Cars

First Bill O’Reilly and now Walmart going green? It must be April 1st?

Seriously though, Walmart is debuting a new concept truck that will run largely on electricity.

On Friday, Wal-Mart unveiled its futuristic truck at the Mid-America Trucking Show, and it looks like a vehicle out of a Transformers movie. The tractor-trailer, which has taken the Internet by storm, is causing auto geeks to drool with its advanced turbine powertrain, electrified auxiliary components, leading edge aerodynamics, and more.

“When Wal-Mart began our sustainability journey, I never thought it would lead us to trucks like this,” said Doug McMillon, president and CEO at Wal-Mart.

Alas, it may never make it to market because it is ‘just an idea’. Bummer.

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My first experience driving the hair raising, breathtaking, game changing car from Tesla Motors. During high speed cornering some profanities were expressed but I’ve beeped them. I apologise in advance.

[tweet https://twitter.com/TalulahRiley/status/450404266914500608]

It appears Tesla CEO Elon Musk and family are on their 3200-mile “elec-trek” cross country with his 5 children. Actress/wife Talulah Riley tweeted the above yesterday signaling that the trip has started and included what looks like the California Desert taken from the passenger compartment of a Model S.

Ran into Elon Musk's family road trip at our family spring break at Sorrel Ranch in Moab; 3 Teslas, 5 security guards, 1 chase Suburban.

— Michael White (@mineywins) March 30, 2014

Musk had previously tweeted some specs for the trip but those tweets have been deleted so they may not be up to date info.

Just finalized the LA to NY family road trip route in Model S. 6 day, 3200 mile journey with only 9 hrs spent charging.—
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 05, 2013

At 1.5 hrs/day, we will only ever need to charge when stopping anyway to eat or sightsee, never just for charging itself—
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 05, 2013

I wonder if Musk has the special 400 Mile battery in his car?

Update: It would appear that Musk and family are further along than thought?

Just stayed at the Rocket (yes!) Motel near Mt Rushmore. Sudden blizzard making road trip tricky pic.twitter.com/TRIPC7dKwK

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 31, 2014

Now having breakfast at … pic.twitter.com/8tGI3L0iGg

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 31, 2014

Update 2: It looks like Musk&Fam might have taken an even more posh ride to South Dakota. Musk’s Jet flew from LA to South Dakota yesterday:

Update 3: Tesla did confirm to me that Musk is indeed on his roadtrip. A spokesperson told me:

While we can confirm Elon is on his road trip, I cannot give any details about the journey, his timeline, or location. You may feel free to gather information from his personal twitter feed.

[tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/444542383099637760]

The same outlet (Bloomberg)that brought you the story about Graphite pollution from China is now reporting that the Automaker will rely on “locally sourced” raw materials to fuel its Gigafactory plant.

Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA), the electric vehicle maker co-founded by Elon Musk, plans to use only raw materials sourced in North America for its proposed $5 billion U.S. battery factory.

The Silicon Valley company won’t look overseas for the graphite, cobalt and other materials needed for its so-called Gigafactory, said Liz Jarvis-Shean, a spokeswoman.

“It will enable us to establish a supply chain that is local and focused on minimizing environmental impact while significantly reducing battery cost,” she said in an e-mail.

There are a lot of smaller materials that could be sourced internationally (like rare earths from China for instance) but the bulk of the materials can easily be found in N. America including Litium from a working mine in NEvada and another deposit in Wyoming.

During this evening’s 60 Minutes interview, anchor Scott Pelley asked Musk why his wife’s Tesla couldn’t get more than a 230 mile range. Musk replied that they could produce a battery that went 400 miles but it would cost too much to ship.

If you are saying to yourself, “I imagine a few people would be willing to pay for that”, you aren’t alone.

I’d heard this independently a few months back but I also heard that the ~110KWh battery would be an option for the Model X in 2015 or 2016. I’d also head that this new generation of batteries would be able to charge at a much faster rate with peak charging nearly double of the current Supercharger rates.

Tesla’s CTO JB Straubel said as much in an MIT Technology Review interview last year noting:

“It’s not going to happen in a year from now. It’s going to be hard. But I think we can get down to five to 10 minutes,” Straubel said in an interview with MIT Technology Review. He noted that the current superchargers, which deliver 120 kilowatts of electricity, “seemed pretty crazy even 10 years ago.” Conventional public charging stations deliver well under 10 kilowatts.

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Overall, not much new in this collection of videos and story by CBS’s 60 Minutes. If you follow this blog you’ve likely have heard all of this before….except maybe this bit.

I’m not seeing much new in the preview but will be good to see the Tesla story in front of a national audience.

Tesla Motors, which Musk tells Pelley he “didn’t really think would be successful,” is on a good roll currently. Its Model S was highly acclaimed and is selling, but for around $100,000 a pop. Investors hope he can come up with a more economical model for the company to really break out. For the visionary Musk, though, it’s more about changing the game by reducing greenhouse gases burned in fossil fuels. He envisions solar-powered recharging stations for his electric cars someday. “So you can drive for free, forever, on pure sunlight. That’s…the message we’re trying to convey. So even if…there’s a zombie apocalypse and the grid breaks down, you’ll still be able to recharge your car,” he says.

As it did just yesterday in Ohio and looks to be aiming for in New Jersey, Tesla compromised with the Car Dealer Association in New York and agreed to freeze its dealership expansion in the state at 5.

Under the agreement, Tesla Motors will maintain their five currently licensed retail locations in New York State. Additional Tesla retail locations will be established under a strengthened dealer franchise law. Legislation to implement the agreement will be introduced with the support of leadership in the Senate and Assembly.

Diarmuid O’Connell, Vice President, Corporate Development, Tesla Motors, said, “We’d like to thank Governor Cuomo for his leadership in architecting an agreement whereby Tesla will be able to continue to sell vehicles in its five retail stores in New York State. Under the Governor’s leadership, Tesla, the New York franchise dealers and other interested parties were able to engage in a productive dialogue which resulted in a compromise that protects franchise dealers’ existing business while allowing Tesla to continue to pursue its mission of catalyzing the market for sustainable transportation. We also appreciate that many members of the Legislature were open to our message and supported a constructive solution. In particular, we are grateful for the support of Assemblyman David Buchwald, who represents a district in which three Tesla facilities are located. Tesla looks forward to a future in which it can continue to create jobs and invest in New York’s economy while accelerating the transition to sustainable transportation.”

Full press release follows:
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Fun times. New Jersey is working on a compromise as

Tesla Motors will have at least 15 more days to sell its electric cars in New Jersey and legislation is in the works that may let the automaker sell directly to consumers for much longer. Tesla has been selling cars at its two company-owned stores in the state for 18 months. But the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission voted on March 11 to enforce an existing law that bans direct auto sales. Every other automaker sell only through independently-owned dealerships. Dealership associations across the country have been fighting to block Tesla’s direct sales. They argue that dealers offer car buyers competitive pricing and consumer protections…
The ban on Tesla sales was due to take effect April 1, but this week the state extended that deadline to April 15, according to Jim Appleton, president of the New Jersey dealer’s trade group. Appleton said dealers would support an even longer extension to keep Teslas on sale while the state legislature works on a compromise. But Appleton cautioned that dealers would not support Tesla being able to sell directly to consumers forever. “There needs to be a pathway for them to come into compliance with franchise laws,” he said.

Meanwhile, across the Hudson, the New York Times OpEds that Car Dealers should leave Tesla alone, and that it is a desperate and unfair way to try to defeat the upstart electric automaker.

The dealers’ associations say the laws against direct sales encourage price competition among dealers for a particular brand of car. While dealers do compete with each other, consumers can end up paying more when they buy through middlemen than directly from producers.

The fight with Tesla is not really about this niche company, which expects to sell just 35,000 cars this year. The dealers are afraid that if Tesla is allowed to sell directly to consumers, General Motors, Ford and other carmakers might be emboldened to do so as well.

Lawmakers should not be telling Tesla how it should sell its cars, especially since the company is not displacing existing dealers. There’s no reason to believe that independent dealerships would be better able to sell or service Tesla cars than the maker itself. Instead of fighting Tesla, dealers should be improving customer service.

I knew it. Immediately after Tesla offered up its triple underbody protection, the NHTSA closed the investigation into the Fires. CNBC:

“A defect trend has not been identified,” the regulator said on its website.  “The closing of the investigation does not constitute a finding by NHTSA that a safety-related defect does not exist.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement that Tesla was after, though it does seem to close the matter. Full statement below:
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Watch a trailer hitch, concrete block and alternator hit the new shield, above

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the technologist that he is, took to Medium with some animated GIFs today to announce that the company would now be offering triple protection to Model S buyers in the form of underbody plates and as a free add on to current owners. You’ll recall that the two overly highly-publicized fires involved puncturing of the battery protective plates.

…we felt it was important to bring this risk down to virtually zero to give Model S owners complete peace of mind. Starting with vehicle bodies manufactured as of March 6, all cars have been outfitted with a triple underbody shield. Tesla service will also retrofit the shields, free of charge, to existing cars upon request or as part of a normally scheduled service.

The shields is pretty impressive and sounds like something you’d see on the Space Shuttle:

The first of the three shields is a rounded, hollow aluminum bar that is designed to either deflect objects entirely or, in the case of a self-stabilizing, ultra high strength object, like a three ball steel tow hitch, absorb the impact and force it to pike upwards well forward of the battery pack. This pierces the plastic aeroshield and front trunk liner, but causes no damage affecting safety and the car remains in control and driveable before, during and after the impact.

This is followed by a titanium plate, which has exceptional strength-to-weight properties and is more commonly seen in aerospace or military applications. The titanium plate prevents sensitive front underbody components from being damaged and aids in neutralizing the road debris.

By this point, the vast majority of objects will have been deflected or crushed. For the rare piece of debris that remains intact, we added a third shield, which is a shallow angle, solid aluminum extrusion that further absorbs impact energy, provides another layer of deflection and finally causes the Model S to ramp up and over the object if it is essentially incompressible and immovable.

As Musk states, this is purely voluntary and not required by any regulations. The cost is Tesla’s to bear.

It might also help the NHTSA clear those fires however.

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Car and Driver says what I’ve been saying for ‘years’: The Chevy Spark EV, even though it was devised to meet California legislation, is the best small to mid-tier EV on the road. As I’ve said before, it has more torque than a Ferrari, can be fast charged in 20 minutes and still has the best EPA ratings in the country with 120 miles per “eGallon” of Electricity.

It also has a sub-$20,000 (incl. Fed Tax Cred) price tag.

The downsides? Well, it has a certain look to it and it isn’t at all roomy. The biggest bummer however is that it is only being sold in California and Oregon currently. That doesn’t mean you can’t call a dealer up and have one shipped. I’ve priced it out and it can be done for under $1000.  Here’s another Spark EV review from CNN.

Tesla recently made some changes to its Model X Crossover order page. The electric automaker capped its Model X Performance sales in the US (still available as of this writing in Europe) and also eliminated the Model X 2WD version.

What’s left is the Model X performance and Model X AWD both of which need a $5000 deposit. As of now Tesla expects to deliver the first Model X’s in late 2014 but those ordered now won’t get delivered until 2015.

From the AP:

The agreement with the Ohio Automobile Dealers Association was negotiated on Tuesday and approved by a Senate panel.

The bill allows Tesla to keep its existing stores in the Columbus and Cincinnati areas, and allows a third to open in Cleveland. It prohibits the company from opening any other stores.

The bill allows no other automaker to operate manufacturer-owned stores in the state.

Tesla, fresh off of getting booted from New Jersey, must have thought its chances were pretty good of getting booted from Ohio. The company comprised with legislation which will allow it to keep its Columbus and Cincinnati stores open as well as continue to open a planned store in Cleveland. After that, Tesla must cease opening stores in the state and no other manufacturers may open storefronts in the state.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaOfgevPphk]

If 4 seconds is way too long to wait to get to 100km/h, Porche has a solution for you. The 918 Spyder uses a 4.6 Liter V8 and two smaller Electric engines to push speed to the edge.  Some fun facts:

• 0 to 62 MPH in 2.5 seconds
• 0 to 124 MPH in 7.2 seconds
• 0 to 186 MPH in 19.9 seconds
• 4.6-Liter V8 Puts Out 599 HP
• Total Power From Engine and 2 Electric Motors is 875 HP at 8,500 RPM

Unfortunately, most people don’t know about the cost savings of electric vehicles. In the US, it generally costs about a third of the price to go a mile in an electric car as a gasoline car. That’s before things like charging at work (for free), using superchargers (for free) and the associated costs of gas cars (Oil changes, coolant, tune-ups etc.).  Rates vary from state to state and when you go internationally, things get even more skewed. On one end of the spectrum, you have places like Saudi Arabia which prices Gas so low it is on par with electricity. On the other end, you have places like Norway where it becomes almost 10 times cheaper to go a mile on electric.

That difference is called ‘the wedge’ and here’s an informative article by Lindsay Wilson on just how different each place is.

In almost all countries it is cheaper to power an electric vehicle than fuel a gasoline car.  The cost gap between these two fueling options is what I like to call the EV Wedge .  In some countries this wedge is so damn big that EV drivers can’t sit straight for all the cash in their wallet.

Nowhere is ‘the Wedge’ as pronounced as it is when you compare a Tesla Model S with something like a sub 20mpg Mercedes S550

No wonder Teslas are so popular in Norway.

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Bloomberg:

“Direct sales to consumers, especially with the Internet now becoming the go-to vehicle for purchasing, are very important,” Jack Gillis of the Washington-based Consumer Federation of America and author of “The Car Book,” a consumer guide to buying, said in a telephone interview.

Gillis of the Consumer Federation questions who is the fox and who the prey.

“We walk into a dealership, and we have to match wits with a seasoned professional who is trained and spends all of their days trying to get the highest possible price,” he said. The market would keep manufacturers from overpricing and force them to provide service, he said

And:

Restrictions on direct sales took hold in the 1930s as the industry matured, with a combination of company-owned stores and franchise dealers, said David Cole, chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Laws were enacted to protect dealers because carmakers could strip franchises from established dealers and give them to new ones without grounds, Cole said by phone.

You’ve got to love this from AP:

Electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors would be allowed to sell cars in Arizona without establishing a dealer network under a bill approved by a state Senate committee Wednesday.

House Bill 2123 is strongly opposed by traditional auto manufacturers and dealers, who argue that Tesla wants to operate outside the normal rules that require manufacturers to sell cars through dealers. They say allowing sales directly from an automaker could leave consumers in the lurch if the company goes belly-up.

“Tesla is asking for a special exemption for them to have a separate set of rules for their electric cars,” Mike Gardner, a lobbyist for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, told the Senate Commerce, Energy and Military Committee. “What we’re opposed to is allowing one of our competitors to go around the dealer network and sell directly to consumers. We think we should all be treated the same.”

But Rep. Warren Petersen, the bill’s sponsor, said dealers and manufacturers are trying to stifle innovation.

“This is a great opportunity for us to send a message that we welcome business and we welcome Tesla here to Arizona,” said Petersen, R-Gilbert. “We shouldn’t deny our consumers from being able to purchase a product if they want.”

What say you Texas?

Passing the buck, a great presidential quality.

Meanwhile, the Verge grabbed some comments from car dealers from New Jersey:

“This Musk guy, he wants all the profits for himself,” said Tom Dougherty, a BMW Salesman. “They wanted to go direct, which means no sales force. That’s cutting out a lot of people. No way that’s gonna fly.”

Jim Appleton, the president of the New Jersey Coalition of Automobile Retails, or NJ CAR said:

“He needs to stop and take a breath … If you’re an Internet billionaire, maybe you think the world revolves around you, and the world springs from your laptop. Well, I got news for him. This is not a new law, Tesla is operating illegally, and as of April 1st, they will be out of business unless they decide to open a franchise.”

“Mr. Musk is a brilliant man, and Tesla is an innovative company. We can all respect that,” said Appleton. “But he doesn’t get what it takes to do business in New Jersey. With all due respect, his legal opinions are about as sound as my programming abilities.”
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