Seth Weintraub

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7dFUS-I9gk

He looks thrilled!
Expand
Expanding
Close

The third fire in six weeks rattled the Tesla community somewhat but it appears that the recent incidents are the result of bad luck and not of faulty equipment or a weak spot in the design.

In a blog post on the TeslaMotors.com site, Dr. Juris Shibayama explains what happened that fateful night:

I am thankful to God that I was totally uninjured in any way from this impact. Had I not been in a Tesla, that object could have punched through the floor and caused me serious harm. From the time of impact of the object until the time the car caught fire was about five minutes. During this time, the car warned me that it was damaged and instructed me to pull over. I never felt as though I was in any imminent danger. While driving after I hit the object until I pulled over, the car performed perfectly, and it was a totally controlled situation. There was never a point at which I was anywhere even close to any flames.

Dr. Shibayama is an interesting character:

Juris Shibayama is a modern-day Renaissance man, whose talents range from orthopaedic surgery to bodybuilding to the inhalation of hamburgers. The last of these skills has earned him rising-star status on the competitive eating circuit, where he’s currently ranked twelfth in the world (just below the great Patrick “Bib Sheet” Vandam).
Expand
Expanding
Close

It is a bit of a stretch but interesting note on story about the rich village of Atherton where Teslas are the best-selling car:

“I probably see a Tesla Model S every day,” said Atherton City Manager George Rodericks. “Atherton is 100 percent residential. We don’t have any public charging stations. We don’t even have a grocery store. But driving around town, you sure do see a lot of them. I’d love to see the Model S be used for Atherton’s police cars.”

Best way to catch a tesla is with another Tesla. Doesn’t sound like the town is hurting for money.

Top Gear USA did an Electric Episode called ‘Fully Charged’ yesterday showcasing three all-electric cars: Fiat 500E, Ford Fusion and Nissan Leaf. The tests were mostly silly and these petrol-heads probably aren’t a good representation of the car-buying public

• “I guess a silent car is good if you want to kill blind people”
• Reverse Race.
• Race through a mall vs. Mall cop on a Segway
• Burglar test: silence through suburbs

..but there were a few redeeming moments.

They took a break from the silly tests to show electric dragsters which smoked a decked out Camaro ZL1. Also at the end, a Tesla Model S smoked that same Camaro ZL1 in a drag test then proceeded to beat a $100K Mercedes in a road test (with an extra large man in the car). If you can’t view it at the History Channel, this Reddit thread has some other ideas.
Expand
Expanding
Close

If you’re looking for a high end electric motorcycle, check out Zero’s 2014 lineup released this week. New Features include with increased horsepower and torque that put them into the superbike range but at the weights of offensive linemen.  From Wired:

Everyone crows about horsepower, but torque is what you feel when you nail the gas pedal or twist the throttle. It’s a better measure of acceleration, and for 2014, Zero has cracked the infamous 100 pound-foot mark with its new SR electric motorcycle.

Torque is measured in pound feet — or, for the rest of the world, Newton-meters — and the Zero SR puts down 106 lb-ft — 56 percent more than its standard S counterpart, and a figure that brings it in line with some of the biggest, brashest, and beefiest bikes in the world. But unlike those bruisers and cruisers, the SR tips the scales at a relatively svelte 400 pounds. High grunt and low mass let you hit 60 mph in 3.3 seconds.

Expand
Expanding
Close

[tweet https://twitter.com/NASHVILLAIN_/status/398189459860389888]

According to the Twitter account holder, it happened around 1:30 in the afternoon today on the 1-24 and the driver was able to walk away.The damage doesn’t appear to be severe this time around.  With the Mexican fire and the Seattle fire, that makes three in five weeks. Nothing to be alarmed about.

Tesla gave the following statement

 “We have been in contact with the driver, who was not injured and believes the car saved his life. Our team is on its way to Tennessee to learn more about what happened. We will provide more information when we’re able to do so.”

More than 150,000 gasoline car fires occur in the U.S. every year. That’s about 17 car fires per hour, every day. This results in hundreds of deaths and injuries a year, and accounts for 10 percent of all fires in the US, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

Some more pictures below:

Expand
Expanding
Close

I just got my 5.6 firmware update without calling Tesla. I was on 4.5.1 previously. It took about 20 minutes to install after a 2 minute shutdown procedure.  After the update I got the screen above.

I did have some trouble connecting to my home Wifi networks as you can see toward the end there.  I’m going to give it another try tomorrow, I wonder if it isn’t encryption problems. I also want to try a Verizon LTE Mifi.

I really love the updates to maps. Right away I can see the usefulness of the compass and directional UI.

I know 5.6 has been rolling out to Europeans for around a month but I don’t know many folks stateside that have it via OTA without it being pushed for issues.

Also, I hear this update reduces the vampire drain effect. That would be a big deal for me because I lose at least 5 miles per 24 hours unplugged. 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Unlike many companies, Tesla’s earnings calls actually have a lot of interesting information. Last night’s was no exception. I was listening to the call live but it also helps to look at the transcript below provided by Seeking Alpha.

The main constraint to production is batteries. No one asked (but I would have) how many Model Ses Tesla could have made if there wasn’t a constraint on batteries.  Sure Tesla recently signed a deal with Panasonic for an incredible 2 Billion Cells over the next 4 years but that won’t nearly cover what Musk believes they will need.

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.

Perhaps most interesting out of all of the is is that while there are some improvements to batteries being made, we’re still going to have the same basic Lithium Ion cells in cars 4 years from now. Why? Because Tesla plans to make so many cars in one year alone that their own production would be the equivalent of the current world output of Li-on batteries.

But then it is going to take us a while to build out the capacity for that third generation vehicle and we are going to sort of selling battery pack capacity, maybe because ultimately when you produce 500,000 vehicles, from a new plant then we need self capacity that’s commensurate with that which is maybe bigger than all the lithium-ion production in the world today or at least on par with it.

More from the call follows:

Expand
Expanding
Close

Tesla earnings are out and while it did beat its own estimates, Tesla didn’t meet analysts expectations causing the sock to tumble in after hours trading. The webcast is here

Full statement below:

We’ve seen the VIN tallies and how that affects the market.  The questions analysts are asking: Can Tesla announce 6,000 Model S deliveries for the quarter. That would put Tesla 1000 over its yearly estimate and on a 24,000/year run-rate.

This is why $TSLA should mix up/randomize its VIN numbers a little bit http://t.co/K7k33f4m1I

Tally might be higher http://t.co/DUahyiJowH

— Electrek.co (@ElectrekCo) November 5, 2013

Tune in at 5:30 ET, 2:30 PT for the live earnings call here. 

Some Danes took their Tesla (not sure if it was tuned for German roads) on the autobahn just in case you want to know how your Tesla will fare at over 200km/h.

Also it sounds like it got a bit windy.

Fun read from the WSJ

The biggest single trade in Tesla options at midafternoon Monday was a bet that looks for the electric-car maker’s shares to soar more than 31% through the end of the week. Nine of the 10 most-actively traded contracts were ones that also looked for shares to move higher, though more conservatively so, to profit.

“It’s been as wild as I’ve ever seen it around earnings,” William Lefkowitz, options strategist at asset management and brokerage firm National Securities, said of the trading in and prices of Tesla options Monday. “People are looking for big swings,” he said.

Tesla shares gained $13.03, or 8%, to $175.02 Monday. That leaves the stock up 417% so far this year, but 9.5% below its closing record of $193.37 seen Sept. 30.

Disclaimer: long TSLA

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhMjRzvE1Ng]

You knew Fox News was going to stage a takedown of Tesla at one point or another. Here is Lauren Fix’s interview on the Tesla Fires (above).

‘Interviewer’: “…Something about Tesla Cars that cause them to blow up”?  Just … No

Fix: “supposedly a piece of metal that supposedly punctured the battery box” All facts. Seattle fire: Metal into the underside of the battery box at highway speeds. What would happen if it hit a gas tank?

Fix: “NHTSA didn’t investigate”. They did. They found no reason to push forward and the car acted like expected.

“After reviewing all available data, the NHTSA has not found evidence at this time that would indicate the recent battery fire involving a Tesla Model S was the result of a vehicle safety defect or noncompliance with federal safety standards,” the agency said in a statement.

Fix: “I assume they offered him a deal on a new car”. No. Published reports say the Seattle driver happily bought another one with the money he got from his insurance

Fix: “If this were Ford, GM, Toyota…[Congress] they would call them on the carpet and basically and draw and corner them” There are hundreds of vehicle fires every day. I don’t think that Congress acts on every one of them?

Fix “Something happened in a hit a wall but here wall on a regular combustion car your car is not likely to blow up” Actually the car did a lot more than bust through a wall. It was called an extreme accident where the vehicle travelling well over the speed limit experienced a violent crash with low wall after it jumped curb and went airborne. The driver walked away without any permanent injuries.

Fix: “There’s hundreds of people that complain; many many of these owners are happy because they’re environmentalists they want to be cool” There are quite a bit of owners who are speed freaks and who love havin a 7-seat sports car that is quiet and requires no maintenance.  Motor Trend and Consumer reports must be crazy.

Yes, it is a sloppy, stupid takedown but unfortunately there are a lot of ignorant and elderly people who watch Fox and actually consider it to be a source of information. The oil industry is a hundreds of billions of dollars per year industry. These attacks will only grow more prominent in the coming years.

Full Transcript and some more crazy from Lauren below:
Expand
Expanding
Close

Jeremy Clarkson famously gave the Tesla Roadster some undeserved bad publicity a few years ago. Tesla then sued Top Gear/BBC for libel and eventually dropped the suit. There is no love lost between Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson however as evidenced by his comments earlier this week (above).

With that in mind, commercials are showing that Top Gear USA will be reviewing the Tesla Model S this week. Will it get a fair shake?
Expand
Expanding
Close

It took the top two as well. Important note: 7 of those Zip codes are in New York City where Tesla wasn’t the top pick. Why? It is hard to hook up your own charger in a public parking lot or on the street. If you don’t include those 7, Tesla Model S is the best seller in almost half of the wealthiest 18 ZIPs.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Via

Stoll doesn’t compare to Sergey Brin’s Model S April Fool’s costume below:
Expand
Expanding
Close

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XdS2K4ZEVo

Its always fun to watch the finance folks talk technology.  Putting hybrids in the same category as the Model S makes little sense and negates all of the negative factors associated with them. For instance Hybrids must run two redundant power trains. They must store 2 types of fuels and have systems that (usually poorly) switch between the two.

None of the hybrids coming out has anywhere near the battery capacity of the Model S.  None of the other companies have the Supercharger infrastructure which is already covering the US and Europe. The BMW i8 does look cool but can it seat 7 and have room for luggage?

Tesla’s position is still extremely strong. 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Pictures above via Ryan! Tweets below chronicle the journey:
Expand
Expanding
Close

Mission seems like the Tesla of motorcycles as president Mark Seeger stops by with his groundbreaking halo product, the limited production RS superbike. Only 40 of these will be assembled by hand in the USA but clearly there is a market for these if things go well.

Perhaps the hardest part? Convincing motorcyclists that they don’t need to be obnoxiously loud. 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Tesla announced early this morning that it had secured its Lithium battery supply from Panasonic to the tune of  nearly 2 billion cells over the course of four years.  This is an expansion of their 2011 arrangement which has been successful at launching the Roadster and Model S.

Math time:

At around 7000 cells per car for the 85kWh model, that’s around 286K vehicles over the next 4 years. Not a bad clip if you consider Tesla’s 2013 goal of 25K cars.  Keep in mind, Tesla has also announced battery deals with Samsung and others – so there is a lot of upside to this. Also keep in mind 7,000 is the 85kWh model. Assuming there are around 5,000 batteries for the 60kWh model, there is plenty more upside. If Tesla only made 5000-cell cars, that is 400,000 cars for the 2B batteries.

So, putting on my analyst hat for a second, I’d estimate that Tesla’s worst case estimates put a floor of around 100K cars averaged until 2017 when the contract ends (or is likely renewed).

2017 should be well into the $30,000 Model E (which is forecasted to have lower amounts of cells) so growth at the tail end of the deal is likely factored in.

It also means that there likely won’t be some crazy “supercapacitor” type technology coming to mass market any time in the next few years. Even if it did, Tesla Model S and Model X allow for easy battery swaps and firmware could be adjusted accordingly.

Press release follows:

Expand
Expanding
Close

Tesla today officially announced the Springfield Oregon Supercharger had opened thereby allowing Tesla owners to travel the whole West Coast of the US without spending a penny.

I had called the thing a bit early last week but Tesla wasn’t ready to give it the green light until the Springfield OR station opened because the distance between the two previous Oregon stations “would be a little bit risky” for 60kWh owners.

The new station is a few blocks off the highway, contains 8 stalls and is open immediately.

• Springfield, ORI-5 exit 195 Holiday Inn Eugene – Springfield
  919 Kruse Way
  Springfield, OR 97477

Press release follows:
Expand
Expanding
Close

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2nfd7HrJ60]

In case you are wondering, that Yugo-looking EV is called the Buddy EV. The Norwegian electric vehicle’s range is 25-60 km  (16 to 37 miles) via a 13 kW motor, and has a max speed of 80 km/hr (50 mph) while under 100 inches long.

No wonder the Tesla is doing so well in Norway.

Facebook via InsideEVs
Expand
Expanding
Close

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=458TLFRkAlk]

Just out now from Consumer Reports: Tesla’s Model S got the green light “reccomend”.

The groundbreaking Tesla Model S earned Consumer Reports highest test score and it aced crash tests, yet we could not truly recommend it—until now.

Based on data collected from more than 600 owners in our 2013 Annual Auto Survey, the Tesla Model S earned an average predicted reliability score. Owners of the 2012 model reported very few problems, although 2013 owners cited quite a few more. The combined score allows us to recommend it.

Quite interesting that they saw different reliability in the 2012 and 2013 models since they are the exact same thing. Also, since they are rolling off the line, you’d expect the earlier ones to have more problems (like sunroof squeaking) that were fixed in later ones.

Nope. CR says that 2012s scored better than 2013s.  Go figure.
Expand
Expanding
Close

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCn1CufaCYc]

The video above is from Merida, Mexico on October 18th. It appears that another Tesla Model S has caught fire after a pretty extreme accident where the vehicle experienced a violent crash with low wall after it jumped curb and went airborne.

The driver and potential passengers were driving at speeds in excess of the speed limit and fled the scene of the accident. From the video, it appears that the fire is also more extreme than the Seattle fire which didn’t compromise the passenger compartment.

Bloomberg says even though the driver fled, he was contacted by Tesla and is unharmed.

“We were able to contact the driver quickly and are pleased that he is safe,” Jarvis-Shean said today in an e-mailed statement. “This was a significant accident where the car was traveling at such a high speed that it smashed through a concrete wall and then hit a large tree, yet the driver walked away from the car with no permanent injury.”

The end result:

(Progreso Hoy Via Inside EVs)