An internal email to employees dated July 9 from Jerome Guillen, President of Automotive at Tesla, said the company is “making preparations” to raise output at its factory in Fremont, California (where we recently interviewed him). “While we can’t be too specific in this email, I know you will be delighted with the upcoming developments,” Guillen said, according to a report by Bloomberg, which claims to have seen a copy of the email.
USA Today published an article yesterday with the headline “Why Tesla ‘has a problem appealing to women’: Electric cars, Elon Musk may be off-putting.”
The article goes on to talk with a couple of women who described why they don’t want a Tesla and list their own reasons — and that’s fine. However, they don’t represent all women, especially many female Tesla owners and female Tesla fans planning to purchase a Tesla.
The most popular articles on CleanTechnica last week concerned BMW (not so good), Tesla (quite good), Nissan charging issues (ugh), an electric bike, the Honda e, Elon Musk’s birthday, high-efficiency solar cells, floating solar farms, oil tankers repurposed for renewable energy, and more. Quite a diverse week! Check them out below.
Tesla raised the bar for the in-car infotainment experience with its massive 17″ displays in the Model S and X, then flipped things on their side with a 15″ landscape display in the Model 3. The large, responsive touchscreens brought the familiar interface from all of our smart devices into the car while allowing almost endless opportunities to innovate through future software updates.
A little over a month ago, Iron Man took a trip to China to hang out with Tesla China. Posing in front of a Model S, Iron Man looks like he is ready to save the day as Tesla fans surround him.
Have you seen the Tesla Semi out for a test ride?
According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of fraud is an “intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right.”
The purpose of this article is to challenge the narrative that is commonly heard on mainstream news sites that Tesla has sold a few cars to a few people who just care about the climate, but that Tesla doesn’t know what it is doing. The second part of that is often that Tesla’s leader, Elon Musk, is a great fraud, someone who can get his faithful excited but never delivers on his promises.
After reserving a Model 3, I streamed every video about Tesla and Elon Musk I could get my hands on. As the information regarding Mr. Musk’s background and career came streaming in, it suddenly dawned on me that the man had completed the classical tale of “The Hero’s Journey.” Are you familiar with the myth? If you don’t think you are, you actually are. You just haven’t gotten around to reading any Joseph Campbell and putting a name to it. If that is the case, may I fill you in on the myth and how well Elon fits into it?
Pop quiz: You arrive at the annual church picnic in your brand new Tesla. You park amidst a variety of gasoline, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid vehicles. Having the only pure electric vehicle at the event, you are soon surrounded by a crowd of gawkers, cooing and praising your beautiful automobile. A voice in the crowd inquires about the unique motor in your Tesla, and you provide an answer that has the crowd smiling and nodding their heads up and down. Sensing your mastery of all things Tesla, another onlooker asks why Tesla Motors is so closely linked with Silicon Valley.
