On Tuesday the US Dept. of Energy unveiled the eGallon, in an attempt to dispel some confusion about the cost of operating an electric or gasoline powered car. Many are reacting to the high price of gasoline by looking for alternatives, but then get lost in the question whether the…
Over the next few posts I will be writing what will appear to be a format change, but one which fits the larger vision I have for this blog. Normally I focus on electric vehicles and the project of spreading their adoption. For me the purpose of electrification is part…
Is the fate of Napster connected to the eventual fate of Tesla Motors? Even though Tesla Motors is flying pretty high, there is legal action underway that could derail the whole Tesla Motors story, and doom their project to bring a new kind of automobile to the public. Napster, of…
The long-awaited update to the Tesla Supercharger network includes adding many new stations and decreasing the time required for a full recharge. Thursday gave us the latest in a series of announcements by Tesla Motors, giving updates on the Supercharger network for the Model S. The Supercharger network rollout so…
Does the death of Better Place mean the failure of the 100% all electric car concept? I don’t think so, but let’s ponder it a bit. Some of the commentators out there will take the Better Place bankruptcy in the same vein as the Solyndra bugaboo that’s circulating in Republican/Conservative…
A core fact for electric car owners, today, is that the charging station networks limit access to those who have a membership relationship with the appropriate network. It was a big advance to develop the J1772 standard, giving us a common standard to accessing charging services. But if we are…
Better Place has taken one of the more likely steps open to it, to shut down the company in a complete liquidation. After the company shut down its American and Australian operations, after a long period of struggles that saw the ouster of not only founder Shai Agassi, but the…
If “we” never “run out” of Oil, should we still be adopting electric cars? I found this discussion on one of the electric vehicle forums (see link below) and, well, my stand is that we should not only adopt electric vehicles, but to rethink our whole transportation system. In my…
A new offering from Tesla Motors of a $850 million package of common stock and convertible senior notes will be used to completely prefund payoff of the Dept. of Energy loans, as well as general corporate purposes. On Wednesday, Tesla Motors (TSLA) announced a stock offering of 2,703,027 shares of…
The U.S. Government is supporting research into developing Methane Hydrate “resources”. A month ago I reported on a joint project between the Dept. of Energy and the State of Alaska to develop methane hydrate resources in Alaska’s North Slope, as well as tar sands deposits in that area. Today there…
It seems my earlier prediction that Renault may be backing away from Better Place is confirmed (see Is Renault backing away from commitments to Better Place, causing a crisis for Better Place). I just wrote it up on examiner.com, but Renault/Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn just told a Danish news site…
Should GM kill the Chevy Volt? I thought we were past that phase, but maybe not, or maybe an article with that title on the Motley Fool is just a piece of link-bait. In any case, GM is clearly playing the game of developing Volt 2.0 rather than killing the…
After garnering criticism from the first version of the Model S financing program, Tesla Motors has tweaked the offering, giving even more guaranteed value. Moving to correct a few, uh, mistakes in the Tesla Financing plan, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk announced on Friday some refinements to the Tesla Model…
This morning I witnessed one of those rare events where a smart man announces to the worlds press that the impossible is possible, and then sets off on an adventure to prove it. Unfortunately I think the significance is going to be lost on most people. What I’m talking about…
Speaking at Fortune’s Brainstorm Green conference, G.M. chief executive Dan Akerson spoke about the company’s sustainability efforts and greener vehicles. He said the next-generation Chevy Volt, due in 2015 or 2016, would cost less to build and finally be profitable. On Tuesday, GM’s CEO Dan Akerson said the next generation…
