Jameson Dow

Just a week after extending the program through the end of the year, Tesla has again lengthened the duration of the program until March 11. The details stay mostly the same as ever – owners can provide a referral code to new buyers, and each party gets a perk for using it.  Buyers get 6 months of free supercharging and owners get escalating rewards based on how many referrals they’ve made.

But starting today, buyers can also gain an additional 3 months of free supercharging “if they order without ever having taken a test drive” with Tesla.

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Electric cars have been finding their way into racing success the last few years, and the biggest game in town is Formula E, the FIA’s all-electric open-wheel racing series.  The series’ 5th season starts this weekend with the Ad Diriyah ePrix in Saudi Arabia.

The new season brings new tracks, new teams, new drivers, new rules, and most importantly: a new car which is capable of much more than last season’s.

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Yesterday, Electrify America opened California’s first 350kW quick charge location. The bank of chargers includes nine CCS plugs and one CCS-CHAdeMO plug, and while most of them have an already-quick 150kW rate, two CCS plugs are capable of ultra-fast 350kW charging.

The charger is installed at the San Francisco Premium Outlets in Livermore, CA, which also happens to be a Tesla Supercharger location.  Tesla’s website states that the chargers there can charge at up to 120kW, though they’re the “urban” type supercharger and owners have clocked them maxing out at 72kW.

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Perhaps the most compelling detail from Tesla’s quarterly report yesterday was the company’s claim that Model 3 is now the highest revenue generating car model in the US.  Similarly, Apple has long touted that despite some competitors having higher volumes, the iPhone is responsible for the vast majority of profits in the smartphone industry.  Given the Model 3’s high gross margins, it seems likely that it is also the highest profit generating car model in the US.

So with Model 3 having its “iPhone moment,” a comparison between these disruptive silicon valley companies is more appropriate than ever.  What other similarities can we find between their respective stories?

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Buyers can now receive 6 months of free supercharging with any new Tesla vehicle order when using a current owner’s Tesla referral code to purchase a new Model S, X or Model 3.

This incentive replaces the previous $100 supercharging credit and is retroactive – all owners who used a referral code on a purchase since September 19th will receive 6 free months of supercharging in addition to the $100 credit they already received (which does not have an expiration date).

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Tesla has long complained that media coverage of crashes in Tesla vehicles is overblown. In response to this, the company announced that it would start reporting safety numbers each quarter, detailing the frequency of Tesla crashes, and today Tesla delivered their first report of this kind.

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Last month, we reported on Tesla’s update to its referral program which will finally put an end to unlimited free supercharging, starting with orders placed after September 16th.

At the time, the plan was to downgrade the perk for ordering with a Tesla referral code to a year of free supercharging.  Now, less than a week before the expiry of the program, Tesla has changed things up again, and will instead offer a $100 supercharging credit to customers who buy a new Model S, X or Model 3 Performance using a code from a current owner.

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Laguna Seca is becoming a popular track for manufacturers to run their vehicles around.  Just a few weeks after Jaguar announced that their I-Pace set a “production EV lap record” at the track, Lucid has announced today that their upcoming Air sedan positively smashed that time, setting a 1:41.67 time in comparison to Jaguar’s 1:48.18.

The caveat here is that the Lucid is not yet a production car, and though Lucid claims the car’s powertrain was configured with “showroom intent,” it featured modified high-temperature brakes and a stripped-down interior with rollcage, racing seats and fire suppression system.

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This weekend marks the start of another Drive Electric Week, a yearly series of EV meetups where EV fans can see and drive their favorite models and EV owners can meet up to chat amongst themselves and with curious members of the public about the experience of owning an EV.  This will be the 8th annual event, with a record 316 events registered across the US, Canada and New Zealand.

The week is organized by Plug in America, an organization which advocates the transition to electric transportation, along with Sierra Club and the Electric Auto Association.  Every event is free to attend for owners and non-owners alike, and attending is a great way to get the word out or get your questions answered about electric vehicles.

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In today’s Q2 earnings report, Tesla has claimed that the Model 3 is not only the best-selling premium mid-sized sedan in the US as of July, but that, even in the middle of its production ramp, it is currently outselling all other vehicles in that segment combined.

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Tesla’s referral program was set to finish tonight, but, as they’ve done many times before, instead it got a midnight update extending it for a little while longer.  The program now goes through September 16th instead of July 31st, with prize availability unchanged from the last round of the program.

There are two big changes: first, the Model 3 Performance is now eligible for unlimited supercharging when ordered using a referral code, previously only available to Model S and X orders.  Second, while S/X/3P cars ordered with a code before September 16th will still qualify for free unlimited supercharging for the entire duration of original vehicle ownership, cars ordered after September 16th will only get one year of free supercharging.

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Today, in response to the myriad of self-induced scandals which have plagued him ever since he took the job, Scott Pruitt resigned his position as chief saboteur Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

He will be replaced by Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler as acting administrator, a former coal lobbyist who worked with Murray Energy CEO Bob Murray; was an aide for Jim Inhofe, the top climate science denier in the Senate; and who helped craft the Bush administration’s ironically-named “Clear Skies” initiative, an effort to destroy the Clean Air Act.

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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.

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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?
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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.

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In response to Consumer Reports’ first review of the Model 3, and our article about issues they had in their braking tests, Tesla CEO Elon Musk swiftly promised that if an issue is found with Model 3 braking, it would be fixed at no cost to owners, even if a physical upgrade is required.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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