It’s a nail-biting battle for the lead in the plug-in sales race. The Nissan LEAF barely edged into the lead for November, selling 2,003 units – one more than in October. Sales of the world’s most popular pure EV have already more than doubled 2012’s figure. The 2014 LEAF is in production now and should… Read more »
Search Results Found For: "Tesla"
Model S fires: NHTSA requests information, German agency finds no defects
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued a formal request for detailed information from Tesla for the agency’s investigation into the recent Model S fires. NHTSA is investigating “underbody deformation in the Model S resulting from impacts with road debris including, but not limited to, consequent intrusion into the battery compartment and associated… Read more »
BMW i3 bares it all in LA
As BMW prepares to bring its new i3 to market in 2014, expectations are running high. The upscale city car fills a vacant niche in the market, and it embodies all the advantages of a pure EV. Equally important, the company seems committed to making the i3 a success in the marketplace, rather than taking… Read more »
NHTSA: There’s no such thing as a safety score higher than 5 stars
A perfect score ought to be good enough for any car – that’s the message from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which has issued new marketing guidelines that explicitly prohibit automakers from promoting safety scores higher than 5 stars. The updated guidelines also say that NHTSA safety scores are always whole numbers. The… Read more »
ChargePoint network grows to 50,000 users
This week, the ChargePoint network reached a milestone as driver number 50,000 joined up. Unsurprisingly, the 50,000th ChargePoint member resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. Less than an hour after signing up, the new user plugged in a Tesla Model S to a ChargePoint station at the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael…. Read more »
Croatian company builds electric record-setting super sports car
What’s the fastest accelerating EV in the world? The Spark Formula E racer? The Drayson B12? Nope – according to Guinness, it’s a converted BMW built by Croatian engineer Mate Rimac. If you feel the need to get to 60 mph in under three seconds, you can actually buy Rimac’s latest model, the Concept One,… Read more »
Model S owners report air suspension altered to increase clearance at highway speed
Could Tesla improve the Model S’s resistance to highway fires just by issuing a remote software update? This week, Model S owners were notified to update their software from version 5.6 to version 5.8. Some are reporting that, after the update, the Active Air Suspension no longer goes to the lowest setting at highway speeds…. Read more »
Musk says there will be no Model S recall
“There’s definitely not going to be a recall. There’s no reason for a recall,” said Elon Musk in a recent CNBC interview. “If you read the headlines, it sounds like Teslas have a greater propensity to catch fires than other cars. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.” The spate of press coverage… Read more »
Motorcycle maker Brammo eyes electric car, 2015 IPO
Craig Bramscher, CEO of the Oregon-based electric motorcycle manufacturer Brammo, told Portland business leaders this week that he plans to take the company public by the middle of 2015. Bramscher said Brammo has been meeting with some of the same investment bankers that helped take Tesla public. “It’s always next year, but Tesla showed there’s… Read more »
New paper: Planning public charging networks is NP-hard
A group of researchers from Hong Kong Baptist University have released a paper that addresses the problems of planning the locations of public charging stations. In Electric Vehicle Charging Station Placement: Formulation, Complexity, and Solutions, Albert Lam et al look at the issue from the standpoint of Hong Kong, which has ambitious plans to encourage… Read more »