BMW i5 vs Tesla Model S, Volvo XC90 Sales Surprise, Cadillac CT6, & Tesla’s Near Sale To Google (Cleantech Talk #11)

9 years ago Zachary Shahan
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In this Monday’s episode of Cleantech Talk, Chris and I talk about some “controversy” that started here on CleanTechnica when Chris called the BMW i5 a Tesla competitor. He followed up with a piece on Gas2 defending the point. Chris and I chat more about that to kick off the show.

We then jump into higher than expected Volvo XC90 Plug-in sales. The key quote on that story from Volvo UK managing director Nick Connor is as follows: “We were planning on a 3 to 5% take rate of this model…. But our current rate on sold orders is over 20%. We underestimated it.” Chris and I go a lot further on that matter and high-end plug-in hybrids as a whole, including the hot new Cadillac CT6 plug-in hybrid.

Lastly, we delve into the story of Elon almost selling Tesla to Google for a cool $11 billion. There was a lot of fun stuff to talk about there, going far beyond the articles Chris and I wrote on Gas2 and CleanTechnica.

You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below, on SoundCloud, on iTunes, or by downloading the podcast and then listening.

Stay tuned for our next Cleantech Talk podcast. It may come sooner than you expect. 😀

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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.

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3 thoughts on “BMW i5 vs Tesla Model S, Volvo XC90 Sales Surprise, Cadillac CT6, & Tesla’s Near Sale To Google (Cleantech Talk #11)”

  • Well to me it is simple math. In Canada (BC), we have incentives of $ 2500 for hybrid with less than 15 kw batteries, over 15 kw $ 5000.
    If you drive anything over 15 years old and buy electric deduct an extra $ 3200.
    Now take one model from one company:
    ICE: cost $ 29.000 with taxes, fuel use 8.4 l/100km (34 mpg)
    Hybrid: cost $ 33.000 with taxes, fuel use 5.7 l/100km (50mpg)
    Hybrid estimated cost saving per year about $ 500 (in fuel), payback 3 years after incentive, brakes last 3 times as long,
    In Europe with higher fuel prices, I do not know if there are incentives or what they are,
    payback would be about the same. So to me it is clear, why 20 % of sales are hybrids.
    Will people go back to ICE’s after driving a hybrid, I do not think so. 😉
    Now anybody driving more than average, payback would be faster.

    • Car would be 2015 Toyota Camry.

  • Zach could you do me a favour and repost this under the Volvo C 90 article please.
    I do not know how to do that.

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