Elon Musk
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The Tesla Model X electric SUV will be further delayed for additional quality and validation testing, according to the latest earnings report from Tesla Motors. Deliveries of the luxury electric crossover utility vehicle are now scheduled to start in the third quarter of next year. DON'T MISS: Motor Trend Reviews Tesla P85D, Drools & Froths Uncontrollably The company delivered 7,785 cars from July through September, essentially meeting its most recent guidance of 7,800 cars for the quarter. That number had been reduced from 8,000 when the company announced it would shut its assembly line...
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Were Small Cars Exactly The Wrong Way To Launch Electric Cars?
Historically, most technology innovations in automobiles start at the high end and gradually work their way down the lineup until they've become standard features of even the humblest of cars. From automatic transmissions to disc brakes, turbochargers to fuel injection, high-end audio systems to...
John Voelcker -
Elon Musk Vs Ward's: A Sales Battle Tesla Brought On Itself
It all started when stock analysts circulating an estimate from auto-industry trade journal Ward's Auto that Tesla's U.S. sales were down 26 percent for the first nine months of 2014, compared to the same period in 2013.. It was covered in a Wall Street Journal story on the company's new lower-cost...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model S Gets Huge Incentive In Shanghai: No $12K Fee For Registration
The Tesla Model S electric luxury sedan has now been on sale in China for six months, but it recently received a major sales incentive from local officials in Shanghai. That city's municipal government has ruled that Tesla buyers will be exempted from paying the $12,000 registration fee required to...
John Voelcker -
The Videos Car Dealers Hate: Is It 'Haggling' Or 'Negotiating'?
Car dealers often come in for criticism, especially among electric-car advocates and Tesla Motors supporters who have watched state dealership lobbying groups make Tesla's direct-sales model illegal in a number of states. Since 2010, those lobbyists have been altering state laws originally designed...
John Voelcker -
Toyota Too Reveals It Sold Some Tesla Shares, As Daimler Did
Well, that makes two: Toyota confirmed yesterday that it had sold a portion of its shares in electric-car maker Tesla Motors. The Japanese company's sales appear to have taken place at roughly the same time that German automaker Daimler sold its 4 percent stake in Tesla, adding $780 million in cash...
John Voelcker -
In early 2009, German luxury car maker Daimler effectively saved Silicon Valley electric-car maker Tesla Motors by purchasing 9.1 percent of the company for a reported $50 million. Now, more than five years later--following a remarkable rise in Tesla's stock price--Daimler has largely cashed out its remaining 4-percent holding, adding a healthy $780 million in cash to its books DON'T MISS: Tesla's New BFF (And Savior?) Is Mercedes-Benz (May 2009) In a release, the company took pains to call Tesla a "bold partner" and point out that its partnership with Tesla on the Mercedes-Benz B-Class...
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk Says Franchised Dealers Might Come, Sometime, One Day
Elon Musk says the carmaker may switch to a "hybrid system" of Tesla Stores and franchised dealers in the future.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla Reveals 'D' All-Wheel-Drive Model S, 'Autopilot' Feature
In the end, the online rumors proved to be largely accurate. Last night, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk revealed an all-wheel-drive version of the Tesla Model S electric luxury car--known as 'D'--whose most powerful P85D version will accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in just 3.2 seconds. DON'T MISS: Tesla...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Sets Up Shop In Japan, Sells First Electric Cars
While Tesla Motors now sells electric cars in North America, parts of Europe, and--perhaps most importantly--China, it continues to expand its sales footprint. The most recent addition is Japan, a notoriously closed market where only one of the three largest makers has any interest at all in...
John Voelcker -
Used Tesla Electric Cars: Certified Previously Owned (CPO) Program Coming, Company Confirms
Historically, auto dealerships have made as much or more money selling used cars as new ones. Since electric-car maker Tesla Motors doesn't have dealerships, but sells cars online directly to buyers, that has left the supply of used Teslas solely to individual owners who may want to sell. Now...
John Voelcker -
Mysterious Tesla Model S 'D' Photo Appears: What Could It Be?
The Internets exploded yesterday following a photo tweeted by Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, with the caption, "About time to unveil the D and something else". Feverish speculation over what it meant took up terabytes of server space. Then, yesterday afternoon, a photo surfaced that purports to show a...
John Voelcker -
Do you ever get the sense that Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has fun in his job? Last night, at 6:31 pm Pacific time, he tweeted a photo with the caption, "About time to unveil the D and something else". The photo showed a roller door with the letter "D" on it, the shadowy front end of what appeared to be a Tesla Model S, the date October 9, and the Tesla logo. Then the Internet exploded. Eight hours later, the cryptic message had been retweeted 7,850 times (and favorited another 5,800), and acquired a lengthy list of responses and comments. DON'T MISS: Buying A Crashed Tesla Model S: Damage...
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Tesla Model S China Sales 'Robust', Electric Car Waiting List Long: Analyst
Tesla Motors sales in China are "robust," and the company may have as many as 4,000 reservations for its Model S--which it only started selling in China five months ago. The upbeat assessment came from Patrick Archambault, a Goldman Sachs analyst who has followed Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] since its...
John Voelcker -
Tesla A 'Fringe Brand': Former GM Product Czar Bob Lutz (Video)
When an unknown automotive startup from Silicon Valley unveiled an all-electric sports car with supercar performance back in 2006, the shock was enough to make industry giant GM sit up and pay attention. That, plus the desire to gain some of the green halo seized by Toyota's Prius hybrid, led GM's...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Needs Cash? $6 Billion Required Through 2025, Says Goldman Sachs
Carmaking is very, very, very expensive. A conventional vehicle platform or architecture generally costs about $1 billion to design, engineer, test, certify, and put into production. And the various models derived from that architecture usually last about seven years. Multiply that by multiple...
John Voelcker -
Tesla 'Will Prevail In All States' Against Dealer Lawsuits: Dealership Commentator
Have we just seen the first crack in the facade of auto-dealer opposition to Tesla Motors selling cars directly to retail buyers? An opinion piece in auto-industry trade journal Ward's Auto concludes with the following remarkable sentences: We can keep Tesla busy defending what are basically...
John Voelcker -
Self-Driving Cars From Tesla In About 3 Years, Says CEO Elon Musk
Autonomous vehicles have become a hot talking point in recent years, as major firms like Google continue high-profile development of the technology. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] has also expressed an interest in recent years, and now tells Nikkei that the firm could introduce...
Antony Ingram -
Tesla can now add Japan to the list of countries that its Model S electric sedan is roaming the roads. CEO Elon Musk appeared at a recent ceremony to launch the car, but also used the occasion to hint that there may be another project with Toyota in the pipeline. According to Automotive News, Tesla and Toyota could work on another "significant" project in the next two to three years. Musk said such a project could be "on a much higher volume level" than the two firms' last project, the Toyota RAV4 EV. That project is soon drawing to a close, following an announcement earlier in the year that...
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Tesla's Nevada Gigafactory: Elon Musk, Brothel Owner, State Work Toward Deal
As expected, Tesla Motors announced yesterday afternoon that it would build its first battery gigafactory outside Reno, Nevada. The electric-car maker released platitudinous statements from CEO Elon Musk, Nevada governor Brian Sandoval, and state Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick. Much of the business...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Gigafactory Going To Nevada, Apparently (First One, Anyhow)
A press conference to be held this afternoon may answer one of the major questions for the future of electric-car maker Tesla Motors: Where will it locate its gigafactory? The answer appears to be Nevada. The office of state governor Brian Sandoval said he would make a "major economic development...
John Voelcker -
2015 Tesla Model X Electric SUV To 'Devour' Premium Segment: Report
The 2015 Tesla Model X could be a bigger success than the Model S, according to Morgan Stanley.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Personal Touch: Secret To His Success?
How does a car-company CEO get to be a rock star? It helps, of course, if your company makes a five-passenger luxury sedan that outdrags a Porsche 911, uses half the energy of a Prius, and has the highest crash-safety rating ever recorded. But Elon Musk has done something else to separate himself...
David Noland -
Tesla News: Model S Warranty, Gigafactory Fight, New Roadster Battery (VIDEO)
The Silicon Valley electric-car maker Tesla Motors seems to be in the news almost every day. Over the last two weeks, the company faced fallout over glitches in early Model S cars, and upgraded its powertrain warranty. It also turned the screws on states competing for its multibillion-dollar...
John Voelcker