In China, Tesla built the Gigafactory 3 in 10 months, which may cause some in the USA to slam policies here about environmental reviews and the like. Be that as it may, the Tesla Model 3 is now manufactured in China, fulfilling a long-term goal of Tesla to have a…
During August 2019, President Trump floated another of his insane-seeming ideas – namely that the USA wants to buy Greenland. It’s the 2000’s and the World Powers don’t go buying territories from each other any longer, do they? We started to dismiss this as another of the crazy ideas that…
Tesla could be in a world of hurt from the brewing trade war with China, suggests a NBC News report. The Trump Administration is launching a trade war against the rest of the world (more or less), where China is a primary target, a move which is upsetting business plans that…
This slide deck covers electric vehicle charging, especially fast charging, in China. Where in Japan/North America/Europe the conversation about fast charging includes J1772’s Combo Charging System, Japan’s CHAdeMO, or Tesla’s proprietary SuperCharger, the conversation is different in China. They’re developing their own standards and not cooperating with the rest of…
In North America, Japan and Europe, a little standards battle over fast charging connectors and protocols is brewing between the car makers. The Japanese carmakers are pushing CHAdeMO, the European and North American carmakers settled on the SAE Combined Charging System (a.k.a. Frankenplug), and Tesla is going it’s own way…
It appears two things are at the top of Carlos Ghosns’ mind about the Nissan Leaf: China, and cost reduction. At appearances in Portugal and Japan recently, Ghosn talked about his intention for Nissan to take a leadership role in the Chinese electric car market, following the pattern which let…
After about six years of leading Fisker Automotive, Henrik Fisker has resigned amid financial problems and an impending sale of the company to Chinese automakers. What leads a company founder to leave his company while it is under fire? We don’t know for sure, but it is clear that the…
Today A123 Systems announced a Chapter 11 bankruptcy and sale of the company’s automotive business assets to Johnson Control. This is the beginning of the end for the company that was formerly the darling of the green technology hype machine. The company has developed some amazing battery technology, but ran…
Reports have been circulating since last year that GM is planning to move electric car development and/or manufacturing to China. In some circles, especially those who like to rephrase GM’s name as “Government Motors”, this thought is highly controversial. In truth GM sells more cars in China than it does…
