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
Today, in response to the EPA’s recent rollback of agreed-upon 2022-2025 fuel efficiency standards, Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado issued an executive order for his state to develop a Low Emission Vehicle (LEV) standard similar to California’s current standard. The executive order explicitly calls out California as a model, and notes the twelve other US states which have adopted similar programs.
Gov. Hickenlooper previously issued an executive order in 2017 for the state to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 26% by 2025. Today’s order is one step towards that goal.
The Model 3 production ramp is chugging along, with all production lines demonstrating the capability to produce 500 cars per day, according to CEO Elon Musk in today’s Tesla shareholder meeting. So now that the supply of cars coming out of the factory isn’t so scarce, the next question is: when will stores get them? Expand Expanding Close
In response to a twitter query tonight, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced a reveal date for the Model Y: “March 15.”
Soon afterwards, he claimed that he “just made it up, because the Ides of March sounded good,” but added that we should “consider it real” since that date falls within Tesla’s rough target for unveiling the car sometime between late 2018 and mid-2019 anyway.
Just a few hours later, Musk gave us another update: Tesla seems to have isolated Model 3 braking issues to calibration of the anti-lock braking system. Thankfully, this is solvable through a firmware update, and Musk promised one in the coming days.
In a discussion on Twitter over the newly-announced dual motor and performance Model 3 options, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated that the $35,000 base model of the Model 3 would not ship for “3 to 6 months” until after hitting their planned production goal of 5,000 cars per week, primarily to ensure that Tesla will be able to produce the car profitably.
Tesla plans to hit 5,000/week in July, which puts the base model’s earliest deliveries in the 4th quarter of this year, though possibly not until 2019.
Roborace is an electric car racing series with a twist – there will be no drivers. It’s planned as a support race for Formula E, the all-electric racing series, where teams will compete primarily through software – writing autonomous driving programs and seeing which algorithms can race the best.
So far, though, the series is just in development mode, so there is only one “team” developing software for their DevBot development car, trying to see if this is even feasible, and occasionally doing fun stunts, like pitting man vs. machine as they did at the recent Rome race, to get people ready for the series.
In the wake of the EPA’s move last month to eliminate federal fuel efficiency standards for 2022-2025 model year cars, California has filed a lawsuit against the EPA to stop the move from happening. The lawsuit was filed today with California Governor Jerry Brown, Attorney General Xavier Becerra, and the California Air Resources Board as plaintiffs, with 17 other states joining in.
In total, the states filing the lawsuit represent 140 million Americans and about 43% of the country’s car market.
A federal court ruled today that the Department of Transportation must implement a new, inflation-adjusted fine for failure to comply with federal fuel efficiency standards.
This ruling confirms that automakers will have to pay the full, updated fine for failing to meet efficiency standards. The Department of Transportation’s attempted rule would have let them pay less than 40% of the legally required fine.
In the midst of the Tesla Model 3 rollout, where Tesla is now producing about 2,000 cars a week, the company is apparently not letting that slow down its future plans. Today, Reuters reported that automotive suppliers have received a Request for Information (RFI) from Tesla about Model Y parts.
In version 3.3.3 of the Tesla iOS app, released today, Siri integration now works with the Model 3.
The changelog states that it’s only “minor fixes and improvements,” but I’d argue that this is more than just a minor improvement.
Tesla has had Siri integration for the Model S and X since November, but this is the first time it’s been possible to control the Model 3 with Siri. This merely gives access to much of the information and controls which are currently available in the Tesla app, but it’s still nice to be able to use many features of the app without having to launch it.
Spring is here, it’s time to ditch those winter tires – and Tesla has just the way to do it, if you’re lucky enough to have a Model 3 and ready to spend $4,000. After hints at the possibility of 20 inch sport wheels coming to the Model 3, Tesla updated their shop site with a 20 inch wheel and tire package for the car overnight.
The package includes installation by Tesla at your local service center and comes with tires and wheels, plus new suspension links to better take advantage of the higher levels of grip provided by these sport tires.
Volvo’s recently unveiled Polestar 1 plug-in hybrid just got one step closer to reality, as they started taking pre-orders today and posted an online configurator allowing interested customers to check out the various color and wheel options available on the car.
We don’t yet know much about the buying process, as Volvo recently said cars from the Polestar brand would primarily be available as a “subscription service” (similar to a lease). When pressed, Volvo stated that the Polestar 1 would target a price of “130-150,000 Euros” ($160k-$185k).
The deposit is $2,500/€2,500/20,000RMB and is fully refundable. Pre-orders are available in 18 countries: China, United States, Sweden, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Portugal, Poland, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada.
Trump’s embattled EPA head Scott Pruitt has come down on the side of polluters on just about every issue that faces the US, so it is with little surprise that in a recent interview he signaled that he may try to fight back against California’s fuel economy requirements.
In a live podcast recorded on stage at SXSW, California’s former Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger told Politico that he is in talks with several private law firms to sue the oil industry for what he calls “first degree murder.”
Schwarzenegger alleges that because the oil industry has known since 1959 about the climate and health damage their products cause, they should be held liable for that damage. “I don’t think there’s any difference,” says Schwarzenegger, “If you walk into a room and you know you’re going to kill someone, it’s first degree murder; I think it’s the same thing with the oil companies.”
Here’s something you don’t see every day: an electric autonomous rideshare concept car from a major automaker. Oh wait, nevermind, it’s the Geneva Auto Show. That’s exactly what you see every day.
But this one, Renault’s newest effort, doesn’t seem like it’s just more-of-the-same. While it’s obviously a concept car, with extra emphasis on “concept,” it truly embraces that concept nature and steps away from the realm of “normal” and into a totally different driving future which actually looks fairly palatable, and even realistic.
The concepts keep coming out of the Geneva Auto Show this week, with Porsche unveiling a new one this morning – a fully electric sport crossover SUV adaptation of their not-yet-released Mission E.
The headline specs? Porsche claims that the car will have 600 horsepower, do 0-60 in under 3.5 seconds, go more than 500km/310 miles on a charge, and charge at a rate of 400km/250 miles in 15 minutes. Like many European announcements, though, these range numbers are based on the NEDC rating system, which is significantly more lenient than EPA numbers – the range would probably be something closer to 240-260 by EPA testing.
Hot on the heels of a German court’s decision to allow cities to enforce diesel bans, Italy is also getting into the game. Rome mayor Virginia Raggi annnounced “Rome has decided to ban the use of diesel cars from its historical center from 2024” at the Women4Climate conference in Mexico City this week.
The primary reasons for the ban are to cut down on pollutants which cause damage to Rome’s important historical landmarks and, of course, to do what Rome can to help stop climate change.
Bernie Ecclestone is no stranger to controversial statements. The 87-year-old former Formula One executive who ran the series for decades can’t go more than a few weeks without voicing an idea about the trajectory of the series which leaves people scratching their heads. Once, he floated an idea to install sprinklers on tracks to simulate rain-affected races. More recently, he’s had several complaints about engine noise – he thinks they need to be louder.
But Ecclestone’s most recent statement is the first we’ve found worthy of coverage on Electrek: he now thinks that F1 should go electric, by 2021.
BMW has just released pricing for the new BMW i8 Roadster, which goes into production next month, according to BMWBLOG. The starting price will be $163,300, putting it in position as the most expensive BMW available in the US.
The BMW i8 coupe has also been updated, and will set you back $4,100 more than last year’s model, with a base price of $147,500. BMW is taking orders now at your local dealership and cars should be hitting dealerships in April or May.
After this week’s planned Falcon Heavy test launch with a Tesla Roadster as ballast, the world was treated to some incredible images of the car, with driver, orbiting the Earth. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had the good sense to attach multiple cameras to the car so everyone could see what was happening up there, and the images did not disappoint.
Now, a couple days later, astronomers at an observatory on the ground have given us a different view of Starman and his Tesla Roadster – a tiny dot speeding along amongst the stars on its journey towards the asteroid belt.
Congratulations to anyone who bought an electric car last year, as today, Congress took action to retroactively extend several tax credits, and among them were credits for EV charging infrastructure, fuel cell vehicles and electric motorcycles.
A lot of people know about the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicle purchases, but there are a number of other incentives available to EV buyers which help to offset initial costs. These include today’s newly-extended 30% rebate (up to $1,000) on costs associated with the installation of an EV charging station, a 10% credit (up to $2,500) on 2- or 3-wheeled electric vehicles such as electric motorcycles, and a $4,000 credit for the purchase of a new fuel cell vehicle.
These credits had previously expired at the end of 2016, and today were extended retroactively through the end of 2017. Anyone who purchased an electric motorcycle, a fuel cell vehicle, or spent money on a charging installation in 2017 can qualify for these credits on their 2017 tax return.
**CORRECTION: A previous version of this article stated that the credit was available for 2018, as the original Senate bill stated. The bill as passed only extends the credit through the end of 2017, though. Apparently we will have to wait to see if they ever decide to extend the credit for 2018, compounding the problem mentioned below about retroactive incentives.
One fear of current Tesla owners, who have had to deal with long waits for certain service visits in the past, was that a huge influx of Model 3s would swamp service centers, causing even longer waits for basic service appointments. These are reasonable concerns, since Tesla has only ever delivered on the order of 100,000 cars a year so far, and are targeting 500,000 cars a year for the Model 3 once production gets up to snuff.
In anticipation of this, Tesla has been working to add significant service capacity this year. Today in Tesla’s Q4 earnings report, they gave us an update on their progress by noting that they have doubled service capacity over the course of the last year both through opening new locations and increasing productivity by 50% in existing locations. Most interestingly, Tesla noted that their Mobile Service trucks are already responsible for 30% of service jobs in North America.
Tesla’s referral program got a midnight update today, just after the scheduled end of the previous round, which was due to end yesterday but has been extended three months. Buyers who use an owner’s Tesla referral code on a new Model S or X will receive unlimited supercharging, and owners who refer a new buyer will get various awards based on the number of referrals they get, capping out at 5. The program now runs through April 30th.
Tesla Solar is still included in the program as well. New buyers get an additional 5-year warranty on a Tesla Solar installation and referrers receive $400 cash or $750 in Tesla credit for the first four referrals, and a Founders Series Powerwall 2 for the fifth Solar referral.
The one new prize in this phase of the program is a chance to drive a Tesla Semi. This one has a lower barrier to entry – anyone who signs up for the Tesla newsletter through an owner’s code enters that owner and themselves into a weekly raffle giving both a chance to drive a Tesla Semi in a “race” around Tesla’s test track. There will even be additional prizes for the driver with the best track time.
On December 29th, 2017, I took delivery of one of the first non-employee Model 3s. This was a day which many of us early EV drivers have been awaiting for a long time – the realization of Tesla’s “secret master plan” announced more than ten years ago. And now that the car we’ve all been waiting for is finally on the road, here’s my Tesla Model 3 review.
A lot has happened between the institution of Tesla’s master plan and now, and the industry has changed significantly. At the time, basically the only electric cars on the road in the United States were DIY projects, golf-cart-like “neighborhood electric vehicles,” and the few first-generation RAV4 EVs which had made their way into private hands. GM had recently crushed its stockpile of lease-only EV1s.
The “plan” was that Tesla would be an example for the rest of the industry, that they would release a great car and other manufacturers would follow upon seeing that example. The plan would mean more competition as other manufacturers would try to make better and better EVs until they reached parity and eventually surpassed gasoline.
