Social media post incorrectly claims Elon Musk invented 'energy-saving device'

What is the claim?

A viral Facebook post claims the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) has dropped all charges against Tesla CEO Elon Musk over an "electricity-saving device" called "Pro Power Save," which it says Musk developed.  

"A major win! The DOJ formally withdrew the accusations against Elon Musk, acknowledging that his electricity-saving device efficiently lowered 90% of power costs. EIon inked a deal to increase the output of the factory and continue to sell at cost price. Packages have been delivered to different locations," read the caption of the Facebook post. It has been shared more than 1,100 times and received more than 14,000 likes at the time of writing this story. An archived version of the post is here. 

Screenshot of the viral Facebook post. (Source: Screenshot/Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

What did we discover?

We found no evidence that Musk or his companies are connected to the product. Musk has never posted about such a device on his X account (archived here), and no news reports have corroborated the claim.

The link in the viral Facebook post led us to a purported news report (archived here) with the headline, "Elon finally won his justice, the Department of Justice dropped all charges against him, and his power-saving device was proven to effectively reduce 90% of power consumption." The article has no publication date, and the byline has been given to a "Ben Miller," with no more details about the author. Several links inside the article direct readers to websites where the aforementioned device can be bought. 

Also, the website "msuksavings.com," where the article was published, has no proper landing page or other information about Musk. Further, it misspells Musk's name as "msuk." When we checked the website via its address separately, it led us to an error code.

The top image in the article, the thumbnail of the Facebook post showing Musk outside a factory, with a logo of "Pro Power Save," appears to be faked. We found no other versions online from a credible source.

Old, unrelated photos of Musk used in article

We found that the first photo used in the report, showing Musk talking to reporters, is from 2014 and unrelated. 

A screenshot within the report, supposedly from NBC News, used to support the claim that Musk created the product after a Tesla employee called "Dorothy Smith" apparently died of a heat stroke is also unrelated. It shows Lew Palter, an actor who died of lung cancer in 2023, with his daughter Catherine Read Palter. 

Another photo showing Musk standing with supposedly "one of (Musk's) brightest engineers at Tesla and trusted friend, Ed Sherwood" actually shows Armin Laschet, CDU Federal Chairman and Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, during a visit in 2022 to the Tesla Gigafactory plant located in Brandenburg, Germany. 

Has the DoJ dropped charges against Musk?

We found no evidence of the DoJ dropping charges against Musk's companies. In fact, the DoJ is still pursuing investigations against Tesla, SpaceX, and X. 

Facebook page promotes product

The only other picture carrying the same logo we could find was the cover photo (archived here) of another Facebook page (archived here) called "Power Save Store." This page initially appears to have represented an educational institution in Ukraine, with a link to the institution still visible in its About section. 

Screenshots of a photo from the article highlighting the logo that we traced to the cover photo of a Facebook page. (Source: Screenshots/Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, on July 24, 2023, we found that it stopped posting about the school and instead started promoting a similar "power-saving" product. 

The details provided in the transparency section of the page revealed that though the page was initially created on September 12, 2018, its name was changed to "Power Save Store" on July 24, 2023. 

We also found multiple photos of the product published on this page in the article linked in the viral Facebook post. 

Screenshots of the transparency sections of the pages. (Source: Screenshots/Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

We found the same pattern when we checked the Facebook page "Pro Power Save," which published the viral post. 

The original page appeared to be for Harry Potter fans and, according to details provided in the page transparency section, was created on August 11, 2011. 

However, its name was changed to "Pro Power Save" on August 23, 2024. While we couldn't find the particular viral post on the page's timeline or any similar photo connected with the "power-saving device," we found two similar-looking photos of the product in the photo gallery section of the page uploaded on August 23, 2024. 

We also came across several iterations of the same product under various names being publicized on Facebook since July 2023. 

All these posts made similar claims and carried a story praising the product and detailing its origin. The Facebook posts use a fake endorsement from Musk to convince people to buy the product. Other fake endorsements from Elon Musk have been fact-checked in the past.

The verdict

We found no evidence Musk or his companies have any connection with such a product. The photos and narratives used to make the claim are false. We also found the DoJ continues to pursue multiple probes against Musk's companies and has not dropped any charges.