February is traditionally the slowest selling month in China, but with electric car sales at around 34,000, there’s not much to complain about — numbers were up 88% year over year (YoY), making this by far the best February ever.
Getting a coveted job at Tesla isn’t easy. Elon Musk once said, “if you’re at Tesla, you’re choosing to be at the equivalent of Special Forces. There’s the regular Army, and that’s fine, but if you are working at Tesla, you’re choosing to step up your game.” You’d think statements like this would keep job applicants away. Not so much.
Tesla is a completely unique auto brand.
Instead of spending money on advertising (like every other auto brand), Tesla spends money on making its products better.
In the increasingly transparent digital era we live in, this appears to be a winning formula.
One of the most famed Apple analysts, Gene Munster, has recently turned his attention to Tesla. Munster’s firm, Loup Ventures, “surveyed 519 people in the U.S. regarding interest in buying a Tesla Model 3 … [and] found a surprisingly high number (17%) of people would buy a Model 3 at $40,000. Even if this survey is off by 3x, the results still imply significant market share gains are in store for Tesla given their current U.S. unit market share is below 0.5%.”
In addition to the US federal tax credit for plug-in electric vehicle purchases, there’s a smorgasbord of state incentives and policies that affect electric drivers. In fact, according to a new report from the NC Clean Energy Technology Center (NCCETC), 43 states and the District of Columbia took some type of action having to do with EVs during 2017.
Xcel Energy has solicited bids on a series of grid-scale battery storage installations in Colorado. When completed and online by 2023, they may qualify for the title of largest battery installation in the world, according to PV Magazine.
The production efficiency of the Tesla Model S and Tesla Model X has been improved greatly in recent years, a spokesperson for Tesla has revealed to CleanTechnica and other media outlets in response to some recent CNBC coverage.
Reports of problems on the Model 3 production line persist, with current and former employees telling CNBC that many parts are substandard and are causing production delays, something Tesla hotly denies.
Officials in Shanghai claim they still have cordial relations with Tesla and are negotiating the construction of a factory there, despite Elon Musk’s Twitter tantrum last week. And Sergio Marchionne, who said investing in electric cars was a waste of time just two months ago is now singing a different tune.
The top 20 stories of the week on CleanTechnica didn’t include a single Tesla article.
