Next week is the 8th edition of Sen. Harry Reid’s National Clean Energy Conference (NCES 8.0). This year the Keynote will be delivered by none other than President Obama. The agenda is a whats-what of great clean energy ideas – rooftop solar – clean energy investment ideas – the advantages…
Daimler just announced they’re looking to end the powertrain supply deal with Tesla Motors where the Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric has Tesla drivetrain goodness under the hood. The purpose is to bring battery pack development in-house, and to prepare for selling a B-Class Electric with a 500 kilometer range (300 miles).…
Since the Tesla Motors conference call for Q2 2015 quarterly results, the TSLA stock price has fallen from $270/share to $242/share. While we’re talking about a highly volatile startup company, the news in those quarterly results was not so good. A deep quarterly loss thanks to steep capital expenses related to rolling…
Today, Audi showed us teaser images of the Audi e-tron quattro electric SUV concept. Immediately the news filled with articles claiming Audi is planning to use that car to compete with Tesla. It is true that Audi’s concept car (that shouldn’t go on sale until 2018) is an all-electric SUV with…
It’s time to retell the “no, the automaker isn’t losing $n,000 per car, they’re investing in the future” story. Following last week’s quarterly financial results report from Tesla Motors a long string of news articles have proclaimed something like “Tesla burns cash, loses more than $4,000 on every car sold”.…
The recently unveiled Clean Power Plan is way cool – it mandates replacing coal power plants with solar and wind based power systems. Supplanting the dirtiest of fossil fuels with the cleanest of renewable is a big move in the right direction. It won’t be easy, but it’s eminently doable.…
Instead of buying a brand new computer, cell phone, digital camera or other gizmo, you can save lots of money buying last years hotness for a fraction of the price of a new model. For example the differences between a Nikon D3200 and D3300 or D5200 and D5300 are minor,…
Those of us who live in multi-unit-dwellings (apartment, townhouse, or condo complexes) face a problem when owning an electric car: Every assumes electric car owners own a home, and therefore can charge at home because they have good control over their electricity supply. That’s not always true, and the fact…
Ahead of tomorrows DEFCON conference is tomorrow there’s been several announcements of car security vulnerabilities. I’ve long suspected these vulnerabilities would exist as more infotainment and communications capabilities are built into new cars. Projecting into the future we should expect more of these vulnerabilities, and that the Government (NSA, etc) will…
It appears the Laguna Seca Raceway is about to change management because The Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula (SCRAMP) appears to have run into financial trouble. SCRAMP sent out an open letter today calling on the Monterey County Board of Supervisors to conduct an open process to…
Remember a few years ago the “debate” over whether CO2 is pollution? With its announcement today of the “Clean Power Plan” the Obama Administration makes it clear that debate is over, and that action is required now rather than later. The plan calls for strict rules over CO2 emissions, and…
Over the next few years we’ll see more electric cars with 200+ miles electric driving range. In a 200 mile range EV, the 50 kiloWatt rate we now call “fast charging” will seem slow. The 200+ miles range will require 60 kiloWatt-hours of electricity storage, requiring a 1+ hour recharging…
Today the Federal Railway Administration announced a Rule focused on trains that accidentally “roll away”. The Rule is meant to fix an issue which occurred on July 6, 2013, in Lac-Mégantic, Canada, when an unattended train “rolled away,” crashed into the town – and because the train was carrying Bakken…
Toyota this week doubled down on fuel cell electric vehicles, and further distanced itself from battery electric vehicles. The company unveiled a “customer portal” through which people can “request” a Toyota Mirai, and the same day Craig Scott, national alternative fuel vehicle manager at Toyota, was interviewed for Forbes.com saying battery…
In the iPhone age we’re not repairing things or building things from scratch any longer. Manufacturers build us preconfigured gizmos and do their best to make them opaque boxes we can’t open or hack on. That would put us at the mercy of the manufacturers, and leave dumbing down society to…
