Tesla Motors, with plans to be making 400,000 cars a year or more by 2018, is pushing suppliers to build a truly gargantuan battery cell manufacturing plant. While Tesla Motors’ plan to increase Model S production to 40,000 cars a year by the end of 2014 will be good for their…
A $45 million package of Department of Energy grants supporting advanced vehicle technologies included $22.5 million for advanced battery research, and another $8 million for power electronics research. The grants aim to cut battery size and weight in half, allow semiconductors to operate more efficiently and at higher temperature, give greater durability, reliability, and lower…
Tesla Motors stock has risen over 400% in the last six months, and by market capitalization the company is rivaling the smaller automakers, which raises the question: Why? The price for Tesla Motors stock (TSLA) briefly touched the $172 level today before a selloff beginning at 2pm Eastern Time erased…
Normally on The Long Tail Pipe our focus is on education about the long ranging effects of the transportation system. Get it? Long Tail Pipe? Anyway, there’s one company we cover a lot, Tesla Motors, where the story really is becoming the stock price and when/if TSLA shares will ever…
It’s not often that we get a direct clear example of the externalities of oil consumption. An “externality” is when someone, say a big oil company like Exxon, makes other people pay some of the costs associated with their business. Most of the externalities related to the Oil business are…
DoubleLine Capital’s Jeffrey Gundlach said it wasn’t a good idea to short-sell TSLA even though the gains look irrationally excessive. On Friday, shares of Tesla Motors (TSLA) had a last minute surge to close at $169/share, nearly breaking through the $170/share level. The stock has more than quadrupled in value…
Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) could diversify its supply chain by signing up a new battery cell maker. Tesla Motors is talking with Samsung SDI to supply battery cells, according to a report in the Korean Herald. This would diversify a critical component in Tesla’s supply chain, and potentially give the company a much-needed boost…
How serious is Toyota about the Gen2 Toyota RAV4 EV? It’s built using the previous generation RAV4 car, and is being built in miniscule quantities. Hence, it looks like Toyota is doing the RAV4 EV exercise in order to have a Compliance Car to satisfy ZEV Mandate requirements. But, we…
Tesla Motors’ (TSLA) ever-increasing stock price is either a hype bubble or a serious prediction by the stock market of Tesla’s future as a major car maker ranking with the likes of Daimler or BMW. Tesla Motors’ stock price (TSLA) continues to rise, where last week it was nearing $160…
It probably doesn’t matter to most people what their car weighs. Some people geek out on things like this, and for example claim that the Tesla Model S is really heavy because it weighs about 5,000 lbs. And when you’re told a number like that, it sounds heavy, but then…
Selling people on a different kind of car is more than selling them a car. It’s about selling them on a different way of driving, or rather a different propulsion system. Tesla “Recharge” from Über Content on Vimeo.
Tesla Motors’ stock (TSLA) is caught in a wave of hype, leaving Tesla CEO Elon Musk grasping for the best way to describe the company’s sky high valuation. The last time we reported on Tesla Motors (TSLA) stock price, last April, it had just broken above $40 a share thanks to good news…
A few days ago I wrote about possible business models for free public charging. It’s an intriguing idea, but there is a risk of abuse with this model because many people will take advantage of free stuff. Standing in front of me is a Nissan Leaf owned by someone…
Mostly electric car charging in the U.S. is free, as in zero cost to the consumer. There is of course a cost to buy the charging station, install it, get permits to install, etc. The businesses who install charging stations need to recoup their investment – there needs to be…
In Murfreesboro Tennessee yesterday a drunk woman crashed her Tesla Model S into a telephone pole. She told police she was “messing with the radio.” It was a clear day, hers was the only car in the crash, so I’m guessing a combination of inebriation and driver distraction caused the…
