On January 17, I received a text from my wife: “Did you get the invitation for the Tesla (Model) 3 in Aventura mall?” My response: “?!?!?” Tesla sent her an email for an invitation-only event to celebrate the grand re-opening of the Aventura store in Miami, guest starring Model 3. Needless to say, I was extremely excited to check it out.
Bills have been introduced in the legislatures of Wisconsin and Nebraska that would carve out an exception so Tesla could sell its electric cars direct to the public. Franchise dealer groups, predictably, are vehemently opposed to such foolishness.
Those living within the areas governed by the Hackney and Islington councils (in the UK) who are interested in seeing a proposed near-zero-emissions zone imposed in parts of Shoreditch now have a chance for their voices to be heard — with a public consulting period on the matter now ongoing until February 14th.
Annual reports filed with the California DMV show Waymo leading all other autonomous car companies in most miles driven and least number of “disengagement events.” Tesla reported if conducted no autonomous driving testing on public roads in California last year.
What happens when a loved and appreciated EV, the Nissan LEAF, is reinvented? What happens when the highest selling electric car in history gets considerably greater range, a hot new design, and additional advanced technologies? One thing that happens is the car — the new Nissan LEAF — is named as a top 10 finalist in the prized 2018 World Car of the Year awards.
Tesla [NASDAQ: TSLA] has been confounding Wall Street’s naysayers for years, and 2018 has not departed from that trend. According to Schaeffer’s Investment Research, “Tesla stock was trading near its highest levels since late October earlier — topping out at $349 — after JPM reported on the company’s private investor meeting at the Detroit Auto Show. The brokerage firm said TSLA’s head of investment relations indicated Model 3 production will reach 1,000 cars per week this month — an increase from fourth-quarter numbers, with the recent bottleneck issues resolved.” [Update: Tesla stock is currently at $352.71.]
EVgo had a banner year in 2017. It expanded it network of fast chargers to more than 1000 charging stations and provided enough electricity to power its customers’ cars more than 40 million miles.
The market/product analysts at Strategy Analytics have given the Tesla Model 3 a fairly low appraisal with regard to the “user experience” — with the notation being that there’s a drop in quality as compared to the Tesla Model S or Tesla Model X. Well, no kidding.
Waymo has ordered “thousands” more Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid autonomous cars for use in its ride-hailing and ridesharing services in several US cities.
More than 100,000 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEVs (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles) have now been sold in Europe — as of the end of 2017. Very interestingly, the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV now accounts for over 10% of the company’s sales in the European market.
