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Cars New Tesla announcement a mystery a

Published on March 30th, 2013 | by Tina Casey

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Can You Guess Tesla’s Big Mystery Announcement? (AAA Might Have The Answer)

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March 30th, 2013 by  

Tesla Motors certainly hasn’t been sitting around watching the paint dry after a New York Times reporter took the company’s Tesla Model S EV for an ill-fated spin earlier this year. Since then, company co-founder and CEO Elon Musk has cut loose with a flurry of press releases and tweets, the latest being a tweet alerting Tesla fans to a mysterious “really exciting @TeslaMotors announcement” originally slated for last Thursday, then pushed back to this Tuesday. That gives us the whole weekend to guess what the big Tesla announcement mystery is and meanwhile, AAA has stepped in with an announcement of its own that could provide a clue.

Guess The Tesla Announcement Mystery

We went over to the forum at teslamotorsclub.com to check out the “best guesses” for the mystery announcement, and here’s a sample of what we found:

Elon to literally “eat” his fortune.
Elon repaying the DOE loan from his pocket.
Elon planning to be the first CEO to circle Mars with upcoming 2017 launch window.

Haha okay but aside from the fun stuff, there were a few serious guesses related to charging Tesla EV batteries with renewable energy:

Tesla and SolarCity merge.
Elon to fund development of a Solar Powerplant backed up with Tesla batteries.
Free solar for all Model S owners and all future Tesla car customers.

By our count, though, the biggest category by a slight margin had to do with battery range and charging station availability. Here’s a few samples from that category:

Expansion of Supercharging network and licensing its usage to other EV companies.
Tesla to use “Phinergy” 1,000 mile Aluminum-Air battery in 2017/Gen3.
New battery packs/ Model S variants.

Another Take On The Mystery Announcement

The full tweet from Musk last week was, “Really exciting @TeslaMotors announcement coming on Thursday. Am going to put my money where my mouth is in v major way.” If you read that literally it does sound like some kind of major investment news for Musk and/or Tesla Motors, but it could also be a veiled reference to the now-infamous New York Times dust-up.

For those of you new to the topic, Tesla Motors lent a Model S to reporter John Broder for a test drive along the company’s new East Coast Supercharger network, and of the hundreds of other similar test drives for the Model S that have occurred without incident, this one ended with a spent battery and a tow truck.

Though the consensus here at CleanTechnica and elsewhere was that the test revealed more about the driver than the technology, the critical review stung. Musk was quick to lob a grenade of his own back at Broder and the Times, in the form of embarrassing counter-evidence straight from the car’s onboard data recorder.

The AAA Mobile EV Charging Truck

All this leads us to side with the battery range/charging station availability guessers, the idea being that the next driver who sets out to drain a Tesla battery on purpose (that’s the gist of Musk’s answer to the Times) is in for a rough ride.

In the meantime, AAA has come up with its own solution for EV drivers who don’t take their dashboards seriously. Last week, AAA announced that it will provide the first mobile roadside EV charging service for stranded EV drivers in the Seattle/Bellevue area of Washington State.

The fast charging Level-3 service only takes an average of 15 minutes and will give spent EV batteries a fresh 10 miles of road time, which should be enough to get to the next charging station in the growing number of U.S. regions where charging networks have been established.


The concept actually dates back to 2011, when AAA announced that its contribution to a cure for EV range anxiety would be to offer a roadside quick-charging service, exactly like the emergency gasoline service it has routinely offered to generations of inattentive drivers.

AAA already has mobile charging trucks on the road in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon. Next on the list after Washington are Tampa Bay, Florida and Knoxville, Tennessee.

The bottom line is that the AAA solution will prevent another Broder-style photo op, at least one that involves a spent battery and a tow truck, regardless of what Mr. Musk has up his sleeve for Tuesday’s mystery announcement.

Speaking of which, there’s still plenty of time to play the guessing game, so feel free to put yours up in the comment thread.

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About the Author

Tina Casey specializes in military and corporate sustainability, advanced technology, emerging materials, biofuels, and water and wastewater issues. Tina’s articles are reposted frequently on Reuters, Scientific American, and many other sites. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter @TinaMCasey and Google+.


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  • george

    It could be a great leasing or even rental program. But they would need more lines running to quadruple the factory output.

    So with all the battery patents and air patents flying around, it may be a

    hot-swappable range extension battery in the frunk. An aluminum-air or some such that can extend the range 500, 1000 or even 2000 miles per charge. This would make it difficult for anyone, or even the most forgetful to run out of energy.

  • Pingback: San Diego Loves Green – Chevy Volt Pounds Another Nail In The Coffin Of Range Anxiety

  • Pieter Siegers

    I really do hope lower cost EVs are now coming quickly from Tesla!

  • Pieter Siegers
  • Guest

    Any announcement other than a possible collaboration with Envia Systems to supply them with batteries is not worthy of a “major announcement”.

  • mzso

    My most optimistic guess is a collaboration with some manufacturer for more advanced batteries in the near future.
    But it’s probably some charging related. (Although I wouldn’t call that actually “big”.)

  • http://twitter.com/djm12 Doug

    Maybe Superchargers, but I’m thinking this announcement will be a about a new lease financing option. Tesla just delayed the Model X, why would they announce a brand new model?

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      Good job. You’re the only one who nailed it! :D

  • theirishlion

    Could the announcement be that they will be racing in Nascar in 2015?

  • arne-nl

    Another idea that I got is that of an X-prize of some sort.

    For example the first EV that beats the time of the Pagani Huayra around the Top Gear track.

  • hi

    I’d be surprised if it’s anything other than an expansion of the supercharger network(probably something to facilitate cross country trips). Maybe finally announcing firm details on their cheaper next-gen tesla.

  • Juan Valverde

    The biggest strength of this EV is battery technology. So it makes sense to build on ,this. I speculate a new, more generous warranty deal. i.e. 200k miles no question asked battery replacement deal covering current and future models.

    1. They have the cutting edge Battery Monitoring Systems that nobody else has.
    2. They have enough practical experience to be confident it works in real life.
    3. They must stand out compared to the competition and this is the best way to do it. Especially now that Nissan’s Leaf is coming really strong and is cutting prices left and right BUT has serious issues with their imperfect BMS technology for their air-cooled batteries (see reducing range over time issues)

  • Tina Casey

    Wait, why didn’t I think about this before…Supercharger stations to go wireless.

    • http://twitter.com/djm12 Doug

      Not a bad guess for the new Model Y…in 2015

  • Conrad Clement

    I’d be happy with the announcement of a rotary-wing Tesla Model T… or at least, for a start, of its detachable cockpit to serve as a mini city EV in a first round…

  • http://www.facebook.com/ziggy.popacapolis Ziggy Popacapolis

    Maybe taking the “Tesla” theme a step further and introducing small radiant energy distribution points along major roadways tied in to local grids simply to keep batteries charged and further extend the range of the vehicles?

    If they were placed along every other light post they wouldn’t need to be very large to supply the vehicles closest to the poles where the transmitters were mounted and probably no bigger than a Police traffic camera.

  • Pingback: San Diego Loves Green – Can You Guess Tesla’s Big Mystery Announcement?

  • Tina Casey

    Hey thanks for all the guesses! I’m still leaning toward a battery/charging network announcement, maybe a new partnership involving the EV Everywhere initiative (Obama Administration) that totally blows up the network all over the U.S….but I keep getting stuck on hooking up with the usual corporate powerhouses like Walmart and Home Depot. There’s got to be some other kind of network, even more distributed than big box stores…what’s some other destination that you find in practically every neighborhood, everywhere, with plenty of unused parking spots most days of the week…houses of worship?

    • agelbert

      Somebody (not me – unfortumately I don’t own any stock in TSLA) just made a LOT of money. TSLA is up over 20% today!

  • brownbox

    My guess is they’ll be unveiling details of the 3rd gen tesla. Elon has been seeping details of the car on his twitter lately. I wouldn’t surprise me if they were getting ready yo unveil something.

  • Folatt

    My guess will be that all superchargers will be solar (and wind) powered and offering their costumers free use of their chargers. It’s the most fitting and realistic announcement. I doubt it’s going to be a new battery announcement as the tweet does not contain the word “breakthrough”.

    • Proppi

      They are already free and solar powered

    • brownbox

      Is that not already the case?

  • arne-nl

    My best bet:
    A big solar array that covers the entire NUMMI plant.

    He talks a lot about sustainable transport and sustainability in general (that’s where his mouth is). That enormous flat roof is literally begging for some sustainable bling.

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      hmm, hadn’t heard that idea. sounds possible.

  • Liam May

    Super fast charging batteries. Filling a depleted EV car battery will take minutes.

    • http://twitter.com/djm12 Doug

      Already has this. Called a Supercharger, ya know?

  • EricH

    I think that solar power will be a part of his announcement, as it speaks to his vision of sustainable transport. Perhaps Tesla (through Musk’s ownership shares) has invested in large solar panel arrays as a way of making their Supercharger network truly green.?

  • http://xeeme.com/MrEnergyCzar MrEnergyCzar

    He’s releasing the actual complete data logs from the Broder incident and announcing a price cut on the Model S….

    MrEnergyCzar

    • http://twitter.com/djm12 Doug

      Can’t imagine a price cut. They just raised prices on 1 Jan

  • RobS

    I think a big batch of superchargers going in in the next few weeks on Elons purse and/or a lump sum payment of a portion of the DOE loan, really charging infrastructure and the DOE secured loan are the two remaining planks of Tesla’s critics. A big announcement about a further acceleration of dealing with both would fit Elons cryptic announcement.

    • http://zacharyshahan.com/ Zachary Shahan

      these seem to be the most likely to me. though, arne-nl’s idea seems possible.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003022010569 Robert Flanary

    The aluminum air battery think is a scam. We are talking only 20% energy efficiency here. Better to use the Chevy Volt setup.

    • Ronald Brakels

      I’ve decided to stop using my bicycle since that’s only 22% efficient.

      • Ronald Brakels

        Actually, now that I think about it, only about half the energy used by a casual bike rider is used by the skeletal muscles, dropping the efficiency of a bicycle down to about 12%. Bicycles way out scam aluminium air batteries.

    • mzso

      Where from the air did you pull it out?

      The real problem with it that it’s not actually a rechargeable battery. As shown by their video, it uses up the aluminium plates, which you have to replace. Also they’re probably wasting/ the aluminium be emitting it in the environment.

      • Ronald Brakels

        Aluminium air batteries are now about 20% efficient, but they don’t emit aluminium. It stays in the battery and gets oxydised. And that aluminium oxide can be recycled. Or rather, will be recyled, since it’s cheaper than processing bauxite.

  • agelbert

    My guess is a radical price reduction calculated to go hand in hand with higher factory production rates to flood the market with more EVs. Or, a new lease arrangement where middle class people could get an EV with no down payment and a 7 year, $300 a month lease. Something like that would have people lined up everywhere to get one.

    • http://twitter.com/djm12 Doug

      A lease at this price point exists. See Leaf. See volt.

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