X Takeover 2025 - Day 1 Review

[TeslaKen]

First, I would like to say a big Thank You to John Stringer, Kelvin Gee and the Tesla Owners Club of Silicon Valley for hosting such a fantastic event. If you missed X Takeover this year well then you probably missed the event of the year. I cannot imagine how much time, effort and planning must have gone into hosting this event given all the moving parts and parties involved. If you didn't go this year, you owe it to yourself to go next year. I say this as someone who didn't go in 2024 because of a conflict but I carved out the time to drive 4,000 miles to attend this event, and again it was well worth it.

PART 1

Let's get into Day 1, which for me started at the Tesla Factory in Fremont at 11am where I arrived for a tour. I have been on the factory tour in Fremont before back in 2018 so I almost passed and gave up my seat to someone else but decided to go since I had the free time and I was curious what might have changed since I last went on the tour. I am certainly glad that I decided to retain my spot. When I arrived, I saw several modified Cybertrucks already in the lot along with some other modified Teslas, so I figured I must be in the right place.

We went inside and got signed in and met our tour guide Salim who instructed us on the do's and don'ts of the factory tour. Here is one tip for you, wear long pants! I showed up in shorts and had to wear some slip-on thin cotton pants for safety reasons I was told. No recording and no pictures in the factory other than in designated spots.

Once on the tour I saw most of the usual items I had seen before until our guide told us that we were being sent on a special tour because their boss wanted us to have a VIP experience. He then proceeded to take us into parts of the factory that I had never seen before including the tents that were built outside the factory during the Model 3 ramp up phase and which have now become permanent fixtures. We saw some of the new Frost blue cars rolling off the lines and the new metallic black. We then returned back into the main portion of the factory where we were allowed to take some photos of the static displays, and I got one with our guide.

Here is me with our guide:

At this point I figured our tour was over. Nope. Instead, we were ushered into a room to meet their "boss" who had arranged for our longer tour. Shortly after we arrived in the room in came Hrushikesh Sagar, the Ops leader for the Fremont factory and for the Gigafactory in Sparks, NV. Hrushikesh spoke to us for about 15-20 minutes answering some questions and telling us a bit about the factory, its output (more cars per day than any other factory in North America) and some other related information. Just when it seemed like the tour was now over Hrushikesh surprised us with yet another item. We were going to be loaded onto shuttle buses and taken to the Tesla test track behind the factory!

We proceeded to head outside and take a ride around the facility to the test track. Next to the test track Tesla had set up a big tent, brought in a food truck, set up tables and big screens and even had a DJ playing tunes out of the back of a Cybertruck (yes, his gear was plugged into the truck). What did I spy lined up at the test track but a series of Model S's including the new Model S Plaid in Frost Blue with carbon fiber trim (looks really nice in person). We proceeded to climb into various cars and the drivers from Tesla hauled a$$ around the track with us and did some Plaid runs from 0 to triple digits.

I had a chance to mingle with other guests who came in from around the world. I also spoke to several of the Tesla employees and enjoyed the food from the food truck they brought in. Tesla even gave each one of us a goodie back with some items to take home including a Fremont Factory medallion. As a Tesla Owners Club officer from another club (Kansas City) I did speak to some of the Tesla events people about hosting something in the Midwest within the next year. If I am able to put something like that together I will let everyone know. Which reminds me I need to give Anne (next photo) from Tesla a call, she was fantastic at taking care of anything needed while we were on site.

She also carries 2 phones, one of which I think was connected to Elon. On our way back out of the test track area we could grab a few more photos but sadly no more merchandise store in Fremont like there used to be, everything has moved to being sold online only. Still, it was an awesome time at Tesla Fremont and everyone who made this tour happen as special as it did deserve a huge round of applause and they have my thanks. Here are a few more pictures from the tour and I will start a reply to this topic as Part 2 of Day 1 simply because I have a lot more photos and videos to share.

Stay Tuned for Part 2 of Day 1 !

Sponsored

 

[TeslaKen]

Part 2

After finishing the factory tour, I drove back to the hotel where another member of the Tesla Owners Club of KC who had flown out for the event assisted me in cleaning up the truck to take to the drone and lightshow on Friday night.

Yes, after driving 2000 miles to the event, there were some bugs to clean off before I was going to show the truck. When we arrived at the San Mateo fairgrounds on Friday evening I was not prepared for how many other Teslas would be in attendance, let alone how many other customized Cybertrucks (some I recognized from this site and they recognized me). I walked around and started meeting people that I had mostly ever met online before and some of whom I had never met.

In a somewhat funny twist of fate, the non-modified Cybertrucks were all lining up in another part of the parking lot to be included in the light and drone show. I later found out from Simon it was because he had programmed the bed lights for specific effects and needed to make sure they could be seen and many of the modified Cybertrucks had tents or racks on them that might block those bed lights. You can see from the first photo, I had the Gauss Cannon weapon system mounted in the bed of my truck.

As it got darker and the time of the show drew near it started to get cold and I, like an idiot, forgot to pack a jacket because where I came from it was usually 100 degrees during the day and 80 at night if we are lucky. Thankfully, we spotted a number of individuals from the Tesla Owners Club of Silicon Valley sporting some X Takeover bomber jackets and inquired about purchasing one. I was able to get my hands on one before they sold out!

Yes, I also forgot to pack jeans, ok so I was in a hurry when I left. Anyway, there were more modified Teslas than you could shake a stick at and I captured photos of some of them, but was so busy talking to people that I am sure I forgot to capture the majority of them. Hopefully other recaps of the event will share even more photos.

Yes, that headliner consists of fiber optic wires poking through the headliner material! As it got dark and the time for the show drew near, we all gathered in a specific part of the parking lot to hear Simon give us instructions on how to perform a lightshow in our vehicles. Simon was using a cone as a megaphone!

Once the directions were given, we went back to our vehicles and inserted a USB thumb drive that had been left for us on our windshield, set the time for the show to start then exited our vehicles and returned to the viewing area. Unbeknown to most around, Simon tested the lightshow in my Cybertruck about an hour before the show to ensure that the timing between the light show starting and the drones activating was what it needed to be. So, while I got a sneak peek at the show, I had no idea what I was instore for when the drones hit the sky and the whole thing began. The next picture shows the drones taking to the sky:

I was told that there were some 4x number of drones for this show than what a regular drone show has, and I can believe it. Watching the show from the ground I really couldn't see the pattern or effects of the light show in the vehicles, just hear the music more or less, it was the drones in the sky that I watched mostly. The show was impressive and lasted more than 10 minutes (which was longer than I thought a light show could go). When it was done everyone cheered. Some were staying the night camping at the fairgrounds, for us we went back to the hotel to prepare for Day 2. Later, we were able to see the first cut of the drone show courtesy of Simon and the Austrian Tesla Owners Club.

For those who haven't seen the show yet, here is the first cut of it. I hear there may be an "Epic" cut coming soon.



Sure Enough - Updated 8/3/25 - EPIC DIRECTORS CUT IS HERE!


That concluded Day 1, and what a fantastic day it was! Kudos to everyone involved, if Day 1 had been the only day, I would likely still have been happy to have driven so far to partake in Day 1, but Day 1 wasn't the only day! I will cover Day 2 in a separate topic thread where I can post more photos and videos of the X Takeover 2025 event. Is it too early to sign up for X Takeover 2026??

Look at that sweet ride behind me for the factory tour!

Looking for my recap of Day 2? It is Here!

 

[HaulingAss]

Part 2

After finishing the factory tour, I drove back to the hotel where another member of the Tesla Owners Club of KC who had flown out for the event assisted me in cleaning up the truck to take to the drone and lightshow on Friday night.

Yes, after driving 2000 miles to the event, there were some bugs to clean off before I was going to show the truck. When we arrived at the San Mateo fairgrounds on Friday evening I was not prepared for how many other Teslas would be in attendance, let alone how many other customized Cybertrucks (some I recognized from this site and they recognized me). I walked around and started meeting people that I had mostly ever met online before and some of whom I had never met.

In a somewhat funny twist of fate, the non-modified Cybertrucks were all lining up in another part of the parking lot to be included in the light and drone show. I later found out from Simon it was because he had programmed the bed lights for specific effects and needed to make sure they could be seen and many of the modified Cybertrucks had tents or racks on them that might block those bed lights. You can see from the first photo, I had the Gauss Cannon weapon system mounted in the bed of my truck.

As it got darker and the time of the show drew near it started to get cold and I, like an idiot, forgot to pack a jacket because where I came from it was usually 100 degrees during the day and 80 at night if we are lucky. Thankfully, we spotted a number of individuals from the Tesla Owners Club of Silicon Valley sporting some X Takeover bomber jackets and inquired about purchasing one. I was able to get my hands on one before they sold out!

Yes, I also forgot to pack jeans, ok so I was in a hurry when I left. Anyway, there were more modified Teslas than you could shake a stick at and I captured photos of some of them, but was so busy talking to people that I am sure I forgot to capture the majority of them. Hopefully other recaps of the event will share even more photos.

Yes, that headliner consists of fiber optic wires poking through the headliner material! As it got dark and the time for the show drew near, we all gathered in a specific part of the parking lot to hear Simon give us instructions on how to perform a lightshow in our vehicles. Simon was using a cone as a megaphone!

Once the directions were given, we went back to our vehicles and inserted a USB thumb drive that had been left for us on our windshield, set the time for the show to start then exited our vehicles and returned to the viewing area. Unbeknown to most around, Simon tested the lightshow in my Cybertruck about an hour before the show to ensure that the timing between the light show starting and the drones activating was what it needed to be. So, while I got a sneak peek at the show, I had no idea what I was instore for when the drones hit the sky and the whole thing began. The next picture shows the drones taking to the sky:

I was told that there were some 4x number of drones for this show than what a regular drone show has, and I can believe it. Watching the show from the ground I really couldn't see the pattern or effects of the light show in the vehicles, just hear the music more or less, it was the drones in the sky that I watched mostly. The show was impressive and lasted more than 10 minutes (which was longer than I thought a light show could go). When it was done everyone cheered. Some were staying the night camping at the fairgrounds, for us we went back to the hotel to prepare for Day 2. Later, we were able to see the first cut of the drone show courtesy of Simon and the Austrian Tesla Owners Club.

For those who haven't seen the show yet, here is the first cut of it. I hear there may be an "Epic" cut coming soon.



That concluded Day 1, and what a fantastic day it was! Kudos to everyone involved, if Day 1 had been the only day, I would likely still have been happy to have driven so far to partake in Day 1, but Day 1 wasn't the only day! I will cover Day 2 in a separate topic thread where I can post more photos and videos of the X Takeover 2025 event. Is it too early to sign up for X Takeover 2026??

Look at that sweet ride behind me for the factory tour!

Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to day 2!

I'm curious if the organizers mentioned how much State of Charge you could expect to lose from participating the lightshow? I'm guessing it was pretty minimal, just wondering if you heard it mentioned?

 

[Cybertruck26]

First, I would like to say a big Thank You to John Stringer, Kelvin Gee and the Tesla Owners Club of Silicon Valley for hosting such a fantastic event. If you missed X Takeover this year well then you probably missed the event of the year. I cannot imagine how much time, effort and planning must have gone into hosting this event given all the moving parts and parties involved. If you didn't go this year, you owe it to yourself to go next year. I say this as someone who didn't go in 2024 because of a conflict but I carved out the time to drive 4,000 miles to attend this event, and again it was well worth it.

PART 1

Let's get into Day 1, which for me started at the Tesla Factory in Fremont at 11am where I arrived for a tour. I have been on the factory tour in Fremont before back in 2018 so I almost passed and gave up my seat to someone else but decided to go since I had the free time and I was curious what might have changed since I last went on the tour. I am certainly glad that I decided to retain my spot. When I arrived, I saw several modified Cybertrucks already in the lot along with some other modified Teslas, so I figured I must be in the right place.

We went inside and got signed in and met our tour guide Salim who instructed us on the do's and don'ts of the factory tour. Here is one tip for you, wear long pants! I showed up in shorts and had to wear some slip-on thin cotton pants for safety reasons I was told. No recording and no pictures in the factory other than in designated spots.

Once on the tour I saw most of the usual items I had seen before until our guide told us that we were being sent on a special tour because their boss wanted us to have a VIP experience. He then proceeded to take us into parts of the factory that I had never seen before including the tents that were built outside the factory during the Model 3 ramp up phase and which have now become permanent fixtures. We saw some of the new Frost blue cars rolling off the lines and the new metallic black. We then returned back into the main portion of the factory where we were allowed to take some photos of the static displays, and I got one with our guide.

Here is me with our guide:

At this point I figured our tour was over. Nope. Instead, we were ushered into a room to meet their "boss" who had arranged for our longer tour. Shortly after we arrived in the room in came Hrushikesh Sagar, the Ops leader for the Fremont factory and for the Gigafactory in Sparks, NV. Hrushikesh spoke to us for about 15-20 minutes answering some questions and telling us a bit about the factory, its output (more cars per day than any other factory in North America) and some other related information. Just when it seemed like the tour was now over Hrushikesh surprised us with yet another item. We were going to be loaded onto shuttle buses and taken to the Tesla test track behind the factory!

We proceeded to head outside and take a ride around the facility to the test track. Next to the test track Tesla had set up a big tent, brought in a food truck, set up tables and big screens and even had a DJ playing tunes out of the back of a Cybertruck (yes, his gear was plugged into the truck). What did I spy lined up at the test track but a series of Model S's including the new Model S Plaid in Frost Blue with carbon fiber trim (looks really nice in person). We proceeded to climb into various cars and the drivers from Tesla hauled a$$ around the track with us and did some Plaid runs from 0 to triple digits.

I had a chance to mingle with other guests who came in from around the world. I also spoke to several of the Tesla employees and enjoyed the food from the food truck they brought in. Tesla even gave each one of us a goodie back with some items to take home including a Fremont Factory medallion. As a Tesla Owners Club officer from another club (Kansas City) I did speak to some of the Tesla events people about hosting something in the Midwest within the next year. If I am able to put something like that together I will let everyone know. Which reminds me I need to give Anne (next photo) from Tesla a call, she was fantastic at taking care of anything needed while we were on site.

She also carries 2 phones, one of which I think was connected to Elon. On our way back out of the test track area we could grab a few more photos but sadly no more merchandise store in Fremont like there used to be, everything has moved to being sold online only. Still, it was an awesome time at Tesla Fremont and everyone who made this tour happen as special as it did deserve a huge round of applause and they have my thanks. Here are a few more pictures from the tour and I will start a reply to this topic as Part 2 of Day 1 simply because I have a lot more photos and videos to share.

Stay Tuned for Part 2 of Day 1 !

John and Kelvin are the absolute best. TOSV is such an amazing group, and so proud to be a part of it. The coordination, leadership, and dedication those two show is absolutely incredible. Glad you had a great time, sounds like quite the tour!

 

[TeslaKen]

Thanks for sharing! Looking forward to day 2!

I'm curious if the organizers mentioned how much State of Charge you could expect to lose from participating the lightshow? I'm guessing it was pretty minimal, just wondering if you heard it mentioned?

I've done several light shows and I never notice it having any effect on the State of Charge, you probably lose more trying to keep cabin overheat protection on or sentry mode. Lights and sounds are minimal battery drain. Besides, if anyone got low on charge we had enough Cybertrucks there to charge several EVs.

 

[Zane Edwards]

Part 2

After finishing the factory tour, I drove back to the hotel where another member of the Tesla Owners Club of KC who had flown out for the event assisted me in cleaning up the truck to take to the drone and lightshow on Friday night.

Yes, after driving 2000 miles to the event, there were some bugs to clean off before I was going to show the truck. When we arrived at the San Mateo fairgrounds on Friday evening I was not prepared for how many other Teslas would be in attendance, let alone how many other customized Cybertrucks (some I recognized from this site and they recognized me). I walked around and started meeting people that I had mostly ever met online before and some of whom I had never met.

In a somewhat funny twist of fate, the non-modified Cybertrucks were all lining up in another part of the parking lot to be included in the light and drone show. I later found out from Simon it was because he had programmed the bed lights for specific effects and needed to make sure they could be seen and many of the modified Cybertrucks had tents or racks on them that might block those bed lights. You can see from the first photo, I had the Gauss Cannon weapon system mounted in the bed of my truck.

As it got darker and the time of the show drew near it started to get cold and I, like an idiot, forgot to pack a jacket because where I came from it was usually 100 degrees during the day and 80 at night if we are lucky. Thankfully, we spotted a number of individuals from the Tesla Owners Club of Silicon Valley sporting some X Takeover bomber jackets and inquired about purchasing one. I was able to get my hands on one before they sold out!

Yes, I also forgot to pack jeans, ok so I was in a hurry when I left. Anyway, there were more modified Teslas than you could shake a stick at and I captured photos of some of them, but was so busy talking to people that I am sure I forgot to capture the majority of them. Hopefully other recaps of the event will share even more photos.

Yes, that headliner consists of fiber optic wires poking through the headliner material! As it got dark and the time for the show drew near, we all gathered in a specific part of the parking lot to hear Simon give us instructions on how to perform a lightshow in our vehicles. Simon was using a cone as a megaphone!

Once the directions were given, we went back to our vehicles and inserted a USB thumb drive that had been left for us on our windshield, set the time for the show to start then exited our vehicles and returned to the viewing area. Unbeknown to most around, Simon tested the lightshow in my Cybertruck about an hour before the show to ensure that the timing between the light show starting and the drones activating was what it needed to be. So, while I got a sneak peek at the show, I had no idea what I was instore for when the drones hit the sky and the whole thing began. The next picture shows the drones taking to the sky:

I was told that there were some 4x number of drones for this show than what a regular drone show has, and I can believe it. Watching the show from the ground I really couldn't see the pattern or effects of the light show in the vehicles, just hear the music more or less, it was the drones in the sky that I watched mostly. The show was impressive and lasted more than 10 minutes (which was longer than I thought a light show could go). When it was done everyone cheered. Some were staying the night camping at the fairgrounds, for us we went back to the hotel to prepare for Day 2. Later, we were able to see the first cut of the drone show courtesy of Simon and the Austrian Tesla Owners Club.

For those who haven't seen the show yet, here is the first cut of it. I hear there may be an "Epic" cut coming soon.



That concluded Day 1, and what a fantastic day it was! Kudos to everyone involved, if Day 1 had been the only day, I would likely still have been happy to have driven so far to partake in Day 1, but Day 1 wasn't the only day! I will cover Day 2 in a separate topic thread where I can post more photos and videos of the X Takeover 2025 event. Is it too early to sign up for X Takeover 2026??

Look at that sweet ride behind me for the factory tour!

What an AWESOME experience. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Cybertruck26]

Part 2

After finishing the factory tour, I drove back to the hotel where another member of the Tesla Owners Club of KC who had flown out for the event assisted me in cleaning up the truck to take to the drone and lightshow on Friday night.

Yes, after driving 2000 miles to the event, there were some bugs to clean off before I was going to show the truck. When we arrived at the San Mateo fairgrounds on Friday evening I was not prepared for how many other Teslas would be in attendance, let alone how many other customized Cybertrucks (some I recognized from this site and they recognized me). I walked around and started meeting people that I had mostly ever met online before and some of whom I had never met.

In a somewhat funny twist of fate, the non-modified Cybertrucks were all lining up in another part of the parking lot to be included in the light and drone show. I later found out from Simon it was because he had programmed the bed lights for specific effects and needed to make sure they could be seen and many of the modified Cybertrucks had tents or racks on them that might block those bed lights. You can see from the first photo, I had the Gauss Cannon weapon system mounted in the bed of my truck.

As it got darker and the time of the show drew near it started to get cold and I, like an idiot, forgot to pack a jacket because where I came from it was usually 100 degrees during the day and 80 at night if we are lucky. Thankfully, we spotted a number of individuals from the Tesla Owners Club of Silicon Valley sporting some X Takeover bomber jackets and inquired about purchasing one. I was able to get my hands on one before they sold out!

Yes, I also forgot to pack jeans, ok so I was in a hurry when I left. Anyway, there were more modified Teslas than you could shake a stick at and I captured photos of some of them, but was so busy talking to people that I am sure I forgot to capture the majority of them. Hopefully other recaps of the event will share even more photos.

Yes, that headliner consists of fiber optic wires poking through the headliner material! As it got dark and the time for the show drew near, we all gathered in a specific part of the parking lot to hear Simon give us instructions on how to perform a lightshow in our vehicles. Simon was using a cone as a megaphone!

Once the directions were given, we went back to our vehicles and inserted a USB thumb drive that had been left for us on our windshield, set the time for the show to start then exited our vehicles and returned to the viewing area. Unbeknown to most around, Simon tested the lightshow in my Cybertruck about an hour before the show to ensure that the timing between the light show starting and the drones activating was what it needed to be. So, while I got a sneak peek at the show, I had no idea what I was instore for when the drones hit the sky and the whole thing began. The next picture shows the drones taking to the sky:

I was told that there were some 4x number of drones for this show than what a regular drone show has, and I can believe it. Watching the show from the ground I really couldn't see the pattern or effects of the light show in the vehicles, just hear the music more or less, it was the drones in the sky that I watched mostly. The show was impressive and lasted more than 10 minutes (which was longer than I thought a light show could go). When it was done everyone cheered. Some were staying the night camping at the fairgrounds, for us we went back to the hotel to prepare for Day 2. Later, we were able to see the first cut of the drone show courtesy of Simon and the Austrian Tesla Owners Club.

For those who haven't seen the show yet, here is the first cut of it. I hear there may be an "Epic" cut coming soon.



That concluded Day 1, and what a fantastic day it was! Kudos to everyone involved, if Day 1 had been the only day, I would likely still have been happy to have driven so far to partake in Day 1, but Day 1 wasn't the only day! I will cover Day 2 in a separate topic thread where I can post more photos and videos of the X Takeover 2025 event. Is it too early to sign up for X Takeover 2026??

Look at that sweet ride behind me for the factory tour!

I love how they use actual Tesla seats in that tour train lol

Also, that Tesla convertible is fire I wish they made a convertible version of 3.

 

[DarickHemphill]

VERY COOL! Well done! Thank you for sharing this! Let me know if there is a need for a Springfield MO Tesla owners branchlet me know!

Darick

 

[TeX19]

Outstanding light show. So wish I saw it in person. Thanks for sharing it and your factory tour.

 

[TeslaKen]

BTW the truck now has its own Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/halocybertruck

I will post some pics and short videos there which link off to the website and blog.

Enjoy!

 

[jehazel75]

Nice recap Ken!

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