Recently a big-box retailer in Romania, Kaufland, announced it would build a network of 10 fast charging stations across Romania. I take this as a cool sign of progress with electric vehicle adoption. While Western Europe has taken to electric vehicles in a big way, especially Norway, Netherlands and Germany, Eastern Europe…
The January 2016 plug-in electric vehicle scorecard doesn’t look too good. For example, Nissan just introduced the 2016 Leaf with great new features (more range, bigger battery pack, etc) that customers likely wanted. But its sales haven’t taken off, instead sales plunged to 755 Leaf’s for USA in Jan 2016,…
A piece of news has come which could cheer anti-electric-car “Conservatives” — GM is ending production of the Chevy Volt. But the actual reason for ending Volt production isn’t what those so-called-Conservatives had predicted. Instead of the Volt being a dismal flop (it’s not, quite), GM is stopping Volt production to…
Is the primary hurdle to buying electric cars the purchase price, or the lack of public charging infrastructure? A couple weeks ago I referred to research saying it’s the purchase price, that prospective electric car buyers don’t want to pay a price premium for electric cars. New research by a…
I like to outright own my cars, driving them for many years, preferably not driving very much, all to make the best return-on-investment on each car. But I, and many electric car buyers, say that at this stage of the electric vehicle market it’s better to lease, rather than buy. …
The Sierra Club has just unveiled a “quiz” that tries to help you know which electric car to buy. While it’s a good idea, and the questions make sense, the answers they give aren’t very good. Even so it’s worth going to http://content.sierraclub.org/evguide/pick-a-plugin and seeing what suggestions they have. There’s an idea…
Tesla Motors is angry this week at Hyundai making bogus political allegations about Tesla’s Supercharger network, and at the U.S. White House for passing the buck in dealing with the battle over Tesla’s direct car-sales model. On the one hand Hyundai is making yet another astonishingly bad statement, and on…
How do “we” (our society, that is) determine the appropriate method for selling products? Why is gasoline sold at a gas station, cars at a car dealership, bread from groceries or bakeries, etc? Why don’t we just have stores that carry anything the merchant wants to sell that day? Why…
Last week, Tesla Motors and New York State reached an agreement under which Tesla would be able to continue selling the Model S through the stores they currently operate in New York. Sigh of relief, yes? One state in which Tesla has won out over the Auto Dealers Associations? Not…
If we can switch from caffeinated to decaffeinated coffee at the drop of a hat, why is it so hard to switch away from gasoline fuel for cars to something else? We know that gasoline and all the other fossil fuels cause a wide range of problems, and that it’s…
By rapidly building out the Supercharger network, service centers, and increasing the Model S top speed for the Autobahn, Tesla Motors hopes to wow Germans that are known for appreciating automotive engineering prowess. Tesla Motors is expanding its sales network into Europe, and one of the targets is Germany. Describing…
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…
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…
Tesla continued to increase Model S sales, significantly beating their estimates, while accounting rules meant the company is showing a slight loss. Tesla Motors is continuing its streak of sales growth, selling 5,150 Model S’s during Q2 2013 up from 4,900 in Q1 2013. The company announced Q2 2013 financial…
GM’s 5-week production halt on the Chevy Volt has given ammunition to naysayers, while advocates like Felix Kramer say it’s just a phase in the technology adoption curve. Felix Kramer, founder of the plug-in car advocacy group CalCars, posed the question today “What’s Dragging Down the Volt?” The question comes…
