Jameson Dow

Earlier this summer, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed rumors that Tesla is working on a fully-autonomous ride-sharing/taxi service to compete with Uber and Lyft. He described the concept in his ‘Master Plan Part Deux’:

“You will also be able to add your car to the Tesla shared fleet just by tapping a button on the Tesla phone app and have it generate income for you while you’re at work or on vacation, significantly offsetting and at times potentially exceeding the monthly loan or lease cost.”

With today’s introduction of “enhanced autopilot” features and fully self-driving hardware in all cars, Tesla released more information about the service which it is apparently calling ‘Tesla Network’.
Expand
Expanding
Close

California’s Center for Sustainable Energy announced another modification to their Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) today, raising the credit by an additional $500 for low-to-mid-income earners (below 300% federal poverty line) and lowering the eligibility cap to $150k for individuals and $300k for joint filers.  This raises California’s rebate to $4,500 for battery electric vehicles, $3,500 for plug-in hybrids and $7,000 for fuel cell vehicles for buyers in the lower-income category.

The standard rebate for buyers who do not fit either of the above categories remains at $2,500 BEV/$1,500 PHEV/$5,000 FCV.  The new income limits apply to vehicles purchased after November 1st, 2016, and the rebate is applicable to any new electric vehicle purchase, or a lease with at least a 30-month term.

Expand
Expanding
Close

In comments at the Automotive Press Association on Wednesday, Jeff Carlson, chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, stated that consumers would much prefer to do business at traditional auto dealerships than to do business with Tesla’s retail model.  Carlson’s statements were based upon the idea that dealerships often “discount” their prices and allow haggling, and that this somehow results in vehicles being cheaper when bought through middleman dealerships than when bought through a vertically integrated model which removes the middleman entirely.  He cited a study which concluded that intra-brand competition from nearby auto dealers can result in decreased prices for new car shoppers.

Of course, there have also been studies showing that Carlson’s belief about consumers’ preferences is quite off-base.  Polling data collected by Gallup for over 40 years ranks professions by the public perception of their honesty.  The most recent data available, from December 2015, puts car salesmen near the bottom of the list, ahead of only “lobbyists” and tied with “members of Congress” and “telemarketers” with only 8% of the country considering car salesmen as above average in honesty and ethics.

Expand
Expanding
Close

In advance of Formula E’s 2017-2018 season start this Sunday in Hong Kong, news came today that Mercedes has signed an “option agreement” reserving their position as one of 12 teams for the 2018-2019 season, up from 10 teams this season.

Mercedes joins a growing list of manufacturers involved in Formula E – Renault, Citroen, Mahindra and NextEV are already team title sponsors, with Jaguar, Audi, and Faraday Future all joining this year, and McLaren recently beating out Porsche and current supplier Williams to supply batteries for the series in the future.

Expand
Expanding
Close

For the last two years, Formula E’s season-ending double-header, with two races on the same weekend, took place in London’s Battersea park.  But today, Formula E confirmed that the 2016-2017 season finale will be moved to New York City, taking place in Red Hook, Brooklyn in mid-July.  The race will be run on city streets near Pier 11 and the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.  It will be the first FIA-sanctioned open-wheel race ever to take place within the five boroughs of New York City.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Electric drag racing is still a niche pursuit, but a few enterprising racers are setting some very impressive times in custom electric drag racers.  In the last couple weeks, new records have been set by both Black Current, an electric VW Beetle based in the UK, and Shock and Awe, an electric Pontiac Firebird built by students at Bothell High School in Washington state.  We’ve all seen – and been impressed by – Tesla drag race videos, but these electric door slammers take it to another level entirely.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Four years ago, Rafael de Mestre became the first EV driver to solo circumnavigate the globe in his Tesla Roadster.  He’s just done it again, this time with company, once again showing that EVs are entirely suitable for long distance travel.  After challenging EV drivers to join him in an around-the-world road rally, they departed in June and finished in 80 days as planned, under the Arc de Triomf in Barcelona.  The rally included eleven teams from nine countries, including eight Tesla Model S, one Tesla Roadster, one DENZA (a joint brand from Daimler and BYD), and an electric bus from Hungarian firm Modulo.

The journey was catalogued on their YouTube channel with local coverage in various languages, a Bing map shows the route of all 11 teams, and the charge points used have been added into the database at electromaps.com.

Expand
Expanding
Close