Founder, Publisher, and Editorial Director of the 925, LLC publications.
Seth Weintraub is an award-winning engineer, journalist, and publisher who won back-to-back Neal Awards from 2007–2010 during his three-plus years covering Apple and Google at IDG’s Computerworld.
From 2010-2011, Weintraub covered all things Google for Fortune Magazine, amassing an impressive rolodex of Google contacts and a love for Silicon Valley tech culture.
It turns out that his hobby – the 9to5Mac news site – was always his favorite, and in 2011, he went full time adding his Fortune Google followers to 9to5Google, in addition to adding the style and commerce component of 9to5Toys gear and deals site. In 2013, Weintraub bought one of Tesla’s first Model S EVs off of the assembly line, which began his love affair with electric vehicles and green energy — this, in turn, became Electrek in 2014. To cover the burgeoning world of drones and UAVs led by China’s DJI, DroneDJ was born in 2018, and then more recently, Connectthewatts and SpaceExplored were launched to cover connected fitness and space.
From 1997-2007, Weintraub was a Global IT director and Web Developer for a number of companies, with stints at multimedia and branding agencies in Paris, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Hong Kong, Madrid, and London before becoming a publisher/writer.
Seth received a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the University of Southern California with a minor in Multimedia and Creative Technology in 1997. In 2004, he received a Master’s from NYU’s Tisch School of the Art’s ITP program.
Weintraub is a licensed single-engine private pilot and a certified open-water scuba diver, and he spent over a year backpacking to 60 cities in 23 countries. Whatever free time exists is now guaranteed to his wonderful girlfriend, Alana, and two amazing sons.
More: About.me. BI 2014 profile.
Tips: seth@925.co, or llsethj on Threads/BlueSky or link at top of page.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6UssR2-NcI]
We don’t often talk about hybrids here but the BMW i8 does a solid job of being electric and has looks to die for. Unfortunately the $150K price tag may also cost a human life.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fcMJf0tDRY]
A nice option for a truly impressive little EV car. However 20 minutes for every 80 miles of drive time doesn’t really let you take long trips (vs 20 minutes for 170 miles on the Tesla Model S.
It would also have been nice if Chevy was compatible with Nissan/Toyota/Mitsubishi’s CHAdeMO Fast DC chargers so the companies could blanket more the the country with compatible chargers.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk yesterday said that the company was partnering with other companies in building its battery Giga-factory, a plant that he said that is far larger than any other battery factory on earth. Why? If Tesla is going to go mas market with its Model E, it is going to need to get far more battery power than is available on earth right now.
Musk said they were looking for a US state where the factory was going to be built and would announce plans at next month’s Q4 earnings call. He also said Tesla would be partnering with ‘other companies’ on the plant. Here’s why I think Tesla will partner with Solar City and Panasonic on the plant:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR1HEA_2erc&start=500]
You have to wait almost to the end of this video but Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirms earlier plans to build the world’s largest battery factory in the US at 8:37 in the video above.
..but so I’m very excited about our plans for… the the biggest battery plant in the world by far and we’ll do it in partnership with the with some other companies and that’s the shaping up really well…we’ll be talking about it next month… were making the final selection I among as to which state it’ll be an I in the next a month or so…
Musk discussed the needs to get to mass market electric vehicles in the November conference call where he stated that they would need to build the biggest battery factory ever built to meet demand.
Certainly people shouldn’t look at the X number of sales over four years and assume that that’s the number of cars that we will make. I think we will make towards the back end of that a lot more cars and so there needs to be other agreements with some combination of Panasonic, maybe with others. Panasonic is also our primary partner, but when it comes to the high volume third-generation vehicle it’s clear that there is going to need to be incremental production capacity created at this existing look today, so we are in the process of figuring that out and there is going to need to be some kind of giga factory built….
Well, like I said, this isn’t the right time to talk in detail about our plans for kind of a giga factory but except to say, obviously, we are acknowledging the fact that one needs to be built and we are looking at a variety of different locations. I don’t think permitting is going to be the driver here. This is going to be a very green factory. There going to be a lot of solar power. It’s going to have essentially zero emissions and there are no toxic elements that are going to come out of this factory and we will build in recycling capability right into the factory. So old packs would come in one side and get reprocessed as new packs. So a way to think of this is like a factory is the machine that works for machine and that itself has a version, just like you have a version of a product. It’s like a version of the factory. So we are trying to figure out what’s the right way to do version one at this giga factory and we want to be thoughtful about it and it is going to be a really giant facility, like say we are doing that something that’s comparable to all lithium-ion production in the world in one factory.
I’d also note that Musk referred to the Gen 3 car as the “Model E” for the first time even though both Tesla and Ford have registered trademarks for it.
Video from CNBC, below
Press release from Tesla (Also below fold)
Interesting in that 6900 deliveries in 13-week period puts them over 500/week or 75/day in units sold or in relative terms 27,600/year. That means production is closing in on the 100/day mark or 36,500/year even before Tesla builds effectively another assembly line to double its output next year.
Tesla expects to build and sell over 50,000 cars next year. It still hasn’t made a commercial.
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Oh lordy. The press has gotten ahold of a lunker with its latest TESLA RECALL! meme. Unfortunately for the sensational, Tesla has already announced (last week) that it would be replacing the NEMA 14-50 adapters on its built-in charging cables (pictured above, circled). It also issued a software update that would step down charging if it had detected thermal resistance. Here’s the official letter (PDF).
It is the equivalent of Apple replacing its iPhone USB cable AC adapters.
All of this was in reaction to a garage fire that was likely caused by bad internal wiring (the investigation is still pending).
Today’s formal announcement says “recall” so the dimmer of us is running with that even though the facts on the ground are this:
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/423145289310953473
Tesla is mailing new power adapters to less than 3% of Model S owners and updating software. "Recall of 29k cars" is overstating. $TSLA
— Jeremy C. Owens (@jowens510) January 14, 2014
(1/2) The term “recall” is outdated. No vehicles are being physically recalled by Tesla.
— Tesla (@Tesla) January 14, 2014
(2/2) We issued a software update in Dec. & as an additional measure will be sending upgraded adapter by mail to customers.
— Tesla (@Tesla) January 14, 2014
That cross country Supercharger roadtrip is almost a reality. In fact if you know some folks in Ohio, Minnesota and Wyoming, don’t have a lead foot and have 85kW Tesla, I’d say you are off to the races.
Nice feature on Tesla’s ambitions with the Detroit Autoshow as a backdrop from Autonews. I wouldn’t say there is much new here but it goes into disturbing detail on the supposed perils that Tesla faces as it tries to ramp from 20,000 vehicles/year to 200,000.
Industry executives predict Tesla will need to join with an established dealership group that will allow the company to spread its retail and service wings in states that restrict Tesla factory stores.
But Musk says he will not consider such a proposition. Maintaining control of the retail process is key to him. And he says skeptics are overstating the need for a huge dealer network because word-of-mouth plays a larger role for Tesla than for other brands.
Musk says four Model S sedans are sold by word-of-mouth, rather than by conventional marketing, for every one sold as a result of someone walking into a store off the street.
“I don’t think we’re going to need an enormous amount of stores. We’ll have some flagships in major markets,” he said. “What will sell cars in the long term will be other customers — word-of-mouth.”
“It’s very easy to get swept up in the enthusiasm,” Moore said. “But we can’t suspend the laws of physics or economics for them. … They have a list with some ‘We need a miracle’ items.”
From his perspective, Musk doesn’t see Tesla requiring any “eureka” moments.
“Destiny is in our own hands,” Musk said. “If we don’t succeed, it’s our own fault.”
No one seems to realize that this same “no he can’t, yes he did” back and forth is going on 5+ years.
I kid you not. Bloomberg:
The charger connectors, which tether Tesla-issued cables to wall outlets, will be mailed out in the next two weeks, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in an interview today.
“These are very rare events, but occasionally the wiring isn’t done right,” Musk said. “We want people to have absolute comfort, so we’re going to be providing them with an upgraded adapter.”
Tesla fell 2.6 percent to $143.72 at 12:20 p.m.
Tesla also upgraded the Model S firmware last month to prevent cars from drawing too much power from inadequate wiring.
At first blush, you might be thinking (as I had) that this is silly. My house is wired properly so I shouldn’t ever have issues like the person in California whose garage caught on fire after a short in the wiring in November.
But what if you go to a vacation rental or visit the family/relatives for a weekend. Can you be sure that the electrician that did their wiring was competent?
Good on Tesla for covering this; ‘Short sighted’ on investors for seeing this as a sign of weakness and not strength.
Update: Press release follows:
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Fasten your seatbelts people, we are a few Supercharger stations away from seeing a transcontinental Supercharging network as Tesla unceremoniously opened up a few charging stations this week. The Gallup, New Mexico station goes a long way in connecting Southern California and Arizona with Colorado. While the Chicago-land area now counts 6 stations which can take Windy City residents as far as Wyoming (or California if they are extremely miserly on charge), down to St. Louis Missouri and as far East as Ohio.
Meanwhile, the East Coast is a few more stations away from being covered as well. Throw in an Albany NY, Washington DC and a Savannah GA station and you’d be able to get from Montreal to Miami without too much trouble.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is scheduled to make the cross country trek with his family in March. For more granular look at supercharging stations and opening dtes, construction and better mileage circles check out the Tesla Wiki.
InsideEVs scooped up an Instagram picture of the Tesla Model X on the streets of Culver City near Tesla’s Hawthorne design center. The Model X, believed to be out on a test drive, resembles the one shown at the Palo Alto Tesla Store opening late last year (though that one was wasn’t a working prototype).
The Model X was originally scheduled to begin production late last year but was postponed so Tesla could focus on churning out Model S’s and becoming profitable. Production is slated to begin in the second half of 2014.
Called a ‘game changer’ by AOL’s editorial Staff, Tesla ‘ran away’ with the Technology of the Year award when put up against:
2013 was a pretty remarkable year for Tesla. Its stock is still up 4x, it won the Motor Trend Car of the Year, Consumer Reports best ever rating as well as many other Car Mag awards. It got the best safety rating the NHTSA has ever doled out, breaking one of the testing machines in the process. A few over-sensationalized fires couldn’t even dampen the rise to prominence. Even its App won a best of 2013.
What will 2014 bring? Besides the Model X crossover launch, the announcement of the low-cost value machine in 1 year and a transcontinental Supercharger network, more than doubling its current output…
Press release follows:
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuQZo81LG6s]
Nissan says the petrol-engine NV200 will go on sale in December, serving as a key “stepping stone” for zero emission electric version, which could become the capital’s first all-electric taxi in 2015.
The Leaf Taxi?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NXMie55CyM]
Ford just unleashed a pretty big news item ahead of CES. The Ford C-MAX Solar Energi Concept is a car that is charged by the sun. The idea is that you could put your daily driving power into the car via the rooftop solar panels and a concentrator.
Researchers developed an off-vehicle solar concentrator that uses a special Fresnel lens to direct sunlight to the solar cells while boosting the impact of the sunlight by a factor of eight. Fresnel is a compact lens originally developed for use in lighthouses. Similar in concept to a magnifying glass, the patent-pending system tracks the sun as it moves from east to west, drawing enough power from the sun through the concentrator each day to equal a four-hour battery charge (8 kilowatts).
With a full charge, Ford C-MAX Solar Energi Concept is estimated to have the same total range as a conventional C-MAX Energi of up to 620 miles, including up to 21 electric-only miles. Additionally, the vehicle still has a charge port, and can be charged by connecting to a charging station via cord and plug so that drivers retain the option to power up via the grid, if desired.
21 miles/day isn’t going to help a typical driver (especially when you usually need to use your car during the day) but for outliers who need just a few miles/day this is a no cost charging option.
The reality however is that most folks will consider this a gimmick. In fact, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was asked about Solar roofs for the Model S. His reply was that the amount of charge you would get would be negligible (looking for the link to this) but if anyone could make this happen it would be Tesla in concert with Solar City.
Full Press release follows:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfgP2a2PMNI]
Diarmuid O’Connell is Tesla’s head of Business development. He knows his business (see Tesla Bio below). There isnt’ a lot new in the Swiss video above but the German interview touches on a lot of current issues facing the company and it is clear that O’connell, Tesla employee #51, knows the ins and outs (note the Mercedes steering wheel body check).
Probably most notable for me is that Tesla’s biggest cost reduction in its Gen 3 “Model E” is getting the battery prices down significantly and Tesla has set very achievable goals for doing so. It makes sense when you consider the current Model S batteries cost as much as $40,000
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What you are looking at above is the state of the Tesla Supercharger network on The last day of 2013/first day of 2014. Tesla counts 50 Superchargers in the US (1 per state!) and another 14 in Europe. While Elon Musk originally planned to take his family on a Christmas holiday across the country, there are still some rather big holes to fill.
We’re excited to announce our Murdo, SD #Supercharger is now open, making a total of 50 in North America! http://t.co/QzdX2pBX7X
— Tesla (@Tesla) December 31, 2013
Those holes all fall in the “coming soon” category and if you take a look at this helpful 3rd party map, you can see a lot of the country is still being built.
Press release from Tesla:
MONDAY, DECEMBER 23, 2013
PALO ALTO, Calif. – The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has reaffirmed the 5-star safety rating of the Tesla Model S overall and in all subcategories for Model Year 2014, confirming the highest safety rating in America. While Tesla is awaiting feedback from NHTSA regarding their investigation of recent fire incidents, the German Federal Motor Transport Authority, Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA), recently concluded its review of the incidents, finding no manufacturer-related defects or need for further action.
It is worth noting that a Tesla vehicle is over five times less likely to experience a fire than the average gasoline car and that there have been zero serious injuries or deaths for any reason ever, fire or otherwise, in a Model S. Over the course of more than 100 million miles driven in almost every possible terrain, weather and crash conditions, the Tesla Model S has consistently protected its driver and passengers, achieving the best safety track record of any car on the road.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TelUR5Bg9zE]
We followed one of our Norwegian owners, Arne Jakobsen, through his daily commute with Model S. Watch how it performs in sub-zero temperatures, through the mountains and fjords of Norway, and hear why Arne believes he can rely on Model S to get him to places other vehicles simply could not reach.
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TESLA FIRE!..is practically the headline of the Reuters ‘exclusive‘. MAYBE!
A fire department in Southern California said a garage fire may have been caused by an overheated charging system in a Tesla Model S sedan, in the latest link between the top selling electric car and the potential for fire.
While Tesla Motors Inc maintains that the fire was not related to the car or its charging system, the Orange County Fire Authority said the Tesla-supplied charging system or the connection at the electricity panel on the wall of the garage of a single-family home could have caused the fire.
Except the fire wasn’t caused by the Model S according to Tesla. Spokeswoman Liz Jarvis-Shean went on the record:
“We looked into the incident. We can say it absolutely was not the car, the battery or the charging electronics.”
“The cable was fine on the vehicle side. All the damage was on the wall side.
“A review of the car’s logs showed that the battery had been charging normally, and there were no fluctuations in temperature or malfunctions within the battery or the charge electronics.”
Steve Concialdi, a spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority, told Bloomberg that investigators have concluded the fire had nothing to do with the car battery, but can’t determine whether it was caused by the charger or began in the wall socket.
At best, it sounds like the fire could have been caused by the electrical system where the Model S was plugged in. Perhaps a substandard wire that wasn’t rated for the amperage the Tesla requires was installed from the electricity panel to the charging outlet. That would be my guess with the facts laid out here.
Tesla’s stock price was down yesterday on the news even though it had announced major expansion and $35M tax break on the equipment for that expansion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdSWciG5rbU
California will give Tesla Motors a $34.7 million tax break to expand the company’s production of electric cars and powertrains in the state, officials announced Tuesday.
Tesla, based in Palo Alto, won’t have to pay sales and use taxes on new manufacturing equipment worth up to $415 million.The equipment will help Tesla more than double the number of Model S sedans it builds at its Fremont factory, as well as assemble more electric powertrains for customers such as Daimler and Toyota.
Tesla expects to build 21,500 sedans this year. The new equipment would help expand annual production by 35,000 cars.
Interestingly, the stock is down against the broader up market today and I’m not sure why based on this seemingly positive news. (Update: Someone with a Tesla had a Fire in their garage)
California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer (riding shotgun to Gov. Jerry Brown in the video above) said “I’m pleased we could take this action to encourage Tesla to expand its electric vehicle production in California, which will create green jobs and improve our air quality.”
Specifically, California estimates that the additional production capacity will create 112 permanent jobs in the state as well as $60M in total revenue.
If you are in China and you want a Model S, you now have a website to use. Have at it. Wondering why Tesla is called Tuosule in China? Some local guy squatted on the name rights to Tesla and wants $30M for it. Tesla offered $3M but no dice. Good for them.
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They sound a little expensive and there certainly needs to be more infrastructure but a good first step.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOTnH9LV_-s&start=3000]
Interesting stuff about aluminum cars, entrepreneurial behavior and the guy in Norway who buys Teslas and leaves them around town for people to drive.
According to Polk/IHS, Tesla has passed Nissan to become the best selling Electric car in Canada for the 2013 year. It moved from selling 20% of Canada’s Electric Cars in 2012 to 43% of the cars in 2013.
Consumer research shows that within its release year, the Model S captured a staggering 20% of the electric vehicle market share. Over the course of the next year (2013), it more than doubled to 43%, outselling all other OEMs. It is important to note that with such tremendous gains, Tesla did not necessarily conquest customers from other electric vehicle OEMs, but instead, brought new customers from outside the electric vehicle market to grow the current EV customer base. After all, the current EV competition includes the Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi Imiev, Smart Fortwo, Ford focus EV, Toyota Rav4 EV and the Chevrolet Spark.
