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.
In an effort to spur lackluster sales of electric cars, California, New York and six other states said on Thursday that they would work jointly to adopt a range of measures, including encouraging more charging stations and changing building codes, to make it easier to own an electric car.
The goal, they said, was to achieve sales of at least 3.3 million vehicles that did not have any emissions by 2025.
The states, which represent more than a quarter of the national car market, said they would seek to develop charging stations that all took the same form of payment, simplify rules for installing chargers and set building codes and other regulations to require the stations at workplaces, multifamily residences and at other places.
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.
