Formula E, which starts its second season on Saturday, announced that Leonardo DiCaprio will promote electric vehicles for the organisation and become Chairman of the championship’s newly created ‘Sustainability Committee’.
The committee will focus on promoting the mass adoption of electric vehicles and the “long term imprint” of the Formula E in the cities where it races. Expand Expanding Close
GM announced that the company will add a second shift and 1,200 jobs at its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant. GM builds 5 models on a single assembly line at Detroit-Hamtramck including the plug-in hybrids Chevrolet Volt and Cadillac ELR. Expand Expanding Close
Three months ago Tesla announced a referral program for Model S owners. By referring someone who ends up buying a Tesla Model S, the owner gets $1,000 credit from Tesla to put toward accessories, service or a car, and the new buyer gets $1,000 off his new Model S. The program is only in a “trial phase” until October 31, but the deadline is also a competition for top referrers.
Today, less than two weeks before the end of the trial, the automaker upped the ante by announcing that those who make 5 referrals will receive a Tesla Powerwall for free… Expand Expanding Close
Starting on January 1st, Ontario will become the first province in Canada to open its roads to testing of automated vehicles, according to a recent report (via CBC). The province will allow testing of self-driving cars (Google has been a pioneer in the space with both its Lexus models and its smaller, prototype EVs), as well as “related technologies,” starting on January 1st 2016… Expand Expanding Close
BMW issued its worldwide sales report yesterday and confirmed continued growth for its flagship electric car: the i3. The German automaker delivered 3,361 units in Septemeber, a 86% increase over last year. 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
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter Saturday night that his company will release its software v7.0 with Autopilot for the Model S on Thursday (October 15th). In mid-August Tesla sent out the first release of the beta update to about 600-700 early access testers all around the U.S. and parts of Europe. This particular update is an extremely anticipated one. It includes an important UI design overhaul, but also and more importantly several new ‘Autopilot’ features, which some Model S owners have been waiting for over a year now. Expand Expanding Close
Hilton announced today that they will team up with Tesla and GE to install electric vehicle charging stations at 50 U.S. hotels by the end of the year and 100 by the end of 2016. Expand Expanding Close
Last week Denmark’s new government announced that they plan on phasing out tax breaks for electric vehicles in the 2016 budget. The new provision would increase the price of all-electric cars significantly, but even more so for luxury vehicles like the Tesla Model S, which would see its price increase by ~180%.
It’s obviously bad news for electric cars in the mid- to long-term, but it could actually be a blessing in disguise for Tesla which needs to significantly increase sales in the short-term to achieve its 2015 delivery guidance. Expand Expanding Close
The Netherlands is an excellent market for electric cars, it’s not quite Norway, but when adding plug-in hybrids it’s getting close. As for all-electric vehicles, Tesla’s Model S is by far the best-selling in the country based on registration data.
South Korean news outlets are reporting that the electronic giant LG Chem will build a new factory to produce batteries for electric cars in Europe. The new plant will reportedly have an annual production capacity of 50,000 battery packs, making it of similar size as the company’s Holland, Michigan plant where the company produces battery packs for the Chevy Volt and eventually the Bolt. Expand Expanding Close
Tesla Motors is set to release by early next week the number of Model S’s delivered during the third quarter 2015. Tesla’s sales are an important metric for the short and mid-term future of electric vehicles. Like any other industry, the automotive industry is driven by profit-making. If an automaker solely manufacturing electric vehicles, like Tesla, can show growing sales while maintaining favorable profit margins, there is no better motivator for the incumbents to accelerate their electric vehicle programs.
Lets take a quick look at Tesla’s sales so far this year: Expand Expanding Close
Chargepoint, one of the leaders in the commercial EV charging market, this week announced a new line of home chargers that are available at Amazon.com. The lineup starts at $499 for an indoor (garage) with a 16A/240V which can add 12 miles per hour of charge. This is a little over double the speed of 110V 15A plugs that go into regular 110V outlets.
Outdoor charging, hard/plug wiring, cord length and double speed 32A all raise the price in $50-$100 increments where a 32A Outdoor with a 25-foot wire cost $799.
A quick look at Amazon’s best seller list (cached to the right) shows that a few days in, Chargepoint dominates EV charger sales at the online retailing giant.
Chargepoint also offers an attractive design (which I got to review at CES at the beginning of the year), integration with Nest and other home automation platforms and software updates over Wifi which will bring new functionality in the future.
At a starting price of $499, however, there are some better deals on the market and particularly at Amazon especially if you are looking at straight W/$.
One of my favorite chargers (and the only other in Amazon’s top 10) is the Electric Motor Werks Juicebox 40A/10KW with 24′ cable for $499 shipped. This is more powerful than Chargepoint’s by a significant margin (40A vs. 32A) and equivalent to Tesla’s home charger and gets outstanding 4.5/5 star reviews from Amazon’s customers. It is so small that it can be taken off its bracket and used as a Travel charger anywhere there is a NEMA 14-50 plug… Expand Expanding Close
In a new note issued today, Jefferies analyst Dan Dolev increased his price target on Tesla Motors to $365 following a new analysis on the company’s battery business. When Tesla first announced its “Gigafactory“, it forecasted a ~30% reduction in battery cost through economy of scale and improved chemistry, but since then Tesla executives revealed that 30% might have been conservative and Jefferies seems to agree. Expand Expanding Close
Chinese startup NextEV raised about half of the $1 billion it seeks ahead of launching its electric vehicle lineup according to Bloomberg. Last month we wrote about NextEV coming out of stealth to reveal its plan to “disrupt” the electric vehicle market with yet another electric supercar and today we learn that the company is extremely well-funded by big-name VC firms: Sequoia Capital and Joy Capital. Expand Expanding Close
During a press conference late Wednesday night, Governor Jerry Brown announced that California Democratic lawmakers abandoned the drastic fuel economy provision from the Clean Energy and Pollution Reduction Act, which is currently being discussed in the State Assembly.
The provision in question was a requirement for a reduction of 50 percent of fuel used in cars and trucks in the state by 2030, which would have forced automakers to improve fuel efficiency and offer more electric vehicles in the state of California. Expand Expanding Close
Ecocruise is a startup manufacturing Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV), often known as golf cart, but Ecocruise’s lineup is more interesting than just golf carts, especially its new off-road vehicle; the Cruser Sport. Expand Expanding Close
The German electronic and auto parts giant Bosch will introduce a new thermal management system at the Frankfurt Motor Show, which runs from the 17th to 27th of September, that could increase electric vehicle (EV) range by up to 25%.
The system would be especially advantageous for electric vehicles operating in a cold climate. Expand Expanding Close
Yesterday Michelin announced the winners of its annual ‘Mobility for All’ International Design Competition. Encouragingly, most of the winners submitted concepts based on electric vehicle technologies.
To be clear, these concepts have very little chance of making it into actual end products, but regardless, when electric vehicles dominate a list of concepts, it is a good indicator of where the future is going. Expand Expanding Close
Electric vehicles are here to stay, there’s very little doubt about that at this point, but which automakers are making sure that EVs are not a fad, but a trend? A new report from EV-Sales, a website tracking electric vehicle sales through car registration data, compiled the top automotive groups selling EVs in volume. Expand Expanding Close
The electronics and auto parts giant Bosch announced the acquisition of Seeo Inc, a California-based startup with exclusive licensing rights to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s portfolio of patents for lithium polymer battery cells.
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.
[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.
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Formula E, which starts its second season on Saturday, announced that Leonardo DiCaprio will promote electric vehicles for the organisation and become Chairman of the championship’s newly created ‘Sustainability Committee’.
