A couple weeks ago Tesla Motors held their yearly shareholders meeting. As always it was chock full of good information, and in general a big love-fest between shareholders and Tesla Motors. Aside from the people requesting that Tesla Motors offer an interior which doesn’t involve the deaths of animals…
Does Tesla Motors owe its existence to government subsidies? More than once the company was on the edge of bankruptcy, and kept afloat by infusions of capital, and of course their products (Model S) are sold in part because of government subsidies for electric cars. Recently a big news outlet…
Today Tesla Motors released preliminary quarterly financial results figures through a shareholder letter (as is Tesla’s customary practice, a 10Q giving official figures will be published in a couple weeks). The good news is the manufacturing rate was 11,160 vehicles (10% better than guidance), averaging more than 1000 cars built per week,…
In May 2013 at Fortune’s Brainstorm Green Conference, then-GM-CEO Dan Akerson promised that the Next Generation Chevy Volt would be $10,000 cheaper, and profitable. Today, GM announced the Next Generation Chevy Volt MSRP, starting at $33,170 (excl $825 deliver charges), and while that’s a lot cheaper than the 2011 Volt’s…
A neat trick that could give us the power needed to charge any number of electric cars is simple – switch all streetlights from sodium vapor lamps to LED streetlights. LED streetlights are far more power efficient than other lamps, plus reduce light pollution giving us the possibility to see…
Long-term trends are that electric vehicles will take over, and fossil fuel will be rendered obsolete. That’s according to a Bloomberg News report last week with good news for anyone rooting for the demise of the fossil fuel industry. It’s not government mandate, but technology improvements that will create this…
Back in early 2013 it seems that Tesla Motors was so close to bankruptcy that Elon Musk and Google’s Larry Page had discussed Google buying out Tesla. Even though Page agreed to the deal and even shook hands on it, the deal reportedly fell through because of Musks demands —…
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…
Who knows whether Apple is getting into the electric car business. There’s been lots of news articles over the past week claiming that to be the case, and that Apple has poached automotive industry talent from Tesla and other automakers. That doesn’t necessarily mean Apple wants to enter the business…
Tesla Motors has to remain on a course of rapidly growing sales, service and production capacity. Why? In a recent interview with Bloomberg News, Elon Musk confidently predicted that by 2025 the total Tesla Motors sales volume will be a “few million cars per year”. As cool as their factory…
Elon Musk has gone to Detroit for the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) this week preaching that between climate change and fracking there’s an urgent necessity to switch to electrified vehicles and establish a price on carbon. The comments came in a long (1 hour) interview with Bloomberg News…
GM has one-up’d Tesla Motors with the Chevy Bolt concept car unveiled at the 2015 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). I’ve previously discussed how the lackluster sales of the Chevy Volt, and GM’s nonexistent marketing of the car, makes us question GM’s seriousness for electric vehicles. The poor planning…
A few days ago Daimler announced it had sold its entire stake in Tesla Motors, and now Toyota has sold “some” of its Tesla stake. That’s Tesla’s two major corporate backers, both the Daimler and Toyota investments were critical to Tesla’s survival to this point, exiting their relationships with Tesla…
Last April I suggested an agreement between Tesla Motors and New York State was in effect a capitulation by Tesla, and that the company had lost its argument over its preferred model of selling cars directly to customers. The ebb-and-flow of events since have made it unclear whether that’s indeed…
Tonight, Tesla Motors unveiled the “D” (and something else) before a crowd at their facility in Hawthorne – the same facility where the phallic Supercharger pylon is located. Last week Elon Musk slyly hinted it was time to unveil the D, but didn’t say much else. I’m glad to say…
