The market for heavy-duty electric trucks is heating up—long-established OEMs and startups alike are moving on from the pilot stage, and filling substantial orders from customers. During a recent conversation with Rustam Kocher, once Charging Infrastructure Lead at Daimler Trucks North America and now a consultant (watch for the full interview in the next print… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "Tesla"
Tesla says “No, thanks” to California subsidies for Supercharger projects
Tesla has backed out of a deal under which the company would have received up to $6.4 million in subsidies for four huge Supercharger stations in California, due to a requirement that the chargers incorporate credit/debit card readers. Tesla was awarded the funding last September through the California Energy Commission’s Clean Transportation Program Rural Electric… Read more »
Tesla Model Y teardown shows Toyota what it’s up against
The Tesla teardown is a staple of the EV literature. Teardown expert Sandy Munro has taken apart many a Tesla, with highly informative (and entertaining) results. Various legacy automakers have performed their own private teardowns—rumor has it that, when the Model 3 first appeared, a group of German automakers paid an enormous sum to have… Read more »
Cable problems crop up as non-Tesla EVs begin charging at US Supercharger sites
Tesla has started to open some Supercharger stations to non-Tesla EV drivers in the US. EV boosters and influencers have been converging on the half-dozen or so “open” stations in the state of New York to test out the system and share some of the good and bad points. In a recent video, Marques Brownlee… Read more »
Magnis to supply US-processed graphite anode material to Tesla
Tesla has entered into a Binding Offtake Agreement with Australia-based Magnis Energy Technologies, “a vertically integrated lithium-ion battery technology and materials company,” for anode active materials (AAM). Magnis is developing a graphite mine in Tanzania where it plans to extract “ultra-high-purity natural flake graphite.” Tesla plans to purchase at least 17,500 tons per year (tpa)… Read more »
Tesla to open up its US Supercharger network, double the number of chargers
The day when all EVs can use the same DC fast chargers just moved a little closer, as the White House announced that Tesla will move forward with plans to open its Supercharger network to non-Tesla EVs in the US. (Is that how it works when a company has no PR department?) Tesla, which rolled… Read more »
EV price war! Ford responds to Tesla price cuts, boosts production of Mustang Mach-E
The greatest barrier to EV adoption is the steep price premium relative to legacy vehicles—and for the past couple of years, prices have been moving in the wrong direction, thanks to supply-chain constraints and general post-COVID inflation. When Tesla recently announced price cuts of up to 20 percent, the boo-birds crowed about softening demand, but… Read more »
Frito-Lay’s “sustainability showcase” features Tesla Semis, electric trucks, solar+storage
Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, is transforming its Modesto, California, facility into “a showcase for sustainable manufacturing, warehousing and distribution technologies.” The 80-acre, 500,000-square-foot Modesto site, one of Frito-Lay’s largest manufacturing facilities in the US, features several classes of EVs, along with on-site solar energy generation, storage and EV charging stations. Green goodies in service… Read more »
Tesla to build Semis and expand battery production at Nevada Gigafactory
Tesla’s Nevada Gigafactory is quite a place—since its 2014 opening, the company has invested $6.2 billion in the region, and the 5.4-million-square-foot, 11,000-employee facility has produced some 7.3 billion battery cells, 1.5 million battery packs and 3.6 million drive units. Now Tesla has announced plans to invest an additional $3.6 billion, hire 3,000 more team… Read more »
Sniffing out the specs of the Tesla Semi
Automakers differ widely in how forthcoming they are with technical specs. When one German automaker released its first major EV model, it hosted a press event at which cutaway versions of battery packs and electric motors were on display, and the engineers who designed them were on hand to answer questions. In contrast, another Teutonic… Read more »