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Electric GT’s Tesla Model S race car crashed during testing

Electric GT is getting ready for the inaugural race of its all-electric and all-Tesla championship later this year. Last week, they made their headquarters at the Circuit Pau-Arnos in France and started testing their stripped down Tesla Model S on the track.

Unfortunately, their effort was cut short when they crashed the vehicle.
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Tesla will host a private viewing of the Model 3 during VIP tour for referral winners

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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.
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Elon Musk clarifies Tesla’s plan for level 5 fully autonomous driving: 2 years away from sleeping in the car

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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.
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Tesla to stop door-to-door solar sales as it moves SolarCity’s operations in-house

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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.
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VW is planning a massive $10 billion investment in electric vehicles, but even more in internal combustion engines

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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.
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Green Deals: 4 x 8-foot Greenes Cedar Raised Garden Bed $60, more

Amazon offers the Greenes 4- x 8-foot Cedar Raised Garden Bed for $59.79 shipped. That’s a $40 savings off the original price, down $13 from Home Depot and an Amazon all-time low. This is the #1 best-selling raised bed at Amazon with a 4.2/5 star rating from 285 reviewers. This is an excellent way to get started on a new raised bed this summer. It’s ideal for plants, veggies and more plus it’s made in the USA from rot-resistance cedar.

Other notable Green Deals today include:


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Elon Musk ‘The Boring Company’ concept: Teslas speeding through tunnels on mobile platforms [video]

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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.

We reported just yesterday that the startup recently took delivery of its first giant boring machine at SpaceX’s headquarters.

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…
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Lucid showcases the stunning interior of its all-electric ‘Air’

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Lucid Motors has a lot of things going for it. First impressions of its all-electric sedan, the Air, have been eulogistic and the price range has surprised quite a few people. Now they just need to bring it to market. For that, they need to close the current $700 million round of funding that they are reportedly currently working on – no big deal.

In the meantime, Lucid is showcasing one of the most appreciated feature of the Air, its interior design.
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EGEB: 100% clean energy for US by 2050, California 85% renewables for 5 hours, more

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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.


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Automakers are trying to get their hands on VW’s EV charging money from its Dieselgate settlement

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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.

We reported on the main details of the plan for California, which includes installing ultra-fast 320 kW chargers, and the plan for the whole country, which includes a ‘nationwide 150 kW+ fast charging network’.

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.
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Elon Musk’s giant tunnel boring machine arrived at SpaceX – first pictures

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Update: Musk has since revealed his vision for The Boring Company in more details: Elon Musk unveils concept behind ‘The Boring Company’ featuring Tesla vehicles speeding through tunnels on mobile platforms

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.
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Oil companies begin to capitulate: Total admits EVs will be 30% of new vehicle sales by end of next decade

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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.


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Anthony Levandowski steps aside from Uber’s Advanced Technologies unit amidst legal battle

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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…


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Tesla’s Advanced Automation group continues work on Model 3 lines as union loses popularity

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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. 
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Green Deals: Black+Decker 15-inch 10A Corded Electric Mower $89, more

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.

You’ll want to pick up an extra outdoor extension cord for your new mower. We recommend this Coleman 100-foot option for under $18.

Other notable Green Deals today include:


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Panasonic inaugurates electric vehicle battery factory in China

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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”.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk meets with China’s Vice Premier as Tesla is looking for new Gigafactory locations

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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.
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EGEB: Hawaii 26% renewables in 2016, California close on battery incentive, drones!!, more

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Electrek Green Energy Brief

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.


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