SpaceX Introduces Starlink Mini - A Look at Its Specs and Potential for Tesla Integration (2024)

Elon Musk introduced the Starlink Mini on X recently, and showed off a few of its unique new features.

We’ve updated this article with additional Starlink information such as pricing and mobile data plan.

SpaceX has now officially begun sales of the Starlink Mini to select early customers.

Specs

The Starlink Mini is about the size of a 14” laptop or Macbook, which means it is ultra-portable and can fit inside a backpack for easy carry. While it doesn’t appear to support power over USB-C, it does come with a 12V barrel jack and RJ45 Ethernet jack, as well as built-in Wi-Fi support. As for the Wi-Fi support, expect Wi-Fi 6 with 802.11ax and 3x3 MiMO support on 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz bands. It has also been confirmed to have mesh support, which means you can link multiple Starlink Minis or Starlinks together to create a mesh Wi-Fi network.

The Starlink Mini will be 63% lighter than the standard Starlink dish, and about the size of a piece standard-sized paper.

Price

The most interesting part of this is the fact that it is expected to cost half of what current Starlink dishes cost – so within the $250 to $300 USD price range. Elon Musk, while unclear, also implied that the subscription price would also be lower for the Starlink Mini, enabling more affordable internet access.

For now, the United States limited offering places the price at $599.

SpaceX’s goal is to reduce the forward-looking price of the Mini, especially for regions around the world where connectivity is unaffordable or unavailable. However, in regions with high Starlink saturation - like North America, Starlink Mini places additional demand on the satellite network.

Roam Data Service

The Starlink Mini features a “Mini Roam” service, which is an additional $30/mo for 50GB of Mobile data that can be used anywhere in the United States, and is $1/GB for additional data. The Mini Roam service requires you to continue your regular Residential Starlink Service, even while roaming.

Speed

Of course, with a loss in size also comes a loss in speed – even if it’s still blazing fast. The Starlink Mini seemed to cap out at around 100 Mbps at a latency of 23ms, which is about half as fast as the top speeds for a regular Starlink dish, but with similar latency.

Even with the loss of speed, this is still more than fast enough to play video games and stream 4K video. Perhaps not at the same time, but the Mini is clearly designed for a single user.

Update: The Starlink Mini is indeed capped to 100Mbps max download speeds.

Starlink for Tesla?

The Mini is a good first step for possibly bringing Starlink capabilities to Tesla cars, which Elon Musk confirmed in 2022. Some enterprising users have either suction-cupped or mounted their starlinks to their glass Tesla roofs, or with special mounts for the Cybertruck already. The Mini will be a key item for going camping in your Tesla in the future - perhaps with the new Model Y Air Mattress!

Tesla could one day offer Starlink connectivity in Teslas, either as a backup to cellular connectivity or as a main source. However, Starlink connectivity requires line-of-sight, which likely means that Tesla would still require a cellular connection in their vehicles for times when vehicles don’t have a clear view of the sky. Using Starlink could help lower Tesla’s bandwidth costs and improve connectivity in remote areas.

Interestingly enough, some Superchargers already have Starlink functionality, with a transparent experience of vehicles automatically connecting to Supercharger Wi-Fi for data, including for Software Updates!

Release Dates

Musk mentioned that while the Starlink Mini isn’t available just yet, it will be rolling out to select areas in the next few months. Nothing further has emerged on where these areas are, but we could expect them to be in North America, where Starlink has done most of the new dish testing, such as with the more recent Starlink Flat High-Performance dishes.

Update: Starlink Mini has begun rolling out to early Starlink customers in the United States. No word yet on other regions.

Elon Musk confirmed during the Q&A period at Tesla’s Shareholder Meeting that the Cybertruck’s Foundation series is ending shortly and hinted at what’s required for other markets.

This is alongside Elon Musk confirming that the ramp-up for the Cybertruck continues, with Tesla producing over 1,300 Cybertrucks a week now.

End of Foundation Series

Tesla has been shipping the Foundation-series Cybertruck since its release, which came loaded with additional options, including FSD, Foundation-series etching, LED light bar, white interior trim, Powershare installation credit, Premium Connectivity for life, and a host of other smaller goodies.

Elon Musk has confirmed that in the upcoming quarter, Tesla will stop offering the Foundation series for pre-order customers, and will start offering the regular Cybertruck. In the United States, the AWD Dual Motor Cybertruck will become eligible for the Federal EV Tax Incentive, which could be the big step customers need to get into their Cybertrucks.

Canadian, European and Chinese Markets

The Cybertruck is currently not Europe or China-compliant, due to requirements to round the edges in Europe, and additional reasons in China. These policy requirements are difficult to build around, and Tesla intends to only push the Cybertruck to these markets once full-volume production is a go in North America.

At 1,300 units per week, or 67,600 units per year, Tesla isn’t quite close to achieving its full-volume production goals – 250,000 units per year. It could be a couple of years until Tesla hits its volume production goals, and begins working on a foreign-compliant Cybertruck.

Meanwhile, for Canadians, the Cybertruck is currently still awaiting testing and approvals from Transport Canada, due to steer-by-wire regulation issues, and could still be some before its made available to reservation holders.

At the 2024 Shareholder Meeting, Elon Musk confirmed some additional details about Tesla’s upcoming vehicles, as well as some interesting information about Tesla’s Semi.

Tesla Semi Entering Volume Production

Elon Musk confirmed that the Semi has been in low-volume production for a while now, but he also mentioned that the Semi will now be entering high-volume production for the first time.

Musk mentioned that this is a big step as transport companies have expressed interest in the Tesla Semi due to the economic value and sense of EV trucking. He followed on to say that he expects this to move the needle financially for Tesla – this indicates that some current fleet testers, including Pepsi Co, Walmart, and Costco could be ordering larger numbers of the Semi for their fleets.

Drivers from these testing fleets have had nothing but positive words to say for Semi, praising its reliability, power, ease of use, and cabin. Semi could become a large positive for Tesla, as short-range truck haulage accounts for nearly 80% of trucking in North America and China, and 90% in Europe.

New Vehicles

While no new vehicles were explicitly confirmed at the Shareholder Meeting, Elon Musk did confirm that Tesla has new vehicles in the pipeline. He expressed that they would be just as amazing and interesting as the Cybertruck.

When asked if Tesla would produce a 12-passenger van, he noted that he would “add it to the list”. One of the shrouded vehicles in the slide has long been rumored to be a van, so there is a good chance that a Cybervan or equivalent could come with a variant that has additional seating, now that it has been talked about.

While no dates have been provided for any expected releases, we do know that the Robotaxi announcement is around the corner on 8/8.