Just a Tesla charging at at an Autolib in Paris
Tesla CTO JB Straubel: “I really love batteries. I might love batteries more than cars.”
“We are an energy innovation company as much as a car company.”
Tesla CEO JB Straubel gave a pretty interesting talk this week at the annual Energy Storage Symposium put on by Joint Venture Silicon Valley. Some people are wondering if Tesla should be a battery company that makes cars as a side project. CTO JB Straubel will certainly fan those flames with the comment he made at the beginning of his presentation, “I really love batteries. I might love batteries more than cars.”
Tesla is obviously planning its game changing Gigafactory project which, when online, will supply as much battery technology by itself as the world currently produces now. Seperately Reuters reported this week that Panasonic wants to be the primary, if not only builder of batteries in Tesla’s factory. Some other interesting notes and quotes from the talk:
- “Tesla wasn’t founded to make cars. We have enough cars. We have *too many* cars. Tesla was founded to change the game in energy.”
- “We should be thinking bigger. We’re still thinking too small. The opportunity is enormous.”
- “Lithium-ion changed the game” in range, energy density and cycle life. That was the catalyzing event that launched Tesla.”
- In 2003, no one was doing lithium-ion batteries for consumer cars,” and now, “almost every automaker has a lithium-ion” vehicle in their roadmap. He called the improvements in battery technology over the last ten years “amazing.”
- “The Roadster was the biggest battery pack in a vehicle and people were terrified by a 50-kilowatt-hour battery pack. Now, that seems like old technology; it has improved a lot since then.” He noted that in the five years between the launch of the Roadster and the Model S, battery performance had improved by 40 percent. He said that battery energy density has doubled over the last ten years and that the curve is not starting to plateau.
- “The roadmap for Tesla has always been EVs for the mass market. We weren’t founded to make sports cars; we were founded to drive a revolution,” adding, “You have to sell millions of cars to move the needle.”
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“Maybe this whole group is not thinking in large enough scale for the market size of energy storage.” Straubel said that it doesn’t require “too much napkin math” to see how 500,000 Gen 3 vehicles per year from the existing Fremont factory will start adding up to gigawatt-hours of battery requirements. Tesla expects to use almost 10 percent of global lithium-ion battery capacity today with its 3 or 4 gigawatt-hours of consumption. Tesla’s expected volumes by 2020 “break the model for lithium-ion capacity,” said the CTO.
There is much more here, definitely worth a read and I will try to get the video up as soon a s possible.
Elon Musk gives his background to Chinese media [video]
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTWTAUBmc6k]
If you follow Musk, there won’t be much new here but hopefully Chinese viewers will get a background for the man intent on killing Internal combustion engines.
Best Tesla License Plates [Gallery]
I’m just accumulating some of the better ones I find here. Please let me know if you have better ones or I’ve taken any without attribution.
Europe’s future Superchargers mapped (apologies to E. Europe, Ireland and Spain)
Tesla updated its European Supercharger maps for the Winter 2014-2015 and it clearly divides the continent into the haves and have not with the far western countries of Ireland and Spain/Portugal getting almost no love from the electric car company. Also if you were port of the Soviet Union, the chances of you having a Supercharger nearby are pretty low.
This is only a year out and likely coincides with Tesla’s European rollout plans. Hope you Europeans didn’t have any vacations in the extremities mapped out for winter.
Oh, and it appears Australia might get a few stations of their own.
Australian Supercharger network has been confirmed by Tesla enabling free road trips! + @evcricket
— Mat Peterson 🐀 (@heosat) May 20, 2014
At what point is it cheaper to make payments on an electric car than to keep using an inefficient, decade-old ICE vehicle?
Nice little Blurb from the WSJ this morning titled ‘Why Electric Vehicles Will Rule the Road’:
I believe EVs are our future. But we also need short-term solutions to move us toward that future. Right now the average vehicle on U.S. roads is over 11 years old, and a 20 year-old car produces over 30 times the smog pollution of a late-model automobile. Between the auto fleet’s overall greenhouse gas impacts (17% of all U.S. emissions), its health impacts ($5.3 billion per year in California alone), and the strain that high gas prices put on our wallets (frequently over a third of household budgets in car-dependent regions), it’s clearer than ever that we need change fast.
I believe economics alone will eventually lead us toward an all-EV society (Combustion will still be used for things like driving to the South Pole or thru the Amazon perhaps). But getting us to that point and countering the Billions in oil company money will be difficult and is indeed why we’re probably not all using EVs right now.
So what needs to happen?
- Government needs to get involved. The DOT should install fast chargers at all US rest stops and service plazas. Gas Stations should start selling fast charges for a profit.
- People should be educated that driving a mile on electricity costs about a third of gas. Incentives to drive down the up front costs of EV ownership need to be invested in.
- Perhaps up the Fed Tax credit $10,000 and make $10,000 no interest loan over 4 years a standard. At that point, some cars start to become cheaper than the price of gasoline alone.
That’s the real inflection point.
Formula E: The future of urban motorsport
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfR0Sv3WLJc&feature=youtu.be]
Tesla Model S US ship times just slipped 3 months
If you are looking to get a Model S this summer in the US, terrible news awaits you at the Tesla Model S Studio website. A few days ago, you could order a Model S and get it a month later in the US. As of today, you have to wait until September or in the case of the P85, “late August”.
Why the big push back?
A huge fleet order? China blowing up? Right hand driving cars are now coming off the assembly line for UK and Japan?
No word yet but we’ll let you know when we find out.
Tesla is now biggest auto employer in the biggest state in the US
Bloomberg notes that Tesla has surpassed Toyota to lead the state in employing autoworkers.
Tesla now employs more than 6,000 people in the state, the automaker said, offering the first public snapshot of its workforce this year. That moves the fast-growing company well ahead of Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s biggest automaker, which has 5,300 direct employees in California — a count set to fall after the Japan-based company said it will move a majority of those jobs to Texas by 2017. Tesla will add at least 500 more workers by year’s end in California, Simon Sproule, a spokesman, said in an interview.
Tip of the iceberg.
Tesla posts sizzle reel from World Energy Innovation Forum held this week at Fremont plant
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkm00ZffzNM]
Created for the 2014 World Energy Innovation Forum, this short video showcases all things Tesla in just under two minutes.
2014 Tesla Model S vs 2014 Mercedes-Benz S550! – Head 2 Head
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z87U8qVxNio]
Can’t win ’em all. Also, f luxury
The Oatmeal does a great cartoon review of the Model S then asks Elon Musk for $8M to build Tesla Museum (Update: Musk pledges)
I’ve long been a fan of the Oatmeal and Matthew Inman’s review of the Model S or “I’m in space Motherfucker” as he calls it, doesn’t disappoint.
If you click next at the bottom however, the cartoon turns a bit more serious. The TL;DR is that Inman is asking Elon Musk for $8M so he can create a Tesla Museum.
Inman mentions that Telsa Motors is using the inventor’s name and AC induction engine invention after all.
I’ll admit, I’m hoping a creative/inventive solution can be found. Perhaps Tesla Motors can sponsor the museum and throw in a Supercharger/Showroom on the premises to justify the cost. $8M in the grand scheme of things doesn’t seem to be that much, especially when offset by the positive publicity.
Update: And just like that, it is on:
@Oatmeal I would be happy to help
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 14, 2014
As Jay Yarrow points out, Google CEO Larry Page, who is a friend/admirer of Musk and probably a bigger fan of Tesla could also chip in a few bucks.
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Turning the road into a solar power source
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNMFKKyFU60]
To me this idea makes so much sense but I’m surprised no big companies have picked it up yet. Turn the roadways into a grid.
The devil is as always in the details.
Cross Country Tesla Model S rallies are also happening in France
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2bC-S-QU0E]
Sans Superchargers!
TSLA earnings preview
Tesla earnings are in less than an hour and analysts are all over the place. Here’s Bloomberg:
The youngest publicly held U.S. carmaker, led by Elon Musk, today may post earnings of 7 cents a share, excluding some items, according to the average of 10 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. A year ago Tesla earned 12 cents a share on the same basis, its first ever profit, buoyed by a surge in California zero-emission vehicle credit sales and savings from the early repayment of a federal loan. Analysts project a loss on a GAAP basis.
CEO Elon Musk to speak at the World Energy Innovation Forum at the Tesla Factory in Fremont CA
Demographics of Tesla Model S owners [Video]
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jyIIYM63F8]
It doesn’t look like Tesla’s mass market sedan will be called the ‘Model E’
Too bad too. I was looking to have [Models] S E X in my garage.
Can anyone think of a better name?
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Tesla expands Superchargers throughout Europe and opens first in Asia (w/ new Asia Map)
A lot of fun stuff happening this summer for global Tesla owners. As a few more stations open up on East Coast of the US (including Albany finally and the “gateway to E. Canada”), Central Europe is turning into one big drivable area with new Superchargers opening up in Vienna, Austria & Irxleben, Germany.
Meanwhile, China is now on the Tesla Supercharger Map with the first two stations opening up near Shanghai and a coming soon map that rivals Europe’s (below).
Tesla Model S gets rear-ended by a tractor-trailer on the highway, 3rd row area stays intact
For those of us who put our kids in the third row jump seats, it is always interesting to see how the rear area of the Model S holds up during a crash on the highway, particularly with huge Semis. On the Tesla Motors Forums, user Nathan, who doesn’t have the third row seats and therefore doesn’t have the double reinforced bumper, still got away with relatively little damage done to the car.
It is uncertain if the exact speed differential at the time of impact but the car was thrown 100 feet off the highway yet the driver was still able to drive it home.
As for the 3rd row occupant area, it looks to have retained its structural integrity even though some glass might have fallen into the area. Good to know!
Commentary from Nathan follows:
Tesla Model S Battery fires caused by impact to leading edge of battery packs, not from underneath
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHdxakaGrkw&feature=youtu.be]
This is the first time I’ve heard that the fires were caused by impact to the front of the batteries, not from underneath. Tesla’s explanations and the NHTSA both failed to mention that but if you look a the corrective action, it is clear that’s what’s meant to be fixed.
Tesla announces 2014 Annual Stockholder Meeting and Public Webcast Tuesday, June 3, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. PDT at the Computer History Museum
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3AcKTmaoE8]
Tesla today announced its 2014 annual stockholder meeting and webcast set for Tuesday, June 3, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. PDT at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.
PALO ALTO, Calif., May 2, 2014 – Tesla announces details about its 2014 Annual Stockholder Meeting and Public Webcast.
Tesla stockholders as of April 10,2014 are cordially invited to attend the 2014 annual meeting of stockholders of Tesla, which will be held on Tuesday, June 3, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. PDT at the Computer History Museum, 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard, Mountain View, California 94043. The meeting will also be webcast live to the public via the Internet at teslamotors.com/2014shareholdermeeting.
Admission Requirements: Proper documentation (see below) will be required for admission to the meeting and we will be unable to accommodate anyone who was not a Tesla stockholder as of April 10, 2014. Please arrive early to allow sufficient time to check in and ensure your admission by the start of the event.
To be admitted to the meeting you will be required to present:
- Government issued photo identification (such as a driver’s license or passport)
And any one of the following:
- Proof of share ownership as of April 10, 2014 (e.g., an April 2014 brokerage statement), or
- The Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials (not applicable if your shares are held through
a broker), or- The admission ticket enclosed with a paper proxy card or that you have accessed from our stockholder voting website (not applicable if you hold through a broker).
Seating: Seating will be limited and we cannot guarantee seating for all stockholders. Seating will be on a first come, first served basis.
The 2013 meeting is posted above.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk: Tesla Superchargers to go live in Canada within 2 months
“coming soon” as of May 1st 2014
[tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/460975671603634176]
In a reply to a Tweet, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the Supercharger network would extend to Canada within 6 to 8 weeks. Until now, the fastest chargers north of the border have been Sun Country Chargers and a few ChaDaMos. According to the map above the new stations will allow driving from Windsor to Quebec City and around the Vancouver area.
