In this week’s top stories: Model 3 exterior and interior photos, a new Model S hypermiling record, EV news from Nissan, Chevy Bolt, Smart car, and Volvo, and more details on Tesla Solar Roof.
Yesterday
June 23
Sam Paschel, the still relatively new CEO of California-based electric bikemaker Zero Motorcycles, has been riding conventional motorbikes for most of his life. Which helps explain why, after spending more than 20 years in various leadership positions at consumer brands like Skullcandy, Burton Snowboards and Giro Sport Design, his curiosity was stoked when he got offered the top job at Zero.
Naturally, before he took over as CEO in February, he decided to go for a ride… expand full story
After market close today, Tesla announced that it increased its asset-backed line by $625 million with an option to obtain up to $175 million of additional incremental commitments.
The move comes as Tesla’s cash needs are increasing ahead of the several expansions needed to launch Model 3 production and support its growing fleet. expand full story
Things are not improving on the direct-sale front for Tesla. After recent setbacks in Texas and Connecticut, now a new bill introduced this week in North Carolina has been shelved for the current legislative session. expand full story
Last week, Tesla’s Model X officially became the highest safety rated SUV (by a significant margin) with 5-star rating in every safety category from NHTSA.
It especially performed well in the rollover test thanks to its large battery pack bolted at the bottom of the chassis – giving it a low center of gravity. That should also help the vehicle in the “moose test”, which wasn’t performed by NHTSA, but we still get to see it thanks to a Spanish car magazine. expand full story
While the wide over-the-air rollout of Tesla’s latest Autopilot 2.0 update, which was planned for last weekend, has been delayed, some owners were still able to get it and test it on the road.
We get a look at what CEO Elon Musk described as a “smooth as silk” control algorithm. expand full story
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Obama energy secretary launches nonprofit – Ernest Moniz, who taught physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for decades before becoming energy secretary in 2013, is heading up the Energy Futures Initiative (EFI) along with two high-level staffers from his time at the Department of Energy (DOE) – Moniz seemed to do well as energy secretary for Obama. An educated man who knows energy from an academic and political standpoint. Thank you Moniz.
Panasonic HIT solar module achieves world’s best output temperature coefficient – standard silicon solar cell’s output temperature coefficient is -0.50%, which denotes a decline of 0.50% in the conversion efficiency as the module temperature rises by 1°C – Panasonic Corporation has achieved the world’s leading output temperature coefficient for mass-produced silicon photovoltaic modules, at -0.258%/°C. – This is cool. They’ve almost cut in half the efficiency losses associated with heat. I never even knew this type of research was going on. I expect to see other manufacturers do the same soon.
The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb has somewhat become a proving ground for electric vehicles over the years. A Tesla Model S set a new record for a production electric vehicle, Rimac also did an impressive job with its all-electric 1.1 MW monster racecar, and several all-electric bikes also made good impressions.
Now Faraday Future is trying to position its new FF91 has a top performance all-electric car and it is currently at Pikes Peak to prove it. expand full story
After several changes in the Autopilot team’s leadership over the past few months, Tesla ended up hiring one of the leading AI and computer vision researchers this week.
At the same time however, we learn that several of the team’s top computer vision experts have left the company over the past few weeks. expand full story
