Rafael Levy

Co/founder of 100 Open Startups. Director at ABRAVEI (Brazilian Association of EV Owners), Tesla Owners Brazil. A fan of Tesla, EVs, tech and space exploration.

[Rafael Levy @rrlevy]

I just translated into English an article I originally wrote in Portuguese for some friends, explaining why I still drive an independently imported Tesla here in Brazil—even though Tesla doesn’t officially sell cars in the country.

People often ask: “Aren’t there better (or at least similar) electric cars available locally now?”

In this piece, I lay out all my reasons and explain why, after years of real-world use and comparisons, I still wouldn’t trade my Tesla for any other EV on the market today.

@Tesla @Tesla_LatAm

@NotATeslaApp @Teslarati @SawyerMerritt @DriveTeslaca @wholemars @TheEVuniverse @Everydaysandro @TeslaBoomerMama @elonmusk @tesla_club_pt

[Rafael Levy @rrlevy]

https://t.co/83pDmTug9K

[Kyle Conner @itskyleconner]

I still hear folks talking about how Tesla doesn’t support 3rd party repair

They are now one of the most supportive brands!

From parts to technical manuals and theory of operations + reasonably priced remote diagnostic software - almost no other brand makes it as easy as Tesla to work on your own car

Here’s the screen in my 2012 OG Signature Model S offering a QR code to order parts specifically for my VIN 😳

Great piece of mind as these cars start to get up there in age. Having @alex_bessinger on the team doesn’t hurt either 🙏

[Tesla Europe, Middle East & Africa @teslaeurope]

An update on FSD Supervised in Europe

FSD is currently approved in five EU countries (NL, DK, BE, EE, LT), used by >70k customers for over 1 million km per day, and is 4.1x less likely to get into a crash compared to manual driving, measured across 100 million km on public EU roads.

Leading up to a potential EU-wide approval vote for FSD Supervised on October 6th, 2026, we have decided to open-source one of the key pieces of evidence used to support the Netherlands approval.

As a reminder, we adjusted the FSD design to be compliant with existing regulation (UN-R-171 DCAS) but requested an exemption for certain behaviors via the EU Article 39 procedure. The following dashboard is evidence of safety for those exemptions.

This exact dashboard was shared with all EU Member States in April 2026, shortly after RDW’s approval, and all data presented is from before that date.

https://t.co/hh2dAKi8oP

European countries recorded 19,400 road deaths in 2025. That's around 53 deaths/day, with the vast majority of these crashes attributed to human error. These deaths are largely preventable with technology we have today.

FSD Supervised is already saving lives where it’s approved – yet in much of Europe, that safety benefit remains locked behind bureaucracy.

[Edward Feser @FeserEdward]

St. Augustine: “Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale? What are criminal gangs but petty kingdoms? A gang is a group of men under command of a leader, bound by a compact of association, in which the plunder is divided according to an agreed convention… For it was a witty and a truthful rejoinder which was given by a captured pirate to Alexander the Great. The king asked the fellow, ‘What is your idea, in infesting the sea?’ And the pirate answered, with uninhibited insolence, ‘The same as yours, in infesting the earth! But because I do it with a tiny craft, I'm called a pirate: because you have a mighty navy, you're called an emperor.’” (City of God, Book IV, Chapter 4)

[Rafael Levy @rrlevy]

@pilotoribeirao_ O que???? E nada de Starlink ainda???

Pelamor, galera tá muito atrasada aqui….

[Rafael Levy @rrlevy]

Have you checked how much power it takes for your electric car just for it to be “awake” with it’s charging electronics enabled? Yeah, about as much as a solar panel would provide in strong sun. So your solar panel would actually consume power instead of generating power most of the time. And for the rest, it would generate nothing

[Rafael Levy @rrlevy]

@TCLA_Omar Its new. It was introduced in the summer update 2026.26 (for all cars, I guess):

https://t.co/1PgHojK53z

[Flightradar24 @flightradar24]

The aviation community may be global, but it is tight-knit. Help us rally around Brazilian aviation’s @avioesemusicas who has been diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. A pilot in Texas paid Lito this honor.

To learn more about Lito’s situation: https://t.co/ACKN4UHgBr

[Rafael Levy @rrlevy]

There are currently only 339 Teslas that were independently imported in Brazil:

Model S54
Model 397
Model X48
Model Y99
Cybertruck41

The number almost stopped growing around 2023/2024, when BYD and other chinese EV manufacturers started selling officially in the country.

In December 2022 there were only 248 BYD cars in Brazil, almosr the same as there were Teslas (225).

Now the country has more than 285k EVs (BEV), where more than 180k are from BYD. Meanwhile, we still have only 339 Teslas.

We urgently need @Tesla to start selling here officially, ASAP!

@Tesla_LatAm @elonmusk

[Francisco Cunha - ✈️ Aviation et al @OnDisasters]

It was a matter of time before this happened.

Again

(Example in the video below)

[Rafael Levy @rrlevy]

@xAviation Yes it can! 🤣

[Rafael Levy @rrlevy]

@innospacecorp Descanse em paz, tio Mario. 🙏

[Rafael Levy @rrlevy]

@Everydaysandro @DriveGreen80167 https://t.co/r92woBjghq

[Rafael Levy @rrlevy]

@Everydaysandro @DriveGreen80167 Sandro, just an advice: you shouldn’t stamp your passport with unofficial stamps like that Ushuaia one. You might have your entry denied in some countries because of that. I’ve seen a lot of posts of people having that issue.

[Rafael Levy @rrlevy]

Era iPhone ou Android?

No iPhone, quando vc faz o backup do iCloud, todos dados locais do WhatsApp vão juntos.

Daí quando restaura o backup do iCloud, já vem tudo. Nem precisa do backup do próprio WhatsApp que eu acho mais problematico.

Única coisa ruim é que a restauração do iCloud é muito demorada, a velocidade média que o iPhone consegue baixar da Apple em um Wi-Fi rápido com fibra óptica é de 1 mbps. Minha última restauração levou 6 dias pra baixar.

[Rafael Levy @rrlevy]

@TCLA_Omar @elonmusk @Tesla @AmielCunha

[TeslaClubLA @TCLA_Omar]

Lots and lots of BYD in Brasil. Tesla get down here!!!!

I gave a buddy some Tesla merch and he was ecstatic. Drooling over specs and pictures of my S Plaid + wife’s Y Performance.

Time is ripe to enter more of the South American market.

@elonmusk @Tesla

[Rafael Levy @rrlevy]

@alanbra @WeiseFranklin Vale lembra que nem toda marca de elétrico é um Tesla…. O artigo da EvClinic mostra bem a diferença.

[Rafael Levy @rrlevy]

@alanbra @WeiseFranklin Perto do preço da bateria nem muda muito. É por hora, e a troca da bateria não demora tanto assim

O procedimento indica menos de 5 horas-homem:

https://t.co/4cPdUIyvXb