Zachary Shahan 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] — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in this company and feels like it is a good cleantech company to invest in. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort on Tesla or any other company.
February 25th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
The news today, provided to CleanTechnica on email by early Model Y reservation holders, is that the Model Y production timeline got significantly better and deliveries for non-employee customers begin in March
February 25th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
As you may have seen by now, 7 year Tesla insider David Havasi and I have been getting together in recent months to talk about the deep history of Tesla from an insider (David) and outsider (me) perspective in a podcast and video chat series called Tesla Inside Out. The thing that triggered this chat was recent data from BloombergNEF showing that battery energy density has nearly tripled in the past decade
February 24th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
The most popular CleanTechnica stories last week involved perovskite solar cell research and projections (a hot topic for the past few — or several — years), Toyota's continued focus on hybrids (considered by many to be a death knell for the hybrid leader and 100% electric laggard), and The Boring Company's first of two Las Vegas tunnels
February 20th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
Electric vehicle (EV) battery recycling has been a topic of discussion for years, but it took some time to get enough electric cars on the road (and then off the road) for commercially viable EV battery recycling outfits to grow. The times, they are a-changin', and we're starting to hear a bit more about the idea and early ventures. One such story comes from Audi and Umicore
February 19th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
Jaguar Land Rover has a new concept vehicle out that looks quite similar to a few concept vehicles from other automakers (Tesla sort of included). It's basically part of a new class of vehicles that designers apparently think will become the norm as the industry evolves into autonomous transport
February 19th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
No, a bureaucrat in the German government is not in control of all of the charging sessions in the country. In this case, the "National Control Center" has one basic but consequential aim: "to ensure the swift and coordinated establishment of nationwide charging options in Germany." Putting that into normal human language, the center is working on making charging technology and processes predictable, easy, and efficient
February 19th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
One of my favorite global initiatives is the RE100 initiative. Organized by The Climate Group and CDP, RE100 inspires, persuades, and collects corporate commitments to 100% renewable electricity. It also helps member companies progress toward their goals
February 17th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
Now, 2020 has rolled around and a bunch more automakers have decided to ditch monthly sales reporting. Nissan (& Infiniti), Jaguar Land Rover, and Volkswagen (including Audi, Porsche, etc.) announced the change with press releases. Others didn't seem to announce it but just stopped publishing the monthly numbers (Mercedes, BMW, and Toyota)
February 17th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
Ah, man. It's annoying as heck to see people who you think are idiots screw up a topic you know well, but it's an extra special kind of annoying when brilliant people screw up — massively — on that same topic. In this edition of "Smart people who don't understand the energy industry of 2020," we've got Fareed Zakaria of
February 16th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
The most popular CleanTechnica articles in January were, as it turns out, led by a bit of an unusual post for us. While it was a genuine list of the "worst things" about owning a Tesla Model 3 (from my perspective), there are buckets of humor enveloping it all
February 15th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
The three most popular CleanTechnica stories of the last week included a fresh Chevy Bolt review focused on just how much you get from a Bolt at such a low price (hint: prices at dealers are far below MSRP in many places), a thorough look at the Copenhagen Wheel, and solar tech innovation at Intersolar North America
February 8th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
The first 3,000 Audi e-tron buyers* in the US after February 3 are getting a 10-year subscription to solar power for their electric driving, according to a press release from Audi. The German automaker has partnered with Arcadia** to provide the clean energy bonus. The subscription is completely free for the consumer
February 7th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
We somehow missed this one in October, but it's an interesting and inspiring milestone that recently crossed our desk and seemed like it needed to be covered. Shell announced in October that it wouldn't just be adding EV charging stations to more gas/petrol stations, but that it would actually be fully converting a gas/petrol station to an EV charging station
February 6th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
Abundant and high-power charging stations can go a long way to support electric taxis. They're a base necessity. But one thing would be better than that
February 6th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
For years, we saw North American cities order 3 or 4 electric buses at a time while Chinese cities ordered hundreds or thousands. It was frustrating and annoying, especially considering that electric buses had become cost-competitive with all other options 7 years ago in some places. Well, time marched on, and we're finally seeing large orders of electric buses
February 6th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
The Tesla Model 3 is the Usain Bolt of the electric vehicle market. It is far and away the most popular electric vehicle in the world. In fact, it had nearly 3× as many sales last year as the 2nd best selling electric vehicle (EV), and it accounted for ~4× as many sales as the 3rd best selling EV, the Nissan
February 5th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
Someone has gone and created a simple little Tesla video game in which you can walk around, watch videos about Tesla, talk to a Tesla-loving "CyberGirl," click through to Tesla.com using the game creator's referral code link, listen to cyber Elon Musk and Franz Holzhausen relay some useful statements that real Elon and Franz made, and more. My favorite part is zipping into the sky for a good view of the city on a definite non-Tesla vehicle
February 5th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
"You might think, it’s just a bike. But for a young person, a bike can open up the world. It’s a way – and, often, the only way – to get to class, practice, games, lessons, work, and more. A bike is freedom. A bike is opportunity."
February 5th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
In Sacramento — as part of a deal with the local utility, Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) — Electrify America is putting $1.3 million into SMUD's Energy StorageShares program
February 5th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
AutoFlightX is yet another electric vertical takeoff and landing startup you haven't heard of (unless you read this electric aircraft roundup from November 2019 or somehow ended up in another obscure corner of the internet). It is also an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) startup that recently pulled in some venture capital investment and is eager to boast about it
February 3rd, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
Gasoline and diesel vehicle bans became all the rage for a while a few years ago. One country after another announced plans or potential plans to stop selling fossil fuel vehicles by a certain year — 2030, 2040,
February 3rd, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
The most popular CleanTechnica stories last week included a top 10 list of the best things about owning a Tesla Model 3 and the worst things about owning a Tesla Model 3. (Many of the items on the lists relate to any EV, and almost all of them relate to any Tesla.) Another top story was Elon Musk's comments in a recent interview that something akin to "alien technology" is coming. One more top story is a CleanTechnica original on getting Tesla Solarglass Roof installed
February 2nd, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
In this episode of Tesla Inside Out*, David Havasi tells us about some of the challenges (and fun) of delivering early Tesla Model S sedans to customers around the time of Hurricane Sandy in New York City (back in 2012)
