No evidence Elon Musk backed unproven 'energy-saving' product
US tech billionaire Elon Musk has not developed a product that can cut household energy consumption by up to 90 percent, nor has the Department of Justice sued to prevent its release, despite claims in social media advertisements. There is no record that Musk is affiliated with the company pushing the device, and regulators have repeatedly warned that such gadgets are dangerous and make misleading promises.
"The Department of Justice has dropped charges against Elon Musk, stating that his energy-saving device can be legally sold. It is designed to help people save significant amounts on their electricity bills, alleviating their burden," says an August 8, 2024 Facebook post with thousands of interactions.
"The device operates on a non-profit basis, and power companies have no authority to intervene. Currently, the product is being sold at cost price."
The posts link to a website designed to look like Fox News that features supposed stories the network ran about the product and claims home improvement expert and television personality Joanna Gaines co-developed the device with Musk.
The online store for the so-called "Pro Power Save" also says it has been endorsed by media outlets including Forbes and Popular Electronics, the latter of which ceased publication more than two decades ago.
A spokesman for Fox News told AFP the company never broadcast or published a story about the device, and a spokesperson for Forbes said it had not written about it other than when it debunked similar online ads.
The page says Pro Power Save can cut a home's electricity consumption and thus lower utility bills simply by plugging it into an electrical socket. It also says Musk recruited colleagues from one of his companies, Tesla, to create the technology.
The same product is being sold for between $5 and $50 by online retailers including Amazon, eBay, AliExpress and Shein, using Musk's name.
In April 2022, the UK's Office for Product Safety and Standards issued a recall for a product with the same physical description due to a "serious risk of electric shock" after a London-based nonprofit found the device was "highly dangerous" and liable to explode into sparks under testing.
Another British watchdog warned in February 2023 against plugin energy-saving devices, calling them "misleading" and saying they "exploit" customers with high electricity bills. (archived here, here and here).
The so-called Pro Power Save, which has been marketed under other names like "Stop Watt" and "Voltex" by various companies, have been repeatedly debunked by other news outlets.
Musk -- the world's richest person who is the founder of Tesla and SpaceX and the owner of X, formerly Twitter -- has used the latter to amplify misinformation and his name also been used to promote scams.
He has voiced concerns about the availability of electricity amid a rise in the use of electric vehicles in the US, and in 2016, Tesla acquired solar panel installer Solar City. However, there is no evidence Musk specifically launched a device to lower domestic electricity consumption.
Made up lawsuit
A search on the US Patent and Trademark's database reveals a New Jersey-based company called Nu Lifestyle Marketing, LLC applied to protect the "Pro Power Save" name and logo on September 5, 2024 (archived here).
Although the company's website lists a California address, the California Secretary of State has no record of a company by that name existing in the state. The company also currently holds an "F" rating with the Better Business Bureau, which has received a slew of complaints against its products (archived here).
Nu Lifestyle Marketing's New Jersey incorporation certificate also does not list Musk or Gaines as members or managers of the for-profit entity.
A search of federal court records in central California, western Texas and New Jersey -- where Tesla's pre-2021 headquarters is, where the automobile company's current headquarters is located, and the state where Nu Lifestyle Marketing was founded, respectively -- found no Department of Justice lawsuits with either Musk or Nu Lifestyle Management in connection to the device.
The US federal government has sued Musk and his companies in the past, accusing them of employment and hiring discrimination, but not to prevent him from supposedly launching an energy "saving" gadget.
AFP contacted Tesla and Gaines, but no responses were forthcoming, and the US Department of Justice declined to comment.
Misused images
The promotional page for the supposed energy-saving device uses several altered images of Musk and other figures as evidence that Tesla is behind the venture, but none of the original photos are related to household energy-saving devices.
A reverse image search revealed one picture showing Musk holding the product on a dark background, which comes from a photograph found on Getty Images of Musk at a 2020 satellite conference (archived here).
Another image showing Musk holding the device was altered using a 2019 Getty Images shot of Musk outside of a Los Angeles courthouse after winning a defamation case filed against him by a British cave explorer the billionaire had called a "pedo guy" (archived here).
The webpage also claims Musk was inspired to make an energy-saving tool when a Tesla employee, supposedly named Dorothy Smith, died in her home of heat stroke. It uses a screenshot of a supposed news report from a Texas-based NBC affiliate labeled with the social media tag "NBCTexas." However, no Texas affiliate and no stories available online discuss the death.
The image used in the supposed news segment also traces back to multiple news reports about the June 2023 death of actor Lew Palter.
AFP contacted Pro Power Save and Nu Lifestyle Marketing, LLC for comment, but no responses were forthcoming.
AFP has debunked other misleading electricity-saving devices here.
