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Key Tesla Autopilot engineering manager makes the jump to NEXTEV

When we wrote our profile of Tesla’s team of “hardcore engineers” working on the Autopilot, we briefly mentioned Kurt Thywissen, an early member of the team and Senior Engineering Manager of UI & Autopilot Software. Thywissen was one of the software engineers working on the popular P2P client Kazaa who left to create Skype. He joined Tesla’s team in 2013 after leaving a director role at Skype.

Chinese-backed electric vehicle startups, like Faraday Future and Atieva, have been poaching an impressive number of employees from Tesla and they made engineers with EV or autonomous driving experience extremely in demand in Silicon Valley – with the help of other companies in the field like Apple, Bosch, Baidu, Google and more.

But now there’s a new thorn in the side of Tesla’s recruitment and retention effort, NEXTEV, and Thywissen is their latest hire.
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The world’s electric vehicle fleet surpassed 1 million cars, now to the next million

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is out with its Energy Technology Perspectives report (via Carbon Brief). The agency compiled data from the automotive industry and determined that the world’s electric vehicle fleet surpassed the 1 million cars mark last year. Out of the 15 technology sectors to combat carbon emissions followed by IEA, the agency says that the EV sector is the only one on track for deployment.
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US government to rule on autonomous cars as soon as next month with potential road to commercialization

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is expected to release its federal guidelines for autonomous vehicles in July and the agency’s senior administrator, Dr. Mark Rosekind, said to expect something different from the regulators to reflect the disrupting aspect of self-driving technologies.

Rosekind made the comment during a panel at the TU-Automotive auto-tech conference in Novi (via readwrite):

“What is unusual is everybody expects regulation comes out and that’s what it is forever, and NHTSA’s job is react and enforce it. That will not work with this area. I think we’re going to have something different in July.”

The regulator said that NHTSA’s rules will focus on four main areas.
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Former Tesla Model S Chief Engineer is bringing a new all-electric luxury sedan to market

Last year, we reported on Atieva, an electric vehicle startup founded by Bernard Tse, a former Tesla Vice President and board member. Tse was on Tesla’s board from 2003 to 2007 and he headed Tesla’s short-lived energy division during his last year at the company – long before it relaunched a new and improved ‘Tesla Energy’ division in 2015.

Tse resigned from the board to head the ‘Tesla Energy Group’, but left not long after Martin Eberhard, then Tesla’s CEO and longtime friend of Tse, was ousted by Elon Musk. Tesla reorganized to adjust their worrying cash burn at the time and focused on the Tesla Roadster instead of energy storage solutions.

After leaving, he found Atieva with the ambition to make it something similar to what he and Eberhard hoped the ‘Tesla Energy Group’ could become; a company developing cell agnostic battery packs both for third-party electric vehicles and other energy storage applications.

But as we reported last year, the company eventually hired Peter Rawlinson, Tesla VP and Model S Chief Engineer, along with several other EV experts from Tesla and other companies, and then changed its focus to bring to market a new electric vehicle from the ground up and not just the drivetrain.
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All new cars mandated to be electric in Germany by 2030 [Updated]

It looks like Germany is about to become the first major country to set an official deadline for a ban on gas-powered cars. India recently confirmed that it is evaluating a scheme for all its fleet to be electric by 2030 and both the Dutch government and the Norwegian government are discussing the possibility to ban gas-powered car sales and only allow electric vehicle sales starting also by 2025.

But while the Netherlands and Norway are fighting over the technicalities, a senior government official in Germany confirmed they will impose a mandate for all new cars registered in the country to be emissions free by 2030.
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Tesla’s stock (TSLA) is down following misleading report about European ‘sales’

Tesla’s stock (TSLA) rallied last week following comments by Ron Baron. The rally didn’t last long after rumors of a potential problem with Tesla’s suspension started to spread quickly at the end of last week.

While the rumors have been mostly shut down at this point, Tesla’s stock is having difficulty recovering and a new report about the automaker’s sales in Europe is not helping.
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Tesla launches a pilot project to sell cars inside Nordstrom stores

Tesla has an undoubtedly unique retail strategy in the auto industry, the company owns all its retail locations and has plenty of ‘galleries’ in malls, which is unusual for an automaker, but it is now taking it to the next level by launching a pilot project to sell its vehicles inside Nordstrom stores – starting with the one at The Grove, a multiplex retail center in Los Angeles.

The new location will open on Saturday. Fast Company reports that it will take up a 400-sq. foot section of the store – see the concept rendering above.
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Chinese copycat could beat Lit Motors to market with first self-balancing 2-wheel electric vehicle

For years now, Lit Motors has been developing its all-electric self-balancing two-wheel vehicles, often referred to as Auto-Balancing Electric Vehicle (AEV). It is described as an extremely efficient commuter vehicle thanks to its light weight, low mechanical drag with only 2 wheels touching the road and low aerodynamic drag because of its enclosed motorcycle shape.

The company announced having received over 1,000 reservations for the vehicle, but yet it can’t find its way to production. After several delays and despite backers like Mark Pincus, founder and CEO at Zynga, and Larry Page, founder of Google and CEO of Alphabet, the company is reportedly still looking for funding in order to bring the vehicle to production.
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Tesla Model X is coming to Europe in volume just in time for the end of the quarter

Tesla said that it will start to deliver the Model X in Europe by the end of the month. As we reported yesterday, Tesla achieved its exit production rate of 2,000 vehicles per week for the quarter early, which is a good indicator that the automaker can achieve its Q2 production goal of ~20,000 vehicles.
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Daimler lays out its ‘electric mobility’ plan: all-electric, plug-ins, F-Cells and more

This week, Daimler announced its plan to transition to greener technologies over the next few years. The company laid out release schedules for several new hybrids, plug-in hybrids, fuel cell vehicles, and all-electric vehicles across all its brands.

The plan is a little all over the place but we try to summarize it below and if that’s not enough for you, you can dive into the full press package further down.
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Tesla says you can get new Model S monthly cost down to £0 in London

Earlier this year, Tesla launched a new in-house Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) program in the UK. The significantly more flexible program reduced the monthly entry cost of the Model S to £404 with a 30% down payment. At the time, Tesla said that after fuel and road tax savings, the monthly cost would be only £296 in the UK.

The new program seems to have contributed to Tesla’s recent success in the country, which became the automaker’s top market for the Model S in Europe in the first quarter 2016 after having delivered around 750 cars based on registration data. The country was normally trailing between the fourth and fifth positions in Europe for Tesla – behind Norway, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.

With the recent reintroduction of the Model S 60, Tesla is now lowering the entry even further, across all markets of course, but in the case of the UK, the automaker is now claiming that you can get the monthly cost down to £0.
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Tesla confirms achieving a production rate of 2,000 cars/week and releases new details about its production

Only three years ago in 2013, Tesla Model S’ first full year of production, the automaker built just over 20,000 vehicles or around 400 per week. Now we learn that Tesla recently achieved for the first time a production rate of 2,000 vehicles per week for an annualized rate of 104,000 cars.

In its last shareholders letter, the company announced that it aimed to exit the second quarter with a production rate of 2,000 vehicles per week – meaning that the company achieved its goal two weeks ahead of schedule. The achievement was crucial for Tesla to reach its delivery goal of 80,000 to 90,000 vehicles in 2016.
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FCA CEO Marchionne doesn’t understand Tesla’s model but claims he could copy it

FCA’s outspoken CEO, Sergio Marchionne, has been known to make unpopular but frank comments about electric cars and the future of the auto industry. The man in charge of Alfa, Fiat, Chrysler and Jeep, called for its customers not to buy his electric car, the Fiat 500e, because he estimates the company is losing about $10,000 per units.

In a recent interview with Car Magazine, he reiterated his comments and elaborated on how he doesn’t understand how anyone can make money selling electric cars other than to comply with government mandates. He also made some interesting and somewhat confusing comments on Tesla’s success.
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The story behind the ‘false’ Tesla suspension complaints to NHTSA

Tesla (TSLA) montreal

Following reports of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) probing Tesla over a possible problem with the Model S’ suspension and the automaker’s goodwill agreement, it came to light that several false and/or misleading complaints were filed with NHTSA.

A spokesperson for NHTSA confirmed that the agency has not found any safety issue with Tesla’s suspensions and that the company has clarified the language in its goodwill agreement. It considers the issue resolved, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared on Twitter that something suspicious is going on with the suspension complaints:

It can be difficult to understand why would someone falsify complaints to an official agency, which can be harmful to both the company and time-wasting for the regulators. The most obvious explanation is always money, and Tesla brought it up in a blog post following last week’s events.
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Volvo R&D Chief takes swipes at Tesla’s Autopilot, implies Musk is lying about safety

Tesla recently attracted some criticisms over its Autopilot system. There are primarily two camps when its comes to approaches to developing self-driving cars. Some companies are gradually releasing more and more advanced autonomous and semi-autonomous features (level 2) leading to a fully autonomous system (level 4), like Tesla’s Autopilot, and others, like Google, are aiming to only release a system once the technology is ready for a fully (level 4) self-driving car.

Among the criticisms, scientist Andrew NG said that it was “irresponsible” for Tesla to ship the Autopilot and BMW’s CEO compared the system to an unreliable app. Now it’s Volvo’s turn to go after Tesla’s Autopilot for similar reasons.
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Exclusive: Tesla and SpaceX battery experts set up competing startup for EV and home battery packs

You might remember Porter Harris from our piece on SpaceX’s battery development ‘Tesla is not Elon Musk’s only company developing high-tech battery packs‘ – and also when covering Faraday Future (FF) since Harris joined the company as ‘Chief Battery Architect’ in November 2014 – and then one more time when he suddenly left the company just before it came out of stealth mode.

Electrek has now learned that he co-founded a new startup to compete with FF and Tesla with new battery pack designs for electric vehicles, and even to compete with ‘Tesla Energy’ in stationary energy storage products.
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Tesla is sending out free sunshade to Model X owners for the panoramic windshield

We discussed Tesla Model X’s panoramic windshield before, more recently after learning about its replacement cost, but mainly about the fact that it offers great visibility, look and because we are glad to see Tesla bringing a panoramic windshield in a production car.

But it doesn’t only offer advantages, they are a few cons to a panoramic windshield – primarily the fact that it offers little protection against the sun.
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Tesla Model S suspension and NDA situation: here are the facts [Updated]

The news of NHTSA regulators looking into a potential problem with the Tesla Model S’ suspension blew up yesterday after literally hundreds of media outlets, from Reuters to the NY Times, picked up the story. There are a lot of misleading headlines and reports out there right now so let’s focus on the facts we know so far.

The actual potential problem with Tesla’s suspension is only part of what prompt NHTSA to probe the situation. Media are widely reporting that Tesla attempted to cover up the alleged problems by making owners sign a non-disclosure agreement.

NHTSA spokesman Bryan Thomas:

“The agency immediately informed Tesla that any language implying that consumers should not contact the agency regarding safety concerns is unacceptable, and N.H.T.S.A. expects Tesla to eliminate any such language. Tesla representatives told N.H.T.S.A. that it was not their intention to dissuade consumers from contacting the agency.”

Update: Tesla reportedly agreed to update the Goodwill agreement to clarify that anyone signing it is in no way prohibited from reporting the repair to regulators.

First of, there’s currently no investigation or recall over this issue with Tesla. NHTSA is currently reviewing the case in order to decide if it needs to open a formal investigation. We will update if we get more information from the agency, but Tesla is already out with a statement claiming that there’s no defect on the Model S’ suspension and that the ‘NDA’ was not aimed at dissuading anyone to contact regulators, but they will work with NHTSA to correct it if there’s a need.
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A new electric taxi fleet with 10 Tesla Model S vehicles at the Montréal-Trudeau Airport

Last year, we reported on the startup Taxelco acquiring the second largest taxi company in Montreal with a fleet of 500 cars and 1,000 drivers. The company soon started taking delivery of Kia Soul EVs, Nissan LEAFs and Tesla Model S’s in order to launch its Téo Taxi service which is an EV-only taxi service powered by a Uber-like app.

This week, the startup announced a new service based at the Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
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Tesla’s new 60kWh pricing option is a software revolution, here are the exclusive details

As expected, Tesla announced a new Model S 60 today with a starting price point of $66,000 before Federal Tax in the US, under $60K after the $7500 tax credit.  But Tesla really didn’t release a new car today – the company released a new software configuration and pricing model. That small change will let the automaker sell a lot more cars…
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Faraday Future hires a bunch of executives from legacy luxury automakers to lead marketing

Electric vehicle startup Faraday Future (FF) announced today the hiring of Marco Mattiacci, former President & CEO of Ferrari North America (2010 to 2014), as Global Chief Brand & Commercial Officer. Mattiacci is only the latest in a series of hires from legacy luxury automakers to lead Faraday’s marketing department.

The strategy gives a glimpse at the image the company, which as yet to present a vehicle aimed for production, will likely try to project in the EV market.
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Tesla tried and failed to buy a lithium startup for $325 million

In a lengthy report published yesterday, the Desert Sun described the demise of a young lithium extraction startup and how Tesla tried and failed to buy it for $325 million in TSLA stock back in 2014. It offers an interesting look at Tesla’s acquisition process, something rare for the automaker. The company only made one acquisition: a tool and die company in Michigan.

The article is a long read, but a very interesting one if you have the time. Here’s a much shorter version if you just want the main takeaway points.

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Tesla releases a new less expensive Model S 60 with 210 miles of range for $66,000

As we predicted this morning, Tesla released new options for the Model S today. The company updated its online design studio to include a new base Model S by bringing back the 60 kWh battery pack option, but in a 75 kWh battery pack software-limited to 60 kWh.

The new battery option brings the Model S base price down to $66,000 from $70,000 in the US. The vehicle offers an estimated EPA-rated range of 210 miles on a single charge – up to 249 miles with the full 75 kWh capacity, which is available for $8,500 when configuring or $9,000 if updated after delivery.
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Tesla to announce new Model S options today: here’s what we think is coming

Update: Tesla confirmed the new and less expensive 60 kWh battery pack option, but didn’t release the new 100 kWh pack or seats yet.

Tesla will make an announcement today and introduce a new version of the Model S with new options. The automaker unveiled a Model S refresh less than two months ago in mid-April. The vehicle had several new features to bridge the gap with the Model X, but a few features were missing. A few of these features could now be introduced to Tesla’s flagship sedan as well as some possible surprises on the battery pack side.
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