This weekend, Texas A&M University will be hosting SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition’s “Design Weekend”. Over 1,000 students and engineers forming 124 teams are competing for a chance to build their own Hyperloop pod prototypes and race them at SpaceX’s upcoming test track.
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Nissan expands its “free” charging program for the LEAF called “No Charge to Charge” to 3 more US cities: Austin, Texas; Monterey, Calif. and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. New LEAF buyers will have access to some chargers in EZ-Charge’s network for 2 years. The first 30 minutes of each DC charging session and 60 minutes of each level 2 charging session will be free.
IF LEAF owners want to hug the charging stalls for longer periods they will have to pay EZ-Charge, but considering the LEAF’s battery pack size, it isn’t likely to be necessary.
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When Google originally showcased the newer low-speed “cute-mobile” self-driving car, it mentioned a goal of having about 100 of them on the road for testing within a couple years. Now, as the company is bringing its low-speed electric prototypes to Austin a year later, Sarah Hunter, head of policy for Google [X], has revealed that the company is expanding production of the cars (via The Guardian). Hunter says that Google is now producing at least a “few hundred” and hints at a potential future of mass-production…
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Last month Tesla’s plan for a showroom and service center in San Antonio was denied approval by the city zoning commission over concerns that Tesla’s battery packs could potentially contaminate the local water supply. The commission denied the proposal despite the recommendation of San Antonio Water System (SAWS) which approved Tesla’s project.
The project was up for another vote last week, but Tesla pulled the proposal to work on some the details ahead of more concerns leading up to the vote…
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Even though Tesla Motors sold just over 3,000 cars in Texas since it introduced its all-electric sedan in 2012, the lone star state still maintains its ban on the direct sale method of the Silicon Valley carmaker. Yesterday on Bloomberg Radio, Texas Governor Greg Abbott reiterated his preference for the statu quo on the ban of direct car sales.
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From today’s Shareholder Report(PDF):
In June, we broke ground just outside Reno, Nevada on a site that could potentially be the location for the Gigafactory. Consistent with our strategy to identify and break ground on multiple sites, we continue to evaluate other locations in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. The final site for the first Gigafactory will be determined in the next few months, once we have full visibility and agreement on the relevant incentives and processes for enabling the Gigafactory to be fully operational to meet the timing for Model 3. We see these concurrent efforts as prudent. This vehicle will be
our third-generation product and will substantially broaden the addressable market for Tesla, helping to accelerate the transition towards sustainable transportation. Any potentially duplicative investments are minor compared to the revenue that could be lost if the launch of Model 3 were affected by any delays at our primary Gigafactory site.
Conference call will be at 5:30 here. Stock is down in after hours on unit shipment numbers.