Category Archives: Tesla

News and reviews of Tesla electric cars (including plug-in hybrids).

Coronavirus outbreak impacts production of electric vehicles

March 2, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, TeslaRepost

The coronavirus outbreak in China is expected to have an impact on the auto industry in the United States.

That’s according to a new analysis from the Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group.

“It’s a very bad situation,” says Patrick Anderson, Principal and CEO of the group. “I think it’s going to cascade out into the United States in terms of certain parts and certain models fairly quickly.”

Millions of people in China have been quarantined because of the virus outbreak. Many factories closed, though some – like Tesla’s assembly plant in Shanghai – have started to reopen.

Anderson says the economic impacts for carmakers will mostly be felt within China, but he says companies may have to substitute parts in North America to continue production of certain vehicles.

He says the hardest hit part of the industry will be electric vehicles, because China makes many of the batteries that go into the vehicles, and those batteries can’t be quickly sourced from elsewhere.

“I think the effect of this is partially going to identify for people how fragile the supply chain is for battery-electric vehicles,” Anderson says.

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How a Tesla Model 3 became safe haven in Australian bushfires

February 12, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, Model 3, News, Reviews and Comment, TeslaRepost

Cooler conditions have dampened the devastating bushfires that have ravaged Australia this summer, even though some areas are still under threat.

But an uplifting story has emerged of how one family’s experience was made easier thanks to owning an electric vehicle.

Rather than being an impediment in a fire emergency and at risk of running out of driving range, electric vehicle owner Garry Thorpe says his Tesla Model 3 was “brilliant”.

Tesla Model 3 Unveil (Image: Tesla) — Tesla Model 3 (Image: Tesla)

Evacuating residents and holidaymakers told tales of fuel, food and water shortages during the bushfire crisis – but this wasn’t the case for Thorpe and his family of 18, including 10 grandchildren.

“Tesla was brilliant. In a disaster, both power and petrol are rapidly unavailable. When power is restored, fuel is hard to come by,” Thorpe said, recounting the experience in Facebook group “Electric Vehicles for Australia“.

“My experience was that I could get a “full tank” before the crisis arrived, and as soon as the power was back on, could get a “full tank” easier than petrol. The car AC (air conditioning) was brilliant, you can run it for hours with hardly any power drain.”

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Renault Zoe Wins 2019 EV Model Trophy In Germany, BMW Wins Manufacturer Trophy

February 3, 2020E300e PHEV, Electric Cars, Mercedes, Model 3, News, Reviews and Comment, Renault, Tesla, ZOERepost

The German plug-in electric passenger vehicle market ended the year on fire, with registrations more than doubling in December, to 11,328 registrations.

Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) were up 198% year over year (YoY), pulling the market up significantly and balancing the 2019 BEV/PHEV share to 58% BEV (fully electric) vs. 42% PHEV (51% / 49% in December).

The PEV share climbed to 4% in December, with BEVs alone hitting 2%, while the final plug-in vehicle (PEV) share for 2019 ended at a record 3% (1.8% BEVs).

Looking at December best sellers, the Mercedes E300e/de twins three-peated the monthly leadership, with 964 units narrowly beating the high tide Tesla Model 3 (926 units). In addition, the Renault Zoe returned to the podium, with 780 units, signaling the return of the French hatchback.

Just off the podium we have the forever young VW e-Golf, with 764 units registered, while the BMW i3 closes this top 5 thanks to 630 registrations, just barely beating the #6 Smart Fortwo EV (623 units) to the finish line.

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2020 will be a key year (and decade) for electric vehicles

January 25, 2020Electric Cars, News, Reviews and Comment, Sales, TeslaRepost

You only have to look at the annual tech ritual that is the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) — which kicked off in Vegas this weekend amid a blur of oversized TVs, 5G phones and foldable tablets — to see how important electric vehicles will be in 2020.

Many of the big and small automakers that sell passenger vehicles will be showing off their newest electric models, such as Ford’s Mustang Mach-E, Nissan’s electric crossover concept Ariya, Fiat Chrysler’s plug-in hybrid Jeep Wrangler and Mercedes-Benz’s EQC 400 4Matic and Vision EQS vehicles. Sunday at CES, Chinese EV maker Byton showed off its M-Byte (most famous for its 48-inch wrap-around dashboard screen), due out later this year. Other automakers that are hosting press conferences or booths this week include Audi, Toyota, Hyundai, Honda and Daimler.

While CES has long been shifting to a “car show disguised as a tech conference,” this year it would seem especially quaint if an automaker premiered a gas or diesel-powered model. The future is electric, and CES is an event all about looking forward.

2020 will indeed be the “year of the electric car” particularly across Europe, says the Guardian. Cities in Europe are banning diesel vehicles from city centers while European automakers launch flagship EVs with names like the Fiat 500 and the Mini. 175 EV models will be on sale by the end of 2020 for European consumers, such as Volkswagen’s id3, up from fewer than 100 right now.

European vehicle electrification will have profound effects on Europe’s carbon emissions, but it also will present a challenging transformation for European auto sectors. Germany, for example, is expected to shed jobs as plants close that make internal combustion parts. Electric vehicles are simpler to make and require fewer parts, meaning a tightened supply chain. But you can also point to the German auto industry’s resistance to change as an equally big challenge.

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Tesla Model 3 set to overtake Nissan LEAF as the best-selling electric car of all time

January 21, 2020Electric Cars, Leaf, Model 3, News, Reviews and Comment, Nissan, TeslaRepost

The Tesla Model 3 is set to overtake the Nissan LEAF as the best selling electric car of all time this quarter and likely to hit 500,000 sales too.

The best-selling electric car of all time is the Nissan LEAF. That’s been the case almost since the LEAF first went on sale in 2010. But not for much longer.

To date, the Nissan LEAF has amassed sales of around 450,000, but the Tesla Model 3 – which only went on sale in the UK last year – looks set to overtake the LEAF this quarter as Tesla defies all the odds to produce and deliver big Model 3 numbers to the market.

As far as we can tell, the Tesla Model 3’s sales are just a notch below the LEAF’s cumulative sales at the end of 2019 – around 445,000 – and with the current rate of deliveries and production the Model 3 will take the title, probably by the end of January.

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New Tesla Supercharger Goes Live in UK, Can Add 75 Miles in Just Five Minutes

January 15, 2020Charging, Electric Cars, Model 3, Model S, Model X, News, Reviews and Comment, TeslaRepost

New Park Royal Supercharger station marks 500th in Europe

TESLA has launched its first ‘V3’ Superchargers in the UK, offering British owners of its electric cars the ability to recharge their vehicles at up to 250kW — equal to 75 miles of range added every five minutes, or a rate of 1,000 miles per hour.

The batch of eight V3 points are located at Tesla’s new Park Royal charging station in London, and sit next to a further eight V2 Superchargers, which, with a peak output of 150kW, are still pretty quick as public charging points go.

Tesla Supercharging Station at Westfield, London (Image: Tesla)

However, the V3 posts have all-new architecture that is not only capable of delivering more kilowatts to the battery packs per second, but also won’t split the power supply between vehicles charging nearby, allowing owners to charge at the maximum power their battery can take.

New software in the cars will also pre-warm the batteries while en route to a Supercharger, which is claimed to reduce average charge times by 25% by ensure they are already at the optimal temperature to receive an ultra-fast charge on arrival.

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Tesla’s Musk says solar, energy storage will grow faster than electric cars, and there’s some truth to it

January 7, 2020Electric Cars, Energy and Climate Change, Energy Storage, Model 3, News, Reviews and Comment, Solar Power, TeslaRepost

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently said the company’s solar and energy storage business will grow faster than its electric vehicle business.
With Tesla making progress on Model 3 production efficiency, Musk said on the most recent earnings call there will be more focus on solar and the broader Tesla Energy business, which includes aligning intermittent solar power with battery storage.
Tesla and Musk have faced criticism, and a shareholder lawsuit, over the solar business, the controversial acquisition of SolarCity, and issues at the company’s solar panel plant in Buffalo, New York.

A Model 3 ramp-up that resulted in a quarterly profit was a sign that Tesla’s automobile business finally may be financially stable. If so, it is a good time for Tesla to turn its attention to the energy business — encompassing solar and energy storage — that has for long taken a backseat to getting the electric vehicle assembly line in order.

Elon Musk has been broadcasting this message since Tesla reported a surprise profit in the third quarter. On the call with Wall Street analysts after the earnings in November, the Tesla CEO said, “For almost two years we had to divert a tremendous amount of resources.”

Now Musk claims Tesla is poised for “the really crazy growth for as far into the future as I can imagine. … It would be difficult to overstate the degree to which Tesla Energy is going to be a major part of Tesla’s activity in the future,” he said.

Never one to shy away from bold claims or ambitions, Musk said Tesla Energy could grow to roughly the same size as Tesla’s automotive business, and solar would grow, on a percentage basis, the fastest of any, with storage second.

“I think both over time will grow faster than automotive,” Musk said. “They’re starting from a smaller base.” He added, “I think, especially, if you look at sort of — if you look at, like, year-over-year growth, it will be absolutely incredible … over the course of, say, a year, gigantic increase.”

In a recent internal email to Tesla employees, Musk outlined two critical year-end priorities: delivering all cars to their customers and boosting the rate of solar deployments by a significant degree.

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3 Reasons Why Even Skeptics are Turning Bullish on Tesla (TSLA)

December 22, 2019Cybertruck, Electric Cars, Model 3, Model S, Model X, News, Reviews and Comment, TeslaRepost

Skeptics of Tesla have turned bullish on the electric car manufacturer.
Tesla has matured in 2019, operating more like a traditional automotive company.
It’s already too far ahead of the pack in the electric car market, no other company comes close.

The market cap of Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has surpassed the $60 billion mark, supported by the rising popularity of the newly released Cybertruck. The firm’s turnaround has even led skeptics to turn bullish.

Up until October, Tesla was criticized for being a little bit too different from traditional automakers in the way the company handles conferences, earnings and other crucial aspects of the business.

As the company evolved, and so did its market cap, high profile investors like Jim Cramer and Pierre Feragu started to believe that Tesla is now far ahead of the automotive industry. Three reasons support that claim.

1. Highly innovative

Tesla has stood out from its competitors since its inception. The public’s reception of its newest products like the Cybertruck have changed the mind of investors who previously thought such products would only appeal to a niche market.

Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s Mad Money, said that he was blown away by the demand for the Cybertruck. With an improving balance sheet, beloved CEO in Elon Musk, and an active following, Cramer said that Tesla has all signs of a great company:

Even better, on that last conference call, he revealed his true rigor without the sardonic quips. Musk, it turns out, is a great CEO when he can get out of his own way, and that seems to be what he’s doing. Cult product? Check. Sound balance sheet? Check. Charismatic Leader? Check. If you’re going to invest in a battleground stock, Tesla’s got all the ingredients of a winner.

So far, 250,000 orders for the Cybertruck have been made. That’s equivalent to $25 million in revenue once the cars ship.

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The best electric cars you can buy – and the one to avoid

December 19, 2019Electric Cars, Model 3, Model X, News, Reviews and Comment, TeslaRepost

Electric cars are growing in popularity, and no wonder: the best are quiet, cheap to run and smooth to drive. But which are the bright sparks to consider – and which are the loose connections?…..

Electric cars are now entering the mainstream, and their rise is only going to accelerate as rules are introduced to limit the kind of vehicles allowed into major cities.

The main thing that has traditionally held them back is range anxiety – the fear that you won’t have enough juice to get to where you’re going. However, with plenty of models now capable of covering more than 200 miles between charges, this is becoming less of an issue.

So, which electric cars should you consider? Here, we count down our favourites and tell you the one to avoid. And, remember, if any of them take your fancy, check out our What Car? New Car Buying to see how much we could save you.

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2019 was the year electric cars grew up

December 16, 2019Electric Cars, Model 3, Model S, Model X, News, Reviews and Comment, Sales, TeslaRepost

Electric cars had their biggest year ever in 2019, even as storm clouds gathered over their future.

The numbers were huge. Automakers committed $225 billion to electrification in the coming years. Electric vehicles (EVs) grabbed 2.2% of the global vehicle market over the first 10 months of 2019 as a slew of new models hit the road. Ford, which has yet to sell an all-electric vehicle, showed off the upcoming electric Mustang Mach-E (a crossover SUV) and an electric F-150 pick-up. Tesla, of course, shocked everyone by turning a profit and previewing a strange future with its “cybertruck,” potentially the Hummer for Millenials.

But it wasn’t all rainbows. Outside of China and Norway, where car buyers enjoy generous incentives, the market is still driven by early adopters rather than the mainstream. EV sales for the year have been sluggish. While some states such as California have seen EVs capture 8% of new sales (all-electric and plug-in hybrid), the rest of the country has not yet caught on. After doubling between 2017 and 2018, EV market share in the US had crept up from 1.6% last March to 1.8% a year later (pdf).

That hasn’t slowed automakers’ ambitions. They’re betting it’s better to get ahead of the now-inevitable shift to EVs than play catch up to established rivals and Tesla. But if demand fails to pick up the big bet may mean consolidation and bankruptcy for some.

Here are the highlights from 2019.

EVs sold even as the car market dipped. The Model 3 can claim most of the credit.

The year started off strong for electric cars. After selling a record 361,000 EVs in 2018, automakers foresaw a robust 2019. Yet for carmakers not named Tesla, sales sputtered out mid-year. Sales for the three dozen or so other EV models on the market declined by an about 20% in 2019 compared to a year earlier, while Tesla’s Model 3 sales tripled between January and September. Tesla represented an astonishing 78% of US EV sales as of October, estimated CleanTechnica, delivering about 123,000 Model 3s, and 30,000 Model S and Model X vehicles. But EVs proved to be a rare bright spot amid what appears to be a long-term decline in global auto sales now entering its third year, what industry analysts call “peak car.”

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