CARazed

This is good news for the world of electric cars. There are now 500 Tesla Roadsters on the street. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not pro electric super car. I’d much rather see a bunch of affordable and practical electric cars hitting the road, but Tesla is paving the way for a brighter future filled with electric cars.

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I’m becoming more and more amazed at the stuff being posted at AutoblogGreen. For example this recent article questioning the deal between Tesla and Daimler.

My take is that Daimler can see the writing on the wall, there are big opportunities in electric vehicles (EV) in the next 10 years and the companies that own the biggest stake in that will be the ones to succeed.

Tesla has a good start in the EV market and while times are tough all over the auto industry this won’t be true in the next two or three years, so say the economists I read. So buying a 10% stake in Tesla now is money well spent in long-term investment terms. It also blocks other big automakers from beating them to it. Continue Reading »

Great news reported today, Daimler bought a 10% share in Tesla Motors and will be collaborating on the future electric cars Tesla builds. Daimler is of course the giant European auto make behind brands like Mercedes. Read the transcript from the press announcement on Auto Blog Green.

The Tesla Model S is an all-electric 7-passenger sedan that will be available in 2012. It will have a range of up to 300 miles and it has a 45 minute QuickCharge. Performance will be an impressive 0-60 in 5.6 seconds and it will cost about $50,000. For more information visit Tesla Motors.

Photo credit Tesla Motors.

Subaru is bringing four of their electric Stella concepts to the G8 summit in Hokkaido Toyako this July. They’ll be used to give shuttle the visiting dignitaries around. The Subaru Stella has a 40-kilowatt electric motor and it’s powered by lithium-ion batteries. Maximum speed is aout 60 MPH and the range is about 50 miles on a full charge.

The current Subaru Stella is a four-seat “kei-car” sold mostly in Japan. Kei-cars are cars under a specified size (11.48 ffet long, 4.8 feet wide and 6.56 feet tall) and have a 660cc or smaller engine. Kei-cars have been very popular in Japan for over ten years sue in part to the tax and insurance deals. Subaru’s other electric car concept, the R1e, is much cuter but not as useful for shuttleing people around, hence the reason the Stella was chosen for the R8 summit. Photo credit Subaru.

California won the bid over New Mexico for Tesla’s proposed new car factory. Tesla’s roadster is built by Lotus in the United Kingdom but they wanted to build the upcoming five seat sedan in the United States. New Mexico almost won the bid with $7,000,000 in incentives and gained the 400 new jobs the factory would bring. But California stepped up to the plate with the offer that included financing and tax help that trumped New Mexico’s offer.

You may have heard that Tesla Motors filed a lawsuit against Fisker Automotive over allegedly stolen electric car designs. San Mateo Superior Court granted Fisker Automotive’s request for arbitration, according to court records. Fisker also posted a press release stating that they are still on track to deliver the hybrid luxury sedan.

Tesla’s lawsuit states that Fisker and Bernhard Koehler accepted the contract “to gain access to confidential design information and trade secrets, then announced a competing vehicle.” Luckily the contract also had a clause that required that disputes be handled through arbitration. As you can imagine Henrik Fisker and his company are “extremely pleased” with the judge’s decision.

I personally think everyone should be happy with the decision. I’m a bit disappointed that the whole thing happened in the first place. It would be nice to think that these two start-up car makers see each other as symbiotic rivals and not enemies. Why spend money on lawsuits when they could be working to bring more amazing green cars to the street?

Today regular production begins for the 2008 Tesla Roadster. In other words, production electric cars are officially back since GM killed their EV1 electric car. Production should reach about 100 cars per month for the roadster. Two retail stores will be opened in Los Angeles and Menlo Park, California.

If you’re ready to jump into your own electric car you might be disappointed to learn that the first model year is sold out. Luckily you can get in line for a $100,000 2009 Tesla Roadster now, 900 reservations have already been taken.

If a two door roadster isn’t enough car for you, Tesla will be offering a five passenger sports sedan in 2010. It’s expected that the Tesla WhiteStar will be offered with two power trains, an all-electric version and a plug-in hybrid or range extended electric vehicle.  The cost of the Tesla Sedan should also be more affordable, in the $50,000 ballpark.

• Official Press Release
• Tesla Blog Post By CEO Ze’ev Drori

News is coming out now that Elon Musk, the chairman of Tesla Motorcars has received his personal Tesla Roadster. It was flown from the UK to Tesla headquarters in San Carlos, California. The battery pack installed and Elon on his way.

It seems the folks at tesla are thinking what many other are thinking, that plug-in hybrids are the way to go, at least for now. Now that production dates are set for their P1 Tesla Roadster, Tesla has announced that they are planning it’s next car, a sedan code named White Star.

They’ll offer an all electric version and a plug-in hybrid version. The advantage of course is that when your batteries run dry your car switches over and runs a small gas engine to keep you moving. Official news, facts and figures are not available yet. Most of what we know has been leaked through the Tesla blog, but it sounds like the sedan will cost about half as much as the P1 (so about $40K to $50K).

I’m not surprised that Tesla is moving toward hybrids because it just makes sense. Leverage the current gasoline infrastructure while moving toward all electric cars. Other companies like GM, Toyota, many X PRIXE contestants, and small independent auto makers are all moving in this direction. For example the Fisker Karma will be a plug-in hybrid that is expected to get around 100 miles per gallon. The White Star must be Tesla’s reaction to the Karma.