What’s really happening on the factory floor at Tesla? The Wall Street Journal’s John D. Stoll was lucky enough to get an inside look. He acknowledges that “the plant is closely guarded against outsiders—rarely open to media, analysts, let alone competitors … [but] I took a tour on Thursday, observing the body shop where 1,068 robots were welding, gluing or riveting together parts for dozens of Model 3 sedans.”
The French plug-in electric passenger car market scored 2,833 registrations in April, up 34% year over year (YoY), with plug-in hybrids continuing to grow faster than all-electrics (PHEVs +46%, BEVs +28%). Altogether, that pulled the market up by 20% in 2018, to 13,725 plug-in car registrations in the first trimester of the year.
Journalistic integrity is a hot topic these days, and rightly so. A free press is absolutely necessary for democracy, technological and social progress, and other nice things. However, with press freedom come responsibilities: among other things, not to cherry pick facts to support a preconceived conclusion, and not to quote sources without revealing when they have a personal stake in an issue.
Tesla’s robots seem to have evolved from super-powered X-Men, here to save the world, into pitchfork-wielding devils tormenting the lost souls condemned to Production Hell. As Elon Musk admits, that “excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake.” There are plenty of auto industry veterans ready to say “I told you so.”
Once seen as the domain of tech geeks and tree huggers, electric cars have transformed into the new, must-have accessory for the rich and famous. Hannah Elliott reports (via Bloomberg), “When marketing luxury vehicles, ‘electric’ is no longer a bad word… feeling good about your car is the new feeling cool about your car.”
The Netherlands had 963 registrations in April, up 170% compared to the same period last year. That pulls the year-to-date (YTD) count to 5,472 units (+129%), while placing the 2018 share at 3.2%. Fully electric cars (BEV) represent a whopping 87% of all plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) sales.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted out news this week that the company is working on offering owners of existing Model S and X vehicles what Model 3 owners can use to get into their cars — their phones.
After Tesla’s latest quarterly earnings call in which Elon Musk turned his back on Wall Street analysts in favor of questions from a 25-year old YouTuber, analysts are turning their back on Tesla’s CEO. Almost across the board, analysts disliked Musk’s comments (or lack thereof) on Tesla’s recent earnings call. There is one outlier, though — New Street Research’s Pierre Ferragu.
Just as a super quick note for those who have been eagerly waiting for an all-wheel drive Tesla Model 3 or a high-performance Tesla Model 3, the news is that Tesla will start inviting people to order these versions of the Model 3 next week.
Nope, you still can’t get anything other than black for the interior of a Tesla Model 3 if you order one today — well, black + that one wooden dash feature that I have to admit I love. However, if you want a Tesla Model S or Model X, Tesla just updated its interior options (h/t Hypebeast). If you scroll over to the Model S Design page or Model X Design page, you now have the following interior options:
