Seth Weintraub

With the Paris climate talks taking place this week, I thought it fitting to share an idea I came up with a few years ago while visiting the French capital. ‘Moulin Eiffel’ is taking the 130-year old Eiffel Tower, the iconic symbol of Paris, and outfitting it with a vertical axis wind turbine. The idea is that the tower seen around the whole world would genuinely (not BS) become energy neutral and a symbol for a sustainable energy future.

I had originally considered the option of placing a traditional “windmill” on top of the tower like you increasingly see in farms around the world, but with all of the equipment located up there already plus factoring changing wind patterns and the all important aesthetics, the vertical model works the best. This is how:

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According to Reuters, Tesla issued a voluntary recall for all of its Model S sedans on Friday. The cause of the recall appears to be a seatbelt assembly.  

Nov 20 (Reuters) – Tesla Motors Inc said Friday it is recalling all 90,000 Model S sedans produced to check for a possible defect in the front seat belt assemblies.

The cost of the worldwide recall will be “immaterial,” the company said. The problem was discovered after a single report to the company in early November of a seatbelt assembly breaking when a customer in the front passenger seat of a Model S on the road in Europe turned to talk with passengers in the rear seat.

TSLA’s share price is dipping 5 points or 2.5% currently as a result.
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A new source with connections at Tesla’s design group has informed me that late stage tweaking of the Model 3 is being done with an eye towards extreme minimization of wind resistance. The Model 3, which of course is the renamed Model E, is scheduled to be shown off for the first time publicly in March of 2016. The mass market Tesla is expected to be a smaller sedan/crossover platform that resembles the BMW 3 series in size. The range of the vehicle is expected to start at 200 miles and go up from there with various size batteries and drivetrains. The majority of Tesla employees are now working on this car.

What I’m hearing internally is that CEO Elon Musk is intensely driving the engineering designers to deliver a design with a drag coefficient lower than .20 which would make it the lowest of any mass production car in the world and close to extreme vehicles like GM’s EV1 and Volkswagen’s XL1 (pictured above), – both cars that have flat rear wheel covers…
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screenshot from the video below

A Tesla owner in the Netherlands pushed his/her Tesla Autopilot well beyond what anyone should do on a public roadway. It appears that they engaged the autopilot and then jumped in the back seat and began filming. This is obviously extremely dangerous, untested and a poor way to test a feature. From the video you can see the red light beeping and it appears that the vehicle is holding the to 83km/h speed.

This is precisely why Tesla said it was implementing additional safety measures into the Autopilot system at its earnings call last week..

On the other hand, it is good to see that the autopilot seems to be handling itself ok – which bodes well for the FUTURE or when someone loses consciousness behind the wheel.

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME.
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There’s a big reckoning happening in the solar inverter space right now. SolarEdge, an Israeli startup that we’ve profiled previously just announced bigger than expected earnings, sending their SEDG stock price up 5 points or a whopping 30% in today’s trading…
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A Tesla driver (note reflection of Model S screen in video) says that Autopilot saved him from a head on collision with a turning motorist on a dark rainy night in Seattle. Reddit user Jhall118 took to the forum to discuss what happened in the video below…
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 Yesterday Apple CEO Tim Cook was at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference for an interview and he talked about the company’s take on innovation in the car industry:

“When I look at the automobile, what I see is that software becomes an increasingly important part of the car of the future. You see that autonomous driving becomes much more important. It seems like there will be massive change in that industry. We want people to have an iPhone experience in their car. We look at a lot of things. Our model is to reduce that list to a few. We will see what we do in the future. I do think that industry is at an inflection point for massive change, not just evolutionary change.”

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Stephen Colbert, on his popular Late Nite television show, discussed the Tesla V7 software update and the ability of the car to “drive itself”. Colbert noted driving his Tesla into Manhattan and how the autopilot would improve that. Additionally he noted that a lot of billionaires are working on self driving cars including Google’s founders and guests Apple CEO Tim Cook, Tesla CEO Elon Musk of course and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick.

The spot was a great one for Tesla, shining a light on its ability to upgrade cars through software and  putting a very positive and funny spin on autonomous driving. Watch the video clip on Youtube below:
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6XS6HE178I&start=20]

We test drove the Model S Autopilot a year ago (above) with Tesla VP of Engineering Doug Field. Today, the final v7 product is hitting cars and the first reviews of the final product are hitting YouTube. We’ll keep updating as more reviews hit the web.  Head below for those videos. 
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Fred did some excellent work sorting out the Model X pricing but I was surprised to hear that I’d be able to buy a Model X for $75K  before incentives and $65K with…next year.  But how does Tesla get to the $75K price point without going against CEO Elon Musk’s “Model S +$5000” pricing scheme? After all a Model S 70D is currently listed at $75,000.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=105&v=Oji9NIqIqac

I have to say, as an EV enthusiast, these new ads from Chevy leave an incredibly bad taste in my mouth. Yes, the Prius’s NiCad batteries are older technology –and frankly as a Prius Plug-in owner there are plenty of vectors for attack on its battery system – but the Prius STILL gets better mileage than the Volt once the battery is used up, and the Volt’s battery ain’t that big. If I were making the Volt ad and I felt the need to attach the Prius, I’d point out that it is almost impossible to drive electric only with it where the Volt only uses gas on long trips.

Chevrolet’s global chief marketing officer, Tim Mahoney, said those ads have been extremely effective in helping improve Chevrolet’s brand image. Mahoney said Chevrolet’s “shattering perceptions” ads have bumped consumers’ favorable opinion of the brand by 3 percent.

The Leaf ad traps the focus group between floors in dead elevators, leaving them stranded there to emphasize the frustration of being stuck, a major concern for drivers of battery powered cars such as the Leaf. The Prius attack ads points out the car’s engineering is yester-tech.

The Internet ads will be cut down and broadcast on TV, Mahoney said. Volt ads will stress three things: The car’s 53-mile all-electric range, its technology and a combined gasoline and electric driving range of more than 400 miles. Most drivers, Mahoney said, will go between 1,000 and 1,500 miles between tanks of gasoline.

“We’re going to go head-to-head with Leaf and Prius,” Mahoney said. “The ads allow Chevrolet to talk in one way and they allow Chevrolet’s personality to come through. We’re going to be taking more risks,” he said.

In the below commercial, Chevy compares the Leaf’s 80 miles (guess they didn’t hear about the 100+ mile version that will be available in many places before the 2016 Volt) to the Volt’s 400+ with gas. I get it – but why not play up the bits about being electric?
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As images of the Tesla Model X are rolling off the assembly line, we are seeing a number of improvements to the car over prototypes that have been publicly shown. One such improvement was revealed in a video showing the front trunk or ‘Frunk’ of the Model X. Compare the size of the Frunk in the shipping model above to a Prototype shown off by CEO Elon Musk last year.

Another image of the Model X Frunk, straight on the assembly line, is below. 
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‘Wild’ may be an exaggeration but at the Tesla plant in Fremont, a spy caught a prototype Model X opening and closing (video below) its Falcon Wing doors . The spies seemed to be concerned about the door closing mechanism, and many of the mules we’ve seen have had partially opened doors,  but it is unlikely that this is the final design/spec.

In any case, we’ll be live on the Model X launch on the 29th, come back and join us! 
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Tesla (and Space X CEO, Solar City Chairman) CEO Elon Musk made some important remarks yesterday at the “Business for Tomorrow” summit at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy yesterday. While the translations and the moderation/questions at the end are frustrating, Musk’s comments at the beginning are poignant.

On Refugees:

“Today’s refugee problem is perhaps a small indication of what the future will be like if we do not take action with respect to climate change. Today, the challenge is in terms of millions of people, but in the future, based on what the scientific consensus is, the problem will be in the hundreds of millions and much more severe.”

On taking action:

I think it’s very important that we take action today to recognize that we are making a very significant change to the chemical constituency of the atmosphere and oceans. One that is almost impossible to reverse…

And where you could really feel some emotion:

If you go 20, 30, 50 years in the future, what do you say to your kids or your grandkids? It’s almost, like, scientists have all said that these bad things are going to happen, it’s, like 97 percent… So, to say to your kids or grandkids, like, ‘Did nobody tell you?’

No, everyone was telling us. ‘

So why didn’t you do anything?’ What’s the answer?

…I think it’s very important that we do something.

The full video, queued up at Musk’s remarks is below:
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Chargepoint, one of the leaders in the commercial EV charging market, this week  announced a new line of home chargers that are available at Amazon.com. The lineup starts at $499 for an indoor (garage) with a 16A/240V which can add 12 miles per hour of charge. This is a little over double the speed of 110V 15A plugs that go into regular 110V outlets.

Outdoor charging, hard/plug wiring, cord length and double speed 32A all raise the price in $50-$100 increments where a 32A Outdoor with a 25-foot wire cost $799.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IDLMFS04Ug]

A quick look at Amazon’s best seller list (cached to the right)  shows that a few days in, Chargepoint dominates EV charger sales at the online retailing giant.

Chargepoint also offers an attractive design (which I got to review at CES at the beginning of the year), integration with Nest and other home automation platforms and software updates over Wifi which will bring new functionality in the future.

At a starting price of $499, however, there are some better deals on the market and particularly at Amazon especially if you are looking at straight W/$.

One of my favorite chargers (and the only other in Amazon’s top 10) is the Electric Motor Werks Juicebox 40A/10KW with 24′ cable for $499 shipped. This is more powerful than Chargepoint’s by a significant margin (40A vs. 32A) and equivalent to Tesla’s home charger and gets outstanding 4.5/5 star reviews from Amazon’s customers. It is so small that it can be taken off its bracket and used as a Travel charger anywhere there is a NEMA 14-50 plug…
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SolarEdge announced a significant upgrade to their smart inverter line this today called “HD-Wave” which will have a profound impact on the solar industry. Further followup from SolarEdge yields a nice (HDWave PDF) Deck as well outlining some of the bigger upgrades.

In short, SolarEdge has done for the inverter (a critical piece of the solar ecosystem which turns DC powered Solar/Wind/hydro electricity into AC which is used by homes and long poweline distance travel) what flat panels did for the TV just a decade or so ago.  The new technology uses 16 times fewer magnets, smaller thin film capacitors and much less cooling to yield a 99% efficient power transformation. That not only makes solar installs less expensive, more productive and easier, it makes Tesla’s Powerwall a whole lot smaller…
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Instagram user missortegon posted a quick video yesterday demonstrating an Easter Egg in the new Tesla Model S’s equipped with Ludicrous Mode.

The Easter Egg can be accessed through the setting controls in the “driving section”…
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In perhaps the clearest video we’ve seen yet of the front of the Tesla Model X, you can clearly see that the front window that extends over the top of the driver is one piece of glass, giving the driver complete view of the road and straight up. There are no seams although it appears that the top may be shaded slightly from inside.

I’m not sure how sun will be blocked effectively with this design but I think it will be striking and a signature feature of the Model X.

Also, I’m not sure we’ve seen two Model X vehicles together except at the supercharger at this magical Denny’s in San Jose.

More images from the video below show the pano glass from the inside:
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$100,000 car and $20 camera edit? Sure.

Ludicrous looks a lot like Insane mode from the people’s faces at the end but that extra .3 secs at $30,000/sec seems to be money well spent. Also note the LTE data and Underlined P90D.

Video follows:
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It looks like a Nissan dealership either jumped the gun or is making claims it probably shouldn’t on the upcoming 2016 Nissan Leaf.  Andy Mohr Nissan (via InsideEVs/Green Car reports) publishes the following info on the 2016 Nissan Leaf:

2016 Nissan Leaf Changes

While there are many features that make the Leaf a popular vehicle, there is one thing it’s known for above all else: its battery. The 2016 Nissan Leaf redesign will bring a first to the electric car: your choice of two different batteries.

• The standard Leaf will come with the same battery as the 2015 model, featuring an EPA-estimated driving range of 84 miles.
• Drivers of higher trim levels will enjoy a battery with as much as 25% increased capacity, delivering a driving range of as much as 110 miles.

The majority of electric cars only feature one battery option, and by providing drivers with their choice of a lower capacity battery if they don’t intend to drive long distances, the new Leaf can find a home in even more garages.

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