Hey everybody Rob Mayward here and today we're discussing some news about the SEC and Elon Musk. We've also got another SEC filing from Tesla, some news on North American charging standard, some factory updates and a few other items as well. Pretty quiet day for the stock today, Tesla down about half a percent closing at $259.98, the NASDAQ down about 1 10th of a percent. Alright, so today we've got more headlines around the SEC and Elon Musk. This time around the SEC is seeking a court order to force Musk to testify regarding the previously disclosed investigation relating to the Twitter acquisition.
So I think Bloomberg the first report on this today, their headline read SEC SUSE Elon Musk over refusal to testify in Twitter probe. Alright, well another lawsuit against Elon by the SEC, that doesn't sound great, we know how that has turned out in the past, but if we can filter through the media headlines and actually look at what the SEC has filed today, they say that quote, the SEC staff's application seeks an order from the court directing Musk to comply with the subpoena.
So literally all this relates to is the SEC wants Elon to testify and actually for the third time on this specific investigation, they had tried to schedule this testimony a couple of times and most recently a couple of days before it was scheduled to happen, Elon basically noped out, provided a few reasons why he felt he should not have to testify again and this is basically the SEC's counter argument to that, asking the court to compel the testimony. So that's it, they're just seeking a court order, characterizing this as a lawsuit is pretty extremely misleading and Bloomberg seems to agree although they have kept the same hyperlink which specifies SEC SUSE Elon Musk.
Well they have now significantly changed the headline, they have changed the body of the article and all references to lawsuit or sued have been removed except for one that they seem to have forgotten about which captions the video included in the article which I'm sure if they had noticed they wouldn't also remove that reference too. So side by side of the old headline and the new headline SEC SUSE Elon Musk over refusal to testify in Twitter probe now updated to SEC seeks to force Musk testimony on Twitter stock purchases and the opening paragraph updated similarly used to say SEC SUSE Elon Musk now says SEC seeking to force him to testify.
But at this point the language is already out there, people already think the SEC filing a new lawsuit against Elon which also carries the connotation that they've closed their investigation and are now pursuing the lawsuit. So this is actually really a minor story, very disappointing to see this from Bloomberg, obviously they made the updates although they have decided to omit that they've made these updates in their note about updating the article which I think makes it even worse. All it says is that updates with background on Musk's Twitter purchases starting in six paragraph like what you change the headline you change the first paragraph. This is pretty much a completely different report outside of what the topic is.
So very disappointing reporting but continuing to look further into the actual SEC action. Just to better understand what's going on here a lot of people have thought that this investigation relates to when Elon filed a 13G filing disclosing his significant ownership in Twitter that had happened a couple of days late in this SEC filing they say that one of Musk's objections was that quote in the context of an investigation into the timing and substance of a schedule 13G enough is enough end quote.
But the SEC says this objection fails at its premise the SEC's investigation pertains to considerably more than the timing and substance of a particular SEC filing. It also relates to all of Musk's purchases of Twitter stock in 2022 and its 2022 statements and SEC filings. So hopefully that helps clarify what exactly this investigation is about what exactly this filing is about again this is just the SEC requesting the court to compel Musk to testify. I would imagine that they'll probably succeed with this request again Elon has already testified for this but their argument is basically that there's a lot of new information that they have learned since then so we'll see but I also think it's pretty reasonable for Elon to try to not have to do it since he already has previously.
Alright we'll move on from this but actually stay with SEC filings this one from Tesla's investor relations page there's a new SEC filing labeled CT order which certainly I'm using from a timing perspective with everyone being excited about Cybertruck orders but CT here means confidentiality treatment so this is just an extension of a confidentiality treatment agreement that Tesla has previously been granted and obviously because it's confidential we don't know a whole lot about it maybe relates to Tesla supplier agreement something like that.
Alright next up we've got some news on NACS or the North American charging standard Hyundai Kia and Genesis actually have announced that they are going to be adopting NACS after a little bit of debate and they had to figure out if they would work with their batteries and things like that but these brands now hopping on board very similarly to the other announcements that we have had looks like they'll target the fourth quarter of 2024 to start implementing the NACS port on their vehicles in the US. So a few holdouts obviously remaining but Hyundai Kia that's obviously a pretty big one so nice to have this news.
Alright next we've got a nice post on X from A on DE relating to a topic that we had talked about yesterday which was kind of comparing automaker sales from pre-COVID 2019. Here we've got that exact same comparison being made for Germany we can see Tesla up you know 471% since that period of time. Most automakers though down pretty significantly totaled down 22% in that period with just Tesla Porsche and Kia increasing. So just like with the US good context keep in mind internationally as well.
Next we've got a report on Gigamexico this is coming from Reuters they are saying that according to new comments from Nuebe Leon Tesla has asked for new infrastructure to be built out including energy water and transportation. The report says they are in the early stages of detailing investments and infrastructure needed which makes it sound like oh man how far away is this if they're just in early stages of these discussions but it's also noted that Nuebe Leon said that this project will trigger growth in the region hence the need to invest in necessary infrastructure in roads, schools, health centers and basic services which are all very important but also might not necessarily be things that are gating factors to get production started on Gigamexico but definitely things that need to be thought about as production and hiring and all that sort of stuff scales over time. So obviously we've heard quite a few reports on Gigamexico but I wouldn't necessarily read too much into this one specifically and although not directly related we did have an interesting comment from Tesla executive row on Patel on X today. The post he is directly replying to was deleted so I can't actually see what it was referencing specifically I think there was some reporting about maybe a Gigamexico expansion or maybe further delays I'm not sure but Patel noting quote if you believe the legacy media we are building Gigamexico in virtually every country in Asia and Europe while at the same time canceling factories we have already announced. It is BS clickbait and should be ignored. This article is one of many I have seen that incorrectly and randomly comments on our Mexico plans we will continue to make progress with the local state and federal governments and we are very appreciative of their efforts to enable the permits and sustainable infrastructure necessary end quote. So again this is relating to a different report than the Reuters report but good thing to keep in mind in general.
Alright next we've got a quick update on the updated version of the Model Y, drive Tesla Canada sharing some photos that were posted in China of the update. Basically we've seen these in the design studio and things like that but some real photos here of the new wheels as well as the dash.
Next another continuation of a story that we had talked about yesterday which was Tesla reportedly finalizing the giganavada expansion plans a few days ago. From electric it looks like over the last few days they have now added a number of new Tesla semi positions which could be a result of these plans now being finalized which is exciting to see obviously it's still gonna require decent amount of patience from this point but nice to see a few signs of progress there nonetheless.
Onto the cyber truck not as much new news today but a couple of really nice shots again continuing to come out of the cyber truck at starbase including one that shows the cyber truck next to a Model X that seems to be pretty clearly rigged up to shoot video of the cyber truck. There have been reports of this but I think that now looks very clear that Tesla was doing some promotional filming which is obviously encouraging. And then over on reddit a user by the name of just human garbage took a video of a cyber truck at a supercharger and I think the lighting just looks really nice here. This when I first saw it it made me think of all those times where I say you gotta just see it in person. This video actually feels like what it feels like in person I think. It is a very impressive vehicle.
今天关于Cybertruck的新消息并不多,但又有几张非常好看的照片从Starbase传出,其中一张显示Cybertruck与一辆看起来明显是为了拍摄Cybertruck视频而改装的Model X并排在一起。之前有关此事的报道,现在看来很明显,特斯拉正在进行一些促销拍摄,这无疑是令人鼓舞的。此外,在Reddit上一个名为“just human garbage”的用户拍摄了一段Cybertruck在超级充电站的视频,我觉得这里的光线看起来非常好。当我第一次看到它时,让我想起了所有那些我说过的“你必须亲自看看才知道”的时刻。这个视频实际上感觉就像现场的感觉一样。这是一辆非常令人印象深刻的车辆。
Alright, we've got a couple other automaker updates first on GM. It has been reported by the information that GM's pretty recently named CTO is going to be leaving the company on November 1st so his tenure is only going to be a couple of months after having spent his entire career effectively at GM. It's also kind of interesting because he was just pretty open about where GM stood on their battery technology saying that GM needs to make its own batteries and I think GM has tried to present it that way through the Altium platform. Obviously that's done in partnership with LG so who knows if it was related to those types of comments but from what I could tell this person seemed to have a pretty good understanding of where things needed to go but obviously not going to be able to see that through.
And we've also got an update from Lucid. They have announced the rear wheel drive version of the Pure trim Lucid Air. They are stating the range as 410 miles though they say that the EPA range estimate would be 419 miles so just a bit above the long range Model S and the price will be a bit above it as well starting at $77,400. Obviously the margins though for Lucid are going to be tough to say the least.
我们还得到了Lucid的最新消息。他们宣布了Lucid Air Pure车型的后驱版本。他们声称续航里程为410英里,尽管他们表示美国环保署的估计将会达到419英里,稍高于长续航Model S,起价也会稍高,起价为77400美元。显然,对于Lucid来说,利润空间将非常有限。
Alright last couple of things. As scheduled Elon did partake in the International Astronautical Congress today. We have a few updates on SpaceX and Starship a lot of things that had already been disclosed but a couple of interesting things. For the next test flight of Starship he said the goal is to survive ignition obviously and stage separation as well. He was also asked when SpaceX would try to catch the rocket and for the booster said that that could maybe happen within the next year and then for the ship probably a little bit later they'd have to do a number of water landings first so said that that probably be maybe the end of next year. And then for Mars he said probably 3-4 years to land Starship on Mars.
Lastly then I just want to take a quick look at the calendar because tomorrow I'm going to actually be taking the day off my parents are coming to visit so looking forward to that. We'll hope for a quiet day and then as we head into next week we will have the producer price index PPI and consumer price index CPI report. Those will be on Wednesday and Thursday morning before market open.
Alright that'll wrap it up for today and for the week then as always thank you for listening and make sure you subscribe and sign up for notifications and also find me on X at Tesla podcast and we'll see you on Monday for the October 9th episode of Tesla Daily. Thank you.