January 7th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
The US auto industry took a bit of a whack in 2019. Excluding Tesla, auto sales were down by 177,839 units in 2019 compared to 2018. That said, only 13 auto brands saw their sales drop, while 18 saw their sales rise
January 4th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
Too much cleantech news is a good thing, but it sometimes means I need to stuff a bunch of big stories into one article. Following some roundups of autonomous driving news and battery & EV charging news, here's one more roundup of some cool cleantech stories no one wanted to take and write full pieces about. This one is 100% focused on solar power
January 4th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
We may have some more high-selling blockbuster electric vehicles in 2020, but 2019 had one electric vehicle that was in a league of its own, the Tesla Model 3. Through November, the Model 3 had almost 3× the sales of the world's 2nd best selling EV, the BAIC EU-Series, and it had more than 4× the sales of the world's 2nd best selling non-Chinese
January 4th, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
Sweden probably isn't one of the first countries that come to mind when talking about electric vehicle leaders, but plug-in vehicles have a higher market share there than in almost any other country in the world. In 2019, 11% of auto sales were sales of plug-in vehicles
January 3rd, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
Comparing Tesla's Q4 2012 sales (deliveries, not orders) to Tesla's Q4 2019 sales, we can see that Tesla vehicle sales grew 47× in 7 years. Anyone going along with Elon Musk's forecast of such growth back in 2012 or subsequent years (even up through 2018 and a large portion of 2019) was frequently seen as unrealistically optimistic or "biased."
January 3rd, 2020 | by Dr. Maximilian Holland
This morning Tesla released its Q4 2019 vehicle production and deliveries results, delivering an all time record of approximately 112,000 vehicles in Q4 and ~367,500 vehicles in 2019 overall. This result exceeds the lower end of Tesla's annual guidance (360,000 to 400,000 vehicles) and is a 50% increase over 2018 deliveries
January 2nd, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
Back when we published "Pravduh About Tesla" reports, it became clear that CNBC was the media outlet that published the most about Tesla. We tracked Tesla and Elon Musk coverage in the 22 or so largest media outlets, and CNBC routinely had the most stories published each week on Tesla or Musk. (Bloomberg was 2nd, Business Insider 3rd, and Fox News 4th)
January 1st, 2020 | by Zachary Shahan
There's a bit of a problem in much of the media these days. There's a broad assumption — from both media consumers and members of the media — that media outlets are supposed to present "two sides of the story." Case in point: Tesla
January 1st, 2020 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
Every quarter, there are a couple of days of suspense waiting for the Tesla production and delivery numbers. They have in most quarters no importance whatsoever. Not reaching the guidance by even 0.1% is considered a deadly sin on Wall Street, though
January 1st, 2020 | by Paul Fosse
It's going to take me a little while to explain the headline, but I'll get there. It has been well documented that China's 1 child policy (from 1979 to 2015) caused the sex ratio in China to skew heavily male. The preference for Chinese parents was to have sons, since sons in Chinese society have been traditionally responsible for taking care of their parents in old age
December 28th, 2019 | by Zachary Shahan
Previously, Volkswagen announced an intention to produce and sell 1 million fully electric ID vehicles in 2025. The target year for that is now 2023, while the 2025 target has increased to 1½ million
December 28th, 2019 | by Zachary Shahan
For our new report, Electric Car Drivers: Demands, Desires & Dreams (2019), we investigated whether EV drivers bought their cars new, bought them used, or leased them. The split was interesting. We then dug in deeper as well, for the first time ever, to learn a bit more about the cars they replaced, and why they went electric
December 25th, 2019 | by Zachary Shahan
We were curious whether EV ownership/leasing correlated with rooftop solar panel ownership, and also whether driving an EV encouraged people to drive more efficiently or even conserve energy more at home, so we surveyed thousands of EV owners. Guess what the results were
December 24th, 2019 | by Jose Pontes
The European passenger plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market landed some 55,000 registrations in November (+44%), with the Dutch market and plug-in hybrids (+80% year over year, or YoY) pulling the market up the most, while fully electric vehicles (BEVs) were waiting for the 2020 flood (+23%, their lowest growth rate since June 2018)
December 21st, 2019 | by Zachary Shahan
When asked for the top reasons the EV drivers got their cars, we got similar responses as in previous years. The largest portion of buyers in every group referenced the environmental benefits. As before, Tesla buyers in the various markets were more likely to select “fun & convenience” and “I love new tech” than other EV drivers
December 21st, 2019 | by Zachary Shahan
The top three stories on CleanTechnica last week were some writer reflections or analysis on Tesla vehicles and the burgeoning electric vehicle (EV) market as a whole. They explained why a Tesla Cybertruck doesn't need to park in a garage, that a 2012 Tesla Model S is still unbeaten by non-Tesla competitors — including EVs coming in 2020, and why the huge growth in EV sales in the Netherlands is something we should get used to
December 21st, 2019 | by Jose Pontes
When you find yourself in times of trouble, Model 3 comes to thee Speaking words of wisdom, let it be. And in this hour of darkness, it is standing right in front of thee Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
December 18th, 2019 | by Jose Pontes
Something clicked in the German plug-in vehicle market after the summer holidays. After two consecutive record months, November saw 10,985 units registered, only the second five-digit performance in Germany's history, after the record 11,926 units of October. It seems Europe's e-locomotive has finally been set in motion, which is a promising sign for
December 16th, 2019 | by Jose Pontes
The French plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) market had 5,540 registrations in November, with fully electric vehicles (BEVs) dropping 10% year over year (YoY), to 3,201 units. However, plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) took the fast lane and were up 80%
December 16th, 2019 | by Zachary Shahan
What caught readers' eyes the most on CleanTechnica last week? That would be the new Tesla Backup Gateway 2, which looks like a mini Powerwall; a titillating study on EV total cost of ownership in the UK that Bank of American Merrill Lynch conducted and shared with CleanTechnica; and a commentary on Tesla's revenue growth juxtaposed against Tesla critics' seemingly never-ending pessimism, which is typically very misplaced
December 16th, 2019 | by Maarten Vinkhuyzen
What is happening in the Netherlands is illustrative of what is going to happen in the surrounding countries. The key to understanding this is a European phenomenon (tax loophole) — company cars for private use
December 15th, 2019 | by Zachary Shahan
For our newest report, Electric Car Drivers: Demands, Desires & Dreams (2019), we surveyed thousands of plug-in vehicle drivers to find out more about their electric vehicle buying decisions, what they want from their next EVs, how EV life is going, and more. Below are some of the top-line takeaway points from the surveys of US, Canadian, and British respondents
December 15th, 2019 | by Zachary Shahan
With all of the data tallied, we have one electric car in the top 20*, or in the top 10 actually — the Tesla Model 3. The Model 3, based on our estimates (with support from EV Volumes), lands in the #10 spot in the USA in November among all cars. For the first 11 months of the year, the Model 3 was in the #9 position
