Leshi Internet Information & Technology, also known as LeTV, is a large Chinese company most popular for its Netflix-like service on LeTV.com. Earlier this year, CEO Jia Yueting sold $1.61 billion worth LeTV’s shares, $1.2 billion of which he loaned right back to the company to finance the numerous projects they are working on, which include a smartphone, smart TV and electric cars… Expand Expanding Close
Consumer Reports published its detailed review of the Tesla Model S P85D this morning and the product review magazine says that their ratings system had to be modified because the P85D scored 103 out of 100. After changing the system, Tesla’s all-wheel drive performance vehicle achieved a perfect score of 100.
Consumer Reports tested previous versions of the Model S in the past few years and they always had great things to say about the vehicle, even calling it the best car they ever tested, and this time is no exception. Expand Expanding Close
Transport Scotland announced earlier this month a new program to offer interest free loans of up to £50,000 for electric vehicles. The number of loans will be limited since the program is financed by a £2.5 million fund. The fund will close on 31 March 2016, applicants have until then to submit their loan requests. Expand Expanding Close
While there are many features that make the Leaf a popular vehicle, there is one thing it’s known for above all else: its battery. The 2016 Nissan Leaf redesign will bring a first to the electric car: your choice of two different batteries.
The standard Leaf will come with the same battery as the 2015 model, featuring an EPA-estimated driving range of 84 miles.
Drivers of higher trim levels will enjoy a battery with as much as 25% increased capacity, delivering a driving range of as much as 110 miles.
The majority of electric cars only feature one battery option, and by providing drivers with their choice of a lower capacity battery if they don’t intend to drive long distances, the new Leaf can find a home in even more garages.
During yesterday’s conference call about Tesla’s second quarter financial results, Elon Musk refused to answer a question from a financial analyst about Travis Kalanick’s, Uber’s CEO, recent comments that his company would buy 500,000 Teslas in 2020 if they are equipped with Tesla’s self-driving technology by the end of the decade.
The short conversation was very revealing. Here it is in full: Expand Expanding Close
The all-new 2016 Chevrolet Volt electric car with extended range, showcasing a sleeker, sportier design that offers 50 miles of EV range, greater efficiency and stronger acceleration.
The results are in: the new 2016 Chevy Volt will get 53 miles of electric range on a charge of its new 18.4-kWh lithium-ion battery according to EPA numbers. That’s close to 40% more than the previous Volt’s 38 miles and a big psychological jump for buyers.
The typical American commute is around 48 minutes so adding those extra miles gets a lot more people home without using gas. Chevrolet expects many next-generation Volt owners will use power solely from their batteries for more than 90 percent of trips. Today, Volt owners use battery power on 80 percent of their trips.
The biggest turn off for me in the old Volt was the back seat which was split in half by the battery bar. The 2016 lowers the batteries so that a car seat or a passenger can straddle the bar which is worlds better for families.
That, and when you went to gas – like for long trips – you’d only get around 35 miles/gallon with the range extender. The next-generation Volt’s new 1.5L range-extender, designed to use regular unleaded fuel, offers a combined EPA-estimated fuel efficiency of 42 MPG. That’s very respectable but not yet on the same level as a Prius which typically sees 50+ mpg.
I think the new Volt is hitting new spec points that will make sense for a lot more buyers. It doesn’t have any range anxiety problems and it is getting pretty close to the range of the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3 (which also has a very small REX engine). Also, the faster acceleration, better back seat and sportier looks will draw new buyers along with the proliferation of EV charging points around the country.
Google is currently operating a fleet of Lexus SUVs retrofitted with their self-driving technology – these cars were recently being tested in Austin – but Google is also testing a fleet of prototypes developed in-house from the ground up (picture above). The company’s different approaches to the car business can get confusing and adding to the confusion, according to documents recently obtained by the Guardian, the company created a wholly owned subsidiary to operate their car business – Google Auto.
There are a lot of different reasons for a large corporation to create a subsidiary, but with this being a first for a project coming out of the Google X division, for example the company didn’t create a subsidiary for Google Glass, it raises a few questions. Expand Expanding Close
According to a series of tweets from Tesla CEO Elon Musk at 5am ET this morning, the Model S vehicles released since the D event will soon gain the ability to steer on the highway and parallel auto park.
This is a pretty big deal when combined with the current traffic aware cruise control. It means you can essentially put on “autopilot” when you get on the highway and don’t have to turn it off until it is time to recharge or get off the highway. While I wouldn’t (and Tesla certainly doesn’t) recommend sleeping or getting out of your seat, one could theoretically pick up a newspaper, tablet or smartphone during this time (Oh, that’s against the law in most states currently).
At the very least, it is a great safety feature.
The parallel auto park will also be a very nice selling point for those who fear parallel parking. I’m sadly unfamiliar with this phobia as I can parallel park perfectly into any spot *crash*.
Tesla announced a new program for its owners today. People who refer new buyers will receive $1000 for every sale of a Tesla vehicle they can initiate.
Owners who make five referral orders will receive an invitation for them and a guest to attend the Gigafactory grand opening party.
Those who make ten referral orders will get the right to purchase a Founder Series Model X, which is not available at any price, for the cost of a base Model X, an approximately $20,000 difference.
The first owner in each region, North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, to make ten referral orders will get a fully loaded Model X for free.
“At this point we can only speculate about what could be Tesla’s “secret weapon”, but here’s an idea: a reward program for Model S owners who are generating leads and offering test drives. SolarCity, which could be considered Tesla’s sister company, found success with their “Solar Ambassador Program“. People can sign up to an app and submit leads to SolarCity. If a lead turns into a sale, the “solar ambassador” receives $250. Tesla could implement a similar program with their current Model S owners. Tesla is known to have a very enthusiast and knowledgeable customer base. Owners in regions where Tesla is not allowed to sell directly could offer test drives to potential customers, talk about their experience with the car and then maybe submit a lead to Tesla in a similar manner as SolarCity does with their program.”
Some more details:
Anyone who orders a new Model S before September 30 using the referral link of a current owner will get $1,000 off the purchase price. In return, the current owner will get a $1,000 discount that can be applied to a new car, service center visit or accessories.
Referral discounts are limited to ten and are awarded on a first to purchase basis. New orders must be placed prior to September 30, 2015.
This really should spur both sales and salesmanship amongst current owners. It will also spur debate on whether Tesla owners really love their cars or they just want to make a quick $1000 (both!).
That’s what a Faraday Future representative told MotorTrend when asked about the reality of launching a car, which is undoubtedly one of the most difficult kind of product to bring to market. The young electric car company, whose name is still only a placeholder, took a small step out of “stealth mode” yesterday to disclose that they are looking for a location, in the US, for a new manufacturing facility.
We first heard of Faraday Future earlier this year after receiving some unconfirmed tips about Apple being involved with the startup company through their secretive vehicle program. Although Apple’s involvement remains unconfirmed, Faraday Future is a very real company. Expand Expanding Close
Head over to Tesla’s IR Website to follow along the livestream of the yearly shareholder meeting. We’ll be jotting down notes here of information of interest.
1. Shareholder doesn’t like leather. Doesn’t think the non-leather option is enough.
2. Full autopilot will hit some customers by end of the month. Elon says he has been testing the latest builds of Autopilot on his own vehicle.
There has been a lot of uninformed banker-speak in the media about Tesla’s battery including by Bloomberg here. The problem is these folks don’t understand the new market that Tesla is opening up.
But I’m also turning to Bloomberg for the first smart analysis and that’s not surprisingly from Solar City’s Lyndon Rive (who happens to be Elon Musk’s Cousin – perhaps you noticed the accent?).
The complaints have been that the battery wall doesn’t make economic sense – that for the average household to go off the grid with these combined with solar (or wind), it would be incredibly expensive.
Until Tesla updates their Youtube channel, here’s the short video if you weren’t able to stay up that late last night. My big takeaway was the price. I had expected to see something in the $$5-$10,000 range though for bigger homes that have electric cars, you will need 2 or more of these so the price starts creeping up.
Also, from the way Musk talks, he believes that they are going to make a ton of these. It will be interesting to see how battery stocks react today…and home generator companies.
[tweet https://twitter.com/llsethj/status/593991515602583553] Expand Expanding Close
It is without any public announcement that Tesla updated its website Friday night to include a section for pre-owned vehicles. 178 cars were available in 11 locations in the US.
Unsurprisingly, most of the cars are equipped with the performance package. 116 out of the 178 pre-owned vehicles available in the US are P85 or P85+. When Tesla announced the new Model S versions with dual motor in October 2014, a significant number of performance Model S owners were showing interest in upgrading to the P85D.
The US Dept of Energy released its eMPG ratings for Tesla’s new Model S 70D and it is the first Model S to go over the 100 MPGe. In fact it is more that a 6% gain over the Model S 60 it replaced. Some of that efficiency will be chalked up to the dual motors that Elon Musk discussed in the launch of the D lineup. However, such a huge gain in performance might also be attributable to losses made in the weight in the vehicle since the S60 was launched 3 years ago.
If you look at the compare to the heavier battery 85KW models, you see particular gains in city driving where stopping and starting is more prevalent – a place where weight matters. Musk noted that the P85D would see some loss in efficiency due to the performance tires on the 3 second 0-60 supercar model.
In a new paper in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, Tugce Yuksel and Jeremy Michalek at Carnegie Mellon University have shown the average energy usage per mile of electric cars across the US. You’ll note that warm but temperate climates like the California Coast and the Deep South especially Florida fare the best. Very hot desert areas like Arizona don’t do well because of the energy required to cool off bith the batteries and cabin. The North does poorly because batteries lose power as weather gets cooler. Below, a Nissan Leaf efficiency is graphed at different temperatures which illustrates this disparity more clearly. The optimum range for operation is between 45 and 82 degrees where the 300W/mile threshold is beaten.
This all translates to CO2 emissions obviously and with the West making their energy much cleaner, they produce about 1/3rd the CO2 emissions as the north Midwest which is basically one big coal plant. In fact, that area’s energy is so CO2 intensive that running an electric car there (assuming you don’t have your own solar/wind) rivals the CO2 emissions of a fuel efficient car like a Prius.
The big takeaway is that moving to electric cars isnt enough. The grid also needs to move to cleaner power like wind and solar.
Great interview, not much new however if you follow Tesla and its CTO into the energy industry. Some interesting bits:
Why did Tesla act differently? For a start, it does not think of itself as a carmaker. “I see us more as an energy-innovation company,” says Jeffrey “JB” Straubel, the firm’s chief technology officer, and one of the co-founders of Tesla, along with Elon Musk, the chief executive. “If we can reduce energy-storage prices, it’s the most important thing we can do to make electric vehicles more prevalent,” says Mr Straubel. “Add in renewable power and I have a direct line of sight towards an entire economy that doesn’t need fossil fuels and doesn’t need to pay more to do it.”…
Mr Straubel met Mr Musk, a freshly minted multimillionaire from the sale of his PayPal digital-payments company to eBay. “One lunch was the beginning of what eventually became Tesla,” says Mr Straubel. “We spent most of the meal talking about electric aeroplanes. But as we were wrapping up, I said I was working on a fun crazy project with cars, trying to build a lithium-ion battery pack that could last 1,000 miles.”…
“Most other companies do not believe that battery volume will grow as fast as it’s going to,” Mr Straubel counters. “They don’t understand the tight linkage between cost and volume. We’re at this crossing-point where a small reduction in cost is going to result in a ridiculously big increase in volume, because the auto industry is so big.”…
“No one wishes we could come up with a technology that makes today’s chemistry obsolete more than me,” says Mr Straubel. “We could sell more cars at a lower price. But we’re not waiting.”
I’m very excited to announce that I’m going to be going to LA for the Tesla D event launch and will be liveblogging it as it happens. Come back here Thursday evening at 7PM for all of the excitement.
At this point it would seem that the new version could include AWD with Dual motors which would make it great for the upcoming Winter. We’ll know in a few short days.
It would appear that Saleen, an third party aftermarket car modifier, has left the drive train alone and focused on modding the body, brakes and wheels. The look and mods definitely aren’t my cup of tea but certainly they will appeal to the Saleen set.
Panasonic Corp is inviting a number of Japanese materials suppliers to join it in investing in a U.S. car battery plant that it plans to build with Tesla Motors Inc, with investment expected to reach more than 100 billion yen ($979 million), the Nikkei reported.
The plant, expected to go on-stream in 2017, will bolster Panasonic’s supply of lithium-ion batteries to the U.S. electric-car maker.
Last week, Tesla shed some light on its plans for building a lithium-ion battery plant, or “giga factory,” that will cut battery costs and allow the company to launch a more affordable electric car in 2017. However, it said at the time that further details would be announced this week.
The U.S. plant, which will handle everything from processing raw materials to assembly, will produce small, lightweight batteries for Tesla and may also supply Toyota Motor Corp and other automakers, the Nikkei said.
Battery costs have been a major stumbling block to widespread electric car adoption in the United States, according to analysts. Tesla’s giga factory will lower costs by shifting material, cell, module and pack production to one spot.
In Tesla’s earnings conference call last week, Chief Executive Elon Musk said the electric car maker expects to build the factory with more than one partner, but a “default assumption” was that Panasonic, as a current battery cell partner, “would continue to partner with us in the giga factory.”
“The factory is really there to support the volume of the third generation car,” Musk said on the call. “We want to have the vehicle engineering and tooling come to fruition the same time as the giga factory. It is already part of one strategy, one combined effort.”
The pieces are starting to come together. The biggest question now is how Tesla funds the other $4B in costs. Will it issue more stock? Will it bring in some very rich partners like Apple? On that note we go to last week’s earnings call for more color on that: Expand Expanding Close
[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-kWhlithium-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.
A nice option for a truly impressive little EV car. However 20 minutes for every 80 miles of drive time doesn’t really let you take long trips (vs 20 minutes for 170 miles on the Tesla Model S.
It would also have been nice if Chevy was compatible with Nissan/Toyota/Mitsubishi’s CHAdeMO Fast DC chargers so the companies could blanket more the the country with compatible chargers. Expand Expanding Close
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