Tesla Disruption, 1st Follower Legacy Automakers, !Batteries! … (Cleantech Talk Today #3)

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Welcome to today’s “Cleantech Talk Today” discussion of fresh electric vehicle (EV) news. In this daily podcast and video series, we talk about anything electric that moves, crawls, flies, rides, drives, swims, swings, or skips.

Zach Shahan and I take you on a daily tour of what we consider to be the most fascinating EV and other cleantech news.

You can listen to this episode above or watch and listen below. Or you can head over to Soundcloud or iTunes to listen.


The Tesla Corner

In this episode, we again discussed several interesting Tesla stories. Who’s surprised?

Tesla is finally on the verge of delivering on its 15-year-old goal of bringing an affordable, mass-produced EV to market, and that has massive implications for the models and automakers this car is competing against. Watch as we dive further into the Tesla merry-go-round and cut to the essential bottom line. OK, short story: that bottom line is that the Model 3 is starting to disrupt other automakers in its first few months of production. Oh, how gray those heads must be and how dark the atmosphere in those shareholder meetings for the bigger, less agile OEMs…

But why is the Model 3 already outselling other electric cars by such a wide margin? Well, it comes down to batteries — batteries, batteries, batteries.

Where does this leave Nissan, Carlos Ghosn, and Ghosn’s statement that range is no longer a problem, that Nissan’s new strategy is to focus on affordability? And how does that relate to Ghosn’s talks with CATL for future battery needs?

As we briefly mentioned as well, different Tesla battery packs charge at different speeds, which is interesting for a few reasons. And it’s pretty crazy, but this Silicon Valley teenager just opened its 10,000th Supercharger — less than a decade after the first one went live. Who has done better?

Who Will Follow First?

Closing out the day yesterday was a long article from Zach exploring the question of which legacy automakers will switch 100% to electric vehicles first. We discussed this at length as well. Who will it be — Jaguar? BMW? Nissan? Fiat?

The Chinese CATL Surprise, Batteries For EV Mass Production

CleantechTalk TodayIt has always been hard to estimate the impact of Chinese companies on the automotive world, but we’re starting to get a picture. CATL might not be in everyone’s first thoughts when they think EVs, but it seems the giant Chinese battery maker will be working closely with Daimler, Volkswagen, Porsche, BMW, Nissan, and Renault — to name a few — to advance the EV revolution around the world. At the moment, Tesla + Panasonic may be separating themselves from the pack as the world’s largest EV battery production team, but it appears that CATL is determined to give Tesla + Panasonic a run for their money.

The Kitty Hawk Project Is Now The Flyer!

The Kitty Hawk project took off years ago with the eager attention of millions of technically savvy readers on independent, free, and untied-to-the-industry news outlets like CleanTechnica. Today, through CNN, we find out that the Kitty Hawk is no longer and has been renamed to The Flyer, and that it has gone on a test flight. Thus, we celebrate the progress but rant a bit about why cleantech companies shouldn’t burn their base.

New Improved Kitty Hawk Flyer CleantechTalk Today

That’s it for today. Join us for another CleanTech Talk Today tomorrow, and head on over to our Facebook page to watch more!


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Nicolas Zart

Nicolas was born and raised around classic cars of the 1920s, but it wasn't until he drove an AC Propulsion eBox and a Tesla Roadster that the light went on. Ever since he has produced green mobility content on various CleanTech outlets since 2007 and found his home on CleanTechnica. He grew up in an international environment and his communication passion led to cover electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, renewable energy, test drives, podcasts, shoot pictures, and film for various international outlets in print and online. Nicolas offers an in-depth look at the e-mobility world through interviews and the many contacts he has forged in those industries. His favorite taglines are: "There are more solutions than obstacles." and "Yesterday's Future Now"

Nicolas Zart has 572 posts and counting. See all posts by Nicolas Zart