Tesla’s future depends on being able to ramp up to high-volume production quickly. The main pillar of its strategy for doing so is making the production process more efficient – “building the machine that makes the machine,” as Elon Musk puts it. The mathematically-minded Musk has even formulated an equation to quantify the challenge: Production… Read more »
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Musk’s manufacturing math: Cars should be able to exit the factory at walking speed
As it faces a huge pile of orders for Model 3, Tesla’s new challenge is not to build great cars (it’s already proven it can do that), but to build great cars quickly, in large volume. Along the way, it just might add manufacturing to the list of realms it has reshaped. As Elon Musk… Read more »
Elon Musk et al to CARB: Make VW sell EVs instead of fixing dirty diesels
Volkswagen is sincerely sorry that it got caught designing its diesels to cheat on emissions tests, and it has proposed to recall some 482,000 vehicles and modify them to bring them into compliance. VW has not yet revealed exactly how it will do this, and some automotive experts have pointed out that a technical fix… Read more »
Elon Musk vs the LA Times: Yes, Tesla has benefited from government incentives. And?
The LA Times recently ran a “now it can be told” article highlighting the various government subsidies and incentives that benefit Tesla and Elon Musk’s other companies, SolarCity and SpaceX – a total of about $4.9 billion by the Times’ reckoning. Certainly Tesla, like many other energy companies and automakers, has benefited from a wide… Read more »
New Elon Musk biography reveals new details, sows controversy (book review)
Ashlee Vance, the author of Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, has had unprecedented access to his subject, spending many hours in face-to-face interviews with Musk. He has also spoken with many of Musk’s family members, friends and business associates, and has crafted a comprehensive biography that’s replete with details… Read more »
Studies indicate that EVSE and shade structures could attract prime customers
Public charging and parking have a symbiotic relationship, for obvious reasons. A number of companies in the charging field are forging business relationships with parking providers, which may be large employers, owners of commercial, residential or government properties or third-party operators of paid parking facilities. Most of us devote surprisingly little thought to parking, considering… Read more »
Tesla pays off DOE loan early, taxpayers profit
Delivering a welcome victory for the government’s policy of supporting American manufacturing, Tesla Motors has paid off the loan it received from the Department of Energy nine years ahead of schedule, giving taxpayers a profit of at least $12 million on the original $465 million loan, Reuters reported. “I would like to thank the Department… Read more »
President Obama proposes innovation institutes to target high-tech manufacturing
As it becomes clearer that the economy of the future is not so much a post-industrial economy as a high-tech manufacturing economy, US manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the past three years. In order to “build on this momentum with a comprehensive agenda to invest in American manufacturing,” the Obama Administration has announced… Read more »
Elon Musk’s newest idea: travel from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes with Hyperloop
He hasn’t mentioned what technology it would use, who would build it or how it would be financed – and the word “Jetsons” was used in describing it. Coming from anyone else, it would sound crazy. But if the man who revolutionized online commerce, put a private vehicle into space, and built an electric car… Read more »
Obama’s budget calls for increased EV tax credit
The administration’s newly-released budget calls for a range of subsidies for high technology, including an increase in the tax credit for EV purchases from $7,500 to $10,000.