Category: Tesla

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China, Elon Musk, Tesla

Tesla CEO Musk breaks ground at Shanghai Gigafactory to launch China push

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SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) – Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) broke ground on Monday for its Shanghai Gigafactory where it plans to begin making its Model 3 electric vehicles (EV) by year-end, a first step in localizing production in the world’s largest auto market.

At a ceremony at the site of the plant on the outskirts of Shanghai, Chief Executive Elon Musk joined the city’s mayor and other local government officials to formally begin construction of a factory that Tesla has said will cost around $2 billion.

“We think with the resources here we can build the Shanghai Gigafactory in record time and we’re looking forward to hopefully having some initial production of the Model 3 towards the end of this year and achieving volume production next year,” Musk said at the event.

Continue reading… “Tesla CEO Musk breaks ground at Shanghai Gigafactory to launch China push”

Batteries, Electric Vehicles, Elon Musk, Tesla

Life-blood of Tesla batteries hits supply limits in Andean mine

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For the past nine months, a U.S. company that is the world’s largest producer of lithium—a key ingredient in electric-car batteries—has been locked in battle with the Chilean government over pricing issues, production quotas, and environmental compliance. With no resolution in sight, the fight is sending tremors all the way up the electric vehicle supply chain that provides batteries to Tesla Inc., Nissan Motor Co., Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, and other car makers.

The drama is playing out in the northern reaches of Chile’s Andes Mountains amid the arid and austere Atacama Desert, a vast, high-altitude bowl surrounded by snow-capped volcanic peaks named after ancient gods of the indigenous people. The U.S. company, Albemarle Corp., has taken over a massive salt-flats mine, pumping scarce briny water through dried-out salt marshes and lagoons to extract the prized mineral. A dozen or so miles away, thick flocks of Andean flamingos feed peacefully in a lagoon teaming with tiny shrimp, as they have for countless millennia. But as mining activity surges, water tables are falling amid growing environmental concerns.

Continue reading… “Life-blood of Tesla batteries hits supply limits in Andean mine”

Elon Musk, Hyperloop, People Making a Difference, Science & Technology News, SpaceX, Tesla

We need Elon Musk much more than he needs us

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Heroes are not created equal. Most people recognize the name Sully Sullenberger, but far fewer can tell you what Alan Turing did during World War II.

Fewer still could tell you that Turing was chemically castrated because he was gay, and committed suicide shortly thereafter. But thanks for bringing one of the most horrifying wars in history to an abrupt end, I guess?

Society isn’t always kind to its heroes. We ask for an ill-defined yet idealized sort of perfection, and when our heroes fall short, we make sure they fall twice as hard.

Some might write this phenomenon off as a minor inconvenience for the rich, successful or famous, but times have changed. The human costs of war pale in comparison to the battles humanity will face in the years to come.

Continue reading… “We need Elon Musk much more than he needs us”

Alternative Transportation, Automobiles, Elon Musk, Tesla

Boring Company gets approval to build a tunnel connecting a garage to a hyperloop

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Elon Musk’s Boring Company continues to gain validation from city governments. In June, the company was selected to build a multibillion-dollar rapid transit link between downtown Chicago to O’Hare International Airport, and just this week, it got approval from the Hawthorne City Council in California to start building a prototype garage that would transport cars to an underground hyperloop.

A REAL-LIFE BATCAVE

The garage will be built on a private residence near SpaceX’s headquarters, which will be rented by the company. The Mercury News reports that, as part of the conditions of the approval, the test elevator will be closed to the public, and no cars will be able to move from the garage to the street in order to keep the project from impacting traffic. Instead, cars must start at SpaceX HQ and stay in the one-mile stretch of tunnel between the residence garage and the company. A sketch of the prototype, seen above, shows an elevator shaft that would lower cars into the tunnel that connects to the hyperloop. More than 100 residents have been notified of the project and assured that the noise would be minimal, but it’s to be seen how quiet drilling tunnels will actually be.

Continue reading… “Boring Company gets approval to build a tunnel connecting a garage to a hyperloop”

Batteries, Elon Musk, Energy, Tesla

Tesla and PG&E are working on a massive ‘up to 1.1 GWh power pack battery system

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For the past few months, Tesla and CEO Elon Musk have been teasing a giant battery project that would dwarf even the company’s 129 MWh Powerpack project in Australia.

Today, we learn that Tesla is working with PG&E on a massive battery system with a capacity of “up to 1.1 GWh” in California.

Continue reading… “Tesla and PG&E are working on a massive ‘up to 1.1 GWh power pack battery system”

Automobiles, Electric Automobile, Elon Musk, Tesla

The War on Tesla, Musk, and the fight for the future

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Upfront: If you think that anything is justified against a person simply because that person is wealthy, this is not an article for you. If you think it’s okay to lie, mislead, or otherwise attack a person simply because of their financial status, consequences be damned, then you should probably look elsewhere. You won’t have far to look.

We, Model 3 owners and people on the waiting list, have noticed a strange, disturbing, but all too explicable trend whenever the topic of Tesla comes up with people who don’t follow the company in detail.

Continue reading… “The War on Tesla, Musk, and the fight for the future”

Automation, Driverless vehicles, Electric Vehicles, Elon Musk, Tesla

Tesla’s new Semi could change shipping as we know it

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Tesla is shaking up logistics world with its semiautonomous truck.

Thanks in part to Tesla, the logistics industry is on the road to a transportation transformation.

In November 2017, Tesla rolled out the heavy-duty Semi, an electric-powered, semiautonomous truck that’s already been pre-ordered by the likes of DHL, Anheuser-Busch, J.B. Hunt and Walmart. If all goes as planned, those companies will be among the first to transport goods aboard these sleek, modern vehicles in the not-too-distant future.

Continue reading… “Tesla’s new Semi could change shipping as we know it”

Electric Automobile, Ford Motor Company, Latest Trend, Tesla

Top 7 plug-in cars listed by price per mile of electric range

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Range is all the rage when it comes to electric cars, but often range comes at a cost.

So, which plug-in cars offer the most miles of electric range for your hard-earned buck? For starters, no plug-in hybrid even came close to making the cut. The Chevy Volt was the front-runner among PHEVs at $626 per electric mile of range, but as you’ll see below, that’s not even in the same ballpark as the Top 7 listed.

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Elon Musk, Energy, Solar Power, Tesla

Elon Musk’s first Tesla Solar Roof is here and it looks amazing

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Elon Musk’s house runs on solar. The Tesla CEO made the announcement during Wednesday’s second quarter 2017 earnings call, where he revealed that both himself and Jeffrey B. Straubel, the company’s chief technology officer, have installed solar roof tiles on their houses.

“We have installed and working the Solar Roof tiles,” Musk told investors during the conference call.

Continue reading… “Elon Musk’s first Tesla Solar Roof is here and it looks amazing”

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