The German minister for Economic Affairs, Peter Altmaier, has delivered a hardcore smackdown to local auto giants, asking them when they will build EVs that are “half as sexy as a Tesla.”
Earlier today, I highlighted the Tesla Model 3’s solid sales launch compared to the iconic Ford Mustang, which the Model 3 is outselling by ~1.5× this year so far. But the Mustang has never been seen as the car the Model 3 is really trying to retire — or at least humble a bit. That car is, of course, the BMW 3 Series (+ 4 Series).
The Los Angeles Auto Show just released the list of its speakers and programs a week before the event. The good news is that we will not only be there to cover the auto show’s pre-public media days but also interviewed one of its speakers this week in Santa Clara, California. Here’s our LA Auto Show Sneak Peak.
This may have been the longest I’ve ever taken to create a monthly US sales report, and it may have also been the most difficult. We had a strong sense of how Tesla Model 3 production and deliveries were ramping up through the 3rd quarter, but due to the intense push to get Model 3s out the door and into customers’ hands by the end of the quarter, it has been hard to estimate output in subsequent weeks — much of October.
Tesla Model 3 sales growth this year has been astounding, putting to bed any sensible skepticism about Tesla’s ability to produce a high number of high-quality cars that consumers adore.
As part of our series on the disruptions facing the two-wheel transportation space leading up to our 2019 report, we’d like to gather market feedback from the informed global users of CleanTechnica. Let us know what you think.
The Netherlands had 2,058 plug-in electric vehicle registrations in October, up 147% year over year (YoY), which translates into a plug-in electric vehicle share of 6.8% in the country. That also pulls the year-to-date count to 17,035 units, with the 2018 plug-in electric vehicle share now growing to 4.3%.
I’ve had a lot of fun recently while highlighting 50 “tips” for slowing the electric car revolution and writing about what the end of gasmobiles could look like, but the discussions left some people scratching their heads. Why would automakers conscientiously try to delay a switch to electric vehicles? Why would they not try to create attractive electric cars once they were shown how popular Tesla’s models have been?
You’re going to be shocked — the electric car respondents most frequently said they were most likely to buy next (or for the first time in the case of non-EV drivers) was the Tesla Model 3. Over 100,000 reservations ($1,000 each) were placed for the car in under 24 hours — even before the car was shown. The demand was through the roof and ended up being the single biggest product reveal in history by certain key metrics. So, it is not a surprise in the least that this electric car tops the list of “expected next EV model.”
The French plug-in electric passenger car market registered 3,888 registrations in October, with all-electric models growing fast (+60%), while plug-in hybrids remained in a post-NEDC hangover (down 2%) — year to date (YTD), though, PHEVs are still jumping 35% year over year (YoY).
