Elon Musk and Tesla are keen to retain their mantel of being the best and most complete manufacturer of electric vehicles. In recent months they have been attacked on all sides by other manufacturers trying to get in on the act and providing products from established manufacturing centres. Tesla did buy the NUMMI plant in Fremont, just south of San Francisco, however they had … [Read more...]
Tesla PowerPack Installation in South Australia
Back in 2017, South Australia did a deal with Elon Musk and Tesla to install a massive power pack of batteries in 100 days or Musk would cover the cost of the implementation. Strangely, the 100 day project was met, meaning that the State Government aka the taxpayers gave Tesla a chunk of cash. The whole offer was a little dodgy because it was announced in July of that year and … [Read more...]
FCA Buys Credits from Tesla
This is an interesting bending of the rules - similar to the Volkswagen Group developing software to detect when a car is being tested such that the correct test results are delivered. FIAT Chrysler (FCA) is working with Tesla to lower the fleet emissions such that they won't get fined by the EU. FCA has already had to pay $800M a couple of years ago to settle a US lawsuit … [Read more...]
The Tesla Shooting Brake
This is a story that has been told many times in the last century and probably was the foundation of many manufacturers like Jaguar, Pininfarina and others. The story starts, like many others, with a car buyer lamenting that the car is 90% perfect however they would like it to be changed. In decades past, this would have been the domain of Park Ward, Vignale, Touring, Mulliner … [Read more...]
Tesla’s Sales Changes
Here at Motoring Weekly, we have been following the rollercoaster ride that is Tesla and Elon Musk. They seem to be doing OK and then Musk opens his mouth and the stock slides and then they recover only for another announcement to drop the stock price again. Early in March they announced that they were going to close all retail outlets and concentrate on online sales because … [Read more...]