Tesla Motors

Tesla CEO Elon Musk described the Gigafactory in Nevada as a product, calling it the “Gigafactory 1” – implying there will eventually be a “Gigafactory 2”. This second battery factory could end up being built in Germany according to comments made earlier today by Vice-Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel.
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Since Tesla is taking its sweet time to starts delivering the Model X in volume, we thought you might want to get your eye-candy fix of the all-electric crossover. Tesla delivered the very first Model X, a ‘Founder series’ P90D, to its CEO Elon Musk and a Tesla Motors Club member recently spotted the vehicle at the Hawthorne Supercharger.
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There’s been some concerns over the way Tesla is reporting the power output of its Model S, especially the Dual Motor version. Until recently, the company advertised the combined power output of both motors without accurately accounting for the limitations of the battery pack.

This resulted in the Model S rarely, if ever achieving the advertised horsepower. After several complaints from owners, CTO JB Straubel wrote a blog post explaining the logic behind Tesla’s calculations, but some owners in Norway still moved forward with formal complaints to the local consumer protection agency.
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Tesla rarely, if ever offer discounts at the purchase of its products, but with its ambitious goal to deliver between 17,000 and 19,000 vehicles globally in the last 3 months of the year, it seems the company resorted to offering a significant discount to new Chinese customers.

The company announced through a blog post on its Chinese website that from November 15 to December 31, it will offer up to 80,000 Yuan ($12,500 US) in discount at the purchase of a Model S under its “fuel vehicle replacement” program.
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Earlier this week, we reported on the Danish government suspecting Tesla of having registered 2,500 cars to profit from the tax breaks for electric vehicles, which will start phasing out next year. A Tesla representative quickly denied the claim saying that only 114 Model S’s were registered in October in Denmark, but now both parties clarified the situation and Tesla confirmed having ordered 2,500 license plates.
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Today Tesla is expected to open its first store in Boston in the Shops at the Prudential Center according to the Boston Business Journal. The opening is part of Tesla’s plan to significantly expand its retail presence in the US with 12 more stores opening during the fourth quarter.
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Switzerland continues to be an impressive market for Tesla. Based on registration data, Tesla delivered 120 Model S’s in the country last month, which brings the year-to-date total to 1,269 cars versus 357 during the same period in 2014.
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Based on registration data, Tesla delivered 121 Model S’s in Germany last month, which brings the year-to-date total to 1,212 cars versus 593 during the same period in 2014. 
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Earlier this year, Tesla’s head in Germany, Philipp Schroeder, left the company to join his former employer: Sonnenbatterie. Tesla quickly replaced Schroeder with its sales chief in Switzerland, but now we learn through Wirschafts Woche that 6 Tesla managers in the country followed Schroeder to the energy storage system maker.
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The Danish government recently announced the phasing out of tax breaks for electric vehicles starting next year. 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 could see its price increase by as much as 180%.

As I speculated in a recent piece: “Denmark’s tax increase on electric cars could be a blessing in disguise for Tesla“, potential buyers could rush to secure the purchase of electric vehicles before the end of the tax break, which would create a surge in EV registrations during the last quarter of the year.

Earlier today, tax minister Karsten Lauritzen confirmed that such a surge happened, but he claimed that it could be due to an “illegal bulk purchase” of 2,500 cars from Tesla.
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Last month, Consumer Reports stopped recommending the Tesla Model S because the vehicle scored below average on its reliability survey. Following the announcement, Tesla’s stock price went down by 10%.

The pulling of its recommendation was a surprise to many since just a few weeks before, the magazine grabbed headlines by announcing that the Model S “broke” its rating system by scoring 103 out of 100.
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While doing some related LinkedIn research, we found out that Ben Hill, Trinasolar’s President of Europe and Africa, recently left the company to lead Tesla’s Energy division in same the markets.

Trinasolar is one of the largest solar module manufacturers in the world. The company shipped 3.6 GW of modules last year and over 11 GW since its inception in 1997.
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Tesla released on its Youtube channel a series of short promotional videos featuring the different functions of the Autopilot: Autopark, Auto Lane Change and Autosteer.

You can watch the videos below the fold:
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Over a year after Elon Musk first announced in his now famous “All Our Patent Are Belong To You” blog post that Tesla will be open-sourcing all its patents. We now have the first confirmation that some automakers have actually taken Tesla on the offer.

During an interview with Ron Baron last Friday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk very briefly mentioned for the first time that he believes companies are now using Tesla’s patents:

“I think actually there are a number of companies using our patents.”

Musk’s comment was in response to Baron asking why companies are not taking advantage of Tesla’s technology considering it is “free” and that the company is achieving higher safety and emission standard than the competition.
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It looks like Tesla is set to update its key fob with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) according to FCC documents first reported by The Verge. Tesla’s current key runs at 315 MHz like most other electronic key fob, but the new version was tested for Bluetooth Low Energy, which is most popular for its capacity to become a short-range finder beacon.
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Tesla recently reported its third quarter financial results and the company disclosed delivery guidance for 2016. Tesla expects to produce and deliver between 1,600 and 1,800 vehicles per week on average next year – meaning a yearly total of 83,200 to 93,600 units. If the company can achieve the higher end of its guidance, it would deliver more cars in a year than it did since the company was founded in 2003.

The automaker delivered 11,603 cars from July through September, which made the last quarter its best to date, but the company is aiming to significantly increase production this quarter in order to deliver between 17,000 to 19,000 units during the last three months of year.
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Adam Jonas, a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley covering Tesla Motors and the automotive industry, is nothing if not persistent. During Tesla’s recent conference call to discuss third quarter financial results, the analyst again asked Tesla CEO Elon Musk about the possibility for the company to join the likes of Uber and Lyft in the ride-sharing industry.

Jonas first brought up the idea at Tesla’s last quarterly conference call after comments made by Tesla board member Steve Juvertson about Uber CEO Travis Kalanick potentially wanting to buy 500,000 autonomous Teslas by the end of the decade. First time around earlier this year, Jonas got a firm “no comment” from Musk, but nonetheless the CEO called his question “insightful” at the time. The second time around during this week’s call, Jonas pushed the question again and although Musk’s first reaction was not to comment, which is rare for the CEO, he implied that an announcement could be coming.
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Tesla Motors announced the renewal of its $1,000 referral program for the Model S for 2 more months after the end of the first trial period on October 31. It’s fair to say that the program was a success with a single Model S owner selling 100 cars in only 3 months and hundreds of top referrers selling several thousand vehicles.

The company introduced a few new prizes for top referrers including free Ludicrous P90D Model S’s and invitations to the unveiling of the Model 3 expected in late March 2016.
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