Cars

Tesla first announced the upcoming introduction of its Destination Charging network in Europe almost 6 months ago. At the time, Tesla said that the network was “coming soon“, but the automaker’s charger map is still showing no destination charger in Europe.

Now we received reports of hotels in Europe, especially Denmark, Sweden and Norway, where Tesla Wall Connectors have been installed or delivered. We hear that the program could launch as soon as next month with new locations. 
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According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal (paywall), Tesla’s legal team has been preparing for a challenge of direct sales law before the federal court instead of the state by state battles that the company has been fighting for years now.

Due to its business model of selling directly to consumers without a third-party dealership, Tesla is currently not allowed or under restrictions to sell its cars in several states including Arizona, Michigan, Texas, Connecticut, Utah and West Virginia.
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Following a unanimous approval of the Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals last week, Tesla is going forward with its first gallery in Connecticut even though the direct sales bill to allow the automaker to sell its cars in the state is still pending.

The gallery will be located in Greenwich on Greenwich Avenue and will exist for educational purposes rather than as a retail location, but it has more to do with local zoning restrictions than the current prohibition of direct vehicle sales in the state of Connecticut.
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Next week, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) will hold a public workshop on the FY 2016-17 Funding Plan for Low Carbon Transportation and Fuels Investments and AQIP. Under the current proposal, the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) would receive $230 million in funding through 2017.
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Update: Tesla confirmed now having “attendants” at certain Supercharger stations, but it is not calling the service “valet charging” since they claim that “they will not be driving the vehicles or taking the keys”. As you can read below, we received direct reports from Tesla owners claiming to the contrary, but you can also read the full statement from a Tesla spokesperson below./

Tesla is rolling out a new valet service to facilitate charging at a few stations of the Supercharger network, the automaker’s network of fast-charging stations. Tesla owners arriving at a Supercharger when all stalls are occupied will be offered to have a valet park their car until a stall becomes available and then the valet can move the car and starts the charging session.

The service will likely be especially useful at Tesla’s busiest charging stations in California and other regions where Tesla’s vehicles are becoming increasingly popular.

The possibility of such a program being implemented first came up late last year when Tesla started looking to hire people in a new role called “Charging Experience Specialist” to “manage onsite customer demand at Tesla Supercharger Stations”.
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Update: Tesla has now reverted the website to the previous version listing again the 70D indicating that it was an error./

Over the weekend Tesla quietly removed the 70 kWh battery pack option from the Model X reservation page on its website. The move comes just after a Tesla OS hacker revealed that the automaker is working on a bigger 100 kWh battery pack.

Now only the P90D and 90D, both equipped with a 90 kWh battery pack, are shown as options on the Model X reservation page. The 70 kWh option is still available on the Model S’ online design studio.

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India’s Power Minister Piyush Goyal recently announced plans for an interesting program that could see the nation’s whole car fleet becoming 100% electric by 2030. It represents one of the most ambitious goal for the electrification of transport in a large country.

The program would let people buy electric vehicles with zero down payment financed by the state and drivers can then pay for the vehicle at the rate they are saving on gas.
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Earlier this year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the automaker plans on securing a location and a local partner for a manufacturing facility in China by the middle of the 2016. A foreign company needs a local partner in order to establish a manufacturing capacity in China.

Now we learn through a recent report from Chinese media that the California-based automaker is reportedly considering a factory location in Suzhou near Shanghai (see map above).

According to the report, the Suzhou government held a meeting on March 13 to discuss a project related to Tesla and executives from the company visited the region during the following week.
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Electric vehicle startup Faraday Future (FF) confirmed today that it will be the title sponsor of the 2016 Formula E Long Beach ePrix race, which is now known as the 2016 Faraday Future Long Beach ePrix and will take place on Saturday, April 2, 2016. Gates open at 7:00 am with race start scheduled for 4:00 pm.

The company also confirmed that it will display its FFZER01 concept in the eVillage Fan Zone during the race weekend. 
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If you needed more proof that Tesla hopes to use three horizontal lines to advertise the Model 3 – even after the company sent out the official invites for unveiling – now Electrek learned that the automaker officially submitted an application for the trademark in the “Automobiles and structural parts” class.

Tesla filed the application last week and it is now under review. The automaker describes the mark in its application:

“The mark consists of three equal length horizontal stylized lines in the manner of a horizontal stylized roman numeral III.”

The company makes no reference to the mark being identical to the “E” in Tesla’s logo.
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Your favorite Tesla hacker Jason Hughes is still tinkering with his car after the recent “P100D” revelation and now claims that he managed to find a hidden air suspension setting to make the Model S even closer to the ground.

Hughes posted the picture of his Model S seen above with the new lower air suspension setting and shared a video of the car going from the “low” to the new “very low” – video embedded below.
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The list of people having priority on the Tesla Model 3 reservation queue keeps growing. After Tesla employees, Electrek learned from sources that SpaceX employees can now also reserve Tesla’s upcoming third generation vehicle set to be unveiled on March 31st. Like for most Tesla employees, it appears most SpaceX employees reserving the vehicle are doing so sight unseen.

Beside showing more synergy between Elon Musk’s two companies, it also adds up to now 3 groups of people having priority on the Tesla Model 3 reservation queue: Tesla employees, Tesla owners and SpaceX employees.
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This week at the New York Auto Show, 3 long years after the Outlander PHEV’s international launch, Mitsubishi finally debuted its flagship plug-in hybrid SUV in the US, where its launch is now set for this fall.

The first US version and 2017 model will look very similar to the previous international version – you can see a new gallery below.
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Earlier this week, we reported on Tesla sales representatives warning potential customers of an approaching price increase for the Model S as soon as next month. Now Tesla officially commented on the situation confirming “price changes” for its flagship sedan in “early April”.

Tesla is now talking about “price changes” instead of an increase, but Tesla sales representatives were specifically referring to an increase earlier in the week, though without specifying an amount or percentage.
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One of the most eye-catching elements of Toyota’s new Prius Prime may not be its Tesla-inspired center touchscreen, but a slightly concave rear window that channels air over the spoiler and was unnoticed during our first look.

Dyson, a British technology company best known for designing and manufacturing vacuum cleaners, is reportedly building an electric car following investments in solid state batteries. Last year, we reported on the company acquiring Michigan-based solid-state battery startup Sakti3 for $90 million and announced plans to build an important $1 billion battery factory to mass produce the next generation battery technology.
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Audi’s electric-mobility chief Stefan Niemand had surprising words of appreciation for Tesla at the recent Technical Congress of Germany’s automotive industry organization (VDA) (via EETimes). Niemand commented:

“I hate to admit it, but Tesla did everything right”

The executive was especially praising Tesla’s EV infrastructure strategy: the Supercharger network. He also made the comment not long after the first Tesla Model X in Europe was spotted near Audi’s headquarters.
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In just the past few weeks, Tesla lost 2 Vice-Presidents. Last week, we reported on Tesla’s Vice President of Global Communications Ricardo Reyes leaving the company, and now we learn that the automaker’s VP of Finance and Worldwide Controller is leaving to return to Amazon as VP of Finance.

Michael Zanoni joined Tesla from Amazon in 2014.
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Car review magazine Motortrend confirmed having tested the Tesla Model X P90D with the Ludicrous battery upgrade this week. Although the publication has yet to share its full review of the vehicle, it already released its early acceleration test results, which are in line with Tesla’s, making the Model X the quickest production SUV ever made.
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The Tesla Model 3 is expected to be a popular vehicle for businesses and leasing companies due to potential gas and maintenance savings, but with what is expected to be a competitive reservation process, some companies are using ingenious methods to try to get ahead of the pack with early reservations.

Netherlands-based electric car leasing company MisterGreen, in partnership with energy firm NLE, organized a system to enlist customers to reserve 1,000 Tesla Model 3’s.
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