Cars

Tesla is betting big on the Model 3. The company recently closed an important $1.7 billion stock offering to finance its new build plan for the vehicle and $1.26 billion will be spent on the expansion of the Fremont Factory to manufacture the car in volume. The higher than expected demand for the Model 3 pushed Tesla to accelerate its production plan which now aims to achieve a rate of 500,000 cars (S, X and 3) in 2018 – two years earlier than previously planned.

The plan has been described by experts as anything from ambitious to impossible, but a new report by Cairn ERA, a global research and consulting firm specializing in energy storage, gives an interesting new perspective on Tesla’s production plan based on the recent rise of Chinese automakers.
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Update: Tesla sent us a statement regarding the tests discussed in this article. You can see it in full below.

The Tesla Autopilot program can be confusing at times since it englobes a lot of different features like Traffic Aware Cruise Control (TACC), Autosteer, Autopark, Auto Emergency Braking (AEB) and others. While you can look into Tesla’s public literature on the features, like release notes and manuals, it is fairly limited.

There’s nothing better than some actual testing of the features to explore the limits of the program. A couple of Model S owners got together and did just that – though we wouldn’t necessarily recommend using their methods since jumping in front of a moving car is rarely a good idea.
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The Tesla Supercharger in Newark, Delaware, is an important charging spot for Tesla owners traveling on the east coast. It is one of Tesla’s biggest location, with 12 Supercharger stalls, and it is strategically located on I-95 between Washington and New York.

Earlier this month, someone backed into one of the stalls and damaged it. A week later, the station came offline and has been down for the past 4 days . Now with the fourth of July coming, a lot of traffic is to be expected along Tesla’s Supercharger routes and owners are starting to worry about the response time to fix any issues with the charging network.

Update: the station finally came back online around midnight last night (June 25).
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A few weeks ago, we reported on a Tesla Model X owner being quoted $2,290 before tax by his local Tesla service center for the replacement of his panoramic windshield after it was damaged by a rock. We noted that the price was much higher than the average for an SUV, which could be explained by the enormous size of the glass.

But as it turns out, the Model X’s windshield is not nearly as expensive as we thought…
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This week, The Mill, a visual effect company based in London, unveiled a new vehicle it developed in order to replace cars for commercials and other filming purposes. The vehicle called Blackbird, is described as a “the first fully adjustable car rig” and the company says that the vehicle’s electric powertrain can emulate the performance of most cars around today.
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Just a week ago, we reported that the first shipment of Model X’s has cleared customs and that the company’s stores and service centers, also sometimes referred to as “experience centers” in China, are receiving the all-electric SUV.

Now we learn that Tesla hosted a special delivery event for the first 6 Model X owners in China.
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The main difference between the top two performance versions of the Tesla Model S is simply 5 kWh of energy capacity. Tesla used to offer the Model S P85D, a performance (P) Model S with a 85 kWh battery pack (85) and dual motors (D). The vehicle’s top performance mode was called ‘Insane’.

The automaker later introduced a new version, the Model S P90D, which is the same car, but with a 90 kWh battery pack. When introducing the new pack, Tesla also introduced a new performance mode, ‘Ludicrous’, which is obviously better than ‘Insane’. 
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Earlier this week, we got to see what was likely the first Tesla Model 3 prototype testing on public roads in Palo Alto, near Tesla’s headquarters, and new we get now pictures of the vehicle with a rare look at the interior just a few days later.
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For the most part, Tesla’s Gigafactory has looked the same from the outside since the beginning of the year. The first phase consists of 4 sections of about 475,000 square feet for a total of 1.9 million square feet. The final version of the building, which should be completed by the end of the decade, is expected to have 13 million square feet of manufacturing and work space. It should be enough to become the biggest building on earth by footprint and Tesla plans for the factory to produce at least as much battery capacity as the entire world production of li-ion cells.

Now we learn that Tesla is planning to add a new section to the plant with an estimated completion date by the end of the year, according a building permit recently issued to Tesla.
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Earlier this month, we reported on how BMW is putting electric vehicles on the ‘back burner’ to focus ‘i’ brand on self-driving cars. The German automakers announced its plan for electric vehicles and it looks like we shouldn’t expect much until at least the turn of the decade.

But now hope for BMW’s EV programs comes in the form of a new report claiming that the company is currently working on an all-electric version of the BMW i8, which is only offered as a plug-in hybrid with very limited electric range at the moment.
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Students at the Academic Motorsports Club of Zurich (AMZ) in Switzerland announced that they broke the world record of electric car acceleration with a small vehicle built for the Formula SAE. The group released a video of the race car, called ‘grimsel‘,  accelerating from 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) in just 1.513 seconds.
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If you read the headlines about Tesla’s plan to acquire SolarCity, you might think that the move is universally hated. The Globe and Mail wrote “Tesla stock plummets as planned SolarCity buy puzzles everybody but Musk ” – everybody but Musk? I wouldn’t be so sure.

While everyone and their mother seem to hate on the acquisition plan, the real question is: do shareholders like it? And maybe more importantly: do institutional shareholders like it? They will be the ones deciding after all.
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Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas has been a long-time bull on Tesla Motors (TSLA). The New York Time called him the ‘Tesla Cheerleader‘, but today the analyst is out with a rare negative note on the automaker following the announcement that the company made an offer to buy SolarCity.
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Since Tesla announced its offer to buy SolarCity, which is still contingent on a vote by the shareholders, Wall Street has turned on the company with analysts issuing notes claiming that there’s little to no value in the deal. Barclays analyst Brian Johnson issued a note saying that he sees “little in the way of synergies and much in the way of cash burn.”

It’s not like Wall Street analysts have the best foresight, Johnson himself is ranked #2,713 out of 3,984 analysts on TipRank with an average return of -0.7%, but they represent the point of view of the financial sector.

As for the point of view from the actual customer offering/product side, a merger between Tesla and SolarCity will certainly open the door for some interesting product integrations and new distribution opportunities.
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Last week, we report on Daimler’s plan to transition to greener technologies over the next few years. The bulk of the plan will be the launch the 4 new all-electric cars it greenlighted for production last year under the Mercedes-Benz brand – the first of which is expected to be unveiled at the Paris Motor Show later this year.

Now we learn that Daimler is considering introducing the upcoming EVs under a new all-electric brand.
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During a conference call discussing the rationale surrounding Tesla’s (TSLA) offer to acquire SolarCity (SCTY) this morning, Elon Musk made a bold claim, something not unusual for the billionaire entrepreneur, he said that he sees potential for Tesla to become a trillion-dollar market cap company – which would be a first.
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Yesterday, Elon Musk surprised a lot of people when he announced that Tesla (TSLA) has made an offer to acquire SolarCity (SCTY). The entrepreneur is the largest individual shareholder of both companies – he owns about 21% of Tesla and 22% of SolarCity.

Some Tesla shareholders are already calling the deal a “bailout” of SolarCity, especially after Musk bought another $10 million worth of shares last year – before the stock fell 60% in 2016. The deal would allow him to convert his shares of SolarCity to Tesla shares at a favorable rate, but we now learn that the move might not be reactionary and actually long in the making.
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The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) confirmed that Faraday Future submitted an application to start testing self-driving cars in the state and that the application has been approved for public roads on June 17. The news comes just weeks after we learned that the electric vehicle startup applied for 3 licenses to test self-driving cars in Michigan. 
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Today, Tesla (TSLA) announced that it submitted an offer to acquire SolarCity (SCTY), the leading solar installer in the US. Elon Musk is the largest individual shareholder of both companies. Due to his obvious interest in the deal, which is already being called a bailout by some shareholders, Musk decided to recuse himself from the vote at both companies and leave it to Tesla and SolarCity shareholders to decide on the possible consolidation of ‘Musk Industries’.
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Tesla announced that it plans to acquire its sister company, SolarCity. Tesla CEO Elon Musk will hold a press call shortly. We will update with more information soon. Below you will find the announcement released by Tesla and Lyndon Rive’s, SolarCity’s CEO and Elon Musk’s cousin, letter to the board with the offer to buy the shares for $26.50 to $28.50 – a premium of approximately 21% to 30% over the closing price of SolarCity’s shares.
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It’s arguable but generally accepted that Tesla’s main advantage over other electric vehicle manufacturers is its pain-free network of fast-charging stations: Tesla Superchargers. Combined with Tesla’s range, the Superchargers enable real long distance driving – something painful with level 2 charging or even low DC charging (~60 kW).

Several alternatives to Tesla’s proprietary charging system are available and promise to soon deliver up to 150 kW, which can charge most vehicles in about 30 to 45 minutes. The latest system is going to come online in Switzerland this summer and will operate over 150 chargers at 100 locations by 2018.
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