Jameson is based in Southern California and has been driving electric vehicles since 2009 and writing about EVs, sustainability and policy for Electrek since 2016.
You can contact him at jamie@electrek.co, or on his bluesky account that he just set up and maybe will never use at https://blskyl.ink/jamesondow
Andrew Wheeler, head of the Environmental “Protection” Agency (EPA), argued today that his administration’s rollback of auto efficiency standards “sets realistic standards, will reduce pollution, and save lives.”
The problem is, he’s objectively wrong on all three counts. And in his statement, he also proved that he doesn’t even know the name of the regulation he’s attempting to undermine.
Several automakers offered today to turn their manufacturing expertise toward helping alleviate medical device shortages as the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to overload hospitals. GM, Tesla, and Ford were among those who offered help in the US.
Tesla must obey the “shelter in place” order put into place in the San Francisco Bay Area and is not allowed to build new cars at its Fremont factory, according to the Alameda County Sheriff’s office.
Tesla will be allowed to maintain “minimum basic operations” at the plant, but this does not include building new cars.
The Model Y Owner’s Manual hit the internet as Tesla started Model Y deliveries on Friday. We found some good new info from the manual, including the promise of a roof rack accessory. But unfortunately, another highly anticipated accessory, a tow hitch, isn’t mentioned.
Thanks to Tesla releasing the Model Y Owner’s Manual as they started deliveries today, we can finally put the speculation and weird measurement methods to bed and say, confidently, exactly how big it is.
Tesla’s new Model Y comes with a built-in heat pump to increase efficiency of the car’s heating system, which should help it maintain consistent range in cold climates, something that many EVs struggle with.
Tesla told us they’d start delivering the Model Y by March 15, but they’re beating their own estimate this time by a couple days. We’ve heard several reports of customers with scheduled delivery dates as early as Friday.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced today that Tesla has started scouting locations for Cybertruck production and plans to build the truck in “central USA.”
Previously, Musk suggested that Tesla was looking into Texas for a factory. At the time he did not specify that it would be for Cybertruck production, but these two ideas would line up.
Tesla plans to release more features to expand its full self-driving capabilities later this month, according to CEO Elon Musk.
Ford’s Mustang Mach-E reservations are moving along nicely, with the car’s release coming at the end of this year. We learned today that, if reservation numbers are sequential (and they seem to be), the car now has approximately 41,400 reservations (globally) according to forum posts.
Also, according to Ford, there have been Mach-E reservations in all 50 US states so far.
We haven’t seen much of the Model Y interior, and have assumed it would mostly look like the Model 3, just a bit bigger. But we have seen that the third-row seats aren’t very large, at least in prototype form.
But now that cars are shipping from the factory, we’re starting to see photos and video of the Model Y interior, including more charging options for devices than on the Model 3.
The Model Y will be in customer hands later this month (hey, first time we can say that), yet there are still questions over just how big it is. We’ve seen a lot of photos and videos of the Model Y next to other vehicles, but still don’t have official specs from Tesla. One fan resorted to using his water bottle to measure ground clearance.
And now we’ve got another new method of height comparison — using the “Jayscale” by Twitter user jayzilla711.
After about two total weeks of work, the forest of planted trees on Tesla’s Giga Berlin site is now gone. Tesla finished “phase 1” of their forest clearance project this week, just before their early March deadline.
The Tesla Model Y is shipping in just about two weeks, and it looks like Tesla has a lot of cars ready to sell. Early customers have been getting emails asking them to confirm deliveries, and the cars should be in customers’ hands soon. But we still don’t know how big it is.
So, in the absence of specs, what are we to do? Well, an enterprising fan and friend of the site saw a Model Y in public, didn’t have a measuring tape on hand, and got creative — with his water bottle.
A new Kickstarter project has just been launched to crowdfund a redesigned aero wheel cover for the base 18-inch Tesla Model 3 wheels. The Kickstarter claims improved curb rash resistance, aerodynamics, and aesthetics compared to the base wheel covers.
We talk a lot about electric cars here, Tesla chief among them. But since Tesla is different than other manufacturers in the way they market, sell, and deliver their cars, we thought it would be useful to answer the question of how to buy a Tesla in the first place, starting with how to test drive one.
The launch of the Model Y is imminent, but there’s still a lot we don’t know about the car. We’re still trying to figure out just how big it is, and we’ve got little information on what options will be available.
One of those questions is around additional storage space for hauling large items, like roof racks and tow hitches. We’ve seen a Model Y with a tow hitch, and now it looks like Tesla has a Model Y prototype driving around the Bay Area with a roof rack as well.
The Tesla Model 3 extended its dominance over the California auto market last year, selling more cars than all other EVs combined in 2019, according to the California New Car Dealers Association. In addition, when removing other Tesla models from the count, the Model 3 sold more than twice as many cars as all other manufacturers’ EVs combined.
This made the Tesla Model 3 the third best-selling car overall in the state behind the Civic and Camry. This result is a move up from fifth place last year.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is on a roll with more announcements about the Cybertruck today. He described a “towing calculator” which will show all kinds of real-time stats to help drivers know more about what their vehicle can handle while pulling a big load.
Tesla rose eight spots in Consumer Reports‘ new car brand rankings, the largest rise of any brand, to become the top US brand at 11th place out of 33. This is largely due to improved reliability with the Model 3 and Model S.
The Tesla Model 3 also gained Consumer Reports‘ “Top Pick” designation as the best electric car, according to the publication.
The Berlin Higher Administrative Court (OVG Berlin-Brandenburg) has dismissed complaints against Tesla’s European Gigafactory construction project, Giga Berlin. This means work can resume in clearing the tree farm currently on the property.
A ballot initiative has been proposed in San Diego that would serve to ban the sale of new gas vehicles costing over $50,000 starting next year. The initiative would also add a 2.5% tax on any gas vehicles over $50k that are purchased outside of the city and registered within city limits.
A new organization called Breathe Free America has been formed to circulate the petition for the ballot initiative, which they’ve dubbed the “Clean Vehicle Initiative.” They are looking to gather 76,000 signatures from San Diegans in order to get it on the ballot.
The Tesla Model Y starts shipping next month, but much still isn’t known. Tesla hasn’t released size specs yet, so we’re left with estimates based on dashcam video, product photos, or supercharger parking.
Now we have another estimate based on a more even perspective that seems to show some new information about ride and seating height. It shows that the Model Y should ride higher and be much easier to get into than the Model 3.
Plug in America, a group that advocates for electric vehicles in the US, has announced a nationwide campaign to train car dealers how to sell electric cars. Any interested dealer can sign up for the course on Plug In America’s website and start getting training on how to better sell electric cars.