Here's a summary of the latest news from Electrified with Dylan Loomis:
**Introduction:**
* Dylan thanks new patron John M and explains his recent absence was due to being with his mother after a small procedure. He also gave a shoutout to Sayon, a long-time channel follower he met in person.
**Starship & Starlink v3 Test Flight:**
* Starship's 13th test flight scrubbed due to engine non-starts; the new launch window is Monday, July 20th, at 6:45 PM ET.
* Two Raptors will be removed and replaced for confidence in a good flight.
* For the first time, Starship will carry v3 Starlink satellites into space.
* The plan is to deploy 20 v3 satellites for testing, which will extend solar arrays and antennas and attempt to connect with the larger Starlink constellation via high-capacity lasers.
* These test v3 satellites will be on a suborbital trajectory and are expected to demise upon re-entry about 20 minutes after deployment.
* Six of these satellites are modified with cameras to scan Starship's heat shield and transmit imagery.
* These specific v3 satellites will not make it into orbit; SpaceX aims to operate v3 satellites later this year, and v3s will only fly on Starship.
**Starlink v5 Terminal:**
* SpaceX announced a new v5 Starlink terminal.
* Key improvements are focused on margin push, weight, and size, rather than significantly increased performance.
* The v5 terminal weighs 2.4 lbs (vs 6.4 lbs for 4x), has a smaller dish, and lower average power draw.
* Wind survivability is enhanced, rated up to 165 mph (vs 110 mph for 4x).
* V5 will come with an Ethernet cable (4x did not).
* It will include the Router Mini instead of the Router 3.
* V5 is capable of 375+ Mbps download speeds (compared to 4x's 475 Mbps), but real-world speeds are highly dependent on network conditions.
* Elon mentioned a v5 Starlink Mini is expected but no official details yet.
* A drawn-to-scale comparison highlights the significantly smaller footprint of the v5.
**Starlink v3 Satellite Capacity:**
* Official v3 satellite specs: 1 Tbps down and 160 Gbps up. This is an order of magnitude more capable for download and two orders of magnitude for upload compared to v2.
* Sean McGuire's estimate: With 60 v3 satellites per Starship launch, 30 launches could roughly double Earth's international internet bandwidth.
* Current Starlink network cumulative capacity is around 450 Tbps.
* Each Starship launch with 60 v3 satellites could add 60 Tbps, meaning theoretically, only 7.5 Starship launches could double the entire Starlink network's cumulative capacity.
* This represents a potential acceleration from 7 years (to reach 450 Tbps) to potentially 1 year (to double it).
**A1 Orbital Data Center Satellites:**
* Elon plans to start flying A1 orbital data center satellites next year.
* A1 V1 peak power spec raised to 250 kW (battery assisted), with average power around 160 kW.
* Each A1 satellite will be able to handle an NVL 72 Rubin rack.
* This means each A1 satellite could support approximately 72 advanced GPUs, starting at the scale of one high-end ground rack.
**Elon's "Secret Power Play" (APR Energy Acquisition):**
* Elon quietly acquired Jacksonville-based APR Energy for at least $1 billion, with the transaction granted early termination for antitrust review.
* APR Energy specializes in rapidly deployable modular power generation, including custom power plants for high-density GPUs and AI workloads for hyperscalers and data center developers.
* They use turbine-based energy generation, which is mobile and aligns with Colossus 1 and 2's reliance on gas turbines.
* This acquisition allows Elon to sidestep lengthy interconnection queues for power, enabling faster deployment of compute capacity for in-house models (like ROK) or for renting to others.
**Sponsor - Delete Me:**
* California launched "DROP," a state-run tool to remove personal info from ~600 registered data brokers.
* Delete Me covers over 750 people search sites, in every state, and rescan every quarter, filling gaps left by tools like DROP.
* They allow adding family members at a discount.
* Dylan shares his personal experience, with Delete Me reviewing over 1800 listings and submitting removals from 6 sites for him last quarter, saving him ~160 hours of work.
* Offer: 20% off at joindeliteme.com/electrified with code ELECTRIFIED.
**Tesla Solar Scaling:**
* Australia leads the world in distributed energy adoption (990 watts of solar per person, 40% of homes with rooftop solar, nearly 5% with batteries) due to two decades of deliberate policy.
* In the US, ~9% of homes have rooftop solar and less than 1% have batteries.
* Hardware costs are significantly higher in the US: solar is ~$3/watt (vs <$1/watt in Australia), and batteries are ~$1,000/kWh installed (vs $500/kWh in Australia).
* Accommodative policies are shown to lead to economies of scale and lower pricing.
**Tesla Robotaxi:**
* Tesla's Texas robotaxi fleet is now officially registered with 175 vehicles, with 73 new registrations this week alone, all Model Ys.
* Tesla's geofence in Austin (red) remains larger than Waymo's recently expanded geofence (blue).
**Germany FSD Approval:**
* Germany will not approve Tesla's supervised FSD before a Europe-wide vote within the framework of the TCMV, with the first opportunity for that vote being October this year.
* The KBA (Germany's Federal Motor Transport Authority) is expected to receive a Tesla vehicle this month for independent testing.
**Tesla Superchargers Japan:**
* Tesla has partnered with 7-Eleven in Japan to install Superchargers, with the 150th Supercharger site in Japan being the first of this partnership.
* 7-Eleven is the second convenience store chain in Japan to host Superchargers (Family Mart was the first in 2023).
* 7-Eleven Japan plans to install Superchargers at about 10 additional stores by the end of its 2026 fiscal year.
* Tesla vehicle registrations in Japan reached 12,200 in the first half of 2026, up 166% year-over-year, surpassing total 2025 sales.
**NTSB Tesla Crash Report:**
* An NTSB report confirmed that a Tesla crash into a home was due to the driver manually overriding FSD by pressing the accelerator to 100%, with vehicle speed greater than 70 mph; this was not FSD behavior.
**Tesla Megachargers:**
* Tesla deployed another Megacharger in Bloomington, California, with six stalls, focusing on important semi-routes and depots.
* Dylan notes this might not be the *first* public site, recalling a May 2023 announcement for Ontario, CA.
* The Tesla "Find Us" map shows many "coming soon" Megacharger sites, including about two dozen in Texas.
**Tesla New Market - Latvia:**
* Tesla is set to enter the Latvian market, a smaller market with ~25,000 passenger cars annually and ~7% BEV adoption in 2025 (<2,000 BEVs sold).
**Tesla Lithium Day 2026:**
* The Tesla Lithium Day facility is now complete and fully ramped, shipping materials to Giga Texas for 4680 battery production. This is seen as a future margin tailwind and a boost to supply chain security.
**Tesla Balance Bike:**
* Tesla is opening pre-orders for a kids' balance bike on July 31st for $225.
**Stock Market Update:**
* Tesla (TSLA) closed at $380.84, down 2.61%.
* SpaceX closed at $123.99, down 5.43%, officially below its $135 IPO price. Dylan speculates it might dip to around $100 before ascending.
* The NDX (Nasdaq 100) was down 1.49%.