According to Tesla, the company mission is to hasten the adoption of electric vehicles, and in general the renewable energy ecosystem. Hence Tesla is developing what are regarded as extremely awesome cars that happen to be electric, have managed to build a manufacturing asset base allowing them to approach a…
What if Tesla Motors were to be the winner in the market share battle over DC Fast Charging services? Electric car owners are pawns in a battle between automakers on DC Fast Charging protocols and services. The three (four if you count China) charging standards, CHAdeMO, Combo Charging System, and…
The long-awaited Tesla big rig is due to be shown tomorrow, after being delayed a few times supposedly because of focus on ramping up Tesla Model 3 production. Of source the Model 3 is the make-or-break product of the moment and therefore Elon Musk and others at Tesla Motors must…
Over the weekend, at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association fair in Custer Wisconsin, one JB Straubel, the CTO of Tesla Motors, gave a talk. According to a report by Electrek, Straubel said that Tesla Motors is “talking with” other automakers about the Supercharger network. Clearly the current situation with three…
A single solitary sentence in Tesla’s announcement about doubling the Supercharger network could have a significant impact for urban-dwelling prospective electric car owners. Those who live in “multi-unit-dwellings”, like apartment or condominium complexes, usually have a hard time finding charging. Typically the landlord or home owners association puts up barriers…
The Tesla Model 3 is due for its production launch in a few months. While some of us are pondering our personal budget, Tesla Motors has a bigger issue on its mind. The key advantage they have over other automakers is the extensive reach of the Supercharger fast charging network.…
Implementing a proper road trip with an electric car “simply” requires ultra-fast charging above the 100 kiloWatts charging rate. Tesla Motors Supercharger system has proved this , with the 120 kiloWatt charging rate giving Model S owners a 1 hour (or less) recharge time for up to 265 miles of range. While that’s not quite as…
Last week, a partnership announcement between BMW, VW and ChargePoint looked to me that it was slanted towards the ComboCharging System. In other words, it looked like a continuing salvo in the DC Fast Charging market-share war between the Japanese automakers (Nissan et al) and the German/US automakers. Today, after…
The CarCharging Group may be the first company to validate Tesla’s new strategy on patents. CCG has announced its intention to integrate the Tesla Supercharger technology into Blink fast charging stations. CarCharging Group started its life building charging stations on the ChargePoint network, but last year it bought the Blink…
Last week Elon Musk laid a bombshell during the Tesla Motors shareholders meeting, one that I barely mentioned in my report. I kind of brushed over it, writing a couple paragraphs about whether Tesla Motors should rebrand itself as a B Corporation because the company is seeking to create so…
Will electric car charging always look as it does today – a few charging stations here and there? When there are hundreds of thousands of electric cars sold per year, won’t the current electric vehicle charging model be swamped? Maybe a company needs to reconceptualize the whole model? The rise…
It would be wonderful if there were one fast charging standard for electric cars. We’ve collectively gone through periods with dueling standards, and it was painful. But, the current environment has several fast charging standards (CHAdeMO, China, Combined Charging System, and Tesla) each of which are vying for dominance. Recently…
In California, eVgo is beginning to build their charging infrastructure (finally – aren’t they a little behind schedule?) and the good news for BMW i3 and Chevy Spark EV owners is the infrastructure being built supports both CHAdeMO and Combo Charging System fast charging. But the situation just picks at…
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…
Is the Tesla Supercharger network a big money pit that will sink the company, or is it an uber-cool strategy that will propel Tesla to greatness? That’s a big question we’re pondering, and in the balance hangs not just a scrappy start-up electric car company, but the whole project of…
