Tesla Model 3
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The numbers are in, and for the Nissan Leaf electric car, they're not pretty. Despite a boost in its EPA-rated range from 84 to 107 miles, its year-to-date sales of 4,697 units are down 40 percent on the 7,742 that were sold in the same five months last year. And those were down on the total of 10,389 over the year-earlier total during the first five months of 2014. DON'T MISS: Plug-in electric car sales for May flat: Leaf struggles despite range boost A host of reasons for the steady decline is possible, but journalist Brooke Crothers suggested in Forbes that it's all due to what he calls...
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Tesla Model 3 owners will pay to use Superchargers, cost TBD
In the beginning, the use of Tesla's nascent network of Supercharger DC fast-charging sites wasn't going to be free. Not for owners of the less-expensive Model S 40 and 60 versions, at least: if they wanted to use the Supercharger network, they paid a $2,500 fee up front. But demand for the...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model 3 targets: 100K in 2017, 400K in 2018, say skeptical suppliers
Tesla Motors' audacious goal of building half a million cars a year by the end of 2018 will require boosting its production by a factor of 10 over just two and a half years. And it will require nothing less than a reorientation of the entire company toward manufacturing, even as vehicle development...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model 3 reservations: 373K after duplicates, speculators removed
The hundreds of thousands of $1,000 deposits placed for the Tesla Model 3 electric cars by potential buyers around the world came as an eye-opening shock to the auto industry. More than 100,000 such deposits were placed during the day that preceded the car's unveiling on the evening of March 31...
John Voelcker -
Tesla talks to LG, Samsung about Model 3 battery cell supplies
Since the start of Tesla Model S electric-car production in 2012, the company's lithium-ion cells have been supplied by its Japanese partner Panasonic. That applies to the more recent Tesla Model X crossover SUV as well—and Panasonic was also an early investor in Tesla Motors shares, owning a...
John Voelcker -
Tesla hires Audi veteran as new vehicle-production VP; predecessor took leave of absence
Following the departure of two top manufacturing executives, electric-car maker Tesla Motors has hired a manufacturing executive from German luxury maker Audi. The company announced the news late Friday in a release sent to news media. The executive, Peter Hocholdinger, will join the Silicon Valley...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Motors has a history of delays in bringing its cars from the design and prototype stage all the way to normal production. Its Roadster was delayed about nine months from its original anticipated launch, while the Model S was delayed more than six months. And then the Model X was delayed by more than 18 months. Musk has called the Model X a special case, emphasizing that the company tried to put too many new features and technologies into the product from the start, while it perhaps should have introduced some of those features as improvements over time. ALSO SEE: Tesla says it will...
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Ford CEO Mark Fields confirms 200-mile electric car coming (updated)
What a difference a week makes. In late April, Ford's director of electrification programs and engineering, Kevin Layden, said the 100-mile range of the 2017 Ford Focus Electric would suffice for most drivers. But then on Ford's second-quarter earnings call, CEO Mark Fields announced that the...
John Voelcker -
Tesla says it will build 500K cars a year by end of 2018; can it?
When Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk said two years ago that the electric-car maker planned to be building half a million cars a year by the end of 2020, it seemed an ambitious stretch goal. When he said on last week's quarterly earnings call that the company was pulling that goal two years ahead to...
John Voelcker -
Nissan Leaf ads poke fun at Tesla Model 3 reservation queue
Nissan pokes fun at Tesla in new print ads.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla's huge warehouse lease seems to be Model 3 preparation
Tesla is leasing multiple warehouses near its Fremont, California, factory.
Stephen Edelstein -
After Model 3, what will Tesla's 4th electric-car line be?
Elon Musk says Tesla's fourth-generation electric car will be more affordable than the Model 3.
Stephen Edelstein -
Tesla may manipulate deliveries to keep more tax credits.
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Electric-car battery costs: Tesla $190 per kwh for pack, GM $145 for cells
Lithium-ion cells and the battery packs that hold them are the single most costly part of modern electric cars. And how fast their costs will fall remains the defining factor in making those cars affordable for the mass market. GM made waves last fall when product chief Mark Reuss said the company...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model 3 demand startled everyone, even Musk; now what?
To say that the auto industry has been startled by the volume of deposits on the Tesla Model 3 would be an understatement. The number of potential buyers worldwide who have sent Tesla Motors $1,000 to reserve a place in line to buy the car is now approaching 400,000, said longtime executive...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model 3 depositors vs Chevy Bolt EV: sea change or double standard?
More than 325,000 potential buyers have put down $1,000 apiece for a Tesla Model 3 electric car that they won't get for two years, if not considerably longer than that. Which must frustrate the electrification team at General Motors deeply. The 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV with more than 200 miles of...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model 3 reservations rise to 325,000 after one week
Getting more than a quarter of a million people around the world to put down $1,000 apiece for a car they won't get for another two years is a remarkable feat. When Elon Musk took the wraps off the Tesla Model 3 last Thursday evening, a screen on stage showed more than 100,000 deposits. But by the...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model 3 interior: what our video showed isn't actually real?
Elon Musk hints that the Tesla Model 3's "real" steering system will differ from the one shown in prototypes.
Stephen Edelstein -
Three days ago, when Global Equities Research projected more than 300,000 reservations for the Tesla Model 3 electric car by the start of this week, that number seemed outlandish. And yet, by the end of Saturday, the global total had reached 276,000, according to a tweet by Tesla CEO Elon Musk. When the Model 3 was first unveiled in California on Thursday evening, the number of deposits that day alone had already crossed 100,000. WATCH THIS: Tesla Model 3: video of first ride in prototype $35k electric car With an additional day and a half, Saturday's total of 276,000 has likely crossed the...
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Latest drone footage of Tesla Gigafactory shows progress
Last night's Tesla Model 3 electric car unveiling is getting all the attention today, with at least 135,000 reservations booked for the car. But to get the $35,000 Model 3 out the door with the announced 215-mile range, a generation of lithium-ion cells will be required for its battery. And that's...
John Voelcker -
Tesla Model 3: 215-mile, $35,000 electric car revealed
At a launch event held in Hawthorne, California, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk introduced the Model 3 sedan, the company's highest-volume, lowest-priced effort yet. The Model 3 quite closely follows the style of the Model S sedan and Model X crossover, and it’s unmistakably a Tesla. Yet at a far...
Bengt Halvorson -
Tesla Model 3: video of first ride in prototype $35k electric car
The Tesla Model 3 electric car has been revealed. And we’ve been among the first fortunate few to have been allowed a ride in one. While our ride (from the back seat) was less than five minutes in all, and the car, thus far, is only in design prototype form, we managed to notice a few more...
Bengt Halvorson -
Report from the Tesla Model 3 trenches: lines, camaraderie, deposits
I figured I’d be smart, and get to the Tesla Store at 8:30 a.m., half an hour before it opened. That would get me in line for the Model 3 before everyone but a few die-hard camper-outers. Boy, was I wrong. As I pulled up to the store in Santa Barbara, California, this morning, the parking lot...
David Noland -
Tesla Model 3 orders start as buyers wait in line outside stores
Eager buyers have already put down deposits to reserve a Tesla Model 3 in those time zones where Tesla Stores are already open today, including both Sydney and Melbourne in Australia. Meanwhile, lines of Tesla fans and future Model 3 owners are waiting patiently in queues outside dozens of Tesla...
John Voelcker