Startups
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Tesla is currently ramping up lithium-ion battery cell production at its U.S. "Gigafactory" near Reno, Nevada. But the automaker has discussed plans for at least one additional Gigafactory, presumably to meet demand for battery cells related to large-scale electric-car production outside the U.S. While Tesla continues to mull that second battery factory, two of its former executives are planning one of their own. DON'T MISS: Tesla starts cell production at Gigafactory, shows it off to investors Swedish startup Northvolt plans to build a $4 billion battery plant in a Nordic country, according...
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Bollinger Motors promises all-electric off-road 'sport utility truck'
There seems to be no shortage of startups planning to build new battery-electric vehicles from the ground up. While companies like Lucid Motors and Faraday Future are focusing on high-end luxury models, a newer company named Bollinger Motors is taking a different approach. It aims to launch what it...
Stephen Edelstein -
Production for Elio 3-wheeler slides to 2018; is time running out?
Elio Motors continues to drag its feet regarding the start of production for its three-wheeled, two-seat, "84-mpg" vehicle, but it may now be running out of time. The company previously said it had received 55,000 reservations for the car, representing potential sales of $300 million. Last year, it...
Stephen Edelstein -
Bowing to inevitable, Faraday Future scales back plant plans
During a press conference at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show, Faraday Future announced plans to build its first electric car within two years. Later in 2016, it selected a site for what it claimed would be a $1 billion electric-car factory to be built in North Las Vegas, Nevada. But work at the...
Stephen Edelstein -
Lucid Air electric car video shows luxury sedan on the road
Lucid Motors, the California automotive startup formerly known as Atieva, unveiled its Air electric car in December 2016. But so far, the car hasn't been seen on public roads. Lucid has now rectified that by releasing a video that shows its luxury sedan driving around the San Francisco Bay Area...
Stephen Edelstein -
Starship electric sidewalk-delivery robot a hit at DC Auto Show
What would you do if a small, knee-high box on wheels with a flag topping its tall antenna whirred toward you electrically on a sidewalk at 4 miles per hour? It turns out three-quarters of the pedestrians in several cities who've seen one didn't stop or even stare as it avoided them and continued...
John Voelcker -
The harsh reality of high costs and the inexorable heft of the auto industry have claimed another electric-car startup. GreenTech Automotive opened a plant in Mississippi in 2014, first saying it would manufacture a small, two-seat electric vehicle called the MyCar there. It later struck a deal with Chinese automaker JAC Motors to develop an electric car based on one of JAC's existing gasoline models. CHECK OUT: Greentech Auto's Electric Sedan: Haven't We Seen This Before? (Apr 2013) Now GreenTech is shutting down its factory, located in Tunica County in the Mississippi Delta, and the company...
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Why Faraday Future's luxury electric car is named FF 91
Faraday Future unveiled its FF 91 electric car at a special event held during the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. It's a crossover-utility vehicle with a claimed 1,050 horsepower and 378-mile range, the latter courtesy of a 130-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. Aside...
Stephen Edelstein -
Faraday Future falls further: two execs depart, CES car still due
Two Faraday Future executives resigned last week, adding to the startup's troubles.
Stephen Edelstein -
Lucid reveals design for its luxury Air sedan, a Tesla competitor
Lucid Motors' electric luxury sedan is called the Air.
Stephen Edelstein -
Nio electric SUV, from Chinese NextEV, to have 'Toyota cost' and 'Tesla range'
NextEV's Nio brand will offer an electric SUV aimed at the Tesla Model X.
Stephen Edelstein -
Lucid (nee Atieva) to build luxury electric cars in Arizona factory
Lucid Motors will build its electric-car factory in Arizona.
Stephen Edelstein -
Work on Faraday Future's Nevada factory has stopped.
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Workhorse range-extended electric pickup truck announced for future
Workhorse plans to launch an extended-range electric pickup truck in 2018.
Stephen Edelstein -
Faraday Future backer LeEco is running out of cash, CEO admits
Chinese billionaire Jia Yueting says his LeEco tech company has overextended itself.
Stephen Edelstein -
Kreisel brothers: Austria's secret electric-car weapon?
A small Austrian company founded by three brothers has gotten the attention of major carmakers.
Stephen Edelstein -
Atieva now Lucid Motors; plans 300-mile, 900-hp electric car
Atieva is now Lucid Motors.
Stephen Edelstein -
Atieva Atvus electric car image emerges; is it Tesla competition?
There's no shortage of putative rivals to electric-car maker Tesla Motors, from German luxury makers to other California startups. Thus far, of course, none have actually put a car on sale—unlike Tesla, which has sold somewhere north of 125,000 cars since 2008. One of the least-known is...
John Voelcker -
Henrik Fisker has designed some remarkable cars, among them Aston Martins, the BMW Z8, and of course the striking Fisker Karma range-extended electric luxury sedan. That vehicle, launched in 2012 by his namesake company, saw production of less than 3,000 units before the company collapsed in bankruptcy. The same vehicle will relaunch next year as the 2017 Karma Revero, to be built in Southern California by the Chinese firm Wanxiang. DON'T MISS: Fisker Karma With V-8 Emerges As VLF Destino, Including Henrik Himself The Danish designer left the company he cofounded several months before it was...
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Faraday Future vs Nevada treasurer: electric cars vs taxpayer protection
Self-made millionaires often possess an innate belief that they can create products and companies where none existed before. But with companies come factories, and with factories come tax breaks, and with tax breaks come inconvenient questions from government officials. Which is how Faraday Future...
John Voelcker -
Golly, Elio Motors has built ... a car! One test car, in fact
Increasingly sophisticated computer modeling software has cut the number of prototypes and test cars that carmakers build. But they must still make dozens of vehicles that will never be sold, to test assembly, evaluate features, conduct durability tests, and wreck them to assess crash-safety...
John Voelcker -
Another aspiring Chinese Tesla: NextEV and its founder William Li
NextEV is one of the companies vying to become the next Tesla.
Stephen Edelstein -
Faraday's Future bumpy; Nevada nervous, first car 'no Tesla'
Company startups are, by their nature, secretive and turbulent places. Toss in a Chinese billionaire or two, a new business model for selling transportation services rather than cars, and the brutal competition in the global auto industry, and you have the recipe for frequent and disruptive change...
John Voelcker -
Startup That Refills Your Car At Work Or Home Hits Silicon Valley
A startup allows consumers to order gasoline with a smartphone app.
Stephen Edelstein