What will it take for the rest of the automobile industry to stop dismissing Tesla Motors as a boutique car manufacturer? That phrase was actually used by a Nissan sales representative at the Silicon Valley Driving Charged and Connected event two weeks ago. He was answering a question about whether…
Tesla Motors’s model for the Gigafactory is, as is usual for Tesla, unusual. The factory will be wholly owned by Tesla, but the plan is that it will be like an “industrial park under one roof” with several companies all performing their bits, but working together on the goal of…
Ahead of today’s earnings call for Tesla Motors, there’s some positively good news to report. The company has opened a few new stores, set up a new Supercharger station, and there may be a ray of light allowing Tesla to continue selling cars in New Jersey. According to NorthNewJersey.com, Assemblyman…
Time is ticking on the Tesla Gigafactory project, so let’s try to catch up with the latest on that project, and does the new facility in Lathrop CA play a role with the Gigafactory? The Gigafactory is an item Elon Musk began discussing publicly in the Fall of 2013 and…
At first they ignore you, then they attack you, and then you win. Is this the pattern playing out with a flyer being distributed to Tesla Model S owners in San Francisco alerting them to deep dark secret “facts” about Tesla and the Model S? The flyer, posted today on…
Yesterday Daimler released information and new pictures of the MBZ B-Class Electric Drive. It’s due to go on sale in the U.S. this summer, no word on whether that will be limited just to California or not, and will go on sale in Europe sometime later. It’s due to have…
Tesla Motors is apparently setting up a small manufacturing facility, in California, that has little or nothing to do with the Gigafactory. The latter facility is meant to double the worlds production of lithium-ion batteries, requiring over 10 million square feet, a rail line, and space for a big solar…
Supposedly California is out of the running for the Tesla Gigafactory, but according to a Sacramento Bee article the state is working to get Tesla Motors to change their mind. Most of the article is spent on government subsidies trying to paint Elon Musk as being a Billionaire solely because…
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…
Tesla Motors is launching a new subsidiary, Tesla Finance LLC, to handle leasing Tesla’s electric cars to small and medium sized businesses. The new program is a separate focus from the pseudo-leasing financing that Tesla announced a year ago. That program, focused on individuals, gave a lease-like purchasing option for…
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…
A quick reminder on the timeline for the Tesla Motors affordable mass production electric car. I’ve seen a few news articles the last couple days suggesting the “cheaper” Tesla electric car will “debut” in 2015. Article titles like “Tesla’s More Affordable Model E May Hit the Road in 2015” are…
Current laws across the U.S. prevent car companies from selling cars directly to the public. Instead the laws are formulated to require independent car dealerships, each of which must have a used car lot and car service center and other requirements that end up with the modern car dealership as…
It’s time for an status update on Tesla Motors’ battle to win the ability to openly sell cars across the U.S. While there has been a major setback (New Jersey) there are some interesting bright spots, coincidentally in states where Tesla is thinking to open the Gigafactory. Namely – as…
Beginning last summer, Tesla Motors CEO began making it clear that manufacturing a few hundred thousand electric cars per year (as Tesla plans to begin doing starting in 2017) would swamp the total lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity in the world. It’s a simple bit of math – By 2017, Tesla…
