Yesterday
Just a few weeks after launching the next generation Leaf, which was arguably Nissan’s biggest move into electrification since the launch of the original Leaf in 2011, the Japanese automaker is about to move big on EV again at the Tokyo Motor Show this week. expand full story
Green Deals: two-pack Etekcity Smart Outlets w/ Alexa support $26, more
Etekcity (99% positive feedback from 197,000+) via Amazon offers a two-pack of its Wi-Fi Smart Plug Mini Outlets for $25.99 shipped when promo code 855XJ38T is applied during checkout. That’s an $11 savings off the regular price and the best that we’ve seen for this bundle. With “setup in just one minute”, these plugs are compatible with Alexa and can be scheduled, which in turn helps save money. Rated 4/5 stars.
Today, the mayors of 12 major cities pledge to several ambitious targets and initiatives to make their cities “greener, healthier and more prosperous.”
Among those goals, they pledged to only buy all-electric buses starting in 2025. expand full story
As we recently reported, there are increasing pieces of evidence that Tesla is starting to produce and deliver more Model 3 vehicles.
Now we learn that Tesla delivered what appears to be the first Model 3 in New York and it gives us an opportunity to get a good look at Model 3 with a front license plate. expand full story
Tesla ramped up its effort to help Puerto Rico get power back after its grid was ravaged by hurricanes last month. They quickly started shipping Powerwalls, their home energy storage solution, and we reported that they started shipping Powerpacks, their bigger commercial and utility-scale battery packs, last week.
But Puerto Rico is also looking to rebuild its electric grid longterm and Tesla had its own suggestion about scaling its microgrid technology using batteries and solar power.
A government official now says that they are indeed considering the solution and thinking about launching a competitive bidding process. expand full story
Almost every automaker working on electric cars is also currently looking at ways to leverage their battery technology development into other products. It started with Tesla’s launch of ‘Tesla Energy’ in 2015 and now BMW, Renault, Nissan, and several others have also launched similar products or even new energy divisions.
Daimler has its ‘Mercedes-Benz Energy’ subsidiary and the company unveils today an impressive new project using its vehicle battery packs for stationary energy storage. expand full story
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial and political review/analysis of important green energy news. Featured Image Source
Dubai Investments’ Coloured Solar Panels to Dress Buildings in Dubai Through Emirates Insolaire – The header image is of a building covered by panels made by a company owned by Dubai Investments described in the linked article. Check out some other projects by the company. And also check out the technology tab just before you look at the different color specification tab. Note that based upon color specification the total efficiency of the panels changes – that’s neat. The technology tab seems to say that this layer applied atop a standard solar panel will lower overall efficiency by 9-12%. I’ve written the company an email to find out if they make their own panels – or if they buy in the open market from high-efficiency manufacturers. If I get a follow-up, I’ll do a write-up. Cool to see the aesthetics of solar panels able to be considered. I’m bullish on Tesla’s Solar Roof because of the aesthetics. Sold a lot of solar in my life in the USA, and homeowners really care about the curb appeal of their large investment.
Tesla is adding a ton of stations to its Supercharger network lately in an attempt to reach its goal to have over 10,000 Superchargers online by the end of the year.
We now learn that the automaker just brought online a single new station in Shanghai with 50 Superchargers – becoming the largest Supercharger station in the world. expand full story
Considering the reputation of crowdfunding and also the state of the EV startup scene, which hasn’t delivered in a while, it’s pleasantly surprising to see some actual progress with a new electric car concept.
After a successful crowdfunding effort, German startup Sono Motors has unveiled the Sion, a battery-electric car partly powered by solar power with onboard solar cells, earlier this year. Now we get a first look at their working prototypes for the ambitious project. expand full story
October 22
Well, that was quick. Earlier this month, we reported that Tesla is adding automatic emergency braking to ‘Autopilot 2.5’ cars with a new update, but it was capped to 50 mph.
Tesla now started releasing a new software update to enable full speed automatic emergency braking for Autopilot 2.5 cars – along with other improvements. expand full story
