There’s a small secret here on CleanTechnica: We ♥ Tesla. Tesla is pushing transportation into a clean, zero-emission, electric future more than any other company. Nonetheless, we also need leadership from large automakers that weren’t born electric. Globally, approximately 96 million passenger vehicles are sold a year. In the US alone, the figure is 17 million or more.
Last week was crazy — the Tesla SEC lawsuit settlement, Tesla’s massive quarterly sales record, our first monthly #Pravduh, and more. As a result, I never shared the most popular CleanTechnica stories of September. So, in case you are curious, here were the 20 stories in September that ruled the odd and quirky land of CleanTechnica (pageviews following titles).
Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 in Nevada is solidly on track to achieve a battery production volume of 35 GWh per year (annualized run rate) by the end of 2018. This is two years ahead of the original 2020 target date for achieving these volumes.
The reason Tesla names its Nevada battery production factory the Gigafactory was to help people understand that only when operating at a larger economy of scale does EV battery production truly become profitable.
Our friends at EV Volumes — true EV data fiends — have released another report on electric car sales and trends. There are another of interesting findings, but the chart that jumped out to me the most was one about battery chemistry.
The Nissan LEAF is infamous for its battery problems. It started with the fast degrading 24kWh battery in the original 2010 Nissan LEAF. That battery was not up to the hot conditions of US Southwest states. It was replaced by a battery with a different chemistry, the 24kWh “lizard battery” in 2014. In 2015, the model year 2016 (MY2016) LEAF got a slightly larger 30kWh battery option. In the MY2018 Nissan LEAF, an even bigger 40kWh battery was offered.
Road trips are a make or break factor for mass adoption of electric vehicles in the US. Unlike much of Europe and many other parts of the world, the US does not have a train system that connects most cities in the country (Amtrak in the Northeast being an exception). As such, most Americans either fly or rely on their cars when they go on vacation to Disneyland or Disney World, to visit relatives a few states away, or to take their child to college hundreds of miles away.
Are the days of the gas guzzler numbered? Tom Raftery (via Forbes) says there are “seven reasons why the internal combustion engine is a dead man walking.” He explains, “Electric cars are the future. The transition has just begun, but the move from ICE vehicles to electric will happen sooner and more quickly than most people suspect.” Here’s why…
Three Japanese reporters penned a piece today indicating that Panasonic is hastening its efforts to bring more battery cell production online at Tesla’s Gigafactory.
August was a big and wild month for electric vehicles, especially for Tesla. Scroll through the summary below to get your monthly dose of the biggest changes and trends in the electric vehicles industry.
