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If you can’t beat ‘em on your own, maybe you can join up with someone else to beat ‘em. As legacy automakers struggle to catch up to Tesla, many are exploring new collaborations to spread out the costs of developing new technology.  Above: GM and Honda are combining forces to use the same electric vehicle platform moving forward (Source: GM) The old-line brands are belatedly accelerating their transition to EVs, and they seem to be finding it a painful process. One of their biggest challenges is keeping costs down to a level that would allow them to sell new models at a profit. In a sense, they’re caught between the rock of high battery costs and the hard place of keeping EV prices low enough to entice buyers. According to Nikkei Asia, developing a new EV model costs some $455 million, and converting production lines to build EVs costs about $90-135 million per factory. Batteries account for 40% to 50% of production costs. Several automakers have paired off to share their EV platforms, allowing them to standardize motors, batteries, inverters and other key components, and reduce costs through economies of scale. Above: Honda CEO, Toshihiro Mibe, discusses the company’s partnership with GM on the electric vehicle front (YouTube: Bloomberg Finance and Markets) The Nissan/Renault/Mitsubishi alliance has developed a common EV platform, and plans to share around 70% of motors, batteries and other EV components among the three brands. Toyota, Suzuki and Daihatsu have formed a partnership to develop electrified commercial vehicles. Volkswagen and Ford hooked up in June to develop electric and autonomous vehicle technology. Honda and GM announced plans to jointly develop two new EVs back in April 2020. Vehicles bearing Honda nameplates will be built on GM’s Ultium platform at GM plants in North America. More recently, Nikkei Asia reported that the two automakers have a new plan to produce EVs for the North American market based on Honda’s e:Architecture platform. This would be a puzzling role reversal, and it appears to be only a rumor at this point. Darryll Harrison, GM’s head of Global EV/AV Communications, told me, “General Motors and Honda have only one BEV platform agreement relating to Ultium. Beyond that, we aren’t able to comment on speculation.”       ===  Written by: Charles Morris; Source: Nikkei Asia

A devilish new challenger dared to challenge the Tesla Model S Plaid in an epic drag race battle. The Dodge Demon with a 6.2L Supercharged V8 engine that produces 840 hp of power (and a whole lot of “cough-cough” polluting smoke) attempted to unleash holy hell on Elon Musk’s baddest beast. Above: Tesla Model S Plaid and Dodge Demon at the dragstrip (Source: DragTimes / YouTube) Not a good idea. Ever since Brooks Weisblat, the host of the DragTimes YouTube channel, took delivery of his red Tesla Plaid, he’s been beating up on ICE production (and modified) cars on the dragstrip. He even rented a blue Tesla Model S Plaid to teach a lesson to the McLaren 600LT. However, this one is a different story. After all, this is an iconic American muscle car battling against a very different American electric iconoclast. Before watching the showdown, let’s take a peek at how these two measure up on paper? Specs comparison Above: Tesla Model S Plaid vs. Dodge Demon specs comparison (Source: Manufacturer specs; compiled by: Iqtidar Ali / TeslaOracle.com) With an astonishing 2.1 seconds 0-60 mph time, the 2018 Dodge Demon is one of the most worthy contenders that Model S Plaid will ever face off against. In addition, the Demon’s wheels are outfitted with aftermarket full slicks (tires) and also equipped with the special race gas. Let’s watch how this muscle car performs against an electric car that was actually (originally) built as a luxury sedan. Nevertheless, the all-electric plush 4-door now holds the crown as the world’s quickest mass-production car ever built. Above: Tesla Model S Plaid and Dodge Demon face off at the dragstrip (Source: DragTimes / YouTube) In the first drag race (out of three), the Dodge Demon launched significantly quicker and better than the Plaid. I think it was the mistake of the Plaid driver. However, the Model S still won the race. The Plaid Model S launched correctly in the second race and it totally outclassed the Demon in this one. In the third race, the Tesla Model S Plaid left the Dodge Demon far behind in the side view mirror — much like how ICE technology is getting more and more outdated every day. The Results Above: Tesla Model S Plaid vs. Dodge Demon drag race results (Source: DragTimes; compiled by: Iqtidar Ali / TeslaOracle.com) These shocking results are at the core of why Dodge decided to (soon) go electric. Why? “Performance made us do it,” they say in a teaser video released recently to explain their ICE-to-EV rationale for the future of the company. === Written by: Iqtidar Ali. An earlier version of this article was originally published by Tesla Oracle. Video: DragTimes. Revised update edited by EVANNEX.

The good news is that electric vehicle sales are soaring, and the battery business is booming. The bad news is that batteries and the raw materials used to make them could soon become a bottleneck that throttles that growth. More bad news: almost all of today’s EV batteries are made by Asian firms, and it will take years for the US and Europe to catch up.  Above: A battery pack in the floorpan of a Tesla (Source: Tesla) According to Adamas Intelligence, three million new EVs were registered around the world in 2020, representing 134.5 gigawatt-hours’ worth of batteries. That’s a 40-percent increase over 2019, and the growth trend continues—in the first five months of 2021, the total amount of battery capacity deployed was greater than in all of 2018. Not only are more EVs being sold, but the battery capacity in each vehicle has increased. A recent article in IEEE Spectrum describes the companies that currently dominate the battery market, and explains some of the technical issues that could shape the race to ramp up production over the next few years. As of the second half of 2020, six Asian companies supplied 87% of the batteries deployed in passenger EVs. The biggest battery-builder was China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), which supplies Tesla, the Volkswagen Group, Volvo, Stellantis, BMW, Honda and several Chinese automakers. CATL grew by an astounding 3,400% from 2016 to 2020, and accounts for 26% of the global battery market. In the number-two spot is LG Energy Solution, a Korean firm that supplies Tesla, the VW Group, GM, Groupe Renault, Stellantis and Volvo. It also boasts a 26% global market share. In the bronze position is Tesla’s long-time partner Panasonic, which also serves Toyota, and has a 17% market share. Above: Battery capacity deployed in electrified vehicles by cell supplier, from January to May 2021, gigawatt-hours (Chart: IEEE Spectrum; Sources: Adamas Intelligence, BusinessKorea, Electrive, BMW, Ford, Honda, Volvo) Next on the list are Samsung SDI (Korea, 7% market share), BYD (China, 7% market share), and SK Innovation (Korea, 4% market share). The remaining members of the top ten are all Asian companies, too. Tesla is by far the largest customer for batteries—in the second half of 2020, it deployed 22.5 gigawatt-hours’ worth, nearly as much as the next five largest EV-makers combined (BYD, Hyundai, Mercedes, Renault, Volkswagen). Soaring demand for EVs is putting pressure on the entire supply chain for battery and motor raw materials—prices of lithium, nickel, cobalt, and the rare earth elements neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, have spiked. The US will need to build some 20 to 40 new battery factories over the next 15 years, with a combined terawatt of new battery capacity, to meet projected demand, Venkat Srinivasan, Director of the Argonne Collaborative Center for Energy Storage Science, told IEEE Spectrum. “Right now, the United States doesn’t have enough materials to do that, so materials substitution and recycling will be key to get this to go.” That’s what Tesla co-founder JB Straubel has been saying for some time. His company, Redwood Materials, just announced plans to supply battery cell materials from a plant in the US, produced from “as many recycled batteries as available and augmented with sustainably mined material.” Automakers are not sitting idle. GM is building factories in Ohio and Tennessee with a combined capacity of 70 gigawatts, double that of Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory. Ford hopes to establish 140 GW of capacity in North America, and 240 GW globally, by 2030, in partnership with SK Innovation. Above: An inside look at industry leader CATL (YouTube: New China TV) Technical shifts may help to ease the supply crunch. Lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells, which tend to be cheaper than those made with NCMA (nickel, cobalt, magnesium, aluminum) chemistries, and use no cobalt, are coming back into style. Elon Musk recently suggested that Tesla would make a long-term shift toward LFP, noting that “there’s plenty of iron in the world.” Ryan Castilloux, Managing Director of Adamas Intelligence, told IEEE Spectrum that the new trend may be for automakers to use nickel-rich chemistries for longer-range or performance cars, and LFP for entry-level models. Another innovation is “cell-to-pack” construction, which eliminates modules, and arranges prismatic cells directly into packs. Tesla is investigating this technology for its structural battery packs. === Written by: Charles Morris; Source: IEEE Spectrum

Iconic investor Ron Baron says that Elon Musk’s companies are “innovating at the speed of light” in a recent interview with David Rubenstein for Bloomberg Wealth. Baron has high hopes for SpaceX and believes Tesla could return 300% to investors over the next ten years.  Source: Baron Funds / Tesla Looking back, Baron predicted Tesla would evolve into a massive player in the auto industry. His firm, Baron Capital Management, was among Elon Musk’s largest investors in 2016, with a 1% stake in the Silicon Valley automaker.  And what happened? Baron says, “We invested $380 million between 2014 and 2016, which was 1.5% of our assets at the time. So far, we’ve made $4 billion in profit and I think we’re gonna make maybe three or four times that in the next 10 years.” Baron explains why he initially invested in Elon Musk’s electric car company. “With Tesla, I thought the opportunity was to convert the cars that we make in the U.S. from gasoline to electric. And that hadn’t been accomplished before,” he says. “In order for this to happen, you had to be a spectacular engineer, and a great leader and have an understanding of technology. And then you had to fight the entrenched interests, which were the car dealers and the automobile companies and the oil companies. I was betting on Elon Musk and most people bet against him,” says Baron. With SpaceX, Baron says, “It’s the same idea. You’re disrupting a cost-plus industry, so all of the aerospace companies didn’t do research and they didn’t want to innovate. What they would do is subcontract out the work on these rockets so they became more and more expensive. And the government would just pay it.” “So Elon comes along, and says, ‘I got a cheap way to get to space. And the cheap way is by using the rockets over and over and over again.’ And everyone else said that was impossible. But our man did it. And as a result, he’s able to get to space cheaply. And now there’s an opportunity for a $1 trillion satellite broadband market,” explains Baron. “They’re innovating at the speed of light,” explained Baron. “And they’re doing that with the cars. And they’re doing that with space.” Asked how Musk can run both companies at once, Baron admits, “he’s working ungodly hours, totally dedicated, [and] doesn’t need very much sleep. I was speaking to a director of SpaceX two nights ago and I said, ‘How is Elon doing?’ And she says, ‘He’s doing unbelievably. He lives in this small cottage, two bedrooms, on this desert property.’  And he works all but five hours a day.” Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 === Source: Bloomberg Wealth; Videos: David Rubenstein / YouTube

Squares and spoilsports may scoff at the Tesla Cybertruck, but there are more than a few car guys and gals who find its unique design fascinating, and have been itching to drive one since the 2019 unveiling. If you’re one of those folks, we feel for you—the launch has been delayed again and again, and now it appears deliveries won’t begin until sometime in 2022. Facebook: Plybertruck No, there’s no way to get one early, but one do-it-yourselfer has found a way to have some fun (and get some media coverage) with a wooden Cybertruck mockup. A Tesla fan named CJ Cromwell created a wooden contraption he calls the Plybertruck (alternate names suggested by online wags include Cedartruck, Cyberchuck and Model Tree) to compete in a wacky racing event called the Gambler 500 rally.  Gambler 500 was started in Oregon in 2014 by Tate Morgan and the OG Gamblers, “a small group embracing cheap fun in all forms.” It’s a 500-mile off-road rally featuring homemade vehicles that are theoretically supposed to cost no more than $500. This fun run also has a worthy mission—along the route, participants are encouraged to pick up trash and remove abandoned vehicles. Facebook: Plybertruck Gambler 500 has evolved into a movement that encourages people around the world to go out and have automotive adventures. The founders allow anyone to use the Gambler brand for events, as long as they are free and “participants embrace the ideals of stewardship while having cheap fun in the outdoors.” Cromwell’s Plybertruck is a Tesla Cybertruck replica made with wooden panels. The vehicle underneath the wooden exterior is a first-generation Acura MDX, which probably complied with the $500 purchase-cost limit, but (ahem) lacks some of the features and performance of a real Cybertruck. The next official Gambler 500 race will take place next June in Oregon, so Cromwell has plenty of time to perfect his design. Hopefully that old Acura will keep running until then. === Written by: Charles Morris; Source: Carscoops / Plybertruck

Elon Musk’s companies, including Tesla, are rapidly growing. The ‘Technoking’ of Tesla currently employs about 110,000 people across all his different companies around the globe. That said, he can be pretty tough to work for — he works hard and expects the same from his staff. Above: Elon Musk, CEO at multiple companies including Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company (Flickr: Dow Jones Events) So should we be surprised Musk is a demanding boss? According to Douglas Coupland in The Guardian, “people know they’re going to be working with Elon Musk, so they can’t play woe is me if he goes Elon on them… he’s incredibly smart and is used to working with the world’s smartest and most accomplished people, so if you don’t cut the mustard then you didn’t cut the mustard.” So what does it take to cut the mustard with Musk? According to a tweet last year, Elon outlined four key traits: “A super hardcore work ethic, talent for building things, common sense [and] trustworthiness are required, the rest we can train.”  Jason Aten at Inc. points out, “You might think he was looking for people with expertise in rocket propulsion or any number of advanced engineering specialties. Interestingly, he wasn’t.” Instead, “If you find people who have these [four] traits, you can almost always teach them how to do a specific job. More importantly, however, you can’t train these four characteristics, which is why it’s so important [for Musk] to find the right people to begin with.” Above: Musk doesn’t even care if you went to college, he just wants a track record of ‘exceptional ability’ (YouTube: Abrome via AUTO BILD) To understand what it’s like to work for Elon Musk, perhaps no one knows better than SpaceX’s former head of talent acquisition, Dolly Singh, who would recruit candidates for Musk. Singh says that, “Diamonds are created under pressure, and Elon Musk is a master diamond maker… he knows you will exceed your own expectations if he keeps the heat on. It’s purposeful, and it’s brilliant.” In short, Singh says that working for Musk at SpaceX is like joining the “Special Forces, we take on missions that others have deemed impossible.” And the same, apparently, is true at Tesla.  When Autoblog got a chance to interview Elon, he explained, “the general understanding is that if you’re at Tesla, you’re choosing to be at the equivalent of Special Forces. There’s the regular Army, and that’s fine, but if you are working at Tesla, you’re choosing to step up your game. And that has pluses and minuses. It’s cool to be Special Forces, but… it’s not for everyone.”

It sounds like the perfect plot for a conspiracy thriller: the giant oil companies are buying up electric vehicle charging companies as fast as they can. Do they mean to shut ‘em all down, or just to make sure that the price of charging is high enough that driving an EV won’t deliver any savings over driving a fossil-fueled vehicle? (Shell is one of the world’s largest providers of hydrogen, made from natural gas.)  Above: Tesla Model S charging up at a Shell gas station (Source: Shell) Or, could there be a surprise ending? Perhaps the oil execs have the good of mankind at heart—they realize that the Oil Age is ending, and want to be in position to profit from the next energy era. We’ll have to wait for the next episode to find out about that—what we do know is that three Europe-based oil multinationals (Shell, Total and bp) started getting into the charging game back in 2017, and now own companies at every stage of the charging value chain. Shell is rapidly becoming a major player in the UK charging market—the company now offers charging at numerous petrol stations (aka forecourts), and will soon be rolling out charging at some 100 supermarkets. The latest news is that Shell aims to install 50,000 on-street public charging points in the UK over the next four years (as reported by The Guardian). Earlier this year, the oil giant acquired ubitricity, which specializes in integrating charging into existing street infrastructure such as lamp posts and bollards, a solution that could make EV ownership more attractive to city dwellers who don’t have private driveways or assigned parking spaces. This is a big deal—according to the UK’s National Audit Office, over 60% of urban households in England do not have off-street parking, meaning that there’s no practical way for them to install a home charger. A similar situation prevails in many regions, including China and parts of the US. Above: A look at the innovative company, ubitricity, that Shell acquired in order to expand its EV charging footprint (YouTube: London & Partners) In the UK, local councils have emerged as something of a bottleneck for installing public charging. Shell has a plan to get around this by offering to pay the upfront costs of installation not covered by government grants. The UK government’s Office for Zero Emission Vehicles currently pays up to 75% of the installation cost for public chargers. “It’s vital to speed up the pace of EV charger installation across the UK and this aim and financing offer is designed to help achieve that,” Shell UK Chair David Bunch told The Guardian. “We want to give drivers across the UK accessible EV charging options, so that more drivers can switch to electric.” UK Transport Minister Rachel Maclean called Shell’s plan “a great example of how private investment is being used alongside government support to ensure that our EV infrastructure is fit for the future.” Shell continues to invest in clean-energy businesses, and has pledged to make its operations net-zero-emissions by 2050. However, it has shown no intention of scaling back its oil and gas production, and some environmental activists are not convinced. Recently, members of the group Extinction Rebellion activists chained and/or glued themselves to railings at London’s Science Museum to protest Shell’s sponsorship of an exhibition about greenhouse gases. “We find it unacceptable that a scientific institution, a great cultural institution such as the Science Museum, should be taking money, dirty money, from an oil company,” said Dr Charlie Gardner, a member of Scientists for Extinction Rebellion. “The fact that Shell are able to sponsor this exhibition allows them to paint themselves as part of the solution to climate change, whereas they are, of course, at the heart of the problem.” === Written by: Charles Morris; Source: The Guardian

If you’re a car buff, and have traveled abroad, you’ve doubtless noticed that the mix of auto brands you see on the streets is radically different from one country to another. In many other markets, vehicles that rule the roads here in the US are rare birds, while brands and individual models that most Americans have never heard of dominate.  Above: Tesla is a top-seller in Norway (Image: Norsk Ebilforening) For example, when I travel in Europe, I’m struck by the relative rarity of US and Japanese brands, and the near-total absence of pickup trucks (except in the vicinity of farms). A new infographic from Budget Direct Car Insurance highlights the best-selling vehicles in the world, using 2019 sales data. Some of the info here is just what you’d expect. We know that Norway and the Netherlands are currently the most electrified countries in the world, so it’s not a big surprise that Tesla’s Model 3 is the best-selling vehicle in both. (Will Tesla add another country or two in next year’s survey?) We also already knew that the Ford F-150 pickup absolutely dominates the US and Canada—but it turns out to be a minor player everywhere else. Pickups may get short shrift in densely-populated Europe, but buyers in many countries with wide-open spaces love pickups—just not Fords. The Toyota Hi-Lux pickup is the top seller in Australia, Argentina, Peru and at least eight countries in Africa. An outlier is New Zealand, which loves the Ford Ranger. Above: A look at the top-selling cars in each country (Source: Budget Direct Car Insurance) In fact, with a few exceptions, the Big Three don’t tend to top sales rankings outside the US. GM recently sold its Opel brand and pulled out of Europe altogether, and Ford has a pretty minor presence in the European region—except for the UK, where the Ford Fiesta has been the top-selling car for years. A couple of other outliers: the Chevrolet Onix, which comes in sedan and hatchback versions, is the top seller in Brazil and Paraguay. And who knew the tiny Chevy Spark would be the favorite car in Ecuador? Any self-respecting automaker expects to dominate sales in its home country, and that pattern holds true almost everywhere. The VW Golf rules Germany, Volvo sweeps Sweden, Fiat is it in Italy, and SEAT (now a Volkswagen Group subsidiary) has Spain sewn up. Even parts of the world that we Yanks don’t tend to be familiar with have their own automakers—Russia’s Lada and Iran’s Saipa dominate their home markets, and in India, Maruti, a local joint venture with Suzuki, tops the list. The global top dog is Toyota, which had the best-selling vehicle in 41 of the 104 countries surveyed, as well as the world’s best-selling vehicle overall in 2019, the Corolla. It’s also currently the world’s largest automaker by sales (but not by market value—a certain California Carmaker holds that title). Ironically, Toyota doesn’t top the list in its home country—in Japan, the best-selling model was the Honda N-Box (whatever that is). Another global insight: sedans and hatchbacks are far from dead, however out of style they may be in the US at the moment. Sedans were the best-selling vehicles in 25 countries, edging out trucks (24) and SUVs (20). Subcompacts led in 19 countries, and hatchbacks held the top spot in 12 markets. === Written by: Charles Morris; Source: Budget Direct Car Insurance via Visual Capitalist

As it becomes clearer that electric transportation is the future, the haters, Luddites and boo-birds are out in full force. Every single day I see a slew of anti-EV material online. Some of these are articles in reputable media (e.g. Politico), which marshal reasonable-sounding arguments to explain why their readers should wait another few years to buy an EV, or why it will take decades for e-mobility to “catch on” (these are often filled with falsehoods and/or oil industry talking points). Over on the social media side, we see a steady stream of barely-coherent rants, complete with misspellings and grammatical errors, that repeat the same scare stories week after week.  Above: The all-electric Porsche Taycan and Tesla Model 3 (Photo by Roberto H) Jim Motavalli, writing in Treehugger, tells us how, after he wrote a piece in Autoweek about the major automakers’ plans to eventually phase out internal combustion engines, the comments section quickly filled up with naysaying. Many commenters harped on the “inconvenience” of driving electric, and quite a few portrayed electrification as something that government and “major corporations” are trying to force on an unwilling public. One, more insightful than most, pointed out the huge contrast between the overwhelmingly anti-EV tone of comments on Autoweek (which covers both ICE and electric vehicles) and more pro-EV sites, where readers rhapsodize about the joys of driving electric, and grouse about timid government support for EVs and the half-hearted efforts of legacy automakers. EVs will eventually displace ICE vehicles not because they save money, or because of their (very real, whatever the Autoweek crowd may say) environmental advantages. They will win drivers over because they’re better vehicles—more practical, more convenient, better-performing and more fun to drive. At least, this is what I and other chroniclers of e-mobility have been saying for years, and now technology is beginning to catch up to our optimism. The selection of available EVs is growing, ranges are more than sufficient, and public charging infrastructure is proliferating. Depending on who you talk to, major automakers are either “all in” on electrification, or fighting a rear-guard action to delay it as long as possible. Above: Some of the giants of Detroit are attempting to follow Tesla into an electric vehicle future (YouTube: Bloomberg Markets and Finance) Audi execs told Treehugger at a recent online panel, “By 2026 we will be launching only purely electric vehicles. We are firmly convinced that the industry is going in this direction, and that customer demand will follow.” Well, that’s a welcome change, if it’s sincere. In 2020, Audi’s Chairman of the Board, Markus Duesmann, told the German news magazine Focus (English synopsis in CleanTechnica) that ICE vehicles “will be alive for a very long time,” and that “we continue to invest massively in the development of combustion engines.” Ralf Brandstätter, the then-new head of the VW brand, made similar comments around the same time, saying that VW would be offering ICE models for a long time to come. Toyota has evolved from an electrification innovator into the industry’s most influential anti-EV voice. The New York Times reports that a senior Toyota executive recently traveled to Washington to argue against the Biden administration’s proposed measures to promote EVs. Toyota’s lobbying effort in Washington is part of a worldwide strategy of opposing stricter emissions standards and EV mandates—the company has also argued against pro-EV policies in India, Mexico and Japan. The Renault Group, which is currently one of the largest EV-makers in the European market (in contention with a certain California company), is now trying to talk EU policymakers into extending the proposed ICE ban from 2035 to 2040. In a statement filled with bizarre, convoluted logic, Gilles Leborgne, the Renault Group’s Executive VP for Engineering, recently told Auto Express that, although the company has the technology to go 100% electric, the Dacia brand will only be selling 10% EVs by 2030, “because people need to move and they need to have affordable cars.” It’s a little hard to see the conspiracy to shove EVs down our throats that the Autoweek readers are afraid of. It’s surely true that the major automakers are working hard to convince the left-leaning press of their commitment to EVs, but their customers, and their servants in government? Not so much. Fortunately, advancing technology, and competitive pressure from a certain California company called Tesla, is forcing their hands. As long as Tesla’s innovation factory keeps humming, automakers will have no choice but to move forward with the transition to EVs. If automakers’ lobbying efforts can’t turn back the tide, the flood of snarky online comments certainly won’t. === Written by: Charles Morris; Source: Treehugger; Video: Bloomberg Markets and Finance

Tesla seems to be on a mission to get into the Indian auto market—the world’s fifth-largest. In January, the company registered Tesla India Motors and Energy Private Limited as a subsidiary, and set up an office and R&D facility in Bangalore. Flickr: DennisM2 / Ashwin Kumar More recently, India’s Ministry of Road Transport and Highways tested four Tesla models and certified them to be roadworthy. “The tests ensure the vehicle matches the requirements of the Indian market in terms of emission and safety and road worthiness,” states the ministry. The models tested appear to be variants of Models 3 and Y.  Ignored by most Western media, there’s a surprising amount of EV activity stirring in India. Federal and local government incentives are on the rise, and several domestic OEMs, including Tata and Mahindra, are building EVs.  Model Y continues being tested in Pune, India. This points towards Model Y also being introduced along with model 3🤞#Tesla #TeslaIndia🇮🇳 #TCIN $tsla pic.twitter.com/AOBz322jMe — Tesla Club India® (@TeslaClubIN) September 1, 2021 Twitter: Tesla Club India Elon Musk has said in the past that the company is “quite likely” to site a future Gigafactory in India. For the foreseeable future however, Teslas sold in India would probably come from Shanghai. Some of the challenges Tesla will face in India are similar to those it has met in China. The market for high-end passenger cars is small—two- and three-wheeled vehicles are the most popular segments—and charging infrastructure is scarce. Steep excise and import duties can almost double the price of a luxury model. Indian government officials have said they would consider relaxing onerous taxes and regulations, if Tesla works with local suppliers. Transportation Minister Nitin Gadkari told Reuters in March: “The government will make sure the production costs for Tesla will be the lowest when compared with the world, even China, when they start manufacturing cars in India. We will assure that.” ===  This article originally appeared in Charged. Author: Charles Morris. Sources: Bloomberg, Investopedia

“Money manager” may not sound like the most glamorous of job descriptions, but talking about Tesla often seems to make even the most analytical of financial experts wax poetic. More than a few money managers have earned a measure of stardom delivering colorful opinions—both positive and negative—about the prospects of TSLA stock. Above: Ark Invest Founder Cathie Wood is a TSLA Bull and proud Tesla Model 3 owner (Twitter: Cathie Wood) Cathie Wood, the founder and CEO of investment management firm Ark Invest, is not one of the flamboyant shouters often seen on investment shows, but her eloquently-expressed views are heard loud and clear these days. With good reason—her funds delivered spectacular gains in 2020, and the sum under her firm’s management has grown from $10 billion at the end of 2019 to around $85 billion. In a recent profile in the New York Times, Matt Phillips calls Ms. Wood “the most influential investor at work in the markets today,” and credits her with developing a new style of investing that has become the gospel of “the new generation of tech-focused, risk-hungry people who started trading in droves in 2020.” Her podcasts, white papers, videos and newsletters are consumed by millions of followers, and her pronouncements regularly move markets. Her face can be seen not only on TV, but on t-shirts worn by skateboard-riding techie bros. The 65-year-old Ms. Wood may seem an odd heroine for the Robinhood set. She’s a long-time Wall Street insider, a Trump supporter, and a protégé of Arthur Laffer, inventor of the famous Laffer Curve that inspired a generation of supply-side tax-cutters. Be that as it may, she’s seen as anything but a defender of the status quo. Her funds make aggressive bets on tech stocks, many of them not yet profitable—quite a contrast to the patient, earnings-focused methods of stock pickers such as Peter Lynch or Warren Buffett. In 2020, her firm piled into tech stocks like Roku, Zillow and Square. The Times’ Phillips tells us that her flagship fund, Ark Innovation, delivered a return of almost 150 percent, crushing the S&P 500’s 16 percent. Cathie Wood was a Tesla bull before being a Tesla bull was cool. Phillips recounts a 2018 exchange on the reality show Shark Tank between Wood and entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary, who was espousing a variant of the “Tesla Killer” scenario. As GM and other legacy automakers piled into the electric vehicle business, Tesla’s share price was bound to plummet to a more realistic level commensurate with its actual vehicle production, O’Leary argued.  Above: Cathie Wood discusses Tesla (YouTube: Bloomberg Technology) Ms. Wood begged to differ, and listed a number of reasons why GM wasn’t a match for Tesla—it didn’t [and doesn’t] have the software expertise, distribution network, battery technology or AI skills that have driven Tesla’s rise. “The future is electric. GM’s not electric yet,” she said. Three years later, her words sound pretty prescient. The Dinosaurs of Detroit are talking a much bigger electric game these days, but their actions can still be described as timid at best, and no one in the EV industry expects them to catch up with the Prophets of Palo Alto any time soon. Meanwhile TSLA stock is trading at ten or eleven times what it was in 2018. Wood remains incredibly bullish on Tesla—her latest target price for TSLA is around $3,000 (Elon Musk apparently agrees, according to Electrek). In a recent interview with Real Vision (via Business Insider), Woods had a lot to say about Tesla and where it fits into the ongoing tech revolution. “We are on the cusp of more change than has ever happened,” she tells fellow investment guru Kiril Sokoloff. “There’s going to be tremendous disintermediation and disruption. We see the energy sector, financial services, any industry touching the internal combustion engine and its suppliers…in harm’s way.” As others have, Wood compares Tesla favorably to a certain other California-based disruptor. “Apple understood that a cell phone was really a computer well before Nokia, Ericsson, and Motorola did. It designed its own chip because Intel and Qualcomm, they were going with the volume players, and Apple was nowhere, right? By designing its own chip, it now still has the lion’s share of the profits in the cellphone market…We think that’s what’s going to happen to Tesla.” Teslas are “better-performing cars,” Wood tells Real Vision. “They delight the consumer. This is how Apple won. This is how Tesla is going to win.” === Written by: Charles Morris; Sources: New York Times, Real Vision, Business Insider

The US government is the single-largest vehicle fleet operator in the country. It operates some 315,000 light-duty vehicles and buses, not including the Postal Service. Electrifying these vehicles would be one of the most cost-effective things the federal government could do to cut air pollution—while saving taxpayers billions of bucks.  Above: Rendering of an electric USPS Tesla Model X (Source: Motor 1 / Varooma) A new report from the Electrification Coalition and Atlas Public Policy finds that 97 percent of buses and light-duty vehicles in the US federal fleet could be replaced by EVs by 2030 at a cost savings to taxpayers, and that up to 40 percent could be cost-effectively replaced by 2025. The new study, “Federal Fleet Electrification Assessment,” analyzes EVs’ total cost of ownership—purchase price, fuel and maintenance—relative to that of legacy ICE vehicles, and finds that EVs will deliver increasing cost savings over the next decade. “Because of falling sticker prices and high fuel-cost savings, EVs are rapidly becoming the economic choice for federal agencies,” said report co-author Nick Nigro. “These fleets and the US Postal Service will realize considerable savings and cut greenhouse gas emissions by switching to EVs this decade.” Above: Based on the assessment, some recomendations for electrifying federal fleets (YouTube: Electrification Coalition) “USPS offers a uniquely strong case for vehicle electrification,” says the report. The USPS light-duty fleet includes 192,000 vehicles, which are especially well-suited to electrification because they have predictable routes and centralized depots. According to the study, by 2025, EVs will be less expensive than conventional vehicles for more than 99 percent of the USPS light-duty fleet, and electrification could save taxpayers some $2.9 billion. By 2030, that figure increases to nearly 100 percent, and the switch could save $4.6 billion. This conclusion is especially frustrating in light of the fact that the USPS is currently planning to replace its fleet of fossil-fuel vehicles with a new generation of fossil-fuel vehicles (the supplier has said that 10% of these might be EVs). A group of House Democrats has challenged the decision, but looking at the big picture, electrification of a substantial portion of the USPS fleet now seems extremely unlikely for the foreseeable future. “Electrification of our country’s transportation sector is critical to improving our economy, national security and public health,” said Electrification Coalition Executive Director Ben Prochazka. “The sheer scale of the federal fleet represents an enormous opportunity for progress on all these fronts. And because the federal fleet is such a heavyweight consumer in the vehicle market, electrifying the fleet would stimulate EV manufacturing and sales in the United States.” ===  This article originally appeared in Charged. Author: Charles Morris. Source: The Electrification Coalition

Elon Musk has been a prime target, Public Enemy #1, facing off against Big Oil, Big Auto, and Big Aerospace. He lives in the crosshairs of the Mainstream Media, Short Sellers, and Twitter Trolls. Yet, regardless of the ongoing FUD, an army of supporters have attempted to fight back. Recently an award-winning author, Douglas Coupland, has joined the fray with a brilliant editorial in The Guardian.   Above: Tesla CEO Elon Musk (Flickr: OnInnovation) First, it’s worth recognizing that whether or not you like Elon Musk, he’s done a lot of good for the air we breathe. Coupland writes, “Musk pretty much single-handedly shamed and forced the global auto industry to accelerate the electric car rollout by seven to 10 years. Yet people kvetch, and it makes me wonder if there is something fundamentally flawed about our era that it is almost impossible to get people to say something nice about pretty much anyone else.” And in an age of divisive politricks, Elon doesn’t fit neatly into any box. “The left doesn’t like him because he doesn’t fund them or show interest in their causes. And the right doesn’t like him because he messes around with the stock market and doesn’t take classical capitalism seriously,” writes Coupland. “For example, he thinks short selling the stock market should be banned. Musk donates to Democrats and Republicans only because it’s the cost of having a voice in government. He seems to see left versus right as an obsolete binary and instead focuses his altruistic energies on ecology and invention,” he adds. Fact: he’s smarter than you, get over it. “Musk has a huge IQ. He is measurably, scientifically, clinically and demonstrably the smartest person in any room anywhere. He can tell you the square root of your Amex card number at a glance. He can tell you, I don’t know – the square root of zinc. He has mild Asperger’s, which prevents him from snagging on details and talking himself out of trying new things. He’s a perfect storm,” says Coupland.  Okay… but isn’t all that tweeting about crypto kinda sketchy? According to Coupland, “Cryptocurrency does seem to be the one topic where Musk genuinely enjoys messing with people’s minds – as well as with stock market regulators. I suspect that he doesn’t have a stand on crypto at all – my guess is that he sees cryptocurrencies as being interesting simply because they exist at all, like Klein bottles or those Japanese Kit-Kats in flavors such as pumpkin or green tea.” In the end, does Elon Musk even care about all these haters? Perhaps he’s too busy to care. Coupland concludes, “[Elon] isn’t trying to save the world, only to make it better. Musk has created three multibillion-dollar companies in four profoundly difficult fields in which to create anything. And these companies are successful, usually without help from the people we once considered gatekeepers. Like lots of people who do lots of things, he’s too busy for elaborate introspection.” === Source: The Guardian

The Lone Star State, where Tesla has a growing presence, is famous for its wide-open spaces. What’s not as widely known is that it also has a wide-open deregulated electricity market—at last count, over 120 companies were providing power. This and other factors have led to problems with grid reliability that were brought to light last year, when a cold snap caused widespread outages.  Above: A look at Tesla’s stationary storage efforts (Source: Tesla) Tesla to the rescue—Texas Monthly reports that Tesla Energy Ventures has applied with the Texas Public Utility Commission to enter the electricity market as an official retailer. Last winter’s debacle shook up the state’s energy market—since the fiasco, at least five electricity retailers have left the market, and 13 others have submitted applications to join. During the blackouts, a few Texas Powerwall owners posted pix of their homes, cheerily lit up and toasty warm, while the rest of the street was dark. Since then, Tesla has reported a surge in demand for Powerwalls in the state. In its filing with the Texas PUC, Tesla confirmed plans for two utility-scale battery storage systems— a Megapack project near Houston with a capacity of over 100 MW and a 250 MW installation near Gigafactory Texas in Austin. As an electricity retailer in the state, Tesla could aggregate these with its Powerwalls and residential solar installations to form a massive virtual power plant, coordinated by its Autobidder software. Observers of Texas’s energy market say that Tesla could quickly become an important player in the state. According to Texas Monthly, the state currently has over 1 gigawatt of installed residential solar panels. By comparison, the South Texas Project Electric Generating Station’s two nuclear reactors can each generate 1.28 gigawatts. ===  This article originally appeared in Charged. Author: Charles Morris. Source: Texas Monthly via Electrek

The electric vehicle naysayers publish a steady stream of articles claiming that if EVs are widely adopted, loads of batteries will end up in landfills and cause all manner of environmental problems (and we all know how concerned those folks are about the environment). What the boo-birds won’t tell you is that the components of batteries are quite valuable, so there is every incentive to recycle them, and that automakers and recycling firms are already far advanced in their efforts to establish a “circular economy” for batteries.  Above: A look at Tesla battery cells (Source: Charged) Tesla has understood the importance of this from the beginning, and has been working with various firms to recycle its end-of-life battery packs for several years. One of these is Tesla co-founder JB Straubel’s company, Redwood Materials, which is recycling scrap from Panasonic’s battery cell production at Gigafactory Nevada. In typical Tesla fashion, the company has also been working on its own in-house battery recycling system. Tesla’s recently-released 2020 Impact Report includes some new details about the company’s battery recycling efforts. Tesla claims that it can recover about 92% of battery cell materials with its recycling process, and is becoming a producer of nickel, cobalt, and other battery components, reducing the need to extract raw materials by mining. The company says that some 1,300 tons of nickel, 400 tons of copper and 80 tons of cobalt were recycled in 2020. “In the fourth quarter of 2020, Tesla successfully installed the first phase of our cell recycling facility at Gigafactory Nevada for in-house processing of both battery manufacturing scrap and end-of-life batteries,” says Tesla in its 2020 Impact Report. “While Tesla has worked for years with third-party battery recyclers to ensure our batteries do not end up in a landfill, we understand the importance of also building recycling capacity in-house to supplement these relationships. Onsite recycling brings us one step closer to closing the loop on materials generation, allowing for raw material transfer straight to our nickel and cobalt suppliers.” Above: A look at Tesla’s Battery Materials Lifecycle (Source: Tesla) In-house recycling will make even more sense as Tesla begins manufacturing its own battery cells at scale. “As the manufacturer of our in-house cell program, we are best positioned to recycle our products efficiently to maximize key battery material recovery. With the implementation of in-house cell manufacturing at Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg and Gigafactory Texas, we expect substantial increases in manufacturing scrap globally. We intend to tailor recycling solutions to each location and thereby re-introduce valuable materials back into our manufacturing process. Our goal is to develop a safe recycling process with high recovery rates, low costs and low environmental impact. From an economic perspective, we expect to recognize significant savings over the long term as the costs associated with large-scale battery material recovery and recycling will be far lower than purchasing additional raw materials for cell manufacturing.” It’s not just batteries that Tesla is recycling—the company claims that “any materials that are possible to recycle, we recycle,” and that, at Gigafactory Shanghai, just 4% of the total waste generated is not recyclable. “We continue to push for innovative approaches to reducing waste, which includes reduction of non-recyclable materials in the first place, learning from local factories and deploying improvements globally or working with our logistics team to minimize shipments and packaging per vehicle.” === This article originally appeared in Charged. Author: Charles Morris. Source: Tesla via Electrek

Regular readers of this column are surely familiar with how electric car charging works, and the various flavors of home and public charging that are available. For much of the general public however, charging is terra incognita, and this lack of knowledge is holding back wider EV adoption. For the EV-curious, the number-one question (and maybe numbers two and three as well) is always about charging, and until people understand what their options are, they’re simply not going to buy. Above: A standard setup in the home of a Tesla owner might include a high power wall charger (Source: Tesla) Fortunately, we’re seeing more and more how-to articles about charging in mainstream media such as local newspapers and general-interest mags. Recently the Wall Street Journal published a charging primer, in which E.B. Solomont shared the charging experiences of several current EV owners, along with some sound information on charging basics from our colleague, EV expert Tom Moloughney. As you might expect considering its typical reader demographic, the EV owners interviewed by the WSJ are luxury car buyers who can pay whatever it takes to get what they want. If you’re thinking about a used Nissan LEAF, rest assured that there are much cheaper home charging options than the ones described here. However, it’s safe to say that higher-income consumers need charging advice just as much as we budget buyers do. Peter Van Deerlin is a doctor, and when he bought a Tesla Model S in 2012, he wanted the fastest home charging solution he could get, in case he needed to get to the hospital quickly. He opted for Tesla’s Dual Charger, a hardware option that allowed Model S to be charged at 22 kW, double the usual rate (Tesla discontinued this option in 2016), and installed a beefy 100-amp electrical circuit in his garage. Dr. Deerlin and his wife have presumably been satisfied with their charging experience, because they later added a Model 3 and a Roadster to their fleet. In fact, so delighted are the Deerlins that they spent some $13,000 to redecorate their garage, with Tesla-red paint, a wall-mounted T logo and flashy floor tiles. Vivianna Van Deerlin, who is now the president of a local Tesla owners’ club, told the WSJ that she originally went electric for environmental reasons, but fell in love with the Tesla: “I love that driving electric doesn’t need to be a compromise.”  Thanks! I love the red too. And here’s a better view of the #Tesla garage. Not sure what we’ll do when Model Y arrives. pic.twitter.com/8CS47FBl9n — Vivi (@vivivandeerlin) April 19, 2019 Twitter: Vivianna Van Deerlin Entrepreneur and investor Rich Levandov and his wife, Robin, split their time between Massachusetts and Sausalito, California. Their Massachusetts pad has a simple Level 2 charger, but at their California spread, they’re going all the way, installing a Tesla Solar Roof and a Powerwall, which they’ll use to charge their new Model Y and four e-bikes. Colin Morales, an executive at a medical firm, drives a Porsche Taycan, and his partner has a plug-in hybrid Range Rover. They may have been among the many who bought a plug-in vehicle without understanding the reality of charging—they told the WSJ that at first, they “found themselves running all over town searching for a charging station.” However, they quickly educated themselves, and spared no expense to get properly equipped. The couple now have three ChargePoint home chargers, and another on order—two at their primary residence and two for their vacation homes. Mr. Morales said he spent around $2,000 to install each charging station, including the electrical work, and is now saving an estimated $150 per month on gas. ===  Written by: Charles Morris; Source: Wall Street Journal

A gold rush attracts prospectors from near and far, and the invariable result is that some get rich quick, and some go home penniless. There’s one group that always does well, however: merchants who sell picks and shovels to the miners. Above: FANUC Robot Assembly Demo for Elon Musk at Tesla (Flickr: Steve Jurvetson) Electric vehicles are today’s motherlode, and both legacy automakers and ambitious startups are investing massive sums in hopes of hitting pay dirt. Some of these will thrive (a certain California carmaker already has), and others will perish. At the moment, all are struggling with a shortage of semiconductors and other components, on top of a persistent pandemic. However, there’s one industry segment that’s doing very well indeed: factory equipment manufacturers that supply robots and other equipment for today’s highly automated production processes. (EV journalists and suppliers of Tesla accessories are also getting by, thank you.) As Reuters reports, US manufacturing in general is enjoying a broad recovery from the corona crash—new orders rose from $362 million in April 2020 to almost $506 million in June 2021. The makers of robots and other factory automation technology have seen an even bigger surge, and demand is expected to keep climbing as a wave of new EVs goes into production over the next couple of years. Automakers have ordered manufacturing equipment for 37 EV models in North America alone, industry consultant Laurie Harbour told Reuters. “I’m not sure it’s reached its climax yet. There’s still more to go,” said Andrew Lloyd, Electromobility Segment Leader at Comau, a Stellantis-owned supplier of industrial robots. “Over the next 18 to 24 months, there’s going to be significant demand coming our way.” Automakers both old and new are putting money into EV factories. Automakers will invest over $37 billion in North American plants from 2019 to 2025, according to LMC Automotive, and a substantial amount of that is for EV-related projects.  Feel the speed of Shanghai Gigafactory!💪🏻 pic.twitter.com/Bmn5ak2rU6 — Tesla Greater China (@teslacn) August 26, 2021 Above: A look at the high level of automation and factory robots at Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory (Twitter: Tesla Greater China) “This industry is the Wild, Wild West right now,” John Kacsur, VP of Rockwell Automation’s automotive and tire segment, told Reuters. “There is a mad race to get these new EV variants to market.” “There’s still a pipeline with projects from new EV manufacturers,” said Mathias Christen, a spokesman for paint shop equipment specialist Durr, which says its EV business grew by 65% last year. “This is why we don’t see the peak yet.” Manufacturing automation company Kuka (which supplies robots for Tesla, among others) says its order book swelled by 52% in the first half of 2021. “We ran out of capacity for any additional work about a year and a half ago,” Mike LaRose, CEO of Kuka’s auto group in the Americas, told Reuters. “Everyone’s so busy, there’s no floor space.” Automakers and battery builders need to order robots 18 months in advance, said Neil Dueweke, VP of Automotive at Fanuc America (also a Tesla supplier), which set a new sales record last year. “We built a facility and have like 5,000 robots on shelves stacked 200 feet high, almost as far as the eye can see.” === Written by: Charles Morris; Source: Reuters via CarBuzz

What’s the definition of a “muscle car?” Certainly, it needs to be fast off the line, and it needs to be American. Sports cars such as McLarens, Porsches and Ferraris have all the performance you could want, but, as Roland Moore-Colyer writes in Tom’s Guide, “they arguably lack the bombast of muscle cars.”  Above: Tesla’s Model 3 (Source: EVANNEX; Photo by Casey Murphy) Does a muscle car have to have a noisy, smoky gas engine, or is incredible performance enough to earn the title? Could a Tesla possibly be described as a muscle car? It may lack noise and smoke, but Elon Musk certainly provides plenty of bombast. Mr. Moore-Colyer describes himself as “a car fan, but also someone who’s not so keen on the devastating effects of climate change.” He’s in good company—Elon Musk and Martin Eberhard described themselves in very similar terms. Lately, fans of motoring muscle have been watching some frost begin to form on the gates of Hell, as automakers consider converting iconic muscle cars to electric drive—or at least appropriating their names and branding. Ford’s Mustang Mach-E has little in common with a classic V8 ‘Stang other than the name and the equine logo. What about the F-150 pickup? Could a pickup be considered a muscle car? For some, they do appeal to the same primal instincts. Rumor has it that Chevrolet is planning an all-electric version of the Camaro, which has seen its sales fall behind those of competitors from Ford and Dodge in recent years. Would this really be an electric muscle car? According to the whisperers, the e-Camaro would be a four-door sedan.  It’s hard to escape the conclusion that electrification is likely to mean the end of the muscle car, at least as a mass-market model (like horses and sailing ships, they will never disappear completely). Above: Dodge claims they’re electrifying their muscle cars because ‘performance made us do it’ (YouTube: Dodge) Moore-Colyer is worried about the future of muscle cars, and he surely has a lot of company. “Impractical as the likes of a Camaro or Shelby GT might be, there’s something special hearing one approach in the distance with a sonorous tone from its V8 as it zips past,” he writes. “Or simply hearing the burble of that engine as it waits at a traffic light, seemingly wanting another car to challenge it to a quarter-mile sprint.” Thus might our great-grandparents have rhapsodized about the beauty of a clipper ship under full sail, the seamen rushing aloft to reef topsails as the breeze freshens into a gale; or the inspiring image of a team of heavy draft horses pulling a cart, their warm breath clouding in the frosty morning as they rear and plunge, the earth shaking under their powerful hooves. Whenever a new technology replaces an old one, some beloved things are lost (my generation pines for the crackle of a vinyl record, the smell of a book fresh from the library, the reassuring voice of Walter Cronkite). But alas, time tarries never, and we must embrace the newer, more utilitarian, cleaner and cheaper ways of doing things, or be left behind. A Tesla Model 3 is the most American car you can buy, and it can smoke just about any gas car on the road. A Mustang Mach-E, Porsche Taycan or Audi e-tron GT can get the job done in similar fashion. Could these high-performance EVs be described as “muscle cars?” Perhaps the title should be reserved for the road warriors of the previous century, but lovers of automotive performance can look forward to plenty of fun in this one. As Moore-Colyer concludes, “If the slow death of the classic American muscle cars paves the way for more exciting EVs, then perhaps it’s time to put nostalgia aside and welcome electric cars with open arms.” === Written by: Charles Morris; Source: Tom’s Guide

The Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) impact report has taken its place alongside the traditional corporate annual report. Investors and others look to an ESG report to assess a company’s performance on issues that can’t be measured in strictly financial terms.  Above: Tesla Model 3 (Source: EVANNEX; Photo by Casey Murphy) Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy, and as you’d expect, the company has produced a thorough and detailed ESG report. Tesla’s 2020 Impact Report describes the company’s efforts to minimize its environmental footprint across every aspect of its operations. “At Tesla, we strive to be the best on every metric relevant to our mission to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy,” reads the report’s introduction. “Furthermore, each product we make must be continuously improved at each step of its lifecycle: from manufacturing to consumer use to recycling.” “Tesla aspires to do the right thing, and we are constantly looking for ways to do better,” Tesla assures us. The report even lists an email address for “suggestions about how our company can improve in any way.” (The people at the other end are sure to be more responsive than the ones who field questions from the press.) If you need some ammunition to debunk one of those “EVs’ Dirty Little Secret” articles that continue to appear on a daily basis, this report would be a good place to start. In the section entitled “Lifecycle Analysis of Tesla EVs vs. Equivalent ICE Vehicles,” the company explains in detail why the environmental impact of zero-emission vehicles is “undeniably more positive than the [greenhouse gas]-emitting alternatives.” Above: A look at the clean energy ecosystem Tesla is developing (Source: Tesla) It’s true that, on average, producing an EV generates more greenhouse gas emissions than producing a legacy vehicle. However, this is cancelled out within a short time by the far lower emissions generated by driving an EV. “The manufacturing process of a Model 3 currently results in slightly higher GHG emissions than an equivalent combustion engine vehicle,” says Tesla. “However, based on the global weighted average grid mix, a Model 3 has lower lifetime emissions than an equivalent ICE after driving 5,340 miles.” Tesla presents the per-mile lifecycle emissions of a current Fremont-made Model 3—including “emissions from upstream supply chain, direct emissions from manufacturing and electricity consumption, and use phase emissions when charged from a grid with a generation mix that reflects the geographic distribution of Model 3 deliveries in each of the US, Europe and China.” The assumptions behind the calculations are explained in detail. Charts demonstrate the lifecycle emissions of a Model 3 in different use-case and charging scenarios, in several different regions of the world. Emissions are lowest in Europe, where the grid is cleanest, and highest in China, where much of the grid is powered by coal. However (as other studies of EV emissions have found), “even in this scenario, charging a Tesla Model 3 from the grid is still less emission-intensive than running an ICE vehicle.” And Tesla is far from finished reducing emissions. The report details the steps Tesla is taking to reduce the environmental footprint of its manufacturing operations. “Building a factory from the ground up with sustainability in mind can have a material impact on reducing energy use.” The Shanghai Gigafactory is cleaner than the Fremont plant, and future Gigs will be cleaner still, using less energy and less water, and generating less waste. “We build each new factory to be better and more sustainably designed than the previous one. While we have already completed substantial improvements at Gigafactory Shanghai, further improvements will continue at Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg and Gigafactory Texas.” ===  This article originally appeared in Charged. Author: Charles Morris. Source: Tesla

When the history of Elon Musk is officially written, how will he be remembered? It turns out that Walter Isaacson, who penned the story of Steve Jobs, is working on a biography about Elon Musk. Bloomberg’s Ashlee Vance wrote a fantastic biography on Musk a few years back. Now, Wall Street Journal reporter, Tim Higgins, provides his take in Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, And The Bet of The Century. Above: Tesla CEO Elon Musk (Flickr: Web Summit) According to NPR’s Camila Domonoske, “[Higgins] eschews sensationalism for a high-resolution portrait of how exactly an unusual man and an unusual company managed a meteoric rise.” She notes that the book, “focuses less on Musk’s character, and more on the machinations that created his success.” Elon, in turn, responded that the book was “false and boring” on Twitter. Domonoske, though, says the book is “hardly boring” as it showcases how Musk made so many “herculean efforts” along the way. To that end, “[Elon] believed the world had an unmet appetite for electric cars. He thought a California startup could upend the global auto industry. And time and again, when Tesla’s future seemed doomed, he (quite literally) gambled that the company could pull through, and he won.” Above: Author Tim Higgins addresses Tesla’s naysayers and talks about his new book on Elon Musk (YouTube: CNBC Television) So how did he do it? “Musk had a sharper and more ambitious vision… It went like this: Make that sports car, build buzz and cash, expand enormously to go mass-market, and save the world,” Domonoske writes. “It became his all-consuming mission.” Nevertheless, “Musk is perpetually multi-minded, juggling SpaceX, solar panels, Tesla, tunnels, flamethrowers… But throughout it all, he relentlessly pushed for Tesla to dominate the market and turn the auto industry on its head. It worked — Tesla has built a best-selling car, and now virtually every major carmaker is planning to pivot to electric vehicles. And the bulk of Higgins’ book explores how, exactly, Musk beat the odds and did the dang thing.” === Source: NPR; Video: CNBC Television

Tesla’s recent events in Norway have been groundbreaking. The electric automaker shipped around 1,300 Model Ys to Norway as it began deliveries to Europe recently. It turns out these Model Ys were shipped directly from Gigafactory Shanghai. In turn, all of these are the Tesla’s Made-in-China (MIC) Model Y Long Range variants. Above: Model Ys at the Port of Oslo (Source: Norsk elbilforening / YouTube) This massive delivery of Model Ys arrived at the Port of Oslo (Oslo Havn) and was first spotted on August 21st. Video footage of the unloading and the fleet parked at the port (see below) documented the day. And there was also another cool video of the Port of Osla shot by an Indian YouTuber (in Hindi language) as the unloading was finishing up.  Video: Model Ys unloading at the Port of Oslo (YouTube: Norsk elbilforening) Now… fast forward to the present: almost a week later, Tesla Model Y has become the number one electric car in Norway. According to Teslarati, “Less than a week since its arrival, the Tesla Model Y sales have topped the charts.” Furthermore, “Tesla’s dominance in Norway is significant because the country is one of the first to report electric car registrations beating ICE car registrations.”  *CLEAR THE WAY*#ModelY now the best-selling BEV in Norway🇸🇯 in August … That took like less than a week 😂Damn!! pic.twitter.com/uUDvsnTOlb — Morten Grove, Captain of all Tesla-Ships 🚢 (@mortenlund89) August 26, 2021 Twitter: @mortenlund89 Tesla’s leadership position in key European countries is likely to grow. Development of the Model Y production line at Giga Berlin is also in its final stages. Tesla’s European gigafactory is slated to deliver the Performance variants of the Model Y to European customers as early as later this year (as evidenced in the first-ever video showcasing the inside of Giga Berlin). Tesla started the Model Y delivery campaign in Europe in a rather non-traditional way. The electric automaker pasted stickers on the sides of Model Y showroom cars which read ‘Not Model Y’. This meme-inspired marketing stunt paid off big time as various spy shots went viral — Tesla quickly got the attention it wanted to boost Model Y brand recognition in the region. === Written by: Iqtidar Ali. An earlier version of this article was originally published by Tesla Oracle. Revised update edited by EVANNEX.

Tesla’s infamous waiting lists are back. For most models, if you order today, you may be lucky to see your new Tesla this year. Above: A look at Tesla Model Y vehicles pre-delivery (Twitter: Tesla Greater China) Tesla is currently predicting a wait of four to six weeks for the Performance Model 3, and five to six weeks for the Performance Model X. For other models, estimated delivery times can be as far out as April 2022. Presumably, as Tesla and other automakers do when they have supply constraints, the company is putting its highest-margin variants at the head of the production schedule. Waiting lists have been a feature of the company’s sales process for much of its history. When production of Model S began in mid-2012, Tesla had some 10,000 advance reservations, and it didn’t manage to crank the assembly line up to full speed until January 2013, at which time it triumphantly announced that the waiting time for a Model S had been cut to “only” four to six months. Having more orders than you can fill may sound like a good problem to have, but in fact, it’s caused the demise of many a young company. Fortunately, Tesla eventually made it through this “Valley of Death,” and later navigated “Production Hell” with Model 3. Delivery delays are no longer an existential threat for Tesla, but they certainly aren’t good news—later delivery means later payment, and a certain number of impatient buyers are going to give up, meaning no payment at all. Above: Some of Elon Musk’s comments on the chip supply shortage and ongoing supply chain issues (YouTube: ExpovistaTV) What’s causing the delays? The same shortage of semiconductors and other parts that is plaguing every automaker. Toyota was recently forced to cut global production by 40%, and GM, Ford and Stellantis have all announced temporary plant shutdowns. “The chip supply is fundamentally the governing factor on our output,” said Elon Musk in July. “It is difficult for us to see how long this will last because…this is out of our control essentially. It does seem like it’s getting better, but it’s hard to predict.” A month later, it isn’t getting better. “The chip shortage issue isn’t moderating to the extent that the Tesla bulls had hoped,” said Dan Ives, Tech Analyst at Wedbush Securities. It’s not just chips—sourcing other parts is proving problematic too. “For the rest of this year, our growth rates will be determined by the slowest part in our supply chain,” said Musk. The supply issues may take a bite out of forecasts that Tesla would deliver 900,000 vehicles this year, and Ives and others believe that this is one reason TSLA stock has been moving sideways lately. “Investors are focused on deliveries and rising competition in the EV space,” says Ives. “That’s the overhang on the stock right now.” === Written by: Charles Morris; Source: CNN

Oil companies are starting to invest in various segments of the EV industry, especially public charging networks. It remains to be seen whether their intentions are good or bad (or most likely, a mixture of both). They really want to be called “energy companies,” but we’ll consider using that term when products other than petroleum make up at least half their revenues.  Above: A look at a Tesla Model 3 charging at a Shell Recharge location (Source: Shell UK) Shell is at the forefront of this trend—the Dutch-based multinational has been offering DC fast charging at some of its retail sites in the Netherlands and the UK for a few years, and it also has ownership interests in a couple of public charging operators. Now the company plans to expand its partnership with the UK supermarket chain Waitrose. The companies are targeting the installation of 800 Shell Recharge public charging points at up to 100 Waitrose locations across the UK by 2025. Each site is expected to have six 22 kW and two 50 kW fast charging points. Above: Shell Recharge is coming to the Waitrose supermarket chain in the UK (Source: Shell UK) EV charging is expected to debut at the first Waitrose shop early next year. This will represent the first foray into destination charging for the oil giant’s Shell Recharge-branded network, which it hopes to expand to 5,000 charge points at gas stations (forecourts to our British mates) and other locations by 2025. “We want to make EV charging as hassle-free as possible and support our customers wherever they want to charge,” said Shell UK Retail General Manager Bernadette Williamson. Above: EV charging with Shell Recharge (Youtube: Shell) “This is an important partnership for Waitrose and means we can offer even greater convenience to more of our customers,” said Waitrose Executive Director James Bailey. === This article originally appeared in Charged. Author: Charles Morris. Source: Electric Drives

The rocket-fueled rise of Tesla stock is a well-known story, and for several years it was about the only one worth listening to in the electric vehicle realm. That is, TSLA was the only EV-related stock that most people were familiar with, or could easily buy. As the EV market has expanded over the past couple of years, many more companies have rolled onto the stock market stage, and some of them have delivered very entertaining performances indeed. Above: Tesla Model 3 and Audi e-tron (Source: EVANNEX; Photo by Casey Murphy) 2020 was a wild and crazy year for the stock market—equities plunged as the plague propagated, then levitated as lockdowns were lifted. One of the hottest segments of the market was a new crop of EV startups, including Lucid (LCID), Proterra (PTRA), QuantumScape (QS), Xpeng (XPEV), ChargePoint (CHPT) and Lightning eMotors (ZEV). Many of the startups went public through special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), an alternative to the traditional IPO that boosters say streamlines the process of going public, and detractors say encourages firms to go public before they’re ready, enriching middlemen along the way. Be the pros and cons of SPACs what they may, the EV class of 2020 followed an arc that’s familiar to any long-time investor—they soared into the stratosphere, then crashed back to Earth. Most of the high flyers have now settled back to prices barely above where they started. Many have roughly followed the trajectory of industry leader Tesla, whose shares were on fire in 2020, then turned meh in 2021. Some of these story stocks, such as Nikola (NKLA), Workhorse (WKHS) and Lordstown (RIDE), have very colorful stories indeed, but that’s a topic for another article (or several). Meanwhile, unnoticed by most of the mainstream press, a “revenge of the nerds” scenario has been playing out—in 2021, several of the legacy automakers have seen their formerly moribund stocks start to climb. Emma Stevenson, an Investment Specialist at the British asset management company Schroders, writes in City A.M. that “the old guard are fighting back.” The charts tell the tale—so far this year, Tesla and Chinese EV-maker NIO have seen their share prices languish, while Volkswagen, Toyota and Stellantis have delivered healthy gains. Above: CNBC’s Phil LeBeau reports on the top electric vehicle stock picks from another auto industry veteran (YouTube: CNBC Television) Volkswagen has been the best performer of the five, and it may be no coincidence that it is currently the most forward-looking of the world’s legacy automakers. In March, the Volkswagen Group announced plans to deliver a million electrified vehicles in 2021, and was rewarded with a sharp surge in its stock price. What’s behind the role reversal? Stevenson offers several reasons. The obvious one is simply that the valuations of young companies, some of which have so far produced few or no vehicles, had gotten so high. “The market has been paying handsomely for anticipated future growth at ‘new world’ carmakers,” said Fund Manager Katherine Davidson. “Meanwhile, ‘old world’ companies like Volkswagen have—at least until recently—been valued as though they were going out of business.” Another factor is that the men (and one woman) in the corner offices are no longer in denial mode—they understand as well as anyone that the days of fossil fuel vehicles are numbered. “The car industry now seems to be coalescing around the view that battery EVs, as opposed to hybrids or other fuel sources, will be the winning technology,” writes Emma Stevenson. Hybrids are increasingly seen as legacy technology, and hydrogen fuel cells are “a sideshow.” Falling battery costs, increasing vehicle ranges, new government regulations and subsidies in Europe—all are fueling a growing consensus that pure EVs are the future, and “the conventional automakers have no choice but to re-focus their efforts on this area.” Some observers of the EV scene have predicted a classic disruption scenario, in which the legacy automakers wither away, to be replaced by Tesla and its followers. Something like that could still happen, at least to some of the more backward-looking brands (cough, cough! Toyota), but at the moment, most investors seem to believe that the Old Guard will survive, and even thrive, in the brave new electric world. “Without Tesla, it’s unlikely that the EV and clean mobility industry would be where it is today,” said Energy Transition Fund Manager Alex Monk. “But the conventional carmakers aren’t just sitting back and watching. Volkswagen is not only ramping up EV production; it’s also building out battery capacity. These companies, simply due to their size, will sell far more EVs than Tesla can. It will take time for these conventional automakers to transition their business models, but the valuation disconnect between pure-play firms like Tesla and the conventional players is enormous.” === Written by: Charles Morris; Source: City A.M.; Video: CNBC Television

Ever wondered if a Tesla Model S Plaid can be rented on Turo? Yes, it is possible to get the fastest production car ever made using this ridesharing service. It turns out that Brooks Weisblat of Drag Times was in Los Angeles and rented a Plaid-spec Model S on Turo for some fun on his trip out there. Above: Tesla Model S Plaid and McLaren 600 LT at the start line of the race (Source: Vehicle Virgins / YouTube) What did he have in mind? Well, he lobbed a call over to Parker Nirenstein, who owns the YouTube channel Vehicle Virgins. Brooks was interested in a showdown between Parker’s McLaren 600LT vs. his rented Model S Plaid (ummm, kids get permission before doing this). Although the twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V-8 powered 600LT is extremely fast, Tesla’s Plaid acceleration is out of this world — something akin to Alien Technology, as Elon Musk is prone to say. To that end, let’s go over a spec-to-spec comparison of the Model S Plaid and McLaren 600LT to see how they stack up against one another on paper. Specs comparison Above: Performance specs comparison of Tesla Model S Plaid vs. McLaren 600LT. Source: Manufacturer specs from Tesla and McLaren. *When equipped with the proper wheels and tires (available fall 2021). Compiled by Iqtidar Ali / TeslaOracle.com. The Cheetah Stance that Brooks refers to in the video was introduced by Tesla last year in a free over-the-air software update. Cheetah Stance lowers the front axle and adjusts the damping of the car for a quicker and more aerodynamic launch. This mode enhanced the 0-60 mph time of the older Tesla Model S Performance (P100D) from 2.5 seconds to 2.3 seconds at that time (note: Tesla’s P100D is now discontinued in favor of the Model S Plaid). Experiencing Plaid acceleration and Drag Strip Mode (launch) a few times, Parker was completely amazed much like everyone who feels that rush for the first time. After his first encounter with Plaid, Parker sensed that his $259,000 McLaren 600LT stood no chance against the $129,900 Tesla Model S Plaid. Was he right? Check out the video below to see what goes down. Video === Written by: Iqtidar Ali. Source: Vehicle Virgins. An earlier version of this article was originally published by Tesla Oracle. Revised update edited by EVANNEX.