Last week we reported on GM CEO Mary Barra announcing that the company’s European brand Opel will launch a version of the all-electric Bolt in Europe. Now we learn through a report from a German magazine (via Auto News) that the European version of the Bolt, the Opel Ampera-e, will be built alongside the Bolt in the US.
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Tesla announced today a special limited time offer to get a zero-interest loan for the higher-end versions of the Model S in China. The automaker is making the offer in partnership with the China Merchants Bank and is calling it a “New Year gift” since it coincides with the Chinese New Year, which started last week.
Other than on display cars and loaners, Tesla rarely offers special discounts on its vehicles, but yet it’s the second time that Chinese customers have received a special offer from the automaker. In December last year, Tesla offered a special discount of up to 80,000 Yuan ($12,500 US) with trade-ins for a limited time.
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Tesla and Panasonic have undoubtedly the biggest and most widely publicized li-ion battery production project in the Gigafactory in Nevada, but it’s far from the only project aiming to increase global supply of this important component for many industries, including the EV industry.
As we often discussed, Tesla is already producing battery packs at the Gigafactory, but that’s only the beginning. In October 2015, the company moved the Tesla Energy production line from its Fremont factory to the ‘Gigafactory 1‘ project in Nevada. Tesla has since been ramping up for volume production to start in early 2016.
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During the conference call discussing Tesla’s fourth quarter financial results last week, CEO Elon Musk called the Northeast region of the US an “under-penetrated” market for the company. It could be attributed to a less important retail presence in the region, but also to a negative perception of electric vehicle performance in winter conditions.
Tesla has been trying to change these perceptions by highlighting the Model S’ impressive winter driving performance with a series of videos and customer testimonies over the past few weeks and months.
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The maker of the popular red toy wagon, Radio Flyer, announced today a “Model S for Kids” in partnership with Tesla Motors. The toy ride-on car uses li-ion batteries and has reportedly been developed in collaboration with the automaker.
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As Tesla is planning for significantly higher volume products in the near future, the Model 3 and Tesla Energy products, the company is implementing a new custom end-to-end workflow system across the organization with a focus on “product platform, engineering and manufacturing efficiency, small teams and IT”, according to a presentation by Tesla Director of Engineering Applications Paul Lomangino obtained by Electrek.
The new system is called ‘Tesla 3DX’ and is based on the 3DExperience platform by the French software maker Dassault Systemes.
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It’s not everyday that you see a large 4-door sedan drag racing against a luxury SUV, but when it comes to Tesla and all-electric vehicles, all rules are out. In its latest video, Drag Times is drag racing his 2016 Tesla Model X P90D against a 2015 Tesla Model S P90D, both with Ludicrous mode.
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After Tesla CEO Elon Musk exercised over $100 million worth of options on two separate occasions ahead of the earnings last week, now it’s Chief Technology Officer and co-founder JB Straubel’s turn to exercise some options and increase his stake in the automaker.
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It’s rare for Tesla to disclose its sales per market, but it looks like they couldn’t resist the opportunity to highlight the Model S’ market performance in the U.S. during the earnings this week. The company confirmed 25,202 Model S sales in the U.S. in 2015, which gave the company a 25% market share, while every single other large luxury sedan has seen its sales decrease during the same period.
It gave me the idea to look into the midsize luxury segment in the US, which is the segment the upcoming Model 3 is expected to compete in, and see what it would look like if the vehicle was to do as well as the Model S did in the large luxury segment.
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The BMW i8 is arguably not a great electric vehicle since it’s quite frankly barely electric, but in my opinion it is a beautiful car and the German automaker often uses it to unveil new design features and to show case some interesting technology. Considering BMW is quite committed to all-electric vehicles with a new i3 battery pack coming and a rumored all-electric SUV, I like to keep up with what they are unveiling, and today we learn of a new special edition “Protonic Red” BMW i8 to be unveiled in Geneva.
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The Guardian spotted a slew of new job listings for Google’s self-driving car project, ranging from a marketing manager to manufacturing process engineers. In all, the company has advertised 36 jobs in the autonomous car division – though none of them are for (non-) drivers …
Tesla released an interesting albeit short video of its giant robots installing a Falcon Wing door on the Model X assembly line in Fremont, California.
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GM Chairman & CEO Mary Barra announced this week that the company’s European brand Opel will launch a version of the all-electric Bolt. The new vehicle will be called ‘Ampera-e’, keeping up with the automaker’s naming scheme since the Volt is called the Ampera in Europe.
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk finally released more details about the reservations process for the upcoming Model 3 launch and it gives us an interesting opportunity to discuss the implications of the vehicle’s introduction on Tesla’s limit for the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles.
We’ve heard some discussion in EV industry about the implications of GM advertising the Bolt’s pricing as “$30,000 after incentives” and in contrast, Tesla is talking about the Model 3’s starting price as being “$35,000 before incentives”.
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During the conference call discussing Tesla’s fourth quarter financial results yesterday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was quite vague about the Model X’s current production ramp, but he did confirm that the vehicle should reach its full production rate of 1,000 units per week during the second quarter in just a few months.
When asked about the current production rate and how the company plans to get to 1,000 units per week, Musk refused to comment but he added:
“Unless people actually understand how production works, they reach incorrect conclusions. We stick to what our projections are, and leave it at that.”
Never one to let a 2am opportunity to inform his fans of the upcoming Model 3 launch details, Tesla CEO Elon Musk again took to Twitter last night to shed some light on the finer points of the March 31st Model 3 unveiling and signups…
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The Ontario Government announced this week an update to its incentive program to promote electric vehicles. Premier Kathleen Wynne made the announcement yesterday at WaterPark Place in Toronto.
The initiative builds on the province’s program first launched in 2010 and increases the range of incentives from $5,000 – $8,500 to $6,000 – $10,000 per vehicle, but not without a few exceptions.
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As Tesla’s management was starting the conference call to discuss the company’s fourth quarter financial results today, the company released a new SEC filing confirming that CEO Elon Musk exercised another $108 million worth of options just a few weeks after exercising over $100 million.
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As part of its shareholder letter posted ahead of its earnings call today, Tesla demonstrated its catastrophic affect on the US luxury car market with a simple table. If you start at the bottom, the market is at about 100,000 cars a year and it’s basically unchanged from 2014 to 2015.
The market is for “large luxury” cars and includes not only the Model S but Audi’s A7 and A8, BMW’s 6 and 7 series, the Jaguar XJ, Lexus LS Mercedes CLS and S Class and the Porsche Panamera. Each of these models has fallen in sales from almost 5%-over 15% from 2014-2015. Where did these sales go?
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Fan rendering of the Model 3
Tesla announced this evening that the Model 3 will be unveiled on March 31. No further details about the event were provided, but the company did reiterate that the mass market car is “on schedule for production & deliveries in late 2017.”
Tesla also mentioned, in its letter to shareholders, that installation of Model 3 production machinery will begin this year.
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Tesla is set to release its fourth quarter 2015 financial results today at market close. Management will hold a conference call with Q&A at 2:30pm Pacific Time (5:30pm Eastern Time). You can join on the call through Tesla’s website and join us below the break for live updates:
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Tesla updated its service plan and extended warranty options with now 3, 4 and 8 years plans.
Consumer Reports has been testing Tesla’s latest ‘Autopilot’ update (v7.1) since its unveiling last month and especially the new feature called ‘Summon’, which allows Tesla owners to remotely move their vehicle without anyone in it.
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Tesla has never hidden the fact that the Model 3 and especially its $35,000 projected starting price are closely linked to the Gigafactory, which aims to reduce battery costs by more than 30%.
The automaker expects to achieve such a significant cost reduction through economy of scale with a factory output greater than the total world production of li-ion batteries in 2014 – when Tesla announced the project.
Beside economies of scale and incremental technology improvements, Tesla is likely to benefit from the recent decrease in cost of several metals used in the manufacture of li-ion battery cells.
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