Electric car

According to a letter the company sent to Nevada officials Wednesday (via Auto News), Faraday Future says it plans to build its $1 billion electric vehicle factory in North Las Vegas.
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Tesla launches in Mexico this week by opening a “Pop-up” store in the Mexican capital and we learn that the company hired Google’s longtime brand and communications manager for Latin American markets, Ricardo Blanco, to lead Tesla’s communications and marketing in the country.
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The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) announced that during the keynote address of Volkswagen’s Chairman of Passenger Cars Dr. Herbert Diess at the upcoming CES 2016, he will unveil a new all-electric concept car.

Diess is scheduled to deliver a keynote address about “electric mobility driving the automotive market” on January 5 at the Cosmopolitan’s Chelsea Theater.
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France-based automaker Citroën officially announced yesterday the all-electric E-MEHARI. Although the car is officially based on the company’s flagship vehicle of the same name built between 1968-1988, it seems to borrow more design cues from the Bolloré Blue Summer which can be explained by the fact that the E-Méhari is built on Bolloré ‘s electric platform.
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After some confusion over Tesla registering thousands of Model S’s in Denmark in anticipation of a surge of electric vehicle sales over the phasing out of tax breaks in the country starting in 2016, the company confirmed having ordered 2,500 license plates in order for Tesla buyers to be able to complete their purchases by the end of the year.

With 113 Model S’s registered in October, the data didn’t reflect any demand increase due to the end of the tax breaks for electric vehicles, but the government published November registration data today and it now shows a significant increase in Tesla Model S registrations.
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Hyundai announced today that it will unveil a new car with 3 electric powertrain options called IONIQ. The vehicle will be available in all-electric (BEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and conventional hybrid without a plug (HEV).

The launch is set for January 2016 in Korea, followed by Geneva and New York auto shows.
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This weekend was the 19th anniversary of the first deliveries of GM’s all-electric EV1. With GM planning to release the Chevy Bolt in “late-2016”, it would coincide with the 20th anniversary of the EV1 launch. Although it’s doubtful the company will try to associate both releases considering GM is trying distance the Bolt from the image of a compliance car, it is nonetheless an interesting coincidence. 
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Over a year after the first deliveries of the plug-in hybrid BMW i8, the open-top version is still not available even though the option was unveiled in 2012 – prior to the release of the production version.

But now BMW CEO Harald Krüger reiterated the company’s commitment to the feature and said the company is working on a production version.
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Some Tesla Model S owners who are used to high-end luxury cars have complained about the vehicle’ interior not being up to the standards of a $80,000+ car. Andrey, a Model S owner in Moscow, was tired of complaining and took action. He completely changed the interior of his Model S to a BMW 6-series’ for about $30,000.
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Porsche announced today the green light for its first all-electric model, the Mission E concept unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor show earlier this year, for production by the end of the decade. The company will invest over $700 million to expand its assembly capacity and include the production of electric motors.
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Germany is the thirteenth government to join the International Zero-Emission Vehicle Alliance, which aims at making all passenger vehicles emission-free by 2050. The group made the announcement Thursday at the UN global climate talks in Paris.

The governments now participating in the ZEV Alliance include the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway in Europe; California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont in the United States; and Québec in Canada.
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NAIAS officials confirmed to local Detroit news that Tesla pulled out of the North American International Auto Show “at the last minute”. Tesla’s presence was confirmed on the NAIAS’ floor plan for months. The news comes while Tesla is still not allowed to sell cars in Michigan since the state government “clarified” a direct sale law in 2014 by removing one word from the bill, which now prevents Tesla from operating its own stores in the state.
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Based on registration data, Tesla delivered 225 Model S’s in Norway last month – up from 198 units in October and 202 in November 2014. The company recently ran in some troubles in Norway after Model S owners expressed concerns over the way Tesla is reporting the power output of the car, especially the Dual Motor version. Tesla is now in mediation with over 150 Model S owners in the country over these concerns.

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Local news reports in Chile are stating that “senior Tesla executives” met with government officials to evaluate a partnership with state-owned mining company Codelco in order to source lithium in the country.

The agreement would presumably be to supply Tesla’s Gigafactory under-construction in Nevada.
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In his latest video, InternetDude gives us an interesting look at the Tesla Model S’ heated seats and steering wheel through an infrared camera. The features are available with the Model S’ $1,000 Subzero Weather Package, which also includes wiper blade defrosters and washer nozzle heaters.

You can watch the full video below the fold:
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Dieselgate is starting to significantly impact Volkswagen’s sales in the US. The company published its November reports this week (see below) and the company suffered a 24.72% average decrease across all models.

The all-electric e-Golf is one of the rare model bringing the average up, but sales haven’t really increased since the scandal. They delivered 472 e-Golf units in November, up from 119 during the same period last, but it was the first month of availability in 2014. For a better comparison, VW delivered 596 e-Golfs in October.
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DEFCON finally posted the entire video of the “How to Hack a Tesla Model S” presentation from the conference earlier this summer. Let me preface this by saying that Tesla already pushed OTA software updates to its fleet to fix the issues unveiled by the two security researchers, Kevin Mahaffey and Marc Rogers.

Nonetheless, it is a very interesting talk worth the watch if the security of connected cars is an issue of interest to you, which to a certain degree, it should be.
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During the weekend, Tesla quietly increased the price of the Model S in Canada by an average of 2%, presumably to adjust for the weak Canadian currency – $1 CAD = $0.75 USD at the moment.

The less expensive version of the Model S, the 70 kWh rear wheel drive, now starts at $89,100 before incentives and destination fees. A fully equipped P90D now costs $173,800 before any incentives.

Here are the Canadian prices for the different Model S drivetrain configurations from Tesla’s design studio:
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In a recent interview with German newspaper Handelsblatt, BMW CEO Harald Krüger reiterated the company’s intention to phase out diesel models and introduce more electric vehicles in order to comply with increasingly strict emission regulations.

The CEO also commented on Tesla’s Autopilot, which he doesn’t see as the lead semi-autonomous option on the market at the moment. Of course, this comment shouldn’t come as a surprise since you rarely hear an executive admiting that a competitor’s technology is more advanced than his own company’s, but Krüger’s comments went beyond boasting BMW’s tech.
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