Toyota i-Road, Fisker, Tesla Patents, Battery Swapping… (EV News)

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Time for another EV news roundup. I’m breaking it up into sections this time. Enjoy!

Tesla

Battery Swap Dead End: Tesla hasn’t hitting its battery-swapping rolling target (which was about 7 months ago) and it hasn’t mentioned it. Has battery swapping hit a complete dead end?

Fully Charged Tour: A Tesla tour across the US Northeast will let you test drive Teslas. Pretty rad, but it makes me wonder: is Tesla Model S demand really as high as many of us project?

Tesla A La Carte: Al la carte car shopping is almost impossible to find these days, sadly. However, if you’re interested in a Tesla, this is another benefit the electric car leader offers to its happy shoppers.

Sort of Affordable Tesla: We can’t call the upcoming “sort of affordable” (Elon’s words) Tesla the Tesla Model E, but it should be a lot more economical than the Model S. Word is that it will be mostly wrapped in steel and will be about 20% smaller. As far as we know, the starting price is still supposed to land somewhere around $35,000.

Tesla Taxi: A new taxi service has opened up in Norway. The color is a bright green. Of course, it’s in Norway.

Tesla Patents? Meh: Not a lot has happened publicly since Tesla opened up its patents to the world. Some automakers aren’t even looking at them, we now hear. Quotes from GM and Honda are quite hilarious, and sad.

Tesla Model S vs Lamborghini Gallardo: It’s a race. Nuff said.

Rich & Angry: A rich Chinese man was so upset that he didn’t get one of the first Teslas in China, and that he had to wait so long for his car, that he decided to smash it up… yes, the logic there isn’t 100% clear.

Other 100% Electrics

Detroit Electric: Despite not having a car on the market, Detroit Electric has been getting a lot of press lately. Recently, we highlighted that neither the car nor its parts were being built in Detroit (or even the US, for that matter). However, it appears that 8 people are working at its Detroit office now, and the goal is to have 20 there by the end of the year.

China 2013 EV Sales: China’s EV revolution hasn’t actually been much of a revolution. In 2013, only ~7,000 EVs were sold in the giant country.

Carice MK1: This is a beautiful car, and I really don’t think many cars are beautiful. It is being reborn electric, but only for a select few.

Toyota i-Road: The Toyota i-Road looks slicker than slick, in my opinion. I would seriously buy one of these little guys. They are now testing in a 3-year French car-sharing pilot program. It’s part of a “smart city” program.

Fun as Hell: Speaking of the Toyota i-Road, Chris agrees that driving these things looks fun as hell. Maybe we should get an Important Media fleet.

Plug-in Hybrids

American Fisker: Wanxiang is reportedly going to start Fisker sales in the US before bringing the car over to China. (Technically, we don’t yet know if Fisker is going to remain a plug-in hybrid or become a fully electric car manufacturer under Wanxiang’s lead. But Wanxiang has said that he would put “every cent” he has — note that he’s a billionaire — into advancing the electric car revolution and making Fisker competitive.)

Porsche 918 Spyder PHEV: The Porsche 918 Spyder plug-in hybrid was recently filmed rolling through London. Despite, or because of, its super quiet ride, it pulled a lot of curious eyes.

BMW i8 vs Golf Carts: Yeah, golf carts and teh BMW i8 don’t have a lot in common, but their electric motors brought them together for a fun video shoot with some pro golfers.

BMW i8 with Hole in 1: Speaking of golf and the BMW i8, a professional golfer recently won one of the limited-production i8 sports cars simply by hitting a hole in one.

VW XL1: Just £98,515 (~$169,000) in the UK. And I think a full 20 are being shipped there.

Other

Home EV Charging in UK: The UK has set aside £9 million to help stimulate EV charging investments at homes across the island.

Formula E: Formula E racers take over London and are video taped doing so. (Btw, is “video tape” still an acceptable verb?)


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Zachary Shahan

Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao. Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA], NIO [NIO], Xpeng [XPEV], Ford [F], ChargePoint [CHPT], Amazon [AMZN], Piedmont Lithium [PLL], Lithium Americas [LAC], Albemarle Corporation [ALB], Nouveau Monde Graphite [NMGRF], Talon Metals [TLOFF], Arclight Clean Transition Corp [ACTC], and Starbucks [SBUX]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.

Zachary Shahan has 7324 posts and counting. See all posts by Zachary Shahan