Tesla News

  • 2013 Tesla Model S

    Owners of the Tesla Model S tend to be very satisfied with their cars. You might already know that; but so far, that's largely been anecdotal, based on reports in various ownership profiles, comments, and forums. Now all this owner 'love'—and the lack of problems—is starting to be confirmed by established surveys and metrics. One example: The latest annual study from the market-research firm Strategic Vision, which places the Tesla Model S in first place, industry-wide. The Model S earns the top score in the annual (2014) Total Quality Index (TQI) study, which was released earlier...

  • Stolen Tesla Model S splits in half, catches fire after massive crash in LA area
    Stolen Tesla Model S Involved In Multi-Car Wreck In West Hollywood

    A stolen Tesla Model S was destroyed in a crash Thursday night following a police chase that hit speeds of 100 mph through West Hollywood. Several other vehicles were also destroyed in the high-speed accident and at least four people were hospitalized, in a crash that left the Model S split in two...

  • Tesla Store Los Angeles [photo: Misha Bruk / MBH Architects]
    Tesla Gains Some Ground On Retail Sales In Pennsylvania

    Tesla's long battle against state franchise laws is still underway, but every so often it does get a boost of positive news. That latest boost comes from Pennsylvania, where the state's House of Representatives has passed legislation allowing Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] to sell through its first-party...

  • 2014 Tesla Model S in China
    Tesla In China: Discovering Local Quirks And Fixing Issues

    China is a tricky but potentially lucrative market to conquer. Automotive brands all around the world want a piece of the action given the potential rewards, but the market is still quite different to others around the globe. Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] is one such automaker giving the Chinese market...

  • 2012 Tesla Model S
    Tesla's Smaller Electric Sedan To Have 'Realistic' Pricing Next To BMW, Audi

    Tesla might have abandoned its trademark to the 'Model E' name for its planned smaller electric sedan, but the car itself is still very much on Tesla's radar. It's likely to be on buyers' radars too when it makes its expected debut in late 2016, priced to compete with conventional rivals like BMW's...

  • Tesla Model S taxi in Stavanger, Norway  [photo: Andrew Henderson]
    Tesla Model S Electric Car: Simply The World's Coolest Taxi

    What kind of taxis do you ride in? Battered old Crown Vics? High-mileage Toyota Priuses or Ford Escape Hybrids? Our bet is that unless you've recently spent some time in Norway, you haven't ridden in a Tesla taxi. DON'T MISS: Envy The Man Who Owns Seven Tesla Electric Cars (In Norway) Given that...

  • Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk at Tesla Store opening in Westfield Mall, London, Oct 2013

    When he's not running electric-car startup Tesla Motors, its CEO Elon Musk has a couple of other jobs on the side. In fact, he's not only involved in CEO of one startup, but three--the other two being SpaceX (privately-funded rockets) and Solar City (solar-panel leasing), where he's chairman of the board. Solar City hit the news last week when it announced it would buy Silevo, a startup maker of high-quality solar cell modules. That closely held startup is based in Fremont, California, the very same Silicon Valley city where Tesla's Model S assembly plant is located. As reported in The Wall...

  • Frame from 'A Good Deal for All' video, by National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), June 2014
    Auto Dealers Try Charm: Why Tesla Direct Sales Hurt Buyers, They Say (Video)

    The battle between Tesla Motors, which sells its electric cars directly to buyers over the Internet, and the nation's auto dealers--who want to make that practice illegal--is now in its fifth year. And for the very first time, the dealers' national trade organization has embarked on a charm...

  • JayZ with Tesla Model S electric car, from Beyonce's website, April 2014
    Jay Z Now Owns A Murdered-Out Tesla Model S (Apparently)

    It appears that celebrity musician and promoter Jay Z has added an electric car to his stable of luxury rides. At least, that's the so-far-unconfirmed inference from a photo posted in late April to his wife Beyonce's website. The only reason we're running this two-month-old photo--aside from...

  • Photo of Tesla Model S battery swapping versus 'fastest gas pump in LA' tweeted by Elon Musk
    Tesla Model S Battery Swapping: Will It Ever Actually Arrive?

    Exactly a year ago, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk presided over a flashy demonstration in which the battery pack of a Tesla Model S electric car was apparently swapped from underneath within 90 seconds and replaced with a fresh pack. The event generated a huge amount of press, and subsequent coverage...

  • Elon Musk plugs a Tesla Model S into a Supercharger (Image: deanslavnich on Twitter)
    Nissan Wants In On Tesla, BMW Electric-Car Charging Talks: Report

    With modern, mass-market electric cars on sale for three and a half years now, you might think that the path for growth has been pretty much laid out by now. But the great disruptor, Silicon Valley electric-car startup Tesla Motors, may be changing the playbook once again. According to a report in...

  • 'Revenge of the Electric Car' premiere: Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk on red carpet
    Musk: Tesla Going Open Source, Lifting Patents 'In Good Faith'

    Tesla Motors, the California electric-car maker, won't participate in a patent war over electric cars and associated technology, as it runs counter to the success of EVs. It's one of the messages conveyed in a terse post from CEO Elon Musk on the Tesla Motors Blog. And it could be good news for...

  • 2014 BMW i3 cars in Los Altos, California, June 2014 [photo: Anton Wahlman]

    Fans of Tesla Motors, its CEO Elon Musk, and the Tesla Model S electric car are some of the most ... errrrmmmm ... dedicated advocates for the company and its products that you'll find. And loud, well-known stock commentator Jim Cramer learned that, apparently to his dismay, when he recently ran afoul of those same Tesla supporters. It all started when he distributed a photo of 2014 BMW i3 electric cars that had been posted to Facebook on June 8 by Silicon Valley electric-car commentator Anton Wahlman. DON'T MISS: RHD Tesla Model S Electric Cars Delivered To First U.K. Buyers "Outside the...

  • 2014 Tesla Model S in China
    Rumor: Long-Wheelbase Tesla Model S Coming Later This Year?

    The Tesla rumor mill is never quiet for long, and the latest one suggests that the company is developing a long-wheelbase version of its Model S sedan, specifically for the Chinese market. Tesla Motors just recently launched in China, obviously a key market for it and every other automaker, and one...

  • 2013 Tesla Model S at Supercharger station on NY-to-FL road trip [photo: David Noland]
    Tesla To Offer Supercharger As Fast-Charging Standard? Free To Drivers, Yes

    Electric-car maker Tesla Motors, and more specifically its CEO Elon Musk, has been dropping hints for a while now that it proposes to open up the specifications of its Supercharger DC fast-charging standard for use by other manufacturers. An article yesterday in Engadget claimed Tesla was planning...

  • Elon Musk plugs a Tesla Model S into a Supercharger (Image: deanslavnich on Twitter)
    RHD Tesla Model S Electric Cars Delivered To First U.K. Buyers

    Tesla Motors has some busy years ahead of it. There's the continued roll-out of the Model S in global markets, such as China and Europe. There are two new models on the horizon. And there's the enormous battery gigafactory. To that long list, Tesla has added U.K. sales--as the first cars made their...

  • Henry J. Kaiser and Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla Motors  [Kaiser image courtesy Kaiser Permanente]
    Why Tesla's Elon Musk Must Sell 6 Million Electric Cars To Make History

    Many entrepreneurs have tried to start car companies in the U.S. over the past century, but the last person to do so from the ground up with a brand that survives to this day was Walter P. Chrysler. He started his company in December 1924--which indicates the magnitude of the challenge faced by...

  • 2013 Tesla Model S on Chilcotin Highway, Canada [photo: owner Vincent Argiro]
    Tesla Annual Meeting Yesterday: What We Learned That Was New

    Tesla Motors held its annual shareholder meeting yesterday afternoon, and as always, a few nuggets of news emerged from CEO Elon Musk. You can read a complete transcript here, but here are some quick bullet points on items that struck us as newsworthy: Tesla electric cars have now covered 344...

  • 2013 Tesla Model S in old-growth forest, Bella Coola Valley, Canada [photo: owner Vincent Argiro]

    The guerilla warfare between auto dealers and Tesla Motors continues, with the latest skirmish happening tomorrow in New Jersey. Perhaps war analogies are overstating the case, but certainly Tesla has had to fight in numerous states for the right to sell its cars directly to buyers through the Internet. On Thursday, June 5 (tomorrow), a bill that will allow new electric-car companies--like Tesla--to sell their cars directly to the public will be heard by the Consumer Affairs Committee of the New Jersey State Assembly. DON'T MISS: Life With Tesla Model S: New Northeastern Superchargers Now...

  • 2015 BMW i8, test drive in greater Los Angeles area, Apr 2014
    BMW, Tesla Are Only Electric-Car Makers 'To Build A Business': Really ??

    Sometimes we read things that just make us scratch our heads. Often, statements about the electric-car industry by (presumably) highly-paid analysts in the finance industry are among those things. Take, for example, a statement by one such analyst, contained an article published two weeks ago in...

  • 2014 Tesla Model S
    Aerodynamic Tesla Model S Electric Car Wins The Wind-Tunnel Wars

    Aerodynamics are a vital component of automotive efficiency. The more air you have to push out of the way to reach or maintain a certain speed, the more energy you're using. And the more energy you use, the less efficient your journey will be. ALSO SEE: Solar Roadways Smashes Crowdfunding Target...

  • 2013 Tesla Model S in old-growth forest, Bella Coola Valley, Canada [photo: owner Vincent Argiro]
    Owning A Tesla Model S: New Book Offers Tips, Tricks, Inside Info (Book Review)

    Regular readers of Tesla forums will recognize the name of Nick J. Howe, whose hundreds of astute comments recently earned him accolades for "best forum postings over time," according to a reader poll. A Florida chemical engineer and owner of a Tesla Model S P85, Howe has technical savvy, dogged...

  • 2012 Tesla Model S beta vehicle, Fremont, CA, October 2011
    Largest Auto-Industry Employer In California: Electric-Car Maker Tesla Motors

    Tesla Motors is one of the youngest U.S. automakers, but has made a disproportionately large impact in the automotive media's headlines over the last few years. It's also, amazingly, become California's biggest auto-industry employer--edging out even Toyota. When Toyota makes its move to Texas...

  • 2014 Tesla Model S
    Tesla's Elon Musk Should Stop Making Electric Cars, Focus On Batteries, Bond Trader Says

    Elon Musk has probably been given a lot of advice during his time at Tesla--some good, and some bad. Bond manager Jeffrey Gundlach is the latest to offer his own take on the business to Musk though--and it isn't what you might be expecting. According to Bloomberg, Gundlach has suggested the Tesla...

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