Cars

According to a new report from the Reno Gazette-Journal, Tesla acquired several permits for multi-million dollar interior construction work at the Gigafactory located just outside Reno, Nevada. One of the permit is for a $10 million project of “architectural interiors”.
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Charging is still the primary concern of any new potential electric vehicle buyer. They want to know where they can charge the car and how long it takes. Now with the numerous charging standards and the difference between car models and battery pack sizes, it can be a difficult landscape to navigate. The bigger the battery pack, the longer it takes to charge, but at the same time, you can get an higher charging rate.

Netherlands-based charging station start-up Fastned is making the (safe) bet that battery packs will soon get bigger and, more importantly, they will be able to take higher charge rates.
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The Netherlands is an excellent market for electric cars, it’s not quite Norway, but when adding plug-in hybrids it’s getting close. As for all-electric vehicles, Tesla’s Model S is by far the best-selling in the country based on registration data.

Tesla confirmed last week that it delivered 11,580 vehicles worldwide from July through September and based on registration data, the Netherlands contributed to ~3.5% of the total with 409 Model S’s during the third quarter.
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BMW’s MINI brand has been expected to come out with a battery-powered vehicle for a long time now. In 2009, when BMW was first working on its “i” program, which eventually resulted in the i3 and i8, the company produced a few hundreds “MINI E” to test its electric drivetrain technology, but the vehicle never made it to a wide release.

During the Frankfurt Motor Show, Auto Express spoke with MINI’s product management chief Ralph Mahler who didn’t rule out an electric MINI, but it wouldn’t be for anytime soon…
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Tesla Motors released its delivery results today for July through September 2015 and confirmed that the company delivered 11,580 cars during the quarter. For the first time, the number includes two different models in the same quarter: Model S and Model X.

Presumably, only the 6 Model X’s delivered during the launch earlier this week are accounted for in the third quarter results, meaning Tesla delivered ~11,574 Model S’s beating its previous record of 11,532 units achieved during Q2 2015.
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SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive and Chairman Elon Musk are officially announcing a new high-efficiency solar panel today at the Inside Energy conference. During an interview at the conference, Elon Musk was talking about his other venture, Tesla Motors, and he revealed that the recent launch of the Model X caused a big uptick in orders for Tesla’s other vehicle, the Model S.
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GM CEO Mary Barra made a series of announcement today about the “future of personal mobility”, most notable of which a new plan for autonomous Chevy Volt to be available to GM employees to drive on private property next year.

A fleet of 2017 Volt equipped with GM’s self-driving technology will be made available in late 2016 for GM employees to reserve through a new car-sharing app and drive around the company’s Warren Technical Center campus in Michigan.
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Fully Charged published a very interesting video today about electric vehicles and blind people. The lack of engine noise in electric vehicles is often cited as a potential danger to pedestrians and especially the blind. Fully Charged collaborated with someone well-qualified to talk about the subject, Andre Louis, a sound engineer who happens to be blind.
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Tesla Motors is set to release by early next week the number of Model S’s delivered during the third quarter 2015. Tesla’s sales are an important metric for the short and mid-term future of electric vehicles. Like any other industry, the automotive industry is driven by profit-making.  If an automaker solely manufacturing electric vehicles, like Tesla, can show growing sales while maintaining favorable profit margins, there is no better motivator for the incumbents to accelerate their electric vehicle programs.

Lets take a quick look at Tesla’s sales so far this year:
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Fisker Automotive announced today a name change to Karma Automotive, as well as a new logo (see above). The company was named after its co-founder and famed car designer, Henrik Fisker. Fisker resigned from the company during financial difficulties in 2013. The company filed for bankruptcy soon after. Then the Wanxiang Group, a Chinese auto parts conglomerate, bought the company’s assets out of bankruptcy for $149 million. They also picked up A123, a battery maker who at the time was supplying Fisker with battery packs before both companies went under.

Wanxiang has since been trying to relaunch the company and especially its flagship electric sedan, the Karma, hence the new name of the organisation.
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One thing a lot of us were wondering as Tesla delivered the first few Model X’s yesterday is what software version would the Model X be using considering Tesla is still beta testing the upcoming v7.0 with new Autopilot features.

It turns out the Model X is running a unique update of v7.0 without the new Autopilot features: Autosteer and lane changing.

DragTimes published a quick video of the UI at the Model X launch event. You can watch the video below the break:
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Earlier this month when Audi unveiled its all-electric SUV, the quattro, some media were quick to dub it a “Tesla killer”, but now that Tesla officially launched its own SUV, I think it’s clear that it was a premature assessment. The quattro is set to have a similar range as the Model X, ~250 EPA-rated miles, but Audi is aiming at releasing the quattro in 2018, while Tesla delivered the first few units yesterday and already has between 25,000 and 30,000 reservations for the all-electric SUV.
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Tesla launched the Model X last night in Fremont. You can read our quick overview of Elon Musk’s walk-through of the vehicle here, but here’s the video of the event and a roundup of the videos shot during the press day leading up to the event.

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Some reservation holders have been waiting for over 3 years for the Model X, and now it’s finally here. Tonight Tesla launched its all-electric SUV in Fremont, California in front of a crowd of reservation holders, employees and journalists. We already knew a lot about the Model X prior to the launch – 0 to 60 mph in 3.2 secs, AWD, up to 257 miles range – but Tesla CEO Elon Musk still had a few surprises…
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