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
Insurance runs on data, and electric cars have a lot of it. One firm in the UK is giving Tesla drivers cheaper insurance by tapping into the car’s systems to track driver mileage.
This could expand into other telematics, offering drivers better rates in exchange for more snooping.
The recently revealed Tesla Cybertruck is running neck-and-neck in popularity with upcoming electric offerings from big-name truck brands GM and Ford, according to a survey from Autolist.
The survey also included Rivian, which is similarly popular. Among people who have never owned a truck, all four brands fared roughly equally. Among current and former truck owners, GM and Ford had an advantage, with Rivian trailing closely and Tesla quite far behind.
A hacker has found assets within Tesla’s operating system suggesting that there are a slew of new streaming apps coming to Tesla’s in-car entertainment system.
The list includes heavy hitters like HBO and Twitch. There are also assets for Comedy Central, Chinese video hosting service YouKu, and several more.
Germany has taken the lead over Norway in annual EV sales for the first time, edging out Norway for total sales since the start of this year, as reported by Bloomberg. Currently, Germany’s 2019 total is 57,533 EVs, while Norway has sold 56,893.
This would be good news for Germany — if it weren’t so embarrassing for them and the rest of Europe. Norway is a tiny country with a population of 5.3 million, where the main industry is oil, and where the whole country is cold. Germany’s population is roughly 16 times larger than Norway’s. And yet, Norway has still had higher EV sales than every country in Europe until now.
Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), co-architect of the Green New Deal, is expanding his attacks on Tesla Autopilot. He previously only took issue with drivers intentionally defeating Autopilot’s “nag,” but today he criticized the entire system, saying it “causes harm” and is “flawed.”
Tesla’s Cybertruck has been getting a lot of press and a lot of pre-orders — over a quarter million as of the last update. But until now, nobody quite knew if the monolithic piece of machinery would fit in their garage.
Today, Tesla CEO Elon Musk went to Twitter to give us a little insight on the actual size of the thing, which should help fans figure out where they’re going to keep it.
McLaren plans to hybridize its next-generation supercar with an electrically driven front axle, allowing it to hit 0-60 times of 2.3 seconds, down from 2.7 for its current model, according to CEO Mike Flewitt, as reported by Car and Driver. The car is planned for a 2021 release.
While an improvement, this will roughly match the 0-60 performance of Tesla’s P100DL, which was first released five years earlier, in 2016.
McLaren also plans to hybridize its entire lineup in the next three or four years. They will use a plug-in hybrid system with 15-20 miles of all-electric range.
Porsche Engineering has developed a torque control system for a 4-motor electric vehicle drivetrain that lets electric SUVs handle “with the agility of a sports car” in even the most difficult conditions.
Porsche hasn’t committed to putting this drivetrain into any specific cars, but by announcing the project on their newsroom, we can speculate that there might be something on the horizon. We learned earlier this year that the next Macan will be electric, and this would pair nicely with that.
Mazda is considering whether to electrify the MX-5 Miata, their most famous vehicle, according to R&D boss Ichiro Hirose and brand chief Ikuo Maeda, as reported by Autocar.
Tesla Model Y deliveries will start in Q1 of next year, according to a new research note from Deutsche Bank as reported by CNBC. If accurate, this means the first customers could get their cars within four months from now.
The bank bases its estimate on accelerated parts orders from Tesla suppliers, which we reported on last week.
Last week we covered how the Tesla Cybertruck’s aerodynamics might be better than its boxy shape suggests, and today Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to the numbers and suggested that the Cybertruck could get a Cd (drag coefficient) as low as .3 – quite impressive for a pickup truck.
Tesla’s Cybertruck has been having a bang-up week, with over a quarter million pre-orders since last week’s reveal. Now we’ve got some data on where those reservations are coming from, and it looks promising for Tesla.
Rather than being popular in areas where Tesla is already popular, the Cybertruck is much more popular in areas where EV penetration is low.
Ford is planning an all-electric Transit van that will hit the road in 2023, according to an inside source at Ford.
Ford will allocate 60% of their first-year Mustang Mach E production to Europe in order to meet EU fleet emissions regulations, according to an inside source at Ford.
First-year production will be limited to 50,000 due to battery constraints. This means Europe will receive about 30,000 cars in the first year, while the US will receive about 20,000.
Ford revealed the Mustang Mach E to generally positive reception last week, and started taking reservations immediately on their website. We’ve now learned that their “First Edition” model is already sold out.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk treated us to another reservation update on twitter, letting us know that the Cybertruck has now broken 250,000 pre-orders.
The update comes less than a week after the truck’s reveal.
Ford will leverage their investment in automotive startup Rivian to build an electric SUV for their Lincoln brand, Reuters reports.
The Lincoln will use Rivian’s “skateboard” chassis, which Rivian also plans to use in their R1S SUV.
Ford’s upcoming Mustang Mach E has been seen driving around the streets of Dearborn, Michigan, in uncamouflaged form. This wouldn’t be much for news since the car has already been unveiled, but there’s a difference this time: It’s the first we’ve seen of the right-hand-drive spec car.
Tesla’s Cybertruck made quite a splash last week with its unconventional design, which raised a lot of interesting engineering questions. Among these was the question of aerodynamics. If the rest of Tesla’s vehicles use nice smooth curves to gain an aerodynamically efficient form, how does the Cybertruck move with all those hard angles?
Turns out an aerospace engineer had the same question and ran the Cybertruck through CFD software (computational fluid dynamics, a computer version of a wind tunnel) to find out whether the truck drives like a brick — or only looks like one.
Nissan has launched a new program called “Nissan Energy Perks by EVgo” as an extra incentive for Leaf buyers, promising $250 worth of charging credits for use on the nationwide EVgo charging network. This is available to all Nissan Leaf buyers backdating to November 1, 2019.
In comments on Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared some more information about Tesla’s recently revealed Cybertruck and some of the reasons for its controversial design.
Another day, another tens of thousands of pre-orders and potential billions in future revenue for Tesla. In the 23 hours since we last heard an update from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Tesla has taken another 41,000 orders, bringing the total up to 187,000.
(Update: the total is now over 200,000.)
In conversations with Audi and Porsche at the LA Auto Show, a trend emerged: both companies seem quite pleased that so many of their EV sales interest is coming from their own existing, internal combustion customers.
Consumers are split nearly right down the middle about Ford and Tesla’s upcoming offerings, with an Autolist survey finding a 51/49 split in consumer interest between the two cars. Ford came out ahead by two percentage points hot on the heels of its Sunday reveal event, but we can basically call this one a tie.