Seth Weintraub

Exuberance

According to a Bloomberg report, Tesla is getting a lot of interest in Hong Kong. Over 300 people have already put down deposits for the vehicles without knowing the local price

Ho is among the 300-plus Hong Kong residents who have made refundable deposits of HK$39,000 to HK$330,000 ($5,000-$42,500) to reserve a Model S, even before the company has said how much the cars will cost. That’s more orders than Tesla has seen in the U.K., Japan or Australia, sales manager Kenneth Lui said.

The Hong Kong success may bode well for the Palo Alto, California-based company in mainland China, where it plans to open a Beijing showroom this year.

Hong Kong is a relatively small place which is perfect for electric vehicles and the highly affluent upper class of Hong Kong won’t blink at whatever price Tesla throws out.

China, on the other hand might be a harder nut to crack. There are only 168 EV charging stations nationwide and subsidies have waned in recent years. Then there’s the price.

Tesla’s Hong Kong info page can be found here.

(2014 Sparq vs. Camero video above)

Some interesting perspective from a Sparq owner.  I really hope Chevy expands the Sparq into more markets. Its low price + 4 doors+ lots of storage space+7 sec 0-60 all make this a really compelling offer, perhaps a lot more so than the Volt in  a lot of markets.  Too bad it is fugly.

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According to the latest figures from the California New Car Dealers association, Tesla is growing exponentially on its California home turf. The Model S (12%) is now the number 3 luxury car Model behind the Mercedes E Class (16.8%) and the BMW 5 Series (15%). The Audi A6 (4.1%) and Lexus GS (5.9%) combined are still two points below Tesla.

Tesla states that it is now making 500 Model Ses per week. If that were the case in June, over half of the Model S production went to California which, according to the report, registered 1097 new Model S’s.  If California is indeed a bellwether state for the rest of the country, the news is very good for Tesla.  Full figures below:

In an interview with MIT Technology Review, Tesla CTO JB Straubel says that battery charging technology is going to get even quicker than it is now.

“It’s not going to happen in a year from now. It’s going to be hard. But I think we can get down to five to 10 minutes,” Straubel said in an interview with MIT Technology Review. He noted that the current superchargers, which deliver 120 kilowatts of electricity, “seemed pretty crazy even 10 years ago.” Conventional public charging stations deliver well under 10 kilowatts.

Tesla has already reduced its Supercharger times in half going from 40 minutes to 20 minutes for a half charge. A few more ‘half times over the next few years and we’ll be there. One of the barriers of this type of charging is heat so this might involve external or internal cooling for battery charging.

One challenge of fast charging is that delivering power to a battery very rapidly can cause it to overheat. To avoid damaging the battery, the outside charger needs to communicate with the electronics that monitor the state of the batteries, including their voltage and temperature, and quickly adjust charging rates accordingly. “To do that kind of charging, everything has to be designed and working in perfect synchrony,” Straubel says.

Achieving five-minute charges will require not only further improving the charging system, but also improving the interface with the electrical grid. As it is, only some places on the grid can handle 120-kilowatt charging. Drawing large amounts of power from the grid also incurs demand charges from the utility, increasing the cost of the system.

But Straubel says that Tesla plans to get around these problems by equipping supercharging stations with solar panels and batteries.

The rest of the interview is here and worth a read.
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A Better Place is now in a “better place”- the company went bankrupt but the CEO has a good perspective on the market.

Hard to argue with this logic, though at this moment in time, not everyone has $70K to throw down and these are two of the best options out there.

It will be interesting to see if anyone comes up with a not ugly 200mph car before the Model E is due in a few years.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trMN1a3HqeY&feature=player_embedded#t=164

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DoZH7Y-sR0

TechinAsia has the story. With this car you could ‘perpendicular park’ and the back end could slide into the spot with a smaller profile than even parallel parked cars.

Expect a lot more of these types of exotic car designs as we move into an electric car economy.

CBS talked to Tesla CEO Elon Musk about the Tesla’s record/testing machine breaking score on the NHTSB tests and discussed the mass market cars coming in 3-4 years.

Lookin good, Wall Street! (Thanks @NASDAQOMX!) pic.twitter.com/NubkUcOxAK

— Tesla (@Tesla) August 22, 2013

ABC’s video below

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n-xsEjq7pk&start=1110]

According to a recent trademark application, Tesla has applied for the name ‘Model E’. The name would seem to fit in its recent lineup of cars including the Model S Sedan and Model X SUV/Crossover.

This is a brand page for the MODEL E trademark by Tesla Motors, Inc. in Palo Alto, CA, 94304. Write a review about a product or service associated with this MODEL E trademark. Or, contact the owner Tesla Motors, Inc. of the MODEL Etrademark by filing a request to communicate with the Legal Correspondent for licensing, use, and/or questions related to the MODEL E trademark.

Status Update! On Tuesday, August 13, 2013, status on the MODEL E trademark changed to NEW APPLICATION – RECORD INITIALIZED NOT ASSIGNED TO EXAMINER.

On Monday, August 05, 2013, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for MODEL E by Tesla Motors, Inc., Palo Alto, CA 94304. The USPTO has given the MODEL E trademark serial number of 86029275. The current federal status of this trademark filing is NEW APPLICATION – RECORD INITIALIZED NOT ASSIGNED TO EXAMINER. The correspondent listed for MODEL E is JOHN W. CRITTENDEN of COOLEY LLP, 1299 PENNSYLVANIA AVE NW STE 700, WASHINGTON, DC 20004-2431 . The MODEL E trademark is filed in the category of Vehicles and Products for locomotion by land, air or water . The description provided to the USPTO for MODEL E is Automobiles and structural parts therefor.

Obviously this would seem to be for the $35,000 electric car ($25K after gas and tax subsidies) that CEO Elon Musk has promised. The vehicle is supposed to be smaller than the Model S (or X) and have a 200 mile range and be the size of a Mercedes C Class or BMW 3 series. Few other details exist on this car except its planned 2016-7 launch and its “Blue Star” codename.

‘E’ could stand for Electric or EV obviously but also economy, economic, everywhere, everyone, etc…or Elon?
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This NYTimes piece showcases something that’s been talked about for some time:  Turning phone booths, which typically are adjacent to street parking, into charging stations.

“I think that perhaps 3,000 phones could be converted, with two to three parking spaces in front of each,” he said. In 10 years, he added, it could be difficult to find a gas station in New York.

Problem #1 is that the power lines going to phone stations are usually not able to carry the type of amps that a car would need. That means they have to be rewired and if you are rewiring, you might as well just run a fresh charging station at more strategic locations.

Problem #2 is that there are like 30 government agencies involved which  means nothing will ever get done.

Mr. Johnston said that conflicting city interests would make E.V. charging stations a challenge, especially because different agencies were responsible for the public sidewalk and the parking spaces that would be involved.

“There are insurance questions, and questions about how long a car could park there,” he said. “It gets complicated very quickly.”

Rahul Merchant, chief information and innovation officer and commissioner in the city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, described the charger conversion as “a great idea we should absolutely entertain.”

“There is enough electric power in the conduits to turn the kiosks into charging stations for electric cars. If we proceed with that concept, we would have to work with our colleagues in the D.O.T. to ensure there are no conflicts on that side,” he said, referring to the Transportation Department.

Just listening to these guys talk convinces me that a fresh start is in order.

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The latest feather in the Tesla Model S’s cap? Safest car or SUV on US roads, according to the NHTSA.

Tesla today announced that it has achieved the highest rating ever in a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) safety test averaging better than 5 stars and achieving at least 5 stars (out of 5) in every test. Comically, the Model S even broke the roof-crushing test equipment before it could register a result past 4Gs meaning that 4 Model S’s could pile up on another without the cabin caving in.

Of all vehicles tested, including every major make and model approved for sale in the United States, the Model S set a new record for the lowest likelihood of injury to occupants. While the Model S is a sedan, it also exceeded the safety score of all SUVs and minivans. This score takes into account the probability of injury from front, side, rear and rollover accidents.

Video of the tests can be found here as well as a Tesla that recently crashed through a utility pole.

Tesla mentioned that no batteries have ever caught fire but the statistical likelihood of a fire in the future wreck is statistically likely.

The press release, below, is a thing of beauty.
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Over the weekend reports of a Tennessee Tesla driver who apparently drove THOUGH a utility pole (causing an electrical outage)…

A Murfreesboro Police arrest report states that officers arrived at the scene of the crash and witnessed the utility pole was down. The car was about 100-feet away from the pole. When police talked to the female about what caused the wreck she evidently told officers, “she was messing with the radio.” When Officer Martin asked for the suspects drivers license, she reportedly handed it to a fireman standing next to him, according to the report, instead of him…The young female driver possibly survived because this car has a 5-star safety rating for front, side or rollover crashes. In checking the Tesla website, they note the high-strength steel and aluminum frame contribute to its crash performance. It appeared that possibly all 8 airbags had opened, plus this is not a lightweight car–it weighs a little less than 5,000 pounds.

via Autoblog

Tesla CEO Elon Musk emphasized how important safety was when creating the Model S in a recent shareholder discussion. Some interesting crash test videos of the Model S, showing why it gets a 5-star NHTSA safety rating are below:
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[slideshare id=23451376&style=max-width: 427px; border: 1px solid #CCC; border-width: 1px 1px 0; margin-bottom: 5px;&sc=no]

With Tesla Superchargers popping up everywhere and even battery swap becoming a reality, this idea’s time may never come to Tesla…so perhaps it’s aimed at smaller battery EVs. The Ep Tender is a small trailer that rides behind an EV on long trips. The Tender is generating electricity via a gas powered generator (think what the Volt has internally already) while you drive so your battery never runs out of juice. When you go back to normal driving, the Tender stays in the garage.

One big problem that comes to mind immediately is that most EVs aren’t programmed to charge while driving. Even if you can over-ride that system, is it worth having a motor trailing behind or maybe spend a few extra minutes extra at the charging stations?

Click to enlarge

Tesla owners should be receiving a pretty huge over the air update in the coming days which will enable a bunch of new functionality in the car. A Flickr user has updated the release notes. The biggie here is Wifi which allows the Tesla to connect to either a stationary wifi access point or tether to a mobile phone that may have a better signal than the HSPA network the Tesla attaches itself to.

Other new features include: Tow Mode, which allows you to put your car in neutral (wonder if this works in automatic car washes?), Auto screen clearing mode and accessing radio presets from the steering wheel.

Model S owners will also see improvements in Maps, Creep mode performance, additional driver profiles and another biggie: Improved power management when not in use.

The last one is huge because the Model S burns about 5 miles of charge per day in sleep mode, otherwise known as “Vampire mode”. Taking off a chunk of that will help it last a long time in storage without a recharge and stop the useless power drain.

Related articles

• Elon Musk talks about the Tesla Model S’s safety; Battery fire was statistical inevitability (electrek.co)
• Tesla to show off Model X at its new Palo Alto store this weekend? (electrek.co)
• Some observations on new Tesla Model X prototype shown at Palo Alto showroom (electrek.co)

Our Fremont Supercharger opened today! Stop by the Tesla factory and Supercharge, for free, forever. #GoElectric pic.twitter.com/lkuqahGGpT

— Tesla (@Tesla) August 16, 2013

Follows yesterday’s Texas news.

According to Mysanantonio.com, a Supercharger is coming to the San Marcos Premium outlets between Austin and San Antonio.

With only 17 other stations across the U.S., the Palo Alto, Calif.-based automker said Superchargers provide half of a full charge in 20 minutes and allow drivers to travel for about three hours. The company plans to open four more stations in the state before the end of 2013, with its second opening in two weeks in Waco, according to a spokesperson.

Tesla previously announced its first Supercharger in Texas would open in Dallas, but the spokesperson said the “unpredictable nature of permits and inspection” caused construction in San Marcos to finish earlier.

Related articles

• Tesla to debut vehicle ‘Supercharger’ in San Marcos (mysanantonio.com)

I’ve always wondered why this wasn’t a product. There are clearly liability issues with a bike that goes 50mph but it would seem to be popular in a better package.

Infographic provided by White House. 15 Million doubling every two years?

Wired’s coverage of Tesla lately has been great. This video is no different

Elon Musk has posted the PDF of the Hyperloop after months of speculation. Nothing seems to out of the realm of possibility here and there are some damn nice drawings.

So $6B for the passenger only version and $10B for the car transport version? Sign me up