Cars

Not quite Top Gear so to speak.

The Race is on! Tesla will try to cross the US in less than 3 days using only Supercharger stations and set a record for an electric vehicle.

At midnight tonight, a Tesla Motors team will depart Los Angeles en route to New York City in two Model S sedans to mark the completion of the first cross country Supercharger route. We’re aiming to complete the journey within about three days and set a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS achievement for lowest charge time for an electric vehicle traveling across the United States.

We energized the final Supercharger in the cross country route last week, marking the completion of a network that spans more than 3,400 miles. There are now more than 70 Supercharger sites around the US, at which Model S owners can charge for free. A Supercharger takes as little as 20 minutes to replenish half a charge.

The Cross Country Rally team will gather tonight at the Tesla design studio in Hawthorne, Los Angeles, for a launch event, before starting the drive at 12.01am on Thursday. The trip will take the cars through mid-winter conditions across the middle of the country, with stops only at Superchargers.

We’ll be posting daily updates to our blog so you can follow the team’s progress as we attempt to set the record. Stay tuned!

If you’ve watched Who Killed the Electric Car or Revenge of the Electric Car, you know Bob Lutz as a bit of an anti-hero. That’s why we love his re-emergance as an electric car guru at Via which rebuilds gas guzzling Chevy trucks into Electric fleet vehicles.

He goes on the record with the BBC last week saying the MAGIC WORDS that will change the car industry over the next decade:

Fleets that buy these will see a monthly fuel savings that is equivalent to the monthly lease price of the truck. They are basically getting a free truck.

Think about this. This isn’t an anomaly. A Chevy Spark EV can be bought on a $200/month lease. Electricity costs about 1/4-1/3 of gas per mile. That means someone who spends $300 on gasoline per month is getting a free car if they upgrade their car to a Chevy Spark EV.  If you average $10/day or use around 3+ gallons of gasoline per day, getting a new Chevy Spark EV is ….free. EVObession makes some pretty terrific charts that visualize this.

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Spoiler: they both take one. Overall, the Tesla is faster out of the blocks but the Corvette has a higher top end. The Tesla seats 7 and gets 100miles per eGallon of gas…but costs a few bucks more.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG2-LNbNnYQ] We’re big fans of the looks of the Porsche Panamera S Hybrid (especially the interior) but were saddened to learn that the onboard battery/motor drivetrain was only good for 20 miles via the sub-100HP engine and 9.4-kWh lithium-ion battery.  That’s a lot closer to the Plug-in Prius than anything else Porsche has made.

That’s why it is amusing  to learn that the original car that Ferdinand Porsche built in 1898, which was discovered this week, actually boasts better electric car range than the current Panamera S hybrid. The specs of the Egger-Lohner C.2 electric vehicle show it has 120 amp hour battery good for around 49 miles of range with a top speed of over 20 mph. Not too shabby. That’s also further than a Chevy Volt.

If you are like me you’ve been glued to the Tesla Forums all last week where a father-daughter team Jon and Jill crossed the US in their Tesla 85KW using only superchargers.

Sunday they finished after climbing mountains in the rockies and braving subzero temperatures throughout the Great Plains. It was a pretty epic journey.

They managed a respectable 378Wh/mile but saw significant drops throughout the trip during climbs and low temperatures:

NYC to LAX=3,619.1 miles and consumed 1,366.3kWh or 378Wh/mile

Congratulations to John and Jill, first to drive across US using only free @TeslaMotors Superchargers! pic.twitter.com/hA6YlkyjzN

— PlugShare (@plugshare) January 26, 2014

CEO Elon Musk marked the occasion by declaring the Transcontinental Superhighway open via Twitter and noting that the Tesla Teams were looking to set a record Canon Ball Run type of electric car race across the country. I’d like to see this type of meetup in the middle:

Two teams from Tesla aiming to set a cross-country EV speed record this week. Departing Fri from LA, arriving Sun in NY.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2014

Will be doing the LA-NY family road trip over Spring Break. Made everyone watch National Lampoon's Vacation as prep.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2014

Tesla Supercharger network now energized from New York to LA, both coast + Texas! Approx 80% of US population covered.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 26, 2014

This won’t seem that nutty in a few years.

China is going to be big for Tesla according to CEO Elon Musk, who comes off a win in a Chinese court against a squatter who was trying to extort the automaker for its name. 

Tesla had resolved a trademark issue that had long prevented the company from using “Te Si La” – the Chinese name best known among Chinese consumers, which Tesla wanted to use in China. “We went to court and we won,” she said. “The court has given use right to use the name, which is why you see the Chinese name in our store now.” The name had been registered by a local businessman who had refused to give up the trademark. The U.S. company had started offering its popular Model S sedans in China, but with no Chinese language name.

We discussed the relatively low price earlier this week. Musk talked to Bloomberg on China:

Tesla’s billionaire co-founder and chief executive officer, will travel to China in late March to inaugurate the company’s entry there, he said in a phone interview.

For Tesla, “it could be as big as the U.S. market, maybe bigger. I don’t want to get overexcited about it,” Musk said yesterday. “Even without building there locally, it’s always going to be the second-biggest market after the U.S.”

After a rocky start ramping up Model S assembly in 2012, Palo Alto, California-based Tesla surprised analysts and investors this month when it said fourth-quarter deliveries were 20 percent above its target. Musk, 42, has pinned his goal of selling hundreds of thousands of electric autos annually to a global strategy in which China, Europe, Japan and other markets bolster its U.S. business.

If all goes well, Model S shipments to China can match U.S. sales by 2015, Musk said. “It’s not my firm prediction — it’s more like a low-fidelity guess.”

Expectations are high and Musk is certainly

Tesla announced pricing for the Model S in China today on its Blog. Surprisingly, it is the exact same price as the US model plus Import duties/taxes, etc.

Instead, the price of a Model S in China is much lower than its competitors simply because we want to treat our Chinese customers just as well as we’d treat customers in any other country. That means the price of a Model S in China is the same as the price of a Model S in the US, adding only unavoidable taxes, customs duties and transportation costs. We’re not even factoring in the cost of the free-to-use Supercharger network that Tesla will build across China.

That’s $121,260, vs. $73,570 in the US. A 65% markup for taxes, duties, and shipping vs. a $7500 – $10,000 tax subsidy in the US.

Below is the exact math for 734k CNY:

That’s a bold move. Yet, another one.

Aside from tolls, you can now travel freely across a nice swath of Western Europe in your Model S.

TESLA EXPANDS SUPERCHARGER NETWORK IN EUROPE

NEWLY ENERGIZED ROUTES ENABLE FREE, CONVENIENT LONG DISTANCE TRAVEL ACROSS DACH REGION AND THE NETHERLANDS

TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2014

AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands – This week, Tesla officially opens new Supercharger locations connecting the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. These newly-energized routes will enable Model S customers to enjoy free, convenient, 100 percent electric trips on the German Autobahn and to destinations in the Alps and elsewhere.

Tesla’s first six Superchargers were energized in California in September 2012, with the first network of European Supercharger stations opening in Norway less than a year later. As of today, 81 Supercharger locations are energized worldwide, with 14 locations in Europe. More than 11 million kilometers have been charged by Tesla Superchargers and nearly 1.13 million liters of gas have been offset.

The accelerated energizing of Superchargers in Germany (Wilnsdorf, Bad Rappenau, Aichstetten and Jettingen), Switzerland (Lully), Austria (St. Anton) and the Netherlands (Zevenaar and Oosterhout) represents a new milestone in the expansion of the European network. In Germany, Superchargers connect Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich. They also connect the German network to Amsterdam, Zurich, and Innsbruck. In the Netherlands, energized routes connect Amsterdam to Cologne and Brussels, and in Switzerland the stations connect Zurich and Geneva.

By the end of March 2014, 50 percent of the German population will live within 320km of a Supercharger, and 100 percent of the population will be covered by the end of the year.

The Tesla Supercharger is substantially more powerful than any charging technology to date, providing up to 120 kilowatts of DC (Direct Current) power directly to the Model S battery using special cables that bypass the onboard charging equipment. Superchargers replenish half a charge in about 20 minutes. Supercharger stations are strategically placed along well-travelled highways to allow Model S owners to drive from station to station with minimal stops. They are located near amenities like roadside restaurants, cafes, and shopping centers so drivers can stop for a quick meal and have their Model S charged by the time they’re done.

While this isn’t unexpected or even an outlier even after the most recent updates which have supposedly helped stave off the battery drain while idle, otherwise known as “Vampire”, Tesla still has some work to do in this area.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZmdK2QkkBU]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlhGE7N0poM]

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We don’t often talk about hybrids here but the BMW i8 does a solid job of being electric and has looks to die for. Unfortunately the $150K price tag may also cost a human life.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR1HEA_2erc&start=500]

You have to wait almost to the end of this video but Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirms earlier plans to build the world’s largest battery factory in the US  at 8:37 in the video above.

Musk discussed the needs to get to mass market electric vehicles in the November conference call where he stated that they would need to build the biggest battery factory ever built to meet demand.

Certainly people shouldn’t look at the X number of sales over four years and assume that that’s the number of cars that we will make. I think we will make towards the back end of that a lot more cars and so there needs to be other agreements with some combination of Panasonic, maybe with others. Panasonic is also our primary partner, but when it comes to the high volume third-generation vehicle it’s clear that there is going to need to be incremental production capacity created at this existing look today, so we are in the process of figuring that out and there is going to need to be some kind of giga factory built….

Well, like I said, this isn’t the right time to talk in detail about our plans for kind of a giga factory but except to say, obviously, we are acknowledging the fact that one needs to be built and we are looking at a variety of different locations. I don’t think permitting is going to be the driver here. This is going to be a very green factory. There going to be a lot of solar power. It’s going to have essentially zero emissions and there are no toxic elements that are going to come out of this factory and we will build in recycling capability right into the factory. So old packs would come in one side and get reprocessed as new packs. So a way to think of this is like a factory is the machine that works for machine and that itself has a version, just like you have a version of a product. It’s like a version of the factory. So we are trying to figure out what’s the right way to do version one at this giga factory and we want to be thoughtful about it and it is going to be a really giant facility, like say we are doing that something that’s comparable to all lithium-ion production in the world in one factory.

I’d also note that Musk referred to the Gen 3 car as the “Model E” for the first time even though both Tesla and Ford have registered trademarks for it.

Video from CNBC, below

Press release from Tesla (Also below fold)

Interesting in that 6900 deliveries in 13-week period puts them over 500/week or 75/day in units sold or in relative terms 27,600/year. That means production is closing in on the 100/day mark or 36,500/year even before Tesla builds effectively another assembly line to double its output next year.

Tesla expects to build and sell over 50,000 cars next year. It still hasn’t made a commercial.
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That cross country Supercharger roadtrip is almost a reality. In fact if you know some folks in Ohio, Minnesota and Wyoming, don’t have a lead foot and have 85kW Tesla, I’d say you are off to the races.

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Nice feature on Tesla’s ambitions with the Detroit Autoshow as a backdrop from Autonews. I wouldn’t say there is much new here but it goes into disturbing detail on the supposed perils that Tesla faces as it tries to ramp from 20,000 vehicles/year to 200,000.

Industry executives predict Tesla will need to join with an established dealership group that will allow the company to spread its retail and service wings in states that restrict Tesla factory stores.

But Musk says he will not consider such a proposition. Maintaining control of the retail process is key to him. And he says skeptics are overstating the need for a huge dealer network because word-of-mouth plays a larger role for Tesla than for other brands.

Musk says four Model S sedans are sold by word-of-mouth, rather than by conventional marketing, for every one sold as a result of someone walking into a store off the street.

“I don’t think we’re going to need an enormous amount of stores. We’ll have some flagships in major markets,” he said. “What will sell cars in the long term will be other customers — word-of-mouth.”

I kid you not. Bloomberg:

The charger connectors, which tether Tesla-issued cables to wall outlets, will be mailed out in the next two weeks, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said in an interview today.

“These are very rare events, but occasionally the wiring isn’t done right,” Musk said. “We want people to have absolute comfort, so we’re going to be providing them with an upgraded adapter.”

Tesla fell 2.6 percent to $143.72 at 12:20 p.m.

Tesla also upgraded the Model S firmware last month to prevent cars from drawing too much power from inadequate wiring.

At first blush, you might be thinking (as I had) that this is silly. My house is wired properly so I shouldn’t ever have issues like the person in California whose garage caught on fire after a short in the wiring in November.

But what if you go to a vacation rental or visit the family/relatives for a weekend. Can you be sure that the electrician that did their wiring was competent?

Good on Tesla for covering this; ‘Short sighted’ on investors for seeing this as a sign of weakness and not strength.

Update: Press release follows:
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Fasten your seatbelts people, we are a few Supercharger stations away from seeing a transcontinental Supercharging network as Tesla unceremoniously opened up a few charging stations this week.  The Gallup, New Mexico station goes a long way in connecting Southern California and Arizona with Colorado. While the Chicago-land area now counts 6 stations which can take Windy City residents as far as Wyoming (or California if they are extremely miserly on charge), down to St. Louis Missouri and as far East as Ohio.

Meanwhile, the East Coast is a few more stations away from being covered as well. Throw in an Albany NY, Washington DC and a Savannah GA station and you’d be able to get from Montreal to Miami without too much trouble.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is scheduled to make the cross country trek with his family in March. For more granular look at supercharging stations and opening dtes, construction and better mileage circles check out the Tesla Wiki.

InsideEVs scooped up an Instagram picture of the Tesla Model X on the streets of Culver City near Tesla’s Hawthorne design center. The Model X, believed to be out on a test drive, resembles the one shown at the Palo Alto Tesla Store opening late last year (though that one was wasn’t a working prototype).

The Model X was originally scheduled to begin production late last year but was postponed so Tesla could focus on churning out Model S’s and becoming profitable. Production is slated to begin in the second half of 2014.