April 5th, 2013

Tesla Should Make Sergey Brin’s Model S Makeover A Standard Option

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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

April 2nd, 2013

Tesla Motors Partners With Wells Fargo And US Bank To Finance Model S Electric Cars

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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

April 2nd, 2013

Downtown Project Buys 100 Teslas To Launch Project 100, A Car-Sharing Service In Las Vegas

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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

April 1st, 2013

Tesla Kills The Entry-Level, 40 kWh Model S Citing Poor Demand

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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

February 21st, 2013

Tesla Shares Drop 9.7% As It Reports Another Quarterly Loss

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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

February 18th, 2013

The Agony Of The Fanboy

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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

February 15th, 2013

The Tesla Saga Continues As NY Times Journo Refutes Claims, CNN Drives A Long Route Without A Hitch

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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

February 14th, 2013

Elon Musk Lays Out His Evidence That New York Times Tesla Model S Test Drive Was “Fake”

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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

September 4th, 2012

True Fanboyism: A Kickstarter Project Wants To Correct History By Making A Movie About Nikola Tesla

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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

August 24th, 2012

The Oatmeal Helps New Tesla Museum Raise One Million Smackers

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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

August 21st, 2012

The Oatmeal Hits Its $850,000 Goal To Fund A Tesla Museum In Less Than A Week

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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

August 16th, 2012

Internet Darling The Oatmeal Wants To Build A Tesla Museum And You Can Help

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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

July 24th, 2012

Online Radio Service TuneIn Comes To Tesla’s Model S, Now Available On 200 Platforms

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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

February 24th, 2012

Tesla Further Responds To Battery Claims, Calls The “Bricking” Report An Unfounded Rumor

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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

February 22nd, 2012

The Tesla Bricking Story? It’s Nonsense

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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

February 15th, 2012

Talking Points From Tesla’s Fourth-Quarter Earnings Statement

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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

February 10th, 2012

Tesla Unveils The Model X, An Electric CUV With Futuristic Gullwing-like Doors

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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

September 14th, 2011

Elon Musk: Starting A Company Is Like Staring Into The Face Of Death

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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

August 3rd, 2011

Tesla’s Q2 Earnings: Steady As She Goes

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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

June 3rd, 2011

Tesla Taps Public Markets Again; Raises Over $200M To Develop Model X Vehicle

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

April 19th, 2011

NASA Will Start Flying Coach With "Commercial Crews"

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

April 18th, 2011

AutoTech Video: We Drive Elon Musk's Personal Tesla Roadster Sport

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

April 1st, 2011

Tesla To Join The Ranks Of The Big Three?

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

March 30th, 2011

Tesla Sues BBC For Libel Claiming Top Gear Rigged Tests, BBC "will be vigorously defending"

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

March 28th, 2011

Tesla Roadsters Rack Up 10 Million Miles

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

March 25th, 2011

Elon Musk Says Super-Capacitors Not Batteries, Will Be Breakthrough For EVs

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

March 16th, 2011

Tesla Model S Will Support Third-Party Apps On Its Massive 17-inch Touchscreen

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

March 7th, 2011

Tesla Announces Model S Rollout Date And Prices

To those awaiting the most promising electric vehicles to ever enter the market (Tesla Model S), the company has given some more insight as to the Model S rollout. Today, on Tesla’s blog, George Blankenship, Vice President, Worldwide Sales & Ownership Experience, gave an update to the progress of the EV startup company. → Read More

March 7th, 2011

PlugShare Helps Electric Vehicle Drivers Find Free, And Paid Charging Options

A newly released app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, called PlugShare aims to alleviate so-called “range anxiety” for electric vehicle drivers by giving them a map of an area’s available, paid charging stations and homes or lots that will allow them to plug in and recharge for free.

Xatori co-founder and chief executive Forrest North —who previously worked as an engineer at Tesla Motors→ Read More

February 10th, 2011

Tesla Opens Showroom In Nation's Capitol, Very Close To White House

Today, Tesla opens its new Washington, D.C. showroom and starting tomorrow, February 11, Tesla will begin offering test drives of the Tesla Roadster. The showroom, located a few blocks from the White House at 1050 K St. N.W., is Tesla’s 16th store to open globally. Not only will customers be able to purchase Tesla Roadsters – and soon the Model S — but they will also be able to… → Read More