You can’t buy a $7,000 solar-powered Tesla. Despite social media claims, Elon Musk didn’t make one

Elon Musk, X’s owner and Tesla’s chief executive officer, is known for making electric cars, house batteries and solar panels, but he hasn’t yet created a cheap new vehicle that runs on solar. 

"Elon Musk: '’I Am Releasing Tesla's $7,000 NEW Car That Runs On PURE Solar Power!’" a Facebook post reads.

The Nov. 16 post also says: "Imagine a world where you could drive without ever needing gas or even a charging station — just pure, clean solar power. Elon Musk, the man who’s made electric cars mainstream and sent rockets to Mars, is now unveiling his latest game-changer: a Tesla that runs on the power of the sun. And here’s the real shocker — it costs just $7,000."

(Screenshot of Facebook post.)

The post includes two images showing Musk next to what appears to be Tesla cars.

The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Threads and Instagram.)

As of Nov. 19, PolitiFact found no evidence that Musk is releasing a solar-powered Tesla.

Tesla uses lithium-ion batteries, not solar panels, in the electric cars it makes. Tesla also doesn’t have a vehicle that costs $7,000; the cheapest car on its website goes for almost $30,000.

In 2022, an Australian inventor said he was taking a car and charging it with "a lightweight technology that can generate electricity from sunlight," according to a Euronews article. 

The article said that Paul Dastoor, a physics professor at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, would use 18 specially-designed solar panels to power a Tesla for a trip around Australia. 

The project, Charge Around Australia, started in September 2022  ended in January 2023 and sought to advance solar power technology. We found no evidence that Musk was involved. 

In a 2023 "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast, Musk was asked whether there would ever be a vehicle that can operate entirely on solar. Musk said the car will need to unfold the solar panels like a Starlink satellite, but that "you just don’t have enough surface area for it."

Host Joe Rogan then asked Musk: "But it's never going to get to a point where you can just have a car that's made out of solar panels that it could drive around, it could never be that efficient?" Musk said: "Correct, so you do not have enough surface area."

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stated on October 22, 2024 in posts on X

A photo shows The Atlantic published a story headlined “Trump is Literally Hitler.”

We also searched Tesla's website, and the only solar-related products are solar panels and solar roofs. The website mentions no Tesla-made solar vehicles.

PolitiFact contacted Tesla for comment but received no reply by publication.

We also found no official Tesla announcements, credible media articles or news stories in the Nexis news database about a supposed $7,000 solar vehicle.

This isn’t the first time we’ve fact-checked posts announcing fake inventions by Musk. We rated a claim that Musk announced a new water-powered car False.

We also rate the claim that Musk released a $7,000 car that runs on "pure solar" False.