ELON CHRON: Your 24hr Musk Companies Update (Patreon)

7th of March, 2025

"Fair competition would be much appreciated..." - Elon Musk (@elonmusk)

■ TESLA $TSLA ($262.67, -0.30%):

- Cybercab and Robovan from an upcoming Monroe Live. Sandy Monroe will talk with both Lars Moravy (@larsmoravy) and Franz von Holzhausen (@woodhaus2) to discus the new Model Y... among other things.

- The Model Y is the top selling car world wide for the second year in a row at 1.09 million sold. The Toyota Corolla was second at 1.08 million sold, and the RAV 4 was third at 1.02 million sold.

- The UPFIT Tesla Patrol Cybertruck and Model Y will be on display for the public and available for hands-on demonstrations for law enforcement officers at Tesla Montebello, California, Center from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. PT. Teams from UPFIT, Tesla Charging, and SpaceX Starlink will all be on hand to answer questions. FYI: the Cybercab will be there!

- Unplugged Performance CEO Ben Schaffer (@BenSchafferUP) posted a pic showing his team retrofitting a Cybertruck with the UPFIT police package. "Naked Cybertrucks."

- According to Transport Canada, four Tesla stores across Canada sold 8,600 vehicles in the final 72 hours of the iZEV rebate fund.

- According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), in the UK for February, Tesla sold 3,853 vehicles, up 20.7% YoY. The Model 3 and Y ranked second and third behind the Mini Cooper. Tesla grew it's market share to 4.6% from 3.75%.

- According to the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, Tesla sold 539 vehicles in the first two months of 2025, up 31% YoY. They sold 428 Model 3s and 111 Model Ys.

- According to the Korea Automobile Importers & Distributors Association (KAIDA), in February, the Legacy Model Y led South Korea's imported car market with 2,038 units sold, contributing to Tesla's total of 2,222 registrations. Tesla ranked third behind BMW (6,274) and Mercedes-Benz (4,663).

- Cybercab on display at Giga Berlin. Pic by Luc Waterlot (@LucWaterlot).

- In the U.S., Tesla introduced 1.99% APR for 60 months and 2,99% for 72 months on all new Cybertruck orders with a minimum down payment of 4%.

- Mexico & Canada can now get free lifetime Supercharging on all new Foundation Series Cybertruck orders.

- Inside the main west entrance at Giga Texas. Pics by Ed Goff.

- In Japan, Tesla announced they will stop taking new orders for the Model S and X starting the 31st of March. Starting the 1st of only stock or used vehicles will be available.

- In Australia, new Model Y and 3 orders now come with a free universal mobile connector charger and 5,000 km of free Supercharging. Must take delivery on or before the 31st of March.

- Tesla China VP Grace Tao Lin in Shanghai celebrating Women's Day with some of the team. "Having joined Tesla for 11 years, I am honored to have witnessed the wave of new energy and artificial intelligence. I also deeply feel that technological development is opening up new career tracks for women. At Tesla, more and more outstanding female employees are working in different positions, accelerating towards a sustainable energy economy."

- At Giga Berlin today, a delivery event was held outside the main entrance! Pics by Ronny (@RonnyGolisch) and EFIEBER (@EFIEBER_ANDRE). H/T subscriber Krīs (@teslanatrix).

FLYOVERS (flight links in sources section):

• Giga Berlin: Tobias Lindh (@tobilindh), 6th of February, '25

• Giga Texas: Brad Sloan, 6th of February, '25.

• Fremont Factory: MetGod, 6th of February, '25.

■ SPACEX:

- Yesterday launch 28 for the year was Starship 34 Super Heavy Booster 15 (Flight 8) from Orbital Launch Mount A at SpaceX Starbase, Texas. This flight was a hit and miss for SpaceX.

Super Heavy Booster 15 performed as expected, returning to Pad A where Mechazilla caught him with the Chopsticks. Keep in mind that B15 returned on 30 of the 33 raptor engines. Built in redundancy is key here. At this point SpaceX has booster return and catch down. This is the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR). Amazing video by D Wise (@dwisecinema) of NSF.

Starship unfortunately did not fare as well. The beginning of flight after stage separation appeared on track, but, just like Ship 33 in Flight 7, there was leak. It appears a leak around the sea level raptors caused an explosion. If you look at the engine fallout order, a vacuum raptor exploed first, followed by all sea level raptors going out. In the 1st video, you can see how clean the first half is compared to the second half. Major leak. And if you look at the 2nd video, a replay on the SpaceX engineer's screen shows an obvious explosion. This caused ship to lose attitude and spin uncontrollably. FTS was safed, so this was a RUD.

As usual and expected, the FAA is requiring SpaceX to complete a mishap investigation following the loss of the Ship 34.

Per SpaceX's Jon Edwards (@edwards345), "Never give up! After Falcon 1 Flight 3, we learned the hard way that ‘the night is darkest just before the dawn.’ Keep your head up, keep pushing. We’re gonna get there."

Per Elon, "It was an upper stage/ship failure... But we learned a good amount in building the new ship design and the flight. Today was a minor setback. Progress is measured by time. The next ship will be ready in 4 to 6 weeks."

Onward and Upwards, SpaceX!

- Yesterday at the McGregor, Texas, Test Facility, SpaceX conducted a test-to-failure on the Horizontal Test Stand. Video is last 76 seconds of the 218 second test.

- Yesterday, the downcomer and transfer tubes were lifted and installed on Starship 36.

- Two new road delays have been posted for March 10th and 11th for transport between the production site and the Massey’s test site. Booster 16 should be returning to production. Not sure what the other is for.

- During a video press conference on Wednesday, NASA astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore stated the following on Elon's claim that the Biden administration refused to have SpaceX send a Dragon to the ISS and bring him and Suni Williams home. "I can only say that Mr. Musk, what he says is absolutely factual."

- Today, to begin preparations of departing the ISS, astronaut Suni Williams handed over command of the orbital station to Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin at 1:55 p.m. ET. Suni and Butch will leave aboard the Crew-9 Dragon Freedom shortly after Crew-10 arrives.

- On the 5th of March, the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans unanimously rejected SpaceX’s attempt to dismiss a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) lawsuit that accused the company of illegally firing eight engineers in 2022 for criticizing Elon over sexual misconduct and gender discrimination. Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez ruled that SpaceX’s participation in an allegedly unconstitutional NLRB teleconference did not justify an interlocutory appeal. The NLRB currently lacks a quorum following President Trump’s January removal of Gwynne Wilcox.

Countdown to 180 (26 - Falcon 9, 0 - Falcon Heavy, and 2 - Starship):

• Launch 29! Saturday, 8th of March, at 7:09 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 SPHEREx & PUNCH will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will return to Vandenberg and land at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4). Click here for a break down of the two small sats.

• Launch 30! Saturday, 8th of March, at 11:10 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-21 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Launch 31! Tuesday, 11th of March, at 8:18 a.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-16 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Launch 32! Tuesday, 11th of March, at 11:39 p.m. PT, Falcon 9 Transporter 13 will launch from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. The booster will return to Vandenberg and land at Landing Zone 4 (LZ-4).

• Launch 33! Wednesday, 12th of March, at 7:48 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Crew-10 will launch from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The booster will return to Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) located at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Crew Dragon Endurance will take U.S Commander Anne McClain, U.S. Pilot Nichole Ayers, Russian Mission Specialist Kirill Peskov, and Japanese Mission Specialist Takuya Onishi to the ISS and replace Crew 9 members Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov and Starliner members Barry E. Wilmore and Sunita Williams. This is the tenth crewed operational flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft to the ISS as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program.

• Launch 34! Thursday, 11th of March, at 4:27 p.m. ET, Falcon 9 Starlink 12-25 will launch from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida. The booster will land on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

■ THE BORING COMPANY: N/A... boring.

■ NEURALINK: N/A...

■ STARLINK:

- Per Elon, "Starlink is not allowed to operate in South Africa, because I’m not black."

- United Airlines has started to install Starlink on their fleet. Unfortunately, it will not be for everyone. It is a paid service. If you are a MileagePlus member you get it free.

- SpaceX's Director of Starlink Global Licensing and Market Activation, Rebecca Slick Hunter, was onpoint this week at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, Spain, where she met with CEO of Universal Service Fund, Chaudhry Mudassar Naveed to discuss solutions for Pakistan’s unserved regions.

She also met with Nacho Ribeiro, CEO of Llamada IP and part of the Argentine Internet Chamber (CABASE) in Argentina. Per Nacho, "We had the pleasure of meeting with the Starlink team, exploring new opportunities to strengthen connectivity in Argentina. Starlink is already a partner of CABASE, this meeting allowed us to continue advancing on key topics such as Direct-to-Device and new forms of collaboration in satellite connectivity."

Yesterday was the last day of the event. Per SpaceX's Starlink Enterprise Sales Manager in Europe, Rogier Beld, "It’s a wrap! It was great spending time this week with Jason Fritch, Tye Bragg, Edoardo Vaquer and the rest of the Starlink team! Thank you to all customers, resellers and partners for the great meetings during the MWC event. Go SpaceX! Go Starlink!"

- Today, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) announced they an order that allows Starlink's Direct-to-Cell service to operate at higher power as to enable a faster, more reliable, and innovative service for consumers across the country. "The FCC will continue the work of unleashing America's space economy."

Per SpaceX's Ben Longmier (@longmier), "Thank you FCC for the welcome update to out of band emissions limits... This will ensure that Americans have the best quality and most reliable service to their phones from space, and sets a good precedent for all other countries."

- President Duma Boko of Botswana visited SpaceX Hawthorne where his delegation met with SpaceX's Udrivolf Pica and Team. Per Udrivolf, "The visit was certainly fruitful and will culminate with the launch of BOTSAT-1, Botswana's first satellite, in a few days from Vandenberg. Wishing all the best to this country and its bold ambitions..." Udrivolf is SpaceX's Spectrum and Regulatory Affairs for Starlink. BotSat-1 will launch aboard Transporter-13 currently targeting Sunday, the 9th of March.

- SpaceX has started to install the Starlink Gateway Antennas at the Tesla Fremont Factory. We have seen the antennas on site for a while and over the past few weeks, we have watched the groundwork progress between the test track. Screenshots for MetGod's flyover.

- Bangladesh Satellite Company Limited (BSCL), through the Posts and Telecom Division, requested the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to mandate that satellite internet providers, including Starlink, route bandwidth through BSCL’s ground station to enhance resource utilization and revenue. The BSCL has already tested Starlink successfully with five terminals, amid Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus’s invitation to Elon to launch Starlink in Bangladesh within 90 days.

■ X:

- X's Missy (@MissyHntr) with Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX).

- Community Notes posted that Top Writers have expressed frustration when an accounts copy their note and re-proposes it nearly verbatim on the same post. So they just launched a change that will show near-replica notes lower in the list of proposed notes on a post.

- This week, X secured a victory in its First Amendment lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta, successfully challenging provisions of California’s AB 587 law that aimed to regulate social media speech. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a permanent injunction barring Bonta and California from enforcing these unconstitutional provisions against X. X is now the only social media company to contest the law, thereby safeguarding free speech for its users nationwide.

- X refused to hand over users' details to British authorities in about half of cases last year. X agreed to UK government requests in 379 out of 806 cases, a 47% disclosure rate. This was a much lower rate than other social platforms such as Meta.

- X secured a First Amendment victory against California Attorney General Rob Bonta, as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued a permanent injunction against enforcing AB 587. This is a 2022 California law that sought to regulate speech on social media platforms. The law is deemed unconstitutional.

■ xAI:

- xAI just purchased a 1 million sqft of property in Southwest Memphis near the TVA Southaven Natural Gas Plant. This is part of the Colossus supercomputer expansion and will incorporate a minimum of one million GPUs. They plan to complete this expansion by 2026. This is in addition to xAI’s Colossus Gray Water Recycling Plant, near the current facility.

Per Ted Townsend, President and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, "This significant expansion by xAI reinforces Memphis’s position as a premier destination for technological innovation. Their investment in this million-square-foot facility, along with xAI’s collaborative partnership, demonstrates the tremendous momentum we’re building in the Digital Delta. Memphis continues to prove itself as the ideal location for companies leading the future of technology."

According to Ted, xAI will utilize Tesla and deploy the world’s largest Megapack site near the new facility to ensure zero grid impact during peak demand, prioritizing energy for Memphis residents.

- You can now ask Grok anything by simply replying to a post with @grok followed by a question.

- Hailey Thomas, a South Memphis teacher, launched a change.org petition to remove xAI's Colossus facility from Memphis, Tennessee. She has nearly 600 signatures as of the 6th of March. The petition targets xAI's emissions through 15 temporary gas turbines. Others voicing her sentiments are the Boxtown Neighborhood Association, Memphis Community Against Pollution, and (D) Councilmembers Yolanda Cooper-Sutton and Pearl Eva Walker, (D) U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, and (D) State Rep. Justin J. Pearson.

- Here is the full presentation from the Palantir's DevCon event detailing the integration of Grok.

■ DOGE:

Estimated Savings: $105B

Amount Saved Per Taxpayer: $652.17

- The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) completed a software license audit and found the following:

• 35,855 ServiceNow licenses on three products; 84 in use

• 11,020 Acrobat licenses with zero users

• 1,776 Cognos licenses; 325 in use

• 800 WestLaw Classic licenses; 216 in use

• 10,000 Java licenses; 400 in use

- DOGE has discovered that two contractors spent 9 years and $200 million working on a modern provider enrollment system at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). After 14 missed deadlines, zero usable output was produced. The contract has now been cancelled.

- The VA has cancelled a $56,000 contract to water ~8 plants for 5 years. This is ~$1400/plant/year. The contract has been canceled and DOGE will water the plants free of charge.

■ ELON NEWS:

- Per President Donald Trump, "We just had a meeting with most of the Secretaries, Elon, and others, and it was a very positive one. It’s very important that we cut levels down to where they should be, but it’s also important to keep the best and most productive people... The relationships between everybody in that room are extraordinary. They all want to get to the exact same place, which is, simply, to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" Pic by the White House X account.

- Elon has seemingly confirmed he will gift a Cybertruck to 13-year-old Devarjaye “DJ” Daniel, the Houston teen who has undergone 13 surgeries for brain cancer who was honored as a Secret Service member by President Donald Trump during the congressional address on March 4th. After DJ requested the vehicle during a CNN interview with Kaitlan Collins, Elon responded with a heart emoji.

■ SUBSCRIBERS:

FYI: I will be in Florida next week attending the NASA SpaceX Crew-10 launch! I was selected as part of the Social Media event that will take place on the 11th and 12th. I get to tour Kennedy Space Center, meet NASA and SpaceX personnel, and of course, watch the launch. What is really cool, I am now Press accredited!

Who's the media now?!

I hope I get some amazing footage for you guys! Needless to say, there will be no ELON CHRON this coming week.

I am giving away the sold out Tesla Cyberbeast Trucker Hat ($50) for March! Like always, one random subscriber's name will be drawn at the end of the month. Good luck!

Also, if you are interested in getting Tesla products, you can support me by using my referral. You can get up to a $1,000 discount. Just click here: ts.la/stephen746292

Have a great weekend!

■ SOURCES:

FLYOVERS:

• Giga Berlin: Tobias Lindh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eKvZ24bL4M

• Giga Texas: Brad Sloan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcdjIsbapo0

• Fremont Factory: MetGod https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puXxunVRxxE

Tesla:

• https://www.thejournal.ie/tesla-sales-ireland-europe-6641598-Mar2025/

• https://driveteslacanada.ca/news/tesla-sells-8600-cars-canada-final-days-of-canadas-izev/

• https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-model-y-tops-south-korea-import-sales-february-2025/

SpaceX:

• https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/mar/6/spacex-loses-bid-dismiss-suit-accusing-company-firing-workers/

• https://www.ibtimes.sg/butch-wilmore-backs-elon-musks-claim-that-biden-blocked-spacex-rescue-mission-78853

• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-06/orban-ally-seeking-spacex-deal-named-special-envoy-in-hungary

Starlink:

• https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/bangladesh-satellite-company-eyes-starlink-partnership-1081921

• https://x.com/BrendanCarrFCC/status/1898049648423550981

X:

• https://archive.vn/poBlN

xAI:

• https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/money/business/development/2025/03/06/memphis-petition-to-remove-elon-musk-xai-from-city/81417886007/

Elon News:

• Elon Quote: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1897790300652740938

• https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-confirms-cybertruck-gift-13-year-old-cancer-fighter/