It’s difficult to get accurate delivery numbers for Tesla in the US since the company doesn’t disclose sales by market, but in California, which is Tesla’s biggest market in the US by far, we can follow state rebates for clean vehicles in order to get a good idea of Tesla’s growth in the state.
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Britain’s Car Magazine reports that Volkswagen’s BUDD-E electric vehicle has got the green light to go into production for 2020.
Volkswagen’s all-electric BUDD-e concept will make the jump into serial production, CAR understands. The VW BUDD-e concept, first seen at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), is an ultramodern take on the VW ‘Microbus’ theme, built upon Volkswagen’s upcoming MEB modular electric platform. Dr Volkmar Tanneberger, head of electronic development and the driving force behind the BUDD-e concept, told CAR magazine’s Ben Barry: ‘[The] basic idea is to develop a modular toolkit and take this flat battery idea into serial production, one motor on the front, one on the rear. The California [camper van] and Transporter [panel van and minibus line] will continue separately as combustion engines.’ ‘You will see a car that looks a lot like this, on the MEB platform, reach production. I can’t say exactly when, but 2020 or thereabouts,’ says Tanneberger.
I’ve got mixed feelings about this. On one hand, the more electric vehicle options the better and we all know that the electrical vehicle market is lacking in van options. Also, it is clear from the popularity of the amazing eSamba project that there is a huge market for electric VW Busses.
Tesla’s stock price had quite the morning. The stock opened 4% down after notorious Tesla “bull” and Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas published a negative note reducing his target price by 25%, but minutes later the stock went green and up 3% on high volume.
Overall Tesla’s stock is down 17% since the beginning of the year. With the fourth quarter financial results coming (Feb 10), let’s take a moment to talk about the stock.
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In October 2014, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill, which was initiated by the Michigan Automobile Dealers Association, to “clarify” an existing law banning automakers from owning or operating car dealerships in the state, ultimately forcing them to go through a third-party franchise model.
The new bill effectively banned Tesla from selling cars in the state due to the company’s direct sales model. Today we learn that despite the ban, Tesla applied for a dealership license in Michigan.
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We learned this weekend that the first Tesla Model X in Europe has been spotted near Munich, Germany. As Tesla is still getting through the production of the Model X for early reservation holders in America, it is surprising to see the vehicle in Europe and actually raises a few questions.
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As part of his current trip across Europe and Asia, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stopped by the automaker’s France headquarters in Chambourcy for a special event for Tesla owners. Musk delivered a quick speech thanking local owners for their support of Tesla and then stayed for a Q&A during which he shared a few new tidbits of information.
When asked about when we will get to see pictures of the Model 3, Musk answered:
“The first pictures of the Model 3 will be end of March… I am being a little coy here, we are not gonna show everything about the Model 3 until a lot closer to production time.”
An audience member asked for more details, but as it is often the case when it comes to future products, Musk refused to elaborate. In the past, the CEO said Tesla planned to start Model 3 production toward the end of 2017, while the “end of March” event has been referred to as an “unveiling”.
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Last night, Tesla held its first ‘Meet Model X’ event to let more people, especially reservation holders, have access to the vehicle. The company regularly holds similar events for the Model S, but it appears to be the first of its kind for the automaker’s new all-electric crossover.
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In a new SEC filing published after market close today, Tesla confirmed that CEO Elon Musk exercised stock options to purchase 532,000 shares of Tesla’s common stock, which is worth a little more than $100 million based on today’s closing price of $191.
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On a recent electric road trip to upstate New York, I realized that, with the cold weather, my snow tires and a car full of kids who like to be warm, I would need over 30 more miles of electricity than my batteries could hold to make it home. Hitting one of Tesla’s speedy Superchargers would require me to veer across the Hudson River twice and add over a half hour to my trip.
Along the fastest route, according to the helpful Plugshare App, there were a few Level 2 charging stations. I can get 30 miles per hour of charge from my default Tesla cable so I figured that I could get most of the extra miles I needed while we stopped for lunch. There was also a highly rated Level 2 charger within a mile of our destination we could use as a backup (it is good to have backups!). I figured we were all set…
Tesla CEO Elon Musk gave an interview to Channel 4’s Jon Snow last night during the Prince’s Trust Leadership Dinner in London. Musk said that Tesla plans to sell the upcoming Model 3 in the UK for “£30,000 or less“.
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Québec-based startup Dubuc Motors announced that it will try to raise $25 million through crowdfunding in order to build its all-electric 2+2 sports car: the Tomahawk. The company is using Start Engine to test the waters under the SEC’s new crowdfunding rules.
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Electrek has learned that Tesla this month quietly hired high-profile microprocessor engineer Jim Keller as Vice President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering. Tesla today confirmed the news and sent us the following statement:
Jim Keller is joining Tesla as Vice President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering. Jim will bring together the best internal and external hardware technologies to develop the safest, most advanced autopilot systems in the world.
Keller left chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) late last year after leading the team developing the upcoming Zen processor architecture for the past three years. Before that he had a very high-profile role at Apple…
Since Tesla launched the Model S in 2012, the automaker has been talking about releasing a software development kit (SDK) to create a full third-party app ecosystem for its 17-inch touchscreen, which acts as a center console for the Model S and X, but despite several inquiries from eager app developers, there has been little communication about the project until now.
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(Update: A Tesla Spokesperson called this report “wrong” and that only 1 of the vehicles would be announced in March. Tesla is indeed working on [at least] 2 different Model 3 platform vehicles which we reported previously. Here’s something they were able to verify.)
We’ve seen the Chevy Bolt (not just seen, driven!) so, in March, it is Tesla’s turn to unveil its $30,000 long-range electric car. We’ve had a steady stream of whispers on the Model 3 but are unable to verify much of what we’ve heard.
The biggest tidbit I’ve heard from a second-hand source is that Tesla is readying at least 2 different versions of its Model 3 for the March launch. One version is a sedan and another is a small crossover built on the same platform. I can’t verify if the crossover is the Model Y that Elon Musk mentioned in a Tweetstorm last year, but that would make some sense. We’ve heard that this vehicle will be a smaller version of the Model X with its Falcon Wing doors. Again, it will have a premium price over the Model 3 similar to the $5,000 difference between the Model X and Model S.
I decided to hold off on publishing this info until I saw Tesla’s Hong Kong presentation this week, which included two cars under wraps (pictured above). Yes, obviously, the artwork is simply a Model X and Model S under digital covers, but the fact that there are two cars to be unveiled adds a little more credence to what I’ve heard.
We broke the news in March of 2014 that the Model 3 platform would be more than just a sedan with the leaked slide presentation below which first mentions “Crossover”.
My source believes that the plan around Christmas of last year was to launch at least two vehicles or configurations at the same time, but obviously things could change. Also, Tesla could have two projects happening simultaneously to contain/isolate leaks.
Other Model 3 info follows:
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Sen. Bob Wieckowski, whose district is home to Tesla’s Fremont factory, is sponsoring a bill which include a provision to eliminate the sales tax on new cars manufactured in California for out-of-state buyers. The new provision would allow Tesla to spur what the senator refers to as “industrial tourism” and maybe even create a program similar to BMW’s popular “European delivery” option.
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The Volkswagen Group confirms this week that CEO Matthias Müller will introduce a new strategy for the company this summer and it will include plans to introduce 20 new electric vehicles through the group’s brands by the end of the decade.
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Tesla quietly updated its Canadian online design studio and appears to have discontinued several major options for the Model S in the country, namely all 85 kWh battery pack options.
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According to a new report from Nikkei, Tesla anticipates very little growth in mainland China in 2016. The news agency reports that during his current trip in Hong Kong, Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed that the company aims to deliver 5,000 cars this year after falling short on its 2015 delivery goal of 10,000 units in China.
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Today Elon Musk sat down with CNN’s Kristie Lu Stout to talk about Tesla and some of his other projects at the StartmeupHK tech forum in Hong Kong. You can watch the video in full below.
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It’s impressive how many quality amateur commercials were produced for the Tesla Model S. Maybe it’s because of Tesla’s own lack of advertising or because of the company’s arguably altruistic mission which could be inspiring amateur filmmakers, but either way we are not complaining. Keep them coming.
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A picture leaked from inside Tesla in the Netherlands, either from the Amsterdam service center or the Tilburg assembly plant, shows what could be a new vehicle and large shipment of Powerwall battery packs.
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Last night, Tesla released a new video titled “Revolutionize Your Commute”.
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Faraday Future says it started clearing up the site of its future $1 billion electric vehicle factory in North Las Vegas during the weekend. The startup needs to move quickly if it wants to deliver on its plans to bring to market its first vehicle in 2017.
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Tesla and CEO Elon Musk held a special event for Roadster and Model S owners in Hong Kong today. Musk revealed that he hopes to obtain approval to soon enable the ‘Autosteer’ feature of the company’s Autopilot system, which has been disabled in Hong Kong since November, just a few weeks after its release.
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