Elon Musk

During a visit in Berlin at the end of the month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is scheduled to meet Sigmar Gabriel, German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, for a public conversation titled “Economy for Tomorrow”.  The CEO’s visit in Germany coincides with the popular Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA), which runs from the 17th to 27th of September.

Tesla is not expected to bring anything new to the Frankfurt Motor Show considering the company’s predilection for unveiling products at their own events instead of at industry shows…
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On Tuesday, Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas issued a new note on Tesla Motors reiterating an “overweight” rating and a price target of $465. Tesla’s stock closed at $248 per share Tuesday – representing a 86% potential upside. In the note, Jonas doubled down on his prediction disclosed in a previous note saying that Tesla will launch a “Uber-like” service to compete in the ride-sharing/taxi market, which he refers to as “Tesla Mobility”.

He said he would be “surprised” if the company didn’t explain their plan for such a service before the unveiling of the Model 3, which is expected in March 2016.
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In an email to Model S owners today, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed the company’s new referral program “seems to be working” and they are removing the 10-referral limit. More than 9 Model S owners have already referred 10 or more leads which turned into sales.

The company is also adding one more reward to the program. Now not only the first owners to get to 10 referrals in each region (North America, Asia and Europe) will get a free Model X, but the customer who makes the most referrals by the end of the program in October will be able to trade their current Model S for a brand new fully loaded Ludicrous P90D Model S for free.
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The long-awaited Tesla Model X, which will launch on September 29th, could become a very popular vehicle with American business owners, not just because of its signature ‘Falcon Wing’ doors or the ‘sculptural beauty‘ of its second row seats, but because it could actually be a great bargain despite of its $80,000 starting price.

Beyond the $7,500 federal tax credit offer at the purchase of electric vehicles and other tax incentives at the state level, the Model X’s weight and capacity could make it eligible to the $25,000 tax deduction for heavy vehicles under Section 179, also known as the ‘Hummer Tax Loophole’…
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Image with 2013 Tesla Model X open

Tesla’s all-electric SUV, the Model X, made the headlines yesterday when the company opened its online design studio for early reservation holders to configure their car, but reservations were for the “Signature Model X” which comes already loaded with options bringing the price to $132,000.

The expensive price-tag raised a lot of eyebrows, but today Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to clarify the situation and confirmed the Model X has a $5,000 price difference with the Model S for the same options.
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Last month Tesla announced a new referral program for Model S owners that will run as an experiment through October. If you refer the Model S to a friend, your friend will get $1,000 off the price of his new car and Tesla will credit you $1,000 for your referral, which you can apply to any purchase with the company, like a new car, service center visit or accessories.

Now dealership are pushing back against Tesla’s program. California’s main dealership lobbying group sent a letter to the director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Jean Shiomoto, to ask his agency to crackdown on the referral program.
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The global stock market had a horrible day. Even Wall Street darlings like Google and Apple saw billions of dollars trimmed off their market capitalizations. A surprising exception, SolarCity, the largest residential solar installer in the US, managed to go against the grain and closed the day with an impressive 7% gain thanks to its Chairman and major shareholder Elon Musk who bought another $5 million worth of shares during the stock’s price fall to add to his holding in the company now worth over $900 million of SolarCity’s total market cap of just over $4 billion.
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CBS today announced a full lineup of guests for the upcoming kick off of The Late Show hosted by Stephen Colbert, and scheduled for the second show is none other than Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

With the upcoming Model X release, that will surely be one topic of conversation among the two, but it’s possible something bigger is planned given this will the second show of the new Late Show with Colbert. Musk has appeared with Colbert on his old program several times over the years, but we’ll have to see what Colbert’s new format at The Late Show adds to the mix.
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Sources familiar with Tesla’s new firmware update explained that version 7.0, which is currently being tested and should be released later this year, will include auto-steering, lane change activated by the turn signal, auto-parking (in parallel spaces) and an updated UI (see picture above).

A few months ago, I wrote an in-depth article about Tesla’s Autopilot, its hardware and its limitations. I based the article on information Tesla released when first unveiling the Dual motor version of the Model S in October last year. The company has since been advertising the Model S with the autopilot features, but owners have only been enjoying a fraction of what was promised during the unveiling.

Now, based on what we are learning about the upcoming software update, Tesla appears to be set to deliver on these promises, or at least most of them…

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Tesla Motors sent out a press release this morning to announce a $500 million public stock offering. During the conference call discussing their second quarter financial results earlier this month, Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, let analysts know that the company didn’t need to raise money, but it could be a good idea to do it anyway in order to mitigate risk as the company increases its capital expenditure, which they think could reach $1.5 billion this year.

The company intends to use the money from the offering for “the growth of its stores, service centers, Supercharger network and the Tesla Energy business, and for the development and production of Model 3, the development of the Tesla Gigafactory, and other general corporate purposes.”

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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:
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[tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/627040381729906688 align=’center’]

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.

[tweet https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/627040639553830912 align=’center’]

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.

We had a hunch Tesla was up to something when Elon Musk said he had a “secret weapon agains the car dealers”. In May we wrote:

“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!).

Update: USE MY LINK! http://ts.la/seth8185

Full text of offer follows:
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A great ground look at what’s happening in Hawaii, the state where energy costs the most and where there is plenty of solar energy.  Over 12% of Hawaiians have solar power which is 20x the US national average.  If you count all the rooftops on Oahu together, Solar is a 300MW plant that is more than double the size of the next biggest plant on the island.

The problem is: That power plant dies when the sun goes down and the other plants have to crank way back up.
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Solar panels on the roof of SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, CA.

SolarCity revealed in a recent SEC filling that the company expects SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, to buy $75 million in “SolarBonds”. Earlier this year, SpaceX already purchased $90 million in solar-backed bonds from SolarCity, just 2 months after the aerospace company landed a $1 billion equity deal with Google and Fidelity. If this second purchase goes through, SpaceX will be holding $165 million in SolarCity debt backed by solar assets. 
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