In October 2014, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill, which was initiated by the Michigan Automobile Dealers Association, to “clarify” an existing law banning automakers from owning or operating car dealerships in the state, ultimately forcing them to go through a third-party franchise model.
The new bill effectively banned Tesla from selling cars in the state due to the company’s direct sales model. Today we learn that despite the ban, Tesla applied for a dealership license in Michigan. Expand Expanding Close
On a recent electric road trip to upstate New York, I realized that, with the cold weather, my snow tires and a car full of kids who like to be warm, I would need over 30 more miles of electricity than my batteries could hold to make it home. Hitting one of Tesla’s speedy Superchargers would require me to veer across the Hudson River twice and add over a half hour to my trip.
Along the fastest route, according to the helpful Plugshare App, there were a few Level 2 charging stations. I can get 30 miles per hour of charge from my default Tesla cable so I figured that I could get most of the extra miles I needed while we stopped for lunch. There was also a highly rated Level 2 charger within a mile of our destination we could use as a backup (it is good to have backups!). I figured we were all set…
Electrek has learned that Tesla this month quietly hired high-profile microprocessor engineer Jim Keller as Vice President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering. Tesla today confirmed the news and sent us the following statement:
Jim Keller is joining Tesla as Vice President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering. Jim will bring together the best internal and external hardware technologies to develop the safest, most advanced autopilot systems in the world.
Keller left chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices(AMD) late last year after leading the team developing the upcoming Zen processor architecture for the past three years. Before that he had a very high-profile role at Apple…
(Update: A Tesla Spokesperson called this report “wrong” and that only 1 of the vehicles would be announced in March. Tesla is indeed working on [at least] 2 different Model 3 platform vehicles which we reported previously. Here’s something they were able to verify.)
I decided to hold off on publishing this info until I saw Tesla’s Hong Kong presentation this week, which included two cars under wraps (pictured above). Yes, obviously, the artwork is simply a Model X and Model S under digital covers, but the fact that there are two cars to be unveiled adds a little more credence to what I’ve heard.
My source believes that the plan around Christmas of last year was to launch at least two vehicles or configurations at the same time, but obviously things could change. Also, Tesla could have two projects happening simultaneously to contain/isolate leaks.
Unless you had the chance to be at the unveiling event in September or you know one of the lucky few early ‘Founder Series’ or ‘Signature Series’ Model X owners, you probably never had the chance to sit or drive Tesla’s new all-electric SUV. Expand Expanding Close
According to a new report from the Reno Gazette-Journal, the Tesla Gigafactory is still ahead of schedule, but it is falling short on job creation and capital investment projections for the project. It would be important to note that RGJ is making these claims based on the most recent data available – dated September 30 and June 30 – while comparing the numbers to the state’s projections for the end of 2015.
In its analysis, RGJ assumes that Tesla is still falling short in the fourth quarter because it was lagging so far behind in September. Expand Expanding Close
When Tesla’s Elon Musk tweeted that he expected to the company’s cars to be able to drive themselves across the U.S. from coast to coast within two years, my response was that I might believe the tech could hit that deadline, but not the law. It seems I may be wrong.
The WSJ reports that the Obama administration wants to invest $3.9B in crafting rules and policies to facilitate the rapid rollout of self-driving cars. This would take place at the federal level, ensuring consistent national laws rather than a patchwork of state-by-state regulations …
A Tesla Model S caught fire while charging at a Supercharger in Norway on New Year’s day. No one was in the car when the fire started and fortunately nobody was harmed, but the car almost completely burned down.
The authorities and Tesla launched investigations to determine the cause of the fire. Last week, the police released the scene of the Supercharger for the ‘crime technical examination’. Today we learn that the ‘Accident Investigation Board’ (AIBN) is shutting down the investigation, but not before disclosing that they found indications that the fire “originated in the car”. Expand Expanding Close
Switzerland continues to be an impressive market for Tesla where the company delivers just as many cars as in Germany, even though it’s a much smaller market than its neighboring country. According to registration data, Tesla delivered 1,556 Model S’s in Switzerland last year and 193 units in December alone. Expand Expanding Close
Tesla confirmed achieving a 238 units per week production rate for the Model X during the last week of December. The company produced just over 500 Model X’s in 2015, which represents about half of the ~1,000 US reservation backlog of limited-edition ‘Signature Model X’.
If the company maintained its production rate during the past two weeks, it means the company is starting the production of its regular production Model X, and the first report of a production Model X reservation holder having his car entering production is corroborating the assumption. Expand Expanding Close
In its latest video, Drag Times demonstrated a potential application for Tesla’s latest feature. Drag Times used the new ‘Summon’ feature to autonomously move the Model S a few dozen feet to “save” the owner from the rain by picking him up under a porte-cochère. Expand Expanding Close
Tesla had an incredible year for sales and deliveries in 2015. The California-based automaker delivered 50,580 vehicles last year, which represents a 60% increase over the previous year. It’s hard to find any weaknesses with such an incredible sales performance. Yet the company increased its deliveries in almost all markets but Norway, where according to registration data, Tesla delivered the exact same number of Model S’s in 2014 and 2015: 4,039 units. Expand Expanding Close
In a SEC filling published this morning, Tesla confirmed that Fidelity increased its stake in the company to just over 10% ownership. Expand Expanding Close
When Tesla CEO Elon Musk first announced the Gigafactory project, he said that even though the planned capacity of the factory is equal to the entire global production of lithium-ion batteries in 2013, the world would sill need around 200 more giant factories of similar size to support the auto industry’s transition from fossil fuels to electric.
After the well-documented release notes of the 7.1 update for the Model S and X Saturday, Tesla published a short blog update on Sunday and held a press conference to reveal its ambitions for the future of the ‘Summon’ feature, while Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter to describes what he calls the “first baby step” of the ‘Summon’ capability and its potential for the future. Expand Expanding Close
The new “Summon” feature received most of the attention after yesterday’s release of Tesla’s software v7.1, but the automaker also released ‘auto perpendicular parking’, which adds to the ‘auto parallel park’ feature Tesla released in October with the update v7.0. Expand Expanding Close
Tesla released today the version 7.1 of its software for the Model S and X. The new update includes everything we told you about when Tesla started testing the build with beta testers last month: UI improvements, a new self-parking feature, ‘Driver Mode’ and Autopilot restrictions, but the automaker is also introducing the “Summon” feature, which enables the Model S to drive itself without anyone in the car. Expand Expanding Close
Tesla has a presence in Sweden since late 2013, but sales in the country have been lagging until mid-2015. Based on registration data, Tesla delivered only 268 Model S’s in Sweden in 2014, but last year the automaker delivered 996 cars, which represents a 271% increase. Expand Expanding Close
In December, the Tesla Model S not only outsold every other electric car in Denmark, but every single car model regardless of if they are gas-guzzling or battery-powered.
Tesla delivered 1,249 Model S’s in December in Denmark, easily beating the second best-selling vehicle; the Peugeot 208 with 903 vehicles sold during the month. Expand Expanding Close
According to Tesla Senior Design Executive Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla first planned to unveil the Model 3, its upcoming mass market electric car, at the Detroit Auto Show 2015, but that deadline passed almost a year ago.
Last year, Tesla updated its timeline to March 2016 and EV enthusiasts are anxious to know if the automaker will stick to the new target. So far so good, a Tesla official confirmed today that the Model 3 is on track for a March unveiling. Expand Expanding Close
The investigation is not over, but today we learn that local police released the scene of the Supercharger after not being able to find a problem with the fast-charging station. Expand Expanding Close
The $3,000 upgrade from a 85 kWh battery pack to a 90 kWh pack is now only available with the all-wheel-drive Model S, as Tesla discontinued the option for the rear-wheel-drive version of the vehicle. Expand Expanding Close
