While several Model 3 release candidates have been spotted in the wild, Tesla hasn’t shown the Model 3 in any official capacity since launching the production of the release candidates.
We now learn that the company will hold a private showing of the vehicle in June for the winners of a previous referral program. Expand Expanding Close
Ever since Tesla released its second generation Autopilot hardware and started offering an option called “full self-driving capability”, there’s been some confusion about Tesla’s plan for rolling out fully autonomous driving.
CEO Elon Musk has clarified the plans this week and now predicts that true level 5 autonomy is about 2 years away – though Tesla should still have advanced autonomous driving systems before that. Expand Expanding Close
In this week’s top stories: A first look at Elon Musk’s tunnel boring machine and concept video, Tesla Semi gets a teaser image, the latest Model 3 release candidate sightings, a reveal for the Kitty Hawk flying EV, the latest solar news, and much more. Expand Expanding Close
Yesterday, a third Tesla Model 3 release candidate was spotted a month into the test program. All the prototypes were seen around the Bay Area in California – mostly near Tesla’s headquarters in Palo Alto.
Now a release candidate has been spotted outside of California for the first time. Expand Expanding Close
While Tesla acquired SolarCity over 5 months ago, it focused on keeping “business as usual” and it only recently started absorbing the solar installer more aggressively into its operations.
Now we learn that the company is shutting down its door-to-door solar sales operations, which has over 1,000 salespeople, in order to integrate the solar offering into Tesla’s own sale channels, mainly its stores and online. Expand Expanding Close
While electric vehicle enthusiasts are tired of only seeing electric concepts coming out of VW, it looks like the German automaker is ready to back those concepts with a massive 9 billion euros ($10 billion) investment to bring them to production.
Volkswagen chief executive Matthias Müller conceded that “the future of driving is electric” and they plan to be part of it, but they are having trouble reconciling it with their current internal combustion engine business. Expand Expanding Close
Elon Musk unveiled today the concept behind his new company: The Boring Company. It confirms that the idea behind the company goes beyond simply building tunnels.
The new video for the concept features mobile platforms lowering vehicles, Teslas in the case of the demonstration, into tunnels and then speeding away on those same mobile platforms riding on a single rail… Expand Expanding Close
Fastned is one of the fastest growing independent electric vehicle charging network in Europe. After covering the Netherlands, the company is now expanding to London and Germany with new fast-charging stations “that are suited to charge the next generation of EVs at power levels of 150 kW to 350 kW”. Expand Expanding Close
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A technical, financial and political analysis via a weekday review of important news
100 by ’50 Act – legislation that would phase out the use of fossil fuels in the US by 2050 – Probability of it being seen on the floor of Congress is close to zero %. However, that’s not the purpose of this document – this document is to let the people know what’s coming.
85% of California Electricity Generation Renewable Energy for Brief Period – Renewable energy provided more than 85% of California’s in-state generation (CAISO system) for 5 hours in the afternoon on Sunday, April 23. Over the whole day, renewable energy provided 74% of the in-state generation. The maximum penetration was 86.4% from 2-3 PM. The five-hour window is the most impressive – mostly we hear about these peaks when they occur for an hour, but here we have the middle of the day completely fed by renewables. And this does not include rooftop solar on a house or a business – with those volumes included I bet we were over 80% on the day and above 90% of demand met between 2-3 PM. We’re gonna have a 100% moment soon.
Now we can finally confirm that a third Model 3 release candidate is being tested on public roads since a white prototype has been spotted. Expand Expanding Close
Volkswagen recently submitted both its plans to invest $2 billion in electric vehicle infrastructure in the US as part of its court settlements with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the DieselGate scandal.
Now other automakers are contesting the plans and want to have a say in how VW should spend that money. Some ideas are OK, though the contestation could result in slowing the rollout of the EV infrastructure, while other demands are plain ridiculous. Expand Expanding Close
With the recent launch of Elon Musk’s latest company, Neuralink, we almost forgot that the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX also recently launched yet another startup: the Boring Company.
The company aims to make important advancements in the cost and speed of digging tunnels in order to solve transportation problems in cities. The startup recently took delivery of its first giant boring machine. Expand Expanding Close
For an oil company to forecast strong growth of EV’s, and to take steps to prepare for this future, is quite something, but that is exactly what Total has done. First with their purchase of a controlling stake [paywall] in the solar company SunPower Corp. in 2011. Secondly with their acquisition of battery maker Saft early in 2016. And then, later in the same year, Total announced to invest $300 million to install solar panels at 5,000 gas stations around the world. So, I think it is fair to say that Total is (reluctantly?) getting ready for a world in which oil will be less important for transportation purposes.
According to a report this afternoon from Business Insider, Anthony Levandowski, the subject of a dramatic legal battle between Alphabet’s Waymo and Uber over alleged stolen self-driving car technology, has stepped aside from his role as lead of Uber’s Advanced Technologies group. Levandowski will reportedly continue overseeing operations and safety, however…
While Tesla’s acquisition of Grohmann Engineering to create Tesla Advanced Automation Group gave an opportunity for German union IG Metall to make a push to unionize the workforce, the effort seems to be slowing down.
After CEO Elon Musk got personally involved following threats of a strike last week, sources at Grohmann told Electrek that the union is losing ground and some workers are even canceling their membership. Expand Expanding Close
Amazon offers the Black+Decker 15-inch 10A Corded Electric Lawn Mower for $88.94 shipped. That’s a $61 savings off the original price, down $27 from Target and an Amazon all-time low. This corded electric lawn mower is powered by a 10A motor, has six height settings and includes a detachable bagger. It’s perfect for townhouse owners or city dwellers. Rated 4/5 stars by 197 Amazon customers.
Panasonic unveiled today its latest battery manufacturing facility and first in China. The ~$400 million plant, which was first announced in 2015, will manufacture battery cells for the growing electric vehicle market in China.
The Japanese electronics giant claims that the projected annual capacity will support the production of “around 200,000 electric vehicles”. Expand Expanding Close
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been on an international trip over the past week. First in Australia earlier this week and in Beijing yesterday.
While in China, Musk met with Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang. The nature of the discussion wasn’t disclosed, but it comes as Tesla is looking for 2 or 3 more locations to build Gigafactories for both batteries and cars. Expand Expanding Close
California Senate committee clears bill for new energy storage rebate program – The bill, SB 700, would require utilities to collect funds from ratepayers to establish an Energy Storage Initiative (ESI) that would work in tandem with the state’s existing Self Generation Incentive Program and the California Solar Initiative. The ESI would be funded through 2027.A ten-year energy storage boom coming to California – solar and wind will benefit greatly from this.
HECO (Hawaii power company) grid ran on 26% renewables in 2016 – Just a progress report –On Hawaii Island, customers used 54% renewable energy in 2016—the first time clean energy’s share on the system passed the halfway mark. On Oahu, renewables composed 19% of energy use last year. Hawaiian Electric’s oil use declined 21% between 2008 and 2016, with the bulk of the reduction coming on Oahu. A pretty good progress report if you ask me.