Electric Cars

By Simon Alvarez Posted on November 13, 2019 Tesla has received a formal permit to begin the mass production of the Model 3 at its Gigafactory 3 site in Shanghai, China. The final clearance for Tesla’s mass production activities was announced by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on its official website Wednesday.  With

Last month I ran a story about the emergence of what was claimed to be the first American electric cruiser motorcycle, the Hadin Panther. After some digging around, I discovered that the company’s American-based claims were somewhat exaggerated, and I was unsure what to expect at the bike’s unveiling at this year’s EICMA Milan Motorcycle

Autopilot and TeslaCam would not have been necessary, but we are glad they did their jobs. Perhaps you have never heard of the “Dutch Reach,” but it has saved uncountable lives. It also avoids accidents such as the one above, registered by TeslaCam in London, according to Julien Laurent’s YouTube channel. Luckily for the scooter rider,

By Simon Alvarez Posted on November 11, 2019 Recent photos from the Tesla community have revealed that a Model Y crossover has made its way to the Kennedy Space Center in FL, a site that is of key importance to Elon Musk’s private space firm, SpaceX. The vehicle in question appears to be an all-black

Recently it has felt like there’s a new scooter entering the market every other day. But today’s new entry, the Scooterson Rolley 2, bucks the small-wheeled trend and opts for a giant-wheeled seated scooter design. And its manufacturer is making some bold self-driving claims to boot. Scooterson Rolley 2 electric scooter The Scooterson Rolley 2

The single image suggests this is a hardtop take on the company’s earlier roadster concept. Here is the first glimpse of the Karma SC2 concept ahead of its debut at the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show. It arrives at the event along with a high-performance Revero GTS. The teaser image only shows half of the SC2 in

By Simon Alvarez Posted on November 8, 2019 George Hotz of comma.ai sees his open-sourced driver-assist system openpilot as the Android of the full self-driving market. While Tesla’s Autopilot system is much like Apple’s iOS in the way that it is confined to the electric car maker’s parameters, openpilot allows owners to dig deeper into

Electric vehicles and especially Tesla vehicles are now on the radar of police departments looking to update their fleet. The Tesla Model 3 is already being deployed and now even the Model Y is under consideration at a police department in Pennsylvania. All it takes is a test drive… and looking at the numbers. The

It looks like a slick electric crossover to us. The Ford Mustang-inspired electric SUV unveiling is scheduled for November 17, ahead of the LA Auto Show, but we already obtained photos of a barely disguised prototype. It seems that the new long-range electric Ford is more like a crossover than an actual SUV. Size and

By Simon Alvarez Posted on November 7, 2019 Tesla China’s Weibo account has released the first official pictures of the Made-in-China Model 3 produced at Gigafactory 3. The images provide the first close-up glimpse of the locally-made electric sedan, including some design elements that are not present in its US-made counterparts.  Contrary to Tesla’s US-made

Elon Musk announced that Tesla is making major changes to its internal corporate operating system (OS) and that the software team will focus on securing customer accounts next with two-factor authorization. While most automakers use commonly known enterprise software from third-parties like SAP, Tesla instead decided to build its own from scratch. Tesla’s longtime Chief

Thousands of workplace and public charging points coming to BMW’s sites in Germany. BMW Group announced a significant charging infrastructure project with a target of more than 4,100 new workplace points, available for employees at German locations by 2021. Most of the stalls will be 11 kW AC (three-phase), but some points will be 50

By Simon Alvarez Posted on November 5, 2019 The first phase of Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 in China may just be waiting for its final approvals to begin mass production of the Model 3, but other projects in the Shanghai-based site are still being built at a very rapid rate. This is notably prominent in the

The Tremel Zimmner from Germany’s Tremel Engineering is a retro-inspired electric moped. Its vintage feel is all the more impressive considering that it was designed and built by a 23 year old. Leon Tremel, the young founder and CEO of Tremel Engineering, is showing off the company’s new electric moped ahead of its production planning.

Study suggests electric cars are now more desirable than diesel models. More than a fifth of British motorists now say electricity is their preferred form of power for a car, according to new research. A study of more than 7,200 drivers by electric motoring website DrivingElectric.com found that 22 percent of drivers said electric was

By Dacia J. Ferris Posted on November 2, 2019 Welcome to a FREE preview of our weekly exclusive! Each week our team goes ‘Beyond the News’ and handcrafts a special edition that includes our thoughts on the biggest stories, why it matters, and how it could impact the future. You can receive this newsletter along

Revel’s electric moped sharing program has been on a roll with expansion across the US. The latest city to get the fast little EVs is Austin, Texas, which was helped by new electric moped friendly legislation. What are Revel electric mopeds? Revel’s electric mopeds are two-seaters that can be parked anywhere in a city within

Tesla Model 3 Long Range AWD: range up 4%, price up just 1% Tesla started November 2019 with a small change in the Tesla Model 3 offer in the U.S. as the Long Range AWD got more range at a slightly higher price. Let’s start with the range. It’s now 322 miles (518 km) EPA, a

By Eric Ralph Posted on November 1, 2019 During a recent NASA council meeting, SpaceX’s response to a Crew Dragon capsule’s April 20th explosion was repeatedly praised by the agency’s senior Commercial Crew Program (CCP) manager, her optimism clearly rekindled after several undeniably challenging months. SpaceX up now. Next week, In-Flight Abort #Dragon will undergo

Tesla and Elon Musk are currently being sued by shareholders over the SolarCity acquisition and Musk was deposed, which created some very funny moments. In 2016, Tesla’s board and shareholders ended up approving a $2.6 billion acquisition of SolarCity with a strong majority and yet, several Tesla shareholders were not happy about the process and

BYD’s profits from plug-in electric car sales quickly evaporate with China’s new limited incentives. BYD (and many other manufacturers in China) is going through very challenging times as weak sales affect financial forecasts. In fact, there are several problems culminating in China, as on top of overall passenger car sales decreasing for the 15th consecutive

By Simon Alvarez Posted on October 30, 2019 The Tesla Model S Performance and the Porsche Taycan Turbo S are destined to be benchmarked against each other, and if a recent Top Gear segment is any indication, what could very well be the most extensive test of the two vehicles to date has just been

Tesla has updated Model X with new front seats to improve comfort in its flagship SUV, which also received a small range increase. With the Model X, Tesla has spent a lot of time designing the seats. Because of the large Falcon Wing doors, the second-row seats are beautifully framed when they are opened. They

NIO is fighting to survive Black clouds are gathering over Chinese EV startup NIO, which announced today that its chief financial officer (CFO) – Louis T. Hsieh – has tendered his resignation (effective October 30, 2019). NIO this year encountered many adversities, starting with lower sales/demand, battery recall and the general challenging market in China,

By Eric Ralph Posted on October 28, 2019 SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell teased new information detailing the wealth of benefits that the next-generation Starship launch vehicle could bring for the deployment of the company’s Starlink internet satellite constellation. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket can launch 60 Starlink satellites at a time but that’s

What is attribution science, and how does it hold fossil-fuel companies accountable for the climate crisis? The editor of the prestigious medical journal the Lancet asks health professionals to protest climate change. EVs in Britain are going to get green license plates. European parliament votes to protect the bees from harmful pesticides. Trump pollution policy changes

An off-road capable cabriolet from Japan that hints at new PHEV systems. Mitsubishi MI-TECH Concept was one of the most interestingly looking plug-in models at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show. Sure it is exaggerated, especially with its wheel arches out of this world, but overall the design style is very attractive. Before we jump in

By Joey Klender Posted on October 25, 2019 Tesla has resumed the buildout of its planned solar roofing system on its Gigafactory 1 in Reno, Nevada amidst the company’s positive third-quarter earnings report earlier this week. Aerial images of Gigafactory 1 show additional progress has been made on the facility’s roof in the Nevada desert

Chuck Schumer, the senate’s Democratic minority leader, has announced a new $462 billion electric car incentive plan that they want to push if elected. Electric vehicle incentives are being phased out in the US and while there have been several efforts to revive them, it doesn’t look like the Democrats and the Republicans are agreeing

The plan envisions more models and higher sales, but Hyundai is afraid of oversupply for electric cars from H2 2020 on. Hyundai Motor Group (Hyundai, Kia and Genesis) expands its plug-in offer and sales volume – just like almost every other carmaker -  although the 2025 target seems conservative. According to Reuters, the group’s global