For a company that currently has nothing actually for sale, Tesla is doing all they can to keep the hype mill a-churnin’. But hey, the electric vehicle company was born out of Silicon Valley and pre-launch buzz is the Valley Way! Don’t get me wrong, however: I’m excited for the Model X reveal! (Though I’d gladly skip it for a month behind the wheel of a Model S.) Tesla Motors CEO Elon...
The Tesla Model S has been officially priced, but it’s a bit of a quagmire for those who are not familiar with the company’s lineup of EV sedans. The base price of the Tesla Model S will be $49,900 after the $7,500 federal tax credit, but that’s where the pricing starts to jump around like a flea circus. Tesla will be offering a base Model S and a performance model, in addition to two...
Panasonic announced today that it will supply enough automotive grade lithium-ion cells to furnish 80,000 Tesla Model S electric sedans. In 2009 Panasonic entered a supply agreement with Tesla, prompting a $30 million investment by the “world’s leading battery cell manufacturer” in 2010. Now we have a figure on how many Tesla Model S vehicles will be running Panasonic batteries, and it’...
Electric vehicle technology is nothing new. The earliest carriage manufacturers began toiling with battery-powered cars around the 1830s and in 1899 the Belgium-built "La Jamais Contente" set the land speed world record at 66MPH. But two years prior to that in 1897, the first commercial fleet of EV vehicles were represented as New York City taxis. Back then, drivers had three different...
That Toyota is working on an electric version of its Rav4 SUV, to be powered by an electric drivetrain built by/in collaboration with Tesla is no secret. That the vehicle is targeted to be produced and sold sometime in 2012 is no secret, either. But this week Toyota took the unusual step of inviting the auto press to tool around in early-stage prototypes of the plug-in beast. Unusual...