly public company, we are delighted to welcome our broad base of shareholders and bondholders. We ended the second quarter with $100 billion of cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, and $47.5 billion in backlog. This financial strength gives us substantial capacity to invest in Starship, Starlink Broadband and Mobile satellites, and our AI platform, while maintaining a disciplined long-term capital allocation framework.”
Space Business Highlights
SpaceX shared some of its biggest Space Business Highlights for Q2:
- Space revenues grew 55% sequentially and 29% year-over-year to $962 million, driven by a higher number of large customer launches and a favorable customer shift compared to the prior year
- Total costs and expenses for the Space segment were up by $389 million year-over-year, as we continued to accelerate R&D investments in our Starship program, which we believe will reduce the cost to orbit by 99% or more relative to the historical average, and unlock significant revenue potential across all business segments
- Leading launch provider for the world with 78 launches and 1,041 metric tons of mass to orbit deployed over the six months ended June 30, 2026, primarily allocated to Connectivity for the deployment of our Starlink constellation
- Starship V3 development continued to advance towards full and rapid reusability:
- Completed Starship V3’s first suborbital mission in May, Flight 12, which achieved a successful lift off from our new Starbase pad, a precision landing of Starship’s upper stage, and deployment of modified V2 Starlink satellites
- Subsequent to the second quarter, completed Starship Flight 13 in July, which achieved all flight objectives including deploying 20 production V3 satellites, demonstrating in-space relight of a Raptor engine, and executing the softest ever splashdown of Starship, providing critical views of an intact heatshield
SpaceX will report its earnings today at 4:30 P.M. EDT.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk sends second warning to SpaceX shorts ahead of first earnings
Elon Musk issued a second pointed warning to SpaceX short sellers on Tuesday, just hours before the company was set to release its first quarterly earnings as a publicly traded firm. Responding to a report highlighting elevated short interest, Musk wrote on X: “I try to warn them, but they just double down …”
The comment came as data from S3 Partners showed roughly 95 percent of available SPCX shares to borrow were on loan, translating to about 34 percent short interest as a percentage of the float. The stock has traded under pressure since its record-breaking IPO in June 2026, declining significantly from early peaks.
I try to warn them, but they just double down … 🤷♂️
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 4, 2026
This marks the second such message from Musk in under three weeks.
On July 17, amid post-IPO volatility, he stated: “The survival probability of firms who maintain a significant short position in SpaceX over time is very low.” At that time, SPCX had fallen roughly 30 percent from its peak above a $2.6 trillion valuation, with short sellers reportedly realizing gains of about $8.7 billion.
Musk’s warning aligned with optimistic analyses projecting that Starship-driven cost reductions could enable a multi-trillion-dollar space economy through applications such as orbital solar power, asteroid mining, data centers, and Mars-related projects, positioning SpaceX as critical infrastructure.
SpaceX is scheduled to report second-quarter results after the market close later today, followed by a webcast. Analysts anticipate revenue near $6.9 billion, reflecting growth in Starlink, launch services, and AI-related segments. The earnings release precedes a major lockup expiration on August 6 that could free hundreds of millions of insider shares.
Musk has a long track record of confronting short sellers, particularly regarding Tesla, where he has argued that persistent bearish positions underestimate transformative technologies. Critics view his optimism as overly ambitious given near-term stock fluctuations, while supporters see temporary dips as opportunities in a longer-term expansion of the space economy.
As SpaceX opens its books to public scrutiny for the first time, the high short interest and Musk’s repeated cautions set the stage for heightened market attention on the results and management’s commentary.

