Seth Weintraub

Tesla, after almost three weeks of flirting with going private, will stay public according to an 11:11PM Friday night blog post from the company’s CEO Elon Musk.

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Bosch’s PowerTube batteries aren’t the first e-bike in-tube batteries by a long shot, but because Bosch maintains such a big share of the premium e-bike market, the new in-tube variant of their 500Wh batteries allow premium brand bikes to hide their power source better. And that means better looking and performing bikes.

We reviewed the Trek Supercommuter 8 last year which had Bosch’s old battery system, still integrated into the frame, and thought the $5000 price tag was tough to swallow, even for the premium components and experience. But we’re going to step it up a notch today with the dual Bosch PowerTube batteries (1kWh total) Riese & Müller Supercharger which we got on loan from Propel bikes in Brooklyn/Long Beach that retails for around $7000 kitted out.

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So I had a few hours yesterday with the new Tesla Model 3 Performance. To be honest, the conditions weren’t great. The weather was amazing per usual in Southern California but I was basically stuck in the middle of West LA during rush hour for this review. I tried to make a dash for Malibu and the mountains but alas, there wasn’t enough time, and they were already full of commuters heading home for the weekend.

I also wasn’t allowed to record video or stills beyond the livestream we posted earlier and some parked footage (below). But that was enough time to know that, for many people, this could easily be —– the best car on the road, at any price.

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Tesla is giving us our first look at the Tesla Model 3 Performance edition today at 4:00 Pacific time/ 7PM Eastern.  (That’s “Tesla time” so be prepared for some possible delays). The good news is that we are going to stream it on our Youtube Channel so subscribe now to know when it begins.

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Thanks to Nissan’s race team who sponsored our trip to Brooklyn, we’re on site at the 4th year of the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA)’s Formula E event where there will be races both today at 3PM ET and tomorrow and carried on network television in the US for the first time.

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There aren’t many automobile companies with a stronger design heritage which has transformed the automobile industry decade after decade than the Italian Automobili Pininfarina.

The company behind classic designs from makes such as Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, Fiat, GM, Lancia, and Maserati, was acquired by the Indian Mahindra Group in a deal worth about €168 million in 2015. Since then, it has been on a mission to define itself in the era of electrification. Next year, that will culminate in what is currently codenamed the PF0 Hypercar. After looking at early teasers below, it feels safe to say Pininfarina won’t betray its design heritage even if its EV specs don’t destroy Rimac or Tesla’s Roadster…

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GM today announced a somewhat minor upgrade to the 2019 Chevy Volt PHEV that will be available this fall.

Headlining the new feature set is an improved 240V charging system that will up the rate of charge from 3.6kW to 7.2kW or 16A to 32A. The move, which matches the charging rate of Chevy’s Bolt on Level 2, will give the Volt a full 53 mile EV charge in 2.3 hours according to Chevy. There is still no DC fast charging option for the Volt.

Other updates to the 2019 Volt include:

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We’re proud to announce Electrek is sponsoring the American Solar Challenge this year. The 2018 event (PDF Flyer), which begins next weekend, will see racers take their Solar-powered “cars” from Omaha, Nebraska to Bend, Oregon loosely through the Oregon Trail. I use quotes because to get the Wh/mile equation on these vehicles to within what’s possible with a car footprint solar array, you’ll essentially need 4-wheeled electric bicycles.

The American Solar Challenge (ASC) is a multi-day, 1,500-2,000 mile cross-country endurance rally across North America. The event is typically held every other year during the summer and is open to collegiate level solar car teams from countries all over the world. The routes have varied greatly over the course of the event’s rich history, but they are always designed to provide teams with a great opportunity to demonstrate their solar cars under real world driving conditions and thoroughly test the reliability of all onboard systems.

This year is a bit more interesting also in that they are now racing a cruiser class which will act and look a lot more like traditional road vehicles…

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SunPower isn’t just powering roofs and solar farms these days. The company, which touts its solar panels as the most durable and efficient on the market, is looking at other applications. I’d be hard pressed to find one as awesome as the upcoming Mission SolarStratos expedition which will be powered by its 22-24% efficient Maxeon™ solar cells.
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Things are never dull in Tesla-land. After we heard on Monday that Tesla’s Production line was sabotaged, today the automaker filed a lawsuit against Martin Tripp. The Gigafactory Process Engineer was accused of not only writing software that extracted data from Tesla’s Manufacturing Operating System which sent gigabytes of proprietary data to outside entities but also making false negative statements to the media.

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…except a Tesla killer

The first reviews of the Jaguar I-PACE came out last week and there’s a lot to digest. I won’t go through most of the information for the sake of repetition but when it was my turn this week to be in a group of 20 journalists to test the car, I noticed that I was one of the only folks with any EV experience. So we’ll talk below about the I-PACE experience from a Tesla and Chevy Bolt EV owner and electric car expert.

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• 2018 E-JOE EPIK SE Sport Edition Electric Folding Bike 500-700W/48V – under $1500
• 50lb foldable bike with enormous range and power, 2x competitors or more
• Includes premium components: oversized 180mm disc brakes, lights, rack
• Downsides: soft front suspension, sticky throttle, too much speed

Folding bikes are a curiosity for most. They imply that they need to be packed up whether on a plane, train or automobile (or boat, RV etc.). They are great for commuters in their last miles and if you live far from a rideable habitat, they are great companions. A foldable bike allows you to forego that air resistant bike rack on the back or top of the car. But they do have their downsides. They aren’t great for long distances, their often small wheels and multiple piece frames aren’t great for long trips and they are more heavy and complex than equivalent traditional bikes. Also, you often ride higher and less aerodynamically because of the different geometry.

Electrified folding bikes are no different. While the battery and motor add significant weight to the equation, they also obviously add propulsion that helps get you to speed on hills and from a stop. There are a ton of these which have 200 or so watt motors and about 10 miles of range. Usually they start at around $1000.

The 2018 E-JOE EPIK SE takes this idea and nukes it with a 48V 500W or 700W burst rear brushless geared hub motor and 500Wh battery, both of which are at least double the standard you see on typical foldable ebikes. Even better, it looks and feels like a mild-mannered foldable bike that no one would suspect hides a moped level turbo boost. Let’s dive into this…
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Cadillac announced today that its Super Cruise level 2/3 autonomous driving system will be expanding into its other vehicles and to the wider GM lineup of vehicles in 2020. Cadillac calls it the only truly “hands free” autonomous system though other makers might argue semantics.

Cadillac’s Super Cruise is a Tesla (or Mercedes Drive Pilot, Nissan Propilot, etc) Autopilot-like level 2 software that GM puts in its top end CT-6 only for now. GM gave us a demo CT-6 which we did a quick review of, below.

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Update: here’s our Jaguar I-PACE Review

Here’s an avalanche of early I-PACE reviews from mostly European publications. Electrek has been cordially invited along with a few other US publications to beautiful Portugal on Jaguar’s dime to review the I-PACE next week. So it’s a little bittersweet that we aren’t able to give you our opinion of the new EV yet, but here are some observations on the I-PACE going into our review based on these early look videos below…

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Norway is at the forefront of electric vehicle usage with the largest per capita Electric Vehicle adoption rate which is already putting the squeeze on the local oil industry. That’s why it’s not surprising to see global EVs debut there early and because of that, we now have a lot more information on the enticing Hyundai Kona EV
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In a press release today SunPower (SPWR) announced it had agreed to buy the American wing of the insolvent German solar panel manufacturer SolarWorld for an undisclosed sum. The move would add around 500MW to SunPower’s production capacity putting it near First Solar as the biggest US maker of Solar Panels.
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Bosch today announced that its PowerTube 500 batteries would be coming to US bikes. As the name implies, these are 500Wh batteries that will be integrated into the down tubes of bikes by manufacturers. As Bosch is the leading supplier of high-end ebike powertrains, the news will likely signal a shift to a more integrated look for “bike shop” quality ebikes.

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Announced by the company today, Uber has bought the ebike sharing company Jump for reportedly around $100M to $200M.  This could be a boon for ebike sharing and it has everything to do with Uber’s *uber* popular app and the integration of “ebiking” as a cheaper, more fun, and often quicker option than calling a car. Oh, and without fossil fuels…

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Amazon Link/ Code:9P23HRWZ at checkout $572.4 shipped <week ground shipping

I know a high-end ebike when I see one and this Ancheer 250W is absolutely not high-end. In fact, it would probably be a bit of a stretch to call this a mid-tier electric bike. Ancheer, a Chinese company that also sells USB peripherals, Fitness equipment and other knick knacks, took a bunch of base level components and put them on a Huffy-level all aluminum bike frame and out of this concoction got a good sub-$600 ebike. So how good/bad is it? Let me tell you…

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The Swiss know long-term cost of ownership well and one police force in Basel figures it will save a significant amount of money over the life of their police cruisers by swapping out diesel vehicles with all-electric Model X 100D SUVs, which Tesla claims is the “World’s fastest, safest and most versatile SUV”.

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The flying taxi company Kitty Hawk last night launched ‘Cora’, a Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) personal airplane/helicopter drone hybrid that will carry a passenger. Kitty Hawk is funded by Google co-founder Larry Page and CEO-ed by Sebastian Thrun, the self-driving car pioneer who is the founding director of Google’s X lab.
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Pacific Gas and Electric customers in California can (now until May 31st) receive an additional $10,000 off the price of a BMW i3 via the instructions on the press release below. They join Southern California Edison customers and New Jersey’s PSE&G customers in getting the $10,000 rebate.

That’s in addition to the $7500 federal tax credit and the $2500 California State EV credit for eligible incomes as well as use of the HOV lanes and other incentives. PG&E throws in a $500 Clean Fuel rebate as well. That’s a total of $20,500 off the price of the BMW i3 which starts at around $44,500 making the final base cost of the i3 $24,000. Find BMW i3 inventory and lowest prices using this link.

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EVgo today announced price drops, a simpler scheme and longer charge windows to “the nation’s largest network of public electric vehicle (EV) DC Fast charging stations”. EVgo says that the new rates match or beat gasoline on a per mile basis and the new service will be a boon for apartment dwellers and current/prospective EV buyers who need to take trips outside of their EV range. However, there are some important details to consider.

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