Seth Weintraub

You’ve got to love this from AP:

Electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors would be allowed to sell cars in Arizona without establishing a dealer network under a bill approved by a state Senate committee Wednesday.

House Bill 2123 is strongly opposed by traditional auto manufacturers and dealers, who argue that Tesla wants to operate outside the normal rules that require manufacturers to sell cars through dealers. They say allowing sales directly from an automaker could leave consumers in the lurch if the company goes belly-up.

“Tesla is asking for a special exemption for them to have a separate set of rules for their electric cars,” Mike Gardner, a lobbyist for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, told the Senate Commerce, Energy and Military Committee. “What we’re opposed to is allowing one of our competitors to go around the dealer network and sell directly to consumers. We think we should all be treated the same.”

But Rep. Warren Petersen, the bill’s sponsor, said dealers and manufacturers are trying to stifle innovation.

“This is a great opportunity for us to send a message that we welcome business and we welcome Tesla here to Arizona,” said Petersen, R-Gilbert. “We shouldn’t deny our consumers from being able to purchase a product if they want.”

What say you Texas?

Passing the buck, a great presidential quality.

Meanwhile, the Verge grabbed some comments from car dealers from New Jersey:

“This Musk guy, he wants all the profits for himself,” said Tom Dougherty, a BMW Salesman. “They wanted to go direct, which means no sales force. That’s cutting out a lot of people. No way that’s gonna fly.”

Jim Appleton, the president of the New Jersey Coalition of Automobile Retails, or NJ CAR said:

“He needs to stop and take a breath … If you’re an Internet billionaire, maybe you think the world revolves around you, and the world springs from your laptop. Well, I got news for him. This is not a new law, Tesla is operating illegally, and as of April 1st, they will be out of business unless they decide to open a franchise.”

“Mr. Musk is a brilliant man, and Tesla is an innovative company. We can all respect that,” said Appleton. “But he doesn’t get what it takes to do business in New Jersey. With all due respect, his legal opinions are about as sound as my programming abilities.”
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After Tesla lost in New Jersey, Nissan’s social Media Team Tweeted the “dickish” image above from the Leaf account according to ABGreen. They quickly realized the folly of their ways and deleted it and perhaps someone was straighend out (the door?) over the matter.

I mean we’re all in this together and rising waters raise all ships and all that, right?
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04xwk2SO7mk]

The “Tesla of China” name  is a huge stretch but the company is doing pretty well today on better than expected earnings today. China-based Kandi posted a 92.2% year-over-year increase in revenue to $50.6 million. They build Smart-car sized electric cars in polluted China where people are getting more and more money and want clean cars.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiEJPbxL2hI]

Full-year revenue grew 46.5% year over year to $94.5 million.

“For full year 2013, we achieved our expectations for revenue growth, including that almost 50% of total revenue came from EV sales. We expect this growth momentum will carry well into 2014,” said chairman and CEO Xiaoming Hu in a statement.

In its 10-K filing with the SEC, the company also noted that it has been a part of an SEC investigation since November. If lengthy, Kandi said it will have a significant impact on its financial position.

“A protracted investigation could impose substantial costs and distractions, regardless of its outcome. There can be no assurance that any final resolution of this investigation will not have a material and adverse effect on the company’s financial condition and results of operations,” the company said in the filing.

As a former (and current) Prius owner, this Wired piece hits home a bit.

“The pure conquest data show that the Model S is conquesting owners of Toyota vehicles more frequently than owners of any other brand,” said Polk Automotive analyst Tom Libby. “The Prius is at the top of that list, with the Toyota Highlander SUV and Sienna minivan ranking fifth and sixth overall.”

All told, Toyota accounts for 15.51 percent of Model S conquest sales. Mercedes-Benz and BMW follow with a little more than 10 percent apiece. Libby posits that Prius owners want a hybrid or electric vehicle, but want something more luxurious and stylish. The Honda Fit EV, Ford Focus Electric, Fiat 500E, and the Nissan Leaf just don’t cut it. Part of that is the audience: As Libby notes, “Model S buyers are very well-off financially,” and their garages have housed everything from Aston Martins and Bentleys to Ferraris and McLarens.

The Prius is a great gateway drug to pure electric.  When the engine turns off and you are driving silently on electric only, it is kind of a fun rush and you game the Prius to try to get as much electric miles as you can.  But that also trains the driver to strive for full electric, something that Toyota doesn’t offer and in fact they don’t have plans to offer (besides the Tesla-drivetrain Rav 4E).

Toyota plays off the threat as a high end fringe of customers that they are losing (I imagine Volts and Leafs also take their share). But hopefully they know a perfect storm is brewing.  When Model Es come out at a very-Prius like 30K price, look a lot cooler combined with a mature and full Supercharging infrastructure to eliminate range anxiety, there might be a deadly combination.

Musk took to the blog to address the recent actions of the New Jersey legislature in banning Tesla’s sales operations as requested by the powerful Car Dealers Association lobby. If you don’t understand why the Car Dealer Lobby wants Tesla out, read this bit:

The evidence is clear: when has an American startup auto company ever succeeded by selling through auto dealers? The last successful American car company was Chrysler, which was founded almost a century ago, and even they went bankrupt a few years ago, along with General Motors. Since the founding of Chrysler, there have been dozens of failures, Tucker and DeLorean being simply the most well-known. In recent years, electric car startups, such as Fisker, Coda, and many others, attempted to use auto dealers and all failed.

An even bigger conflict of interest with auto dealers is that they make most of their profit from service, but electric cars require much less service than gasoline cars. There are no oil, spark plug or fuel filter changes, no tune-ups and no smog checks needed for an electric car. Also, all Tesla Model S vehicles are capable of over-the-air updates to upgrade the software, just like your phone or computer, so no visit to the service center is required for that either.

Going a step further, I have made it a principle within Tesla that we should never attempt to make servicing a profit center. It does not seem right to me that companies try to make a profit off customers when their product breaks. Overcharging people for unneeded servicing (often not even fixing the original problem) is rampant within the industry and happened to me personally on several occasions when I drove gasoline cars. I resolved that we would endeavor never to do such a thing at Tesla, as described in the Tesla service blog post I wrote last year.

It is absolutely deplorable that legislation like this even has a chance to win. Just yesterday, NJ.com took a poll and 80% of respondants said they would favor letting Tesla sell cars in New Jersey.  Will of the people? Democracy?

Regarding Model S sales in New Jersey, Tesla will move to the ‘Gallery’ Model it uses fairly successfully in Texas and other corrupt states where the storefronts still exist, but you cannot discuss purchasing the car with a salesperson.

 Until at least April 1, everything is business as usual for Tesla in New Jersey. It should also be noted that this regulation deals only with sales, so our service centers will not be affected. Our stores will transition to being galleries, where you can see the car and ask questions of our staff, but we will not be able to discuss price or complete a sale in the store. However, that can still be done at our Manhattan store just over the river in Chelsea or our King of Prussia store near Philadelphia.

Most importantly, even after April 1, you will still be able to order vehicles from New Jersey for delivery in New Jersey on our TeslaMotors.com website.

This bit from NPR hits the nail on the head. Tesla is trying to change this.

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

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1axlMngNW4&start=240]

Governor Christie’s administration last night decided to side with the Car Dealers Association in blocking manufacturers from selling their cars directly to consumers in the State of New Jersey. There is exactly one company doing this: Tesla.

It is important to note, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk does above, that over 90% of the public is in favor of letting companies sell direct to consumers. Tesla is an American company, employing american workers producing revolutionary, clean electric cars yet New Jersey is disallowing it to sell its cars in the state solely based on political contributions of the Car Dealer lobbies.

As Musk notes above, it is a perversion of Democracy, pure and simple.

North Carolina and Texas already have blocked Tesla. New Jersey will next week. On the docket Ohio and New York are coming for another round.

Tesla Blog post on subversive attempt by Auto Dealer Lobby and its puppets in the Christie administration to shut down Tesla operations in the state.

Unfortunately, Monday we received news that Governor Christie’s administration has gone back on its word to delay a proposed anti-Tesla regulation so that the matter could be handled through a fair process in the Legislature. The Administration has decided to go outside the legislative process by expediting a rule proposal that would completely change the law in New Jersey. This new rule, if adopted, would curtail Tesla’s sales operations and jeopardize our existing retail licenses in the state. Having previously issued two dealer licenses to Tesla, this regulation would be a complete reversal to the long standing position of NJMVC on Tesla’s stores. Indeed, the Administration and the NJMVC are thwarting the Legislature and going beyond their authority to implement the state’s laws at the behest of a special interest group looking to protect its monopoly at the expense of New Jersey consumers. This is an affront to the very concept of a free market.

That’s weird because Governor Christie and his administration has been so forthright up until now, especially on automotive related issues. If you want to send him a message, here’s your form.

Vernon H:(In a previous iteration of my career, I was a Navy Flight Surgeon
assigned to a Marine Corps F/A-18 squadron where my training and duties
included aircraft mishap investigation. When I examine the aftermath of
my incident, I am convinced that fortuitous timing and the solid
construction of my Tesla Model S saved our lives, the lives of another
couple and prevented four young children from being orphaned. )from Liveleak:

Story follows:
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-u6xp_KBMM&feature=youtu.be]

No AWD sadly.

Take a look at the lighter side of cold weather driving. We invited some of the most experienced winter driving journalists in the world to test Model S on an ice track in Sweden. The result is a delicate dance between vehicle and driver.

Tesla vs. TSLA – the only time Tesla owners feel buyer’s remorse. Nice chart – return daily to wallow in misery.

1st of many is my guess

From the Teslamotorsclub.com and Reddit is the above gallery of a Tesla Model S with some weird stuff on it. The consensus seems to be that this is a testing vehicle for the Model X crossover with the roof mount  simulating a high center of gravity and additional weight and the tire sensors showing the handling. The Model x is built on the same platform as the Model S so that seems feasible.  The picture set  was taken near UC Santa Cruz.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4fGsGVjoVU]

Tesla upgraded its Supercharger Map this week to reflect some new “Coming soon” Superchargers. Most notable is the SE Canada route from Windsor to Quebec City which will soon be traversable via Tesla Model S.

Here’s Tesla’s latest internal dashboard for the stations to go live next (Yay Albany!)

Also Tesla looks to have a second cross country option in the West as a bunch of new stations open up in Utah.

The East Coast is also expecting some more stations especially in Georgia on the way to Atlanta. Check the Supercharg.info for more details. 
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgDZwhcGkD0]

From the creators of the Glass Tesla App, just what you’ve always wanted: A better way to control the charging, temperature and other interfaces in your Tesla remotely.  Smartcar.io automatically learns your habits  to have your Tesla at your desired temperature when you hop in every morning. It also allows learns your local utility rates to charge your Tesla when the rates are lowest, perhaps saving as much as 75% on utility charges.  It might just pay for itself!

Pre-order now to get $50% off the yearly $100 subscription.

Update: Apparently those front wheels are naturally kicking up snow without any power because I’ve been told by Tesla that the video is only a teaser for another video, not AWD. 

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It isn’t hard to imagine what they are getting at – you’ll notice the front wheels accelerating through a turn in the (until now) rear-wheel drive Model S.

[tweet https://twitter.com/TeslaMotors/status/440216186362413056]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5N9xIfTU5g]

There is a lot of interesting info from a talk that Elon Musk gave at the CPUC last week. Of particular note, Musk gave some spec estimates for the mass market “Model E” vehicle expected to be released in 2017 with batteries coming from the Gigafactory. In the video above he says the car will have a 200 mile range and be 20% smaller than the Model S. Therefore the battery will need to have about 80% of the energy of the current Model S (Musk’s words). To be clear, since Tesla uses the constant sized 18650 cells (and looks to continue to do so) physical size and Watt-hours are fairly constant.

So given that a 60kWh Model S has a range of around 200 miles (EPA 208), that means that the Model E would need to have a battery around 80% the size of the Model S or 48kWh.

That’s still about double what leading ‘mass market’ electric cars have today. The Chevy Spark EV, with a range of 82 miles has a 21.3 kWh battery. The Nissan LEAF which has a 75 mile EPA range rating has a 24 kWh battery. The Chevy Volt has a 16kWh battery while the BMW i3 is 18.8.

Tesla cancelled its $49,000 40kWh battery Model S before it got an EPA estimate but most guesses were that it would get around 150 miles.  Add another 8kWh to the battery and take off 20% of the overall car size and 200 mile range seems doable.

Musk also mentions that besides the 20% drop in price, he expects economies of scale and other innovations to drop the price another 30% on the battery alone helping to get the Model E to around 50% the cost of the Model S at $35,000.

[tweet https://twitter.com/fatihguvenen/status/440248060958896128]

Below is a snippit of Musk talking about the upcoming battery swap:
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That was the topic of discussion when I went on Bloomberg today. A few reasons I think it is Nevada’s to lose:

• Nevada is geographically close to Tesla’s Fremont CA plant. Northern Nevada is on a quick direct Train route.
• Northern Nevada also is the US’s only meaningful Lithium mine. Another huge deposit is located in near by Wyoming.
• Nevada’s energy prices are higher than New Mexico or Arizona but still relatively low. Tesla however plans to use Solar and wind power, both of which northern Nevada has in spades
• Texas won’t let Tesla sell cars direct to customers in the state. Arizona can’t go a year without trying to pass some crazy laws against gays, immigrants or other minorities.
• Nevada has low taxes and pro-corporate laws.
• Elon Musk likes going to nearby Burning Man

As for the cost of Li-ion batteries, Lithium is just a small bit. Cobalt and other materials are much more costly components.
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Tesla just announced details of the Battery Gigafactory to be located in the Southwest US. The location hasn’t yet been selected but will provide 6500 US jobs and, in 2020, enough batteries for 500,000 electric vehicles.

Tesla also announced a $1.6B convertible notes offering to fund the Gigafactory and other ramping.

As we at Tesla reach for our goal of producing a mass market electric car in approximately three years, we have an opportunity to leverage our projected demand for lithium ion batteries to reduce their cost faster than previously thought possible. In cooperation with strategic battery manufacturing partners, we’re planning to build a large scale factory that will allow us to achieve economies of scale and minimize costs through innovative manufacturing, reduction of logistics waste, optimization of co-located processes and reduced overhead.

The Gigafactory is designed to reduce cell costs much faster than the status quo and, by 2020, produce more lithium ion batteries annually than were produced worldwide in 2013. By the end of the first year of volume production of our mass market vehicle, we expect the Gigafactory will have driven down the per kWh cost of our battery pack by more than 30 percent. Here are some details about what the Gigafactory will look like.

Learn more about the Tesla Gigafactory

TESLA ANNOUNCES $1.6 BILLION CONVERTIBLE NOTES OFFERING http://t.co/rHkp9L1rWe

— Electrek.co (@ElectrekCo) February 26, 2014

Press release follows:
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1axlMngNW4]

Capital Live:

Tesla would no longer be able to sell its luxury electric vehicles directly to consumers under a new bill in the New York State Legislature.

Groups representing the state’s automobile dealers met with Governor Andrew Cuomo in November to push a bill that would prevent automobile manufacturers from selling their vehicles directly to consumers, public schedules show. Deborah Dorman, president of the Eastern New York Coalition of Auto Dealers, was at that meeting and said Tuesday Cuomo aides told the group the governor would sign the bill if it passes.

She said the bill was designed to protect consumers because it required companies to create a storefront in the state and was not directed at Tesla because it sold electric vehicles. Some environmentalists have claimed the bill unfairly targets electric car manufacturers.

A fantastic litmus test to see if your state government represents the people or corporate interests. 90+% of voters want to be able to buy cars outside of the dealership monopoly.  If your state even votes on something so lopsided, they should be voted out. Heck, just introducing such a bill should automatically dissolve the government and force new elections.