Tesla/SpaceX merger, Rivian R2 progress, new Mercedes GLA, and more

**Fred Lambert** (0:04)
We are live for a new episode of the Electrek Podcast. I am Fred Lambert, your host. And usual, I'm joined by Seth Weintraub. How are you doing this week, Seth?

**Seth Weintraub** (0:13)
I'm good.

**Fred Lambert** (0:14)
All right. What do we have for you guys this week? This week, we're going to talk about the Tesla SpaceX merger, kind of spicing it up a little bit with a new report from the Wall Street Journal yesterday kind of a true peopleful loop. Then we'll talk about the cyber truck production maybe stopping soon. We're going to see, we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about Tesla fulfilling a promise that Elon actually made to me a long time ago, a decade ago, about the supercharger being powered by renewable energy. Tesla has made some big moves on towards that this week, so kudos to that. We're going to talk about the Rivian's earnings, which were very good despite the stock's performance today.
Then we're going to talk about, though, less good for the Rivian, the first test of the efficiency of the R2 coming in. Just one test, but still a lot worse than the EPA and a lot closer to what we thought the real issue would probably land. We're going to talk about the Mercedes GLA EV launching this week. We're going to talk about the new one. We're going to talk about Volvo dropping the LIDAR from its EX and ES90 SUVs. Some interesting things about that. Then we're going to talk about the iX3, which is doing very well. The output is increasing quite a bit. But yeah, last night, Wall Street Journal came out with a report based on a source close to Tesla saying that the company has been waiting in what to do with its Chinese business ahead of a merger with SpaceX. And discussion have went as far as to sell it, just winding down completely. Which is obviously kind of surprising to a lot of people. We've discussed that before. We, you know, the entire idea of SpaceX and Tesla merging is not new. It's been around for a long time, but it's been ramping up over the last year as SpaceX is kind of gobbling up Elon's other company through XAI buying Twitter and SpaceX buying XAI and so on. So this idea has been around for a while, it is ramping up right now, and now in the last few, in the last week really, the pinnacle of it has been analysts, a Wall Street analyst asking directly Elon about the potential of the merger on the earnings call last week. And Elon was, you know, normally cannot shut up about anything. For the first time, shut up about it and actually deferred to a lawyer saying that they cannot talk about it on the call, which is a big tell that things are happening behind the scene and they are trying to look into a merger between SpaceX and Tesla.
Now, we talked about this before at Electrek. We're like, I don't see... Well, I see China being an issue for a merger with between Tesla and SpaceX because China is such a big part of Tesla, both for sale, but also for production and as a supply chain, completely... If China disappear tomorrow morning, Tesla disappear with it. There's just no way around it. That's how it works. So to merge what is basically a US defense company with a company that completely relies on China is based on the current ITAR and trade laws. Problematic on both sides, by the way, on the US side and on the Chinese side as well. So it's not just a one way thing. Now on the US side of things, I've always said that because Elon is obviously very well connected with the government, I assume there's probably ways around it.
Just an extra million to Trump for the next election. And then it's a done deal. But on the Chinese side might be more complicated. And this is also what the Wall Street Journal wrote, is that the problem is not necessarily the US. It might be China might have an issue with Tesla technically being owned by... Because by the way, like SpaceX is gonna own Tesla, not the other way around, at least the way it's trading right now.
So that Tesla, such a company that's imbedded into the Chinese industries, being owned by one of the largest defense contractor in the US. So it is problematic. Now, Elon Musk has come out and denied the report, calling it fake news, which basically confirms the report.
No, no, but seriously, I mean, I'm exaggerating here, but not really, because obviously, Elon always does that. You know, he just denies a report by saying not true, false, fake news or anything like that, without going into any details and not saying that he can't go into details here.