Electric car

At this point the fact that Apple is working on an electric vehicle is all but confirmed. Recent reports show that Apple is searching for a private road-testing site, they hired hundreds of workers with automotive industry experience and the company is even allegedly in talks with BMW to license some technology. Officials within Apple have yet to confirm the ambitious new product, but CEO Tim Cook acknowledged that the automobile industry is ripe for disruption and it is difficult to imagine them backing out at this point.

The electric car is reportedly codenamed ‘Project Titan’ and it is indeed a project of titanic proportions. Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently made some comments warning the Cupertino company of the complexity of manufacturing cars. Those comments were surprisingly met by mockery from a lot of Apple fans. I think Apple can and will make an electric vehicle, but I’d like to put the project into perspective.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Just a few months after first speaking about the company’s plan to build an electric version of the Rapide, Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer unveiled in London the all-electric vehicle earlier today during a state visit from the President of China, Xi Jinping.
Expand
Expanding
Close

A team of engineers at Stanford University teamed up with Renovo Motors, the makers of a Corvette-like all-electric car, to build a self-driving electric DeLorean. The group unveiled the prototype yesterday, just before the day Marty McFly time-travels to in the “Back to the Future” film franchise, which popularized the DeLorean.
Expand
Expanding
Close

 Yesterday Apple CEO Tim Cook was at the Wall Street Journal Digital Live conference for an interview and he talked about the company’s take on innovation in the car industry:

“When I look at the automobile, what I see is that software becomes an increasingly important part of the car of the future. You see that autonomous driving becomes much more important. It seems like there will be massive change in that industry. We want people to have an iPhone experience in their car. We look at a lot of things. Our model is to reduce that list to a few. We will see what we do in the future. I do think that industry is at an inflection point for massive change, not just evolutionary change.”

Expand
Expanding
Close

General Motors held a press conference today to update the media on its partnership with LG and their supply relationship for the upcoming Chevy Bolt. GM confirmed that the Korea-based electronic giant will make most of the components that make the Bolt an electric vehicle including the battery pack, the electric motor and the power electronics.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Tesla Motors is known for hiding easter eggs in its software and the recent Autopilot v7.0 update is no exception. A year ago, a Model S owner figured out that by entering “007” in the access code of his car, the rendering of the Model S on the screen changes into James Bond’s submarine Lotus which Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought at an auction in 2013. Earlier this year, it was a Space Balls reference with the Ludicrous update and now it is an allusion to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Expand
Expanding
Close

The 2015 Tokyo Motor Show is starting next week and several manufacturers already announced the debut of new electric vehicles, including Nissan’s Teatro and Mitsubishi’s eX, now Yamaha says it will unveil 6 new concepts, including a new two-wheel drive all-electric motorcycle and an electric car.
Expand
Expanding
Close

This morning Volvo sent out a press release outlining its plan to introduce more electric vehicles in its lineup. The Swedish automaker plans to introduce plug-in hybrids in all its series of models, including a new compact category, but more importantly, it will bring to market its first all-electric car in 2019.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Tesla has been the best-selling electric vehicle in Switzerland for over 2 years now, but recently it’s been doing so well that it is not only outselling all EVs, but also every gas-powered vehicles in its class.

Based on registration data, Tesla delivered 513 Model S’s in Switzerland during the third quarter 2015 (July to Sept.), a 450% increase over the same period last year.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Media organisations will be disappointed to learn that Tesla CEO Elon Musk plans on cutting back on media appearances. In the past week, Musk mentioned on two occasions, on the Marketplace report and at the New Establishment Summit, that he wishes to reduce time spent on “press stuff” from “2 or 3 percent” of his time to only 1%.

We did the math. 1% of 24 hours is roughly 15 minutes a day or 100 minutes a week – assuming Musk includes sleep in his time.

The CEO says that he already spends most of his time on engineering and design, but he plans to use the time freed up by making less media appearances to focus even more on the products.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Jim Chanos is a famed billionaire hedge fund manager known for short selling companies. He is also a regular market commentator for CNBC and Bloomberg. Chanos recently disclosed having a short position on solar installer SolarCity (SCTY) and although he refused to disclose his position on Tesla Motors (TSLA), he doesn’t have good things to say about the company.

During an interview with Bloomberg on Monday morning, Chanos explained why he thinks both companies are overvalued, but the “facts” he used to support his opinion are misleading.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple’s so-called “poaching war” with Tesla has been a hot topic for the company’s CEO Elon Musk and in a recent interview, Musk fired even more shots at Apple. Speaking to German newspaper Handelsblatt, Musk voiced his lack of concern regarding Apple’s tendency to hire Tesla engineers and executives. Musk recently finished a trip around Europe, speaking with politicians and Tesla employees.

Expand
Expanding
Close

When Tesla Motors negotiated with the state of Nevada to build its battery factory in the desert east of Reno, the state government agreed to give the automaker up to $1.3 billion in tax incentives over 20 years to build the $5 billion project.

But the deal came with several requirements the company needs to meet to get access to the tax breaks. Most of which have to do with employment – Tesla is expected to create up to 6,500 jobs through the Gigafactory once it operates at full capacity in 2020 – but a lesser known requirement was for Tesla to invest in educational research in the state and this week the company fulfilled the commitment by signing an agreement to invest $1 million in battery research with the University of Nevada in Las Vegas (UNLV) over the next 5 years.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Mitsubishi announced today that it will unveil a new electric vehicle concept at the Tokyo Motor Show, which starts on October 29. The new vehicle is called the eX concept and the company hopes to bring it to market in 2020.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Last month we reported on the likely possibility of the Tesla Model X being eligible to $25,000 in tax deduction for business use under Section 179 of the tax code, also known as the ‘Hummer Tax Loophole’. The provision got its name for making Hummers very popular with businesses when it allowed for tax deductions of up to $500,000 for the purchase of heavy vehicles and equipment.

A vehicle requires a gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) of over 6,000 lbs to be eligible for the tax deduction. Last month we didn’t have the official weight of the Model X nor its GVWR, which consists of the curb weight of the vehicle plus the weight of driver, passengers and cargo capacity, but excluding the weight of any trailer and towing capacity.

Today Tesla confirmed the curb weight of the Model X is 5,441 lbs and the company “expects the GVWR to exceed 6,000 lb” – making the Model X eligible to the tax deduction. Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Model X P90D has a rated GVWR of 6768 lbs, well exceeding to required capacity. 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Fred did some excellent work sorting out the Model X pricing but I was surprised to hear that I’d be able to buy a Model X for $75K  before incentives and $65K with…next year.  But how does Tesla get to the $75K price point without going against CEO Elon Musk’s “Model S +$5000” pricing scheme? After all a Model S 70D is currently listed at $75,000.
Expand
Expanding
Close

There’s been some inconsistencies and very little information about the Model X’s availability and pricing, but it could change in the coming weeks as Tesla says it will invite the next group of reservation holders to configure their cars in the “next few weeks”. The company sent out an email this morning to people who have a reservation for the production version of the Model X (see email below).
Expand
Expanding
Close