Tesla just issued a “partial recall” for its Model S sedan. Per the company blog, some Model S vehicles made between May 10, 2013 and June 8, 2013 might have a defect in the mounting bracket for the left hand latch of the second row. Thus a recall is in place to strengthen this part.
It’s a small recall. It’s just a rear seat belt. The news is hardly a blip on most car websites. But this is… → Read More
Elon Musk took to Twitter early this morning (via Verge) to promote an event coming this Thursday that promises to show off new tech that allows quick swapping of Tesla battery packs for extended trips, without requiring a Supercharger stop. The move would make a Tesla Model S roadster as easy to fuel up as a gas-powered car, if not easier, getting rid of the need for extended period charging… → Read More
Tesla founder Elon Musk said that he got into the electric car business after it became clear that no one else was going to build an electric car. In a keynote discussion at the D11 Conference, Musk admitted that getting into the electric car business is probably “one of the stupidest things you could do,” or it might even be crazy. → Read More
Google co-founder Sergey Brin appears to have been pranked by Google employees, according to info shared on the Tesla Motors Club forum. This image of the Google bigwig’s fancy Tesla Model S roadster, with some aftermarket additions, popped up today on Twitter. Note the sweet “Chrome” rims it’s rolling on, if you can pull your eyes away from the hot pink color scheme, long beautiful eyelashes and… → Read More
Today, Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors announced a plan to allow consumers to finance its Model S Electric cars, thanks to a partnership with Wells Fargo and US Bank. The company says that this is a new kind of financing product that “combines the surety and comfort of ownership with all the advantages of a traditional lease.” So while this isn’t a straight-up lease, this is a… → Read More
Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s Downtown Project just announced a new venture called Project 100, a complete transportation system for Las Vegas. For a monthly subscription fee, users will be able to borrow a car, get a driver thanks to an app or take a bike for a ride. But the key feature is that you’ll ride in a Tesla Model S — the Downtown Project just bought 100 Teslas. → Read More
The Model S just got a little more expensive. Tesla just announced that the company will no longer offer the least expensive Model S electric sedan. Per a Tesla press release, since its launch, only 4% of buyers opted for the 40 kWh model with its paltry 160 mile range. Instead, buyers have spent the extra cash on the more capable and better performing models. → Read More
Shortly after market opening, Tesla shares (NASDAQ:TSLA) dropped 9.68 percent to 34.81 in the wake of yesterday’s earnings. The company disappointed investors as it reported a quarterly loss of $89.9 million, or 79 cents a share, compared with a loss of $81.5 million last year, or 78 cents a share. → Read More
Every few months I’m reminded of the intensity of feeling some technologies – be they physical objects (they usually are) or web services – engender in a certain subset of the human population. It’s a well-documented effect: The object of desire is courted for months before launch, then at launch it is defended to the death, and then, when it is obvious that said object is a success or failure… → Read More
Another day, another salvo in the long-running NY Times/Tesla Motors war. This time the NYT journalist John Broder, writing on the New York Times blog Wheels, has refuted nearly all of Elon Musk’s points regarding fabrication at worst and lying at best. → Read More
Tesla Motors CEO and founder Elon Musk definitely isn’t the best guy to try to pull a fast one on. The visionary entrepreneur set Twitter a titter when he claimed earlier this week that New York Times writer John Broder had fudged details about the Tesla Models S car’s range in cold weather, resulting in what he termed a “fake” article. Musk promised evidence, and now he has delivered, via the… → Read More
Some members of the Tesla community are currently directing a movie about the incredible life of inventor, Nikola Tesla — Electricity, The Life Story of Nikola Tesla. Tesla is the scientist was mostly credited with the invention of alternating current. After The Oatmeal proclaimed him as the greatest geek and helped the new Tesla museum raise one million dollars, Tesla is currently under the… → Read More
The Oatmeal, who really should freaking start making comics and stop helping museums in Long Island that no one thought about until a week ago, just announced that he and the Internet raised $1 million to support the purchase of Nikola Tesla’s old laboratory on Long Island.
In 9 days, we managed to raise over 1 million dollars to go towards buying back Tesla’s old laboratory, and with the… → Read More
About a week after posting a call for donations to fund a Tesla Museum on Long Island, the goal has been surpassed by $20,000. Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal announced the plan last week in a post entitled “Let’s Build a Goddamn Tesla Museum” and it looks like his dream – and ours – will come true. → Read More
Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal (who could, arguably, make more comics instead of being the Internet’s Sarah McLachlan for geek causes) has taken up the ultimate in geek causes: rebuilding Nikola Tesla’s lab in Shoreham, New York. The lab originally held Tesla’s workshop and a giant freaking tower that we was about to send crazy electricity all over the world, powering the universe from a single… → Read More
TuneIn‘s online radio service that lets people listen to music, sports and news on their smartphones and on the web, just announced that it is now available on 200 different distribution platforms. The platforms include everything from smartphones, home entertainment systems, connected TV and – most recently – connected cars. Indeed, the 200th platform the company announced today is Tesla’s new … → Read More
A single blogger recently relayed comments made by a single Tesla service tech who reportedly knew of five Teslas that were “bricked” by owners who left them off the charger too long. This single unverified report spread like a sensational wildfire across the blogosphere. Tesla came out and acknowledged that it was possible to destroy the Roadster’s battery pack by keeping it unplugged but Tesla… → Read More
Here’s a fun fact: Batteries and cars require maintenance. The Tesla Roadster runs on batteries that also require maintenance. Out of the 2,200 Roadster owners, apparently at least five didn’t read the manual on their new toy and let the car sit off the charger for several months — or so says one regional service manager. This is a no-no according to Tesla. The result? The battery packs… → Read More
Things are going smoothly for Tesla. Their big Model X debut was a success, their cars are pre-ordered to capacity, and new business opportunities are presenting themselves. They’re still posting a net loss, of course, but that was expected and will continue for another year or so.
Here are the most salient points from their latest earnings statement, released today. → Read More
Tesla Motors’ family is growing. The company just unveiled its first crossover, the Model X. Like the Roadster and Model S, the Model X is a purely electric vehicle, built on the same platform as the Model S. Tesla says pricing will be similar to that of the Model S, making the base model around $50k after tax credits. But, if all the available options are checked including the largest battery… → Read More
Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal and founder of Tesla Motors and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), sat down with Erick Schonfeld tonight just before TechCrunch Disrupt’s closing ceremony. During the brief conversation, Musk provided insight into how entrepreneurs can get started disrupting major industries like energy, transportation and space.
It’s not an easy route to success… → Read More
Tesla has released their shareholder statement for Q2 2011, and while it doesn’t make for the most exciting reading, it’s at least full of fairly good news. They’ve been on cruise control for quite a while now, if you will, designing and testing their Model S sedan, but there are plenty of pitfalls that could have afflicted the process, techniques and technologies that could have failed to pan… → Read More
Electric car company Tesla Motors has priced its follow-on offering of 5,300,000 shares of stock at $28.76 per share, the closing price for Tesla shares on June 2. Tesla CEO Elon Musk also plans to purchase 1,416,000 shares of stock directly from Tesla at the public offering price and Blackstar Investco, an affiliate of Daimler AG (a Tesla investor), plans to purchase up to 637,475 shares of stock… → Read More
After the retirement of the Shuttle program, NASA will begin flying along with – and funding – multiple “commercial crews” including Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin group and Elon Musk’s SpaceX. NASA is paying out $270 million to SpaceX, Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada (not the beer) and Boeing. This program, begun in 2009 and is now vitally important as it pairs NASA’s scientists and astronauts with… → Read More
http://player.ooyala.com/player.swf?embedCode=U2OG9kMjoPuxSXWmn8G3D11Z9vGSHPFG&version=2 Unlike other automakers, Tesla is headquartered in the hills of Palo Alto next to beautiful rolling hills with lush green scenery and horse crossing signs. As you can imagine, a place like this would have some of the best driving roads in the country. We were slightly disappointed that the man behind it… → Read More
Being called “America’s fourth automaker” is good for stock prices. That’s what Tesla was recently labeled in a report from Morgan Stanley and it caused their stock to shoot up nearly 20% to close at $27.75. It also doesn’t hurt that they’re projected to hit $70 by the end of the year. → Read More
Top Gear fans? Remember the episode from a few years back where the crew tried to flog the Tesla Roadster? Yeah, it didn’t end so well for the Tesla after Clarkson started off praising the little electric supercar. The entire segment is embedded for your viewing enjoyment after the jump, but the skinny is that the Top Gear testers sort of died prematurely — a few times. The first… → Read More
Considering that only 1,500 Tesla Roadsters are out on the roads, it’s amazing they’ve been able to clock up 10 million miles since 2008. Even more impressive is that the Roadsters have collectively saved 500,000 gallons of fuel and over 5.3 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, while maintaining supercar performance. → Read More
When Elon Musk first came to Silicon Valley he was researching advanced, highly-energy-dense super-capacitors at Stanford. Coincidentally, when speaking at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco about the future of electric vehicles Musk said, “If I were to make a prediction, I’d think there’s a good chance that it is not batteries, but super-capacitors.” → Read More
The Model S, is the most hyped electric car due to come out soon. Everyone is waiting to see what the Model S will feature and whether or not it’ll be worth the wait. Today, at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that the Model S will support third-party apps and text-to-speech, pretty much confirming many rumors. → Read More
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