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From The Mud Field To The Plug — Tesla Gigafactory 3

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Published on October 18th, 2019 |

by Johnna Crider

From The Mud Field To The Plug — Tesla Gigafactory 3

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October 18th, 2019 by Johnna Crider

From the mud field to the plug, there is a story of growth, determination, and persistence despite opposition. The plug is when the first car built at Tesla’s Shanghai gigafactory plugs in, and it symbolizes success and another major milestone achieved. The message is clear, keep on doing and ignore the haters.

Once upon a time, there were people pointing to an empty field of mud, with claims that Tesla was faking it. Actually, those people are still doing the same thing, despite being so wrong on this story. They change up their criticisms based on Tesla’s narrative of the moment, but the message is always that Tesla is faking something and is about to fail. Never mind history.

Regarding the groundbreaking in China, the haters claimed that Tesla isn’t going to be in China, and if you believe it, then you are a stupid, gullible, weak person who has no life.

Now, after the Gigafactory 3 has been built, the lights are coming on, and the first cars are approved for production, the saying is more along the lines of Tesla is losing money because no one will buy Tesla’s cars in China, and if you believe they will, then you are a stupid, gullible weak person. You have been conned.

If you believe the narratives of the Tesla [TSLA] short sellers, then you have been conned, but not by Elon Musk or Tesla.

You can easily observe the narrative of the loudest advocates for Tesla’s failure. While they scream and taunt Elon on Twitter, Elon replies back with his actions, or rather with Tesla’s actions. For every tweet, every negatively photoshopped image of Elon, and every chant that “Elon is a fraud” (with no real evidence to back up these claims), Tesla’s response has been that of progress.

This speaks volumes of how well Tesla is actually doing, and for those of us in America, we should be not only proud but also in awe of what Tesla has achieved, especially with China. Coupled with the taunts and chants of short sellers and a few in the media who consistently support the short thesis, the Gigafactory 3 is something beautiful. It is extra special.

Interestingly, the ugliest tweets bring out those who not only support Tesla, but who believe in Elon Musk — people like Chao Zhou, who has superbly documented the transition of this mud field; Vincent, who also keeps us updated on the progress of Gigafactory 3 with pics, videos, and inside information.

No Longer A Mud Field

A US Company Embraced By China During A Trade War Between Both Countries

Right now, the US and China are in a trade war. Tariffs have made almost everything go up in price, and we are seeing the effects of it here — things that were once $15 (small appliances, for example) are now $23 and up. However, this aside, we have to understand one thing:

Tesla is the only foreign company that has its own factory in China — it was approved in a watershed moment by China to operate and sell electric vehicles to Chinese citizens. The fact that China’s government has fully embraced Tesla is nothing to overlook, especially since our own government made Elon pay millions for a tweet certain people didn’t like.

Tesla Granted Manufacturing License in China

Earlier this morning, Reuters announced that, according to China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Tesla now has the green light to start production. Tesla, Inc. was added to the government’s list of approved automotive manufacturers and was granted the certificate it needs to start production.

Gigafactory 3 Gets Plugged Into State Grid Power Supply

Bloomberg reported yesterday that the State Grid Corp of China has turned on the lights, so to speak, in the Shanghai Gigafactory. The transmission line will increase electricity supply to the plant at the required level for preliminary production. Shanghai Grid also plans to increase the power supply by 8 times so the factory can run at capacity. This project involves 55 kilometers of cables (34 miles for those of us in the USA) and 17 kilometers of ducts (10 miles). The State Grid also said this was among the quickest it had completed and only took 6 months.

Instead of following the hype of the critics, look at the monumental successes Tesla has had, and not just in China. The reason why short sellers are short Tesla is that they have made money betting against Tesla. I think this will soon change for them, and like all who face the daunting challenge of a big change, they refuse to accept it. They fight it and struggle with all they have. This is why they troll Tesla owners, fans, and shareholders (like me) online. This is why they create their echo chamber and convince some journalists to write negative headlines.

They don’t want their luck to change, but as Prince EA says,

“You can ignore this, but the thing about truth is, it can be denied — not avoided.” — Prince EA

Tesla’s success can be denied, but it won’t be avoided.
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About the Author

Johnna Crider Johnna Crider is a Baton Rouge artist, gem and mineral collector, and Tesla shareholder who believes in Elon Musk and Tesla. Elon Musk advised her in 2018 to “Believe in Good.”

Tesla is one of many good things to believe in. You can find Johnna on Twitter

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Phase 2 Of Tesla Gigafactory 3 Will House Battery Manufacturing Facility

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Published on October 16th, 2019 |

by Steve Hanley

Phase 2 Of Tesla Gigafactory 3 Will House Battery Manufacturing Facility

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October 16th, 2019 by Steve Hanley

According to a report by China’s Global Times, Tesla has completed construction of the parts of its Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai that will be dedicated to producing automobiles. Now it has begun work on “phase 2” of the factory, which will house a battery manufacturing facility. The report does not make clear whether this space will be used to make battery packs from cells sourced from outside suppliers or whether it is intended for cell production as well.

Last summer, Tesla announced it would use battery cells sourced from LG Chem for the battery packs used in the Model 3 sedans built in Shanghai. It also indicated it was open to using battery cells made by CATL or Panasonic in the future as well. The implication is the company does not intend to manufacture its own battery cells but will be responsible for making its own battery packs, presumably in the part of the new factory that is now under construction. Global Times visited the Gigafactory 3 (GF3) site this week and reports the area where phase two will be located has already been paved and the installation of pillars and roof trusses has already begun.

Feng Shiming, a veteran analyst for the Chinese auto industry analyst, tells the Global Times he has heard from Tesla employees at GF3 that the first batch of vehicle batteries for the Model 3 will be fully assembled as of October 30. He predicts that mass production at the Shanghai factory will not start until after the Spring Festival holidays in January next year. The factory built in the first phase will merely assemble parts shipped from the US, Feng says. On Monday, a Tesla sales person told the Global Times on Monday that a Chinese customer who places an order for a Model 3 today will take delivery of the car in 6 to 10 months.

We’ve also seen a report that Model 3 production will now start in GF3 on October 20.

A Need For Urgency
Feng suggests the push to get the Model 3 into production at the new Shanghai factory is tied in with a desire to reassure investors that the company can achieve profitability and deliver its cars in a timely fashion. “The price of the Model 3 is relatively low, so Tesla needs to start sales in China as quickly as it can and sell the car in large volumes to recoup its capital investment,” Feng says.

Some industry observers believe mainstream customers for the lower cost Model 3 may be less inclined to overlook quality concerns than the more affluent buyers of the Model S and Model X who are focused primarily on the advanced technology Tesla brings to the table. Model 3 buyers, on the other hand, are replacing conventional cars with internal combustion engines and are more interested in utility than technology, presumably.

Feng suggests Tesla may have to offer incentives to get Chinese customers to make the switch, which could depress earnings, at least to start with. Confirmed Tesla supporters, like those who read CleanTechnica, see things differently. We tend to think that once Chinese customers get to experience the goodness of the Model 3, it will be traditional manufacturers who will be juicing their sales incentives in an effort to convince shoppers not to buy every Model 3 Tesla can weld, screw, and glue together at its Shanghai factory.

Hat tip to Teslarati.
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Steve Hanley Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his home in Rhode Island and anywhere else the Singularity may lead him. His motto is, “Life is not measured by how many breaths we take but by the number of moments that take our breath away!” You can follow him on Google + and on Twitter.

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Tesla Model Y: “Limited Production” ≠ Customer Deliveries

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Published on October 15th, 2019 |

by Zachary Shahan

Tesla Model Y: “Limited Production” ≠ Customer Deliveries

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October 15th, 2019 by Zachary Shahan

We published an article earlier today about leaked info we received from a historically reliable source inside Tesla who indicated there’s a target to start limited production of the Tesla Model Y in Tesla’s Fremont factory sometime around Q1 2020. Our main source has previously shared detailed information of various sorts that proved to be accurate, some of which we published and some of which we didn’t. Our source is not a top executive at Tesla, and we all know that Tesla is a nimble company that can change plans (or run into challenging bottlenecks) as the seasons change, so first and foremost I do think it’s wise to be cautious about leaked expectations for limited Model Y production anywhere from 3 months from now to 6 months from now.

More importantly, though — and the reason for this article — I think people should be cautious about conflating production (er, limited production) and customer deliveries. Even if production starts rolling at a slow pace in 3–6 months, customer deliveries may not start for another several months after that. We don’t have any insight into this matter.

In fact, even though Model Y production commencing in or near Q1 2020 may seem far in advance of Tesla’s stated plans to start shipping Model Y to customers in “fall 2020,” there may not be much (or any) discrepancy at all. This leaked information may simply mean that Tesla is on track with its stated Model Y development and production plans.

Of course, we know that some Model Ys are already in testing on the road:

However, Tesla has previously tested prototypes of new models several months before customer deliveries began.

Another contributor of ours, Maarten Vinkhuyzen, offered some useful comments on this topic underneath the article earlier today. His comments are based on previous Tesla announcements, how precise or careful the company has been about Model Y production statements, and his own deduction:

What was notable was that it was more careful this time around. Tesla talked about start of production, start of volume production, start of deliveries to public, all with different moments in time. That made me thinking.

The time line as I see it:

2020Q1
— start of the production line,
— end-to-end system testing,
— programming, configuring, debugging, and tuning.

2020Q2
— start of trial production,
— product QA, panel gaps, paint job, fit and finish,
— production of test vehicles for collision, safety, cold & hot climates, endurance.

2020Q3
— start building Model Y production line in Shanghai GF3
— start of production,
— vehicles for showroom and test-drives at USA dealers,
— first deliveries to employees.

2020Q4
— start of volume production,
— deliveries to employees Tesla and SpaceX,
— deliveries to first, preferred customers around Fremont.

2021Q1
— start of deliveries to public at large.

As you can see, Maarten’s forecast fits both the leaked information we received regarding “limited production” as well as Tesla’s official “fall 2020“* commencement of deliveries target. I don’t know enough about manufacturing to know if this timeline is realistic, but it looks logical to me.

The key summary note that I’ll repeat is: “limited production” ≠ customer deliveries. We did not receive information on when initial customer deliveries are expected, and we did not receive enough insight into what is underway or planned to know if Model Y development and production is moving along faster than initially expected. We also have not heard from Tesla on this matter despite reaching out for commentary on the topic.

We will update you if we learn more. In the meantime, it seems safe to say that 1) Tesla Model Y production is still on track (as Elon Musk has stated every time he’s been asked about it), 2) it seems clear that it will occur in Fremont, and 3) there’s a chance that it’s ahead of schedule — but our information does not prove that. If you hear more, feel free to drop us a note.

*h/t Fact Checking
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About the Author

Zachary Shahan Zach is tryin' to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. He's also the CEO of Important Media. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao.

Zach has long-term investments in Tesla [TSLA] — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in this company and feels like it is a good cleantech company to invest in. But he offers no investment advice and does not recommend investing in Tesla or any other company.

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Breaking! Tesla Model Y Production To Start In Q1 2020 (Unofficial Leak)

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Published on October 15th, 2019 |

by Chanan Bos

Breaking! Tesla Model Y Production To Start In Q1 2020 (Unofficial Leak)

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October 15th, 2019 by Chanan Bos

This information is going to cause some controversy, because everything we knew, or thought we knew, about Tesla’s Model Y timeline is about to change. Originally, the Model Y was supposed to start shipping in Q1 2021. This is also what is currently written on Tesla’s website. However, according to an anonymous source with a proven and reliable track record, Tesla is about to accelerate its plans and start production in Q1 2020 at its Fremont factory. (We’ve also received the same information independently through a reliable second-hand source.)

The Model Y will launch with the Long Range all-wheel drive (AWD) trim, according to this source, and Tesla will release the Standard Range Plus (SR+) version once production has been ramped up and the Model Y SR+ has a large enough gross margin.

Tesla has learned a lot since it started manufacturing the Model 3, and it’s possible that the ramp up will be much quicker than with the Model 3, but we don’t have a firm estimate of when the SR+ would start rolling off the line.

One other bit of important speculation here is that GF1 is still supply constrained. In that case, Tesla would want to focus customers as much as possible on the Model Y Performance and Long Range variants to ensure overall profitability. (Just as a quick side note, for any critic reading this article, this doesn’t mean that Tesla is unprofitable — it simply means the company is being logical and responsible in order to maximize profitability while expanding its lineup.)

Another fun little tidbit of technical information we have been told is that the Model Y will indeed use the new revolutionary flex-cable circuitry that reduces the length of wires needed throughout the car and also gives every component a redundant connection to the battery and the computer. This makes it possible for robots to install more of the “guts and veins” of the car and cut down on the manual labor involved in installing cables. As Elon Musk has said multiple times, robots suck at placing normal cables into the vehicle.

Many Model Y components will be similar to those in the Model 3, but not identical, including the battery packs.

This obviously raises a ton of questions, here are some and how they will change the grand scheme of things:

Is Tesla going to repeat the production hell it went through in Q4 2018/Q1 2019?

It’s possible, but not very likely. Tesla’s Model 3 was the first car Tesla ever decided to build at the scale of hundreds of thousands per year. It was also an almost entirely new vehicle with few shared parts between it and the Model S or X. The company made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot from those mistakes. The Model Y and Model 3 share about 75% of their components, so the learning curve should be much easier.

How did Tesla manage to pull this off?

In the last year or two, many in the media have bashed on Tesla like it was their guilty pleasure, writing up all kinds of misinformation, FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt), and predictions of doom. (Bankwuptcy is willy coming!) The media claimed that the Model 3 was behind schedule, that Tesla couldn’t mass manufacture it, that the Model 3 was unprofitable, that the Standard Range trim would never come, that Tesla in general is unprofitable, and more. Tesla has refuted each claim simply with its actions time and time again.

One of Elon’s base instincts is to set very ambitious timelines, a strategy that has always paid off. Even if that overly ambitious goal was not met on time, it was still met much quicker than it would have been with a conservative timeline. There is a pretty famous example about the beginning of The Boring Company. Elon decided he wanted to do it and that he will do it right outside in the parking lot and asked how soon they could clear out all the cars and everything else to start digging. The first timeline given to him was a week. Elon gave them 24 hours and they broke ground within 48. We received similar stories when interviewing Tesla President Jerome Guillen regarding Model 3 production.

With the Model Y, I am willing to bet that Elon’s timeline for starting Model Y manufacturing was around the end of 2019, and after a lot of convincing from was persuaded to say Q1 2021 on stage — for the first time separating internal targets from public ones. Now, instead of the news claiming that Elon is late, they will claim he is a miracle worker and the stock will go up since he is basically “playing the game” that gets Wall Street and the media to portray Tesla’s good side. If anyone is familiar with the engineer Scotty from Star Trek and how he was a “miracle worker,” well, this is pretty much the same thing. (This is simply my expectation, of course. It is not investment advice.)

For the record, Tesla representatives have not yet responded to an inquiry about this leaked news. We will update this article if they do.

Where will the Model Y be manufactured?

According to the information we currently have, Tesla will be manufacturing the Model Y at its Fremont factory. Something I have been looking to report on but never got around to is speculation about where in the factory Tesla could place GA5. While the next image does not show the layout of the manufacturing lines (of which we have been able to draw a speculative map but are not publishing today), it does show where we think GA5 will be.

Part of this speculation is based on something Elon Musk said during the 2019 Q1 investor call:

“Credit goes to the Tesla team that actually looked at how could we do this in Fremont, if we had to, and we feel like we can actually append building space to the west side of the building and use a lot of internal space that is currently used for warehousing in Fremont factory, and so we believe it actually can be done with minimal disruption to add Model Y to Fremont.”

Now, the area that Tesla has currently labeled as a service center is technically speaking not something that necessarily has to be attached to the main factory complex. Tesla’s seats, for example, are manufactured in a factory a few miles away. The same can be done with the service center. With the unibody stamping technologies we have seen Tesla patent and the fact that the Model Y and Model 3 share 75% of their components, it’s quite possible that parts of those lines can be combined. There are rumors that Tesla plans to combine the Model S and X lines. We have no information to offer on this, but one thing we do know is that Model S and Model X make use of a lot of manual work and have a lot fewer robots than GA3, and those lines could theoretically use a tech upgrade.

Will they start manufacturing the Model Y in Shanghai at the same time?

The answer to that question is that it’s not impossible but it’s doubtful. The Model 3 has been manufactured for over a year. There were a lot of small problems with the Model 3 and the way the vehicle is manufactured that have since been solved, and the process in general has been smoothed out. With the Model Y, while it does share many of the same components, Tesla will likely want to make many small changes to how it’s manufactured before copy-pasting it in Shanghai.

We are likely to hear more about this during the Q2 investor call slated for October 23rd, and just like the last few times, we will be live on YouTube to present it with a lot of the extra context that we also provided last time. More on that soon.

Our secondary source heard that more information regarding the Y will come at the Tesla pickup event next month. We’ll see. In the meantime, if you learn more, drop us a note.

As noted above, Tesla has not yet responded to an inquiry about the leaked news. We will update this article if the company does so.
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About the Author

Chanan Bos Chanan grew up in a multicultural, multi-lingual environment that often gives him a unique perspective on a variety of topics. He is always in thought about big picture topics like AI, quantum physics, philosophy, Universal Basic Income, climate change, sci-fi concepts like the singularity, misinformation, and the list goes on. Currently, he is studying creative media & technology but already has diplomas in environmental sciences as well as business & management. His goal is to discourage linear thinking, bias, and confirmation bias whilst encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and helping people understand exponential progress. Chanan is very worried about his future and the future of humanity. That is why he has a tremendous admiration for Elon Musk and his companies, foremost because of their missions, philosophy, and intent to help humanity and its future. He sees Tesla as one of the few companies that can help us save ourselves from climate change.

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Why Smart Summon Matters

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Published on October 12th, 2019 |

by Frugal Moogal

Why Smart Summon Matters

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October 12th, 2019 by Frugal Moogal

I mentioned in a recent article that I added to my stock position in Tesla for a variety of reasons. Before I go on to discuss Smart Summon, I wanted to address a complaint in the comment section of that article.

It’s true — I tend to write Tesla articles. I use my business experience to examine stock price, public statements, press releases, and the health of the company. As I try to state in every article I write, I am a random voice on the internet under a pseudonym and you shouldn’t trust me without researching and verifying what I am saying with other facts — just like any investment you’re making. In fact, one of my first articles highlighted who writes Tesla articles and why they are published.

I do follow other clean technology companies, with my largest stock holding being Brookfield Renewable Partners (BEP). I’ll write about them sometime, but they aren’t doing anything like Tesla is with Smart Summon, so let’s get to that!

Smart Summon
After my most recent article, and the article before noting that Smart Summon is actually doing a great job, I started emailing back and forth with CleanTechnica’s Director, Zach, who noted that he thought that I was overlooking the marketing aspect of Smart Summon.

And, if you have a car that can Smart Summon, you know Zach is totally right. I’ve mentioned it to a few friends, and was then met by disbelief, and requests to see the feature at some point in the future. It makes people hear about Tesla as a company and get more interested in Tesla’s products.

I think that it is also doing a few other things that are perhaps even more important — a few things being overlooked by those who are making comparisons to the chairs carrying humans in Wall-E — and I think those are the things that matter the most. The truth is, the success of Smart Summon was the biggest factor to me in deciding it would be worth investing more in Tesla, beyond just the marketing. I’ll explain why.

Robotaxi Fleet
The first major factor is that if Tesla can get to the point of turning its vehicles into a robotaxi fleet — and I believe Tesla can — the thing those vehicles need to do the absolute best is pick people up. Let’s put it like this — if you for the first time summon a robotaxi and it drives to pick you up in a parking lot while looking like it’s going to crash into a curb, are you going to trust getting in that vehicle and taking it for a ride? Smart Summon will help refine what is ultimately the most important key to getting people into robotaxis in the future — the first impression.

Normalizing Autonomous Cars
As all of the articles declaring that Smart Summon was causing panic and hysteria proved, people aren’t yet really ready for this. Some people are certain that Teslas using Smart Summon are running people over left and right — yet, amazingly, two weeks after release, I haven’t heard of any additional issues beyond the initial three that all the “CHAOS!” articles linked two, none of which were the vehicle’s fault.

That’s a huge win, and rather amazing by itself. Tesla weathered the expected “sky-is-falling” phase of Smart Summon, and the feature is still working. As it gets better, and as Tesla produces more vehicles, more and more people will see the feature in use, and at some point in the relatively near future, cars driving around in parking lots without people sitting in them won’t be surprising. Which will make acceptance of a car driving on the highway without a driver a lot more acceptable when that starts to occur.

Parking Lots Are Hard
This isn’t just Musk saying this. Parking lots are a very difficult problem. There are often islands, different cement colors, shadows, parking spaces that may or may not be angled, people, curbs, and many other factors in parking lots. They are significantly more complex than an average road. While the car cannot currently park itself, navigating a parking lot autonomously — with a human watching it and holding a button down — is a huge accomplishment.

It also allows for the user to help Tesla teach the neural network. During Tesla’s Autonomy Day presentation, Andrej Karpathy noted that they would search for particular images to denote what was going on in them to better train the neural net. Parking lots are similar to roads, and it may be difficult for the car to learn which is which. Every time you press Smart Summon, though, I’m sure your vehicle is noting that data as parking lot data, so it can use that to learn about the different edge cases within parking lots.

As an aside — I heard about Smart Summon, read about it in the test fleet, and figured that the earliest it would really be pushed to the fleet as a whole would be in the spring of 2020. I figured those early vehicles would need to keep training the neural net to look for the huge number of edge cases out there and to solve them, a task I expected would take much longer than the optimistic time frames Musk and Tesla had given us. But, not just did it come out, the lack of videos of Tesla vehicles crashing into things is a huge sign that they can train the network faster than I predicted could be done.

Smart Summon is not perfect, but it works significantly better than I expected, and that has given me considerable faith that they are moving into fully autonomous driving at a pace so much faster than anyone else.

In Conclusion
Smart Summon to me proves just how much further along Tesla is than anyone else in all aspects of self-driving vehicles. It may seem like a relatively useless gimmick right now, but it is one that I feel is critical to the future of autonomous driving and the future of Tesla as a company.

About the Author

Frugal Moogal A businessman first, the Frugal Moogal looks at EVs from the perspective of a business. Having worked in multiple industries and in roles that managed significant money, he believes that the way to convince people that the EV revolution is here is by looking at the vehicles like a business would.

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Consumer Reports Calls Tesla Smart Summon “A Science Experiment”

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Published on October 12th, 2019 |

by Steve Hanley

Consumer Reports Calls Tesla Smart Summon “A Science Experiment”

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October 12th, 2019 by Steve Hanley

It is fair to say the rollout of Tesla’s Smart Summon feature has not been an unqualified success. Reports have filtered in over the days since the feature was installed via an over the air update of Teslas lurching through parking lots like zombies, getting lost, and struggling to achieve their mission, which is to unpark themselves and drive slowly to wherever the smartphone is that controls them. A few fender benders have been reported as well, but without any clear evidence they were caused by Smart Summon.

Smart Summon is supposed to be a step forward on the road to fully self-driving cars, but if that is so, it seems to some onlookers there is still a long way to go. As the Chinese proverb suggests, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step.”

Consumer Reports, which always seems to have a love/hate affair with Tesla automobiles, has tested Smart Summon at its facility in Connecticut. It’s fair to say the new technology was weighed in the balance and found wanting.

Jake Fisher, CR’s senior director of auto testing, says consumers are not getting technology that has been fully tested and ready to meet their expectations. He suggests Tesla owners are little more than unpaid beta testers who are volunteering to help Tesla fine tune the Smart Summon technology — even though they are paying $6,000 up front for the autonomous Full Self Driving package. (Not many Tesla owners with Full Self Driving are complaining, while thousands or tens of thousands seem to be thrilled about the opportunity.)

“What consumers are really getting is the chance to participate in a kind of science experiment,” Fisher says. “This is a work in progress.” Ouch!

Consumer Reports says it attempted to contact Tesla several times but never got a response from the company.

“CR’s experience with the system shows that Smart Summon can exit a parking space, turn and start moving toward the vehicle owner, and negotiate around stationary objects. It also can detect and stop for pedestrians and slow down if it senses cross traffic.

“But we found that the system works only intermittently, depending on the car’s reading of the surroundings. The system is designed to work only in private parking lots, but sometimes it seemed confused about where it was. In one case, the system worked in one section of a private lot, but in another part of the lot it mistakenly detected that it was on a public road and shut itself down. At various times, our Model 3 would suddenly stop for no obvious reason.

“When it did work, the Model 3 appeared to move cautiously, which could be a positive from a safety perspective. But it also meant the vehicle took a long time to reach its driver. The Model 3 also didn’t always stay on its side of the lane in the parking lots.”

The vehicles sometimes drove in the middle of two traffic lanes or wandered left and right like a drunk or distracted driver. One car drove the wrong way in a one-way traffic lane, requiring the tester to run to the car and move it manually so traffic could begin flowing again.

“Under the right circumstances, our Model 3, with Smart Summon activated, would slowly and successfully make its way to the person summoning it with a smartphone — and in those cases, the car was indeed controlling itself, steering, braking, and making decisions about its route. But the person operating the app still has the responsibility to monitor the car and keep it out of trouble,” says Consumer Reports.

The system requires the operator to continuously hold down a button on the smartphone, a fail-safe procedure recommended by CR. If the button is released, the car will bring itself to a full stop to await further instructions.

Tesla Warnings Are Confusing
The testing service says Tesla’s warnings about using the feature in a controlled setting are confusing. The company says to use Smart Summon only in “private” parking lots, but many consumers consider shopping centers parking lots to be public areas, which raises the question of where exactly it can be used.

“Tesla once again is promising ‘full self-driving’ but delivering far less, and now we’re seeing collisions,” says Ethan Douglas, a senior policy analyst at Consumer Reports in Washington, D.C. “Tesla should stop beta testing its cars on the general public by pushing out experimental features before they’re ready.”

NHTSA told Consumer Reports in a comment that it is aware of the safety concerns related to Smart Summon. It says it has ongoing contact with the company and will continue to gather information. Consumers are encouraged to report any concerns to NHTSA online.

Beta Testing
CleanTechnica is often accused of being a Tesla fanboy site. It is true that we publish a lot of stories about Tesla, most of them favorable. But Tesla has a habit of putting new software in the hands of customers and gathering feedback from their experiences to improve it. That process began when the company began installing the “Hardware 1” self-driving suite of sensors 3 years ago, or even earlier when Autopilot came out 5 years ago.

It continued before the Model 3 was released to the general public when the company delivered early production cars to employees with the understanding that they would uncover any defects and report them when they came to work the next day. What better way to address customer complaints than at the factory where the cars were built?

The argument is that the early release testers are volunteers. The flaw in that argument is that the cars involved in the beta testing are driving on public streets (or parking lots) in the presence of other drivers who are not volunteers and who have no idea beta testing is taking place around them.

It’s like taking a group photograph with the consent of the person in the middle without getting consent from the others. It raises a number of privacy and legal issues that Tesla seems (to some of us) to ignore, claiming its interest in providing cutting-edge technology supersedes such mundane concerns. Regulators may not see things quite the same way.

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Smooth

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Published on October 11th, 2019 |

by Zachary Shahan

Smooth

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October 11th, 2019 by Zachary Shahan

Since I got the Tesla Model 3 a month and a half ago, I’ve been trying to figure out a one- or two-sentence summary of the car. It’s been tough. I’m plagued by a few issues. For one, I’m used to communicating with people who know a ton about Tesla (you), whereas people in the “real world” are often not such people. It’s hard to know where to start. Secondly, I had a Model S for a while and I think my brain tries too hard to come up with something new and different for the Model 3 since it’s a different car. I think my typical response about how I liked the Model S was, “It’s awesome!” This second matter actually just came to mind as I started writing this, so maybe that will remove the mental block and I’ll start responding in that way again for the Model 3. It is hard to find a better word than “awesome” to describe the car.

A third issue is that I often just want to say it’s the best car you can imagine, the best car ever. However, “best” is not really a descriptor, it’s a ranking. Additionally, it’s a little ridiculous to make that claim and then not explain why it’s the best, but to explain why it’s the best would entail covering a bunch of different topics. Generally speaking, in these situations, I don’t think the other person really wants to hear a long monologue about a product they know nothing about. Being a totally crazed fanboy talking a million miles an hour is not a good look.

So, with “it’s the best,” I either make a wild claim that is so exuberant that it probably makes people nervous, or I start rambling and ranting for 5 minutes in a way that turns off the listener even more. Not the best options.

Internally, one way I’ve thought about the car is that it’s the most complete car out there. It just feels right because it’s so complete, is put together so thoughtfully and perfectly, is such an overall good package. That said, “complete” is another vague, useless term for someone who doesn’t really know from personal experience what I’m talking about. Yes, I think other Model 3 owners know what I’m trying to say when I say it’s the “most complete car” out there. Strangers on the street? Not so much.

Somehow, in recent days, one word finally popped into my head for how to describe the car — smooth. It drives so extremely smoothly. The user interface on the touchscreen is so brilliantly smooth. Autopilot is now a smoother driver than me. The exterior and interior design of the car is the definition of smooth. The car is a beautiful wonder. The app: smooth. The navigation: smooth. The air conditioning vents: smooth. It’s all smooth. The whole car is smooth.

That said, I’m sure some of you have already thought of this — if someone asks me how I like the car and I say, “Great! It’s so smooth,” they’re going to look at me like I’m a crazy person and probably walk swiftly in the opposite direction. Again, it’s a nice word for describing the car to people who have it or know it well, but it’s a horrid explanation for someone with little to no experience with a Tesla.

My conclusion is two-fold. First, I think it’d be appropriate to say, “It’s awesome! It’s so smooth, such a complete car — like nothing else out there.” Afterward, I can then ask them, “What do you care most about? What’s important for you in a car?” Depending on what they say, it’s very easily to highlight the car’s many benefits. You can talk about its record safety score, its wicked acceleration, its traction control and superb handling, its unmatched infotainment, its home charging and Supercharging capabilities, or other goodies. Inviting the listener to set the frame for the discussion is a good way to make sure your answer interests them, and you know the Model 3 is going to soundly defeat anything else in its price class.

Perhaps awesome is going to be the best way to talk about the car to a newbie asking me about it. However, for talking to myself in my head (it happens), the words that really capture the car best are now smooth and complete. These words represent the car in a useful way. They communicate the car and “life with the car” better than all of the other efforts to put the Model 3 into simple descriptive words.

Have another descriptor you love? Want to chime in about this whole smooth thing. We’ll see what happens as more features roll out.

If you’d like to buy a Tesla Model 3 and want 1,000 miles of free Supercharging, feel free to use my referral code: https://ts.la/zachary63404 — or use someone else’s if you have a friend or family member with a Tesla. I won’t cry.

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Tesla Gigafactory China: Mud, “Basically An Open Field,” Not Gonna Happen — Skeptical Claims Revisited

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Published on October 3rd, 2019 |

by Zachary Shahan

Tesla Gigafactory China: Mud, “Basically An Open Field,” Not Gonna Happen — Skeptical Claims Revisited

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October 3rd, 2019 by Zachary Shahan

We reported yesterday that Tesla was ending Model 3 Standard Range shipments from the US to China because it was starting to produce the base Model 3 trim in its new (and still under construction) Shanghai gigafactory, “Gigafactory 3.” It may surprise even Tesla optimists that the company was able to go from no construction at all to Model 3 production in such a rapid time, but it surely surprises Tesla skeptics the most. In fact, in light of the milestone, I thought I’d remind people of a handful of claims about Gigafactory 3 from just earlier in the year, a couple of quarters ago. Most of these were published within one month of Elon Musk joining a little ceremony for the Gigafactory 3 groundbreaking on January 7th, but note that skepticism about the factory has been common throughout the year.

In a January 7th article titled “Elon Musk Sees a Future in China for Tesla, and It’s Muddy,” the Bloomberg writer doesn’t say the plan is impossible or unrealistic, but he comes close, while writing about Elon Musk in an unflattering fashion throughout the article. If, at the end of the article, you got the impression that one should be skeptical of Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 plans and the future of Tesla, you would digested exactly the narrative he was pushing.

On January 14th, Forbes published an article titled “Not So Fast: Can Elon Musk Really Open Tesla’s China Gigafactory This Year?” The article, exuding an air of authoritative skepticism, started off like this: “Elon Musk rarely shies away from setting bold targets for Tesla, despite a mixed record for achieving them when promised. So it was in character when he announced the electric-car company’s first Chinese Gigafactory could be operational in about 11 months.

“‘We’re looking forward to hopefully having some initial production of the Model 3 towards the end of this year and achieving volume production next year,’ Musk said at the Shanghai groundbreaking January 7.

“He may be disappointed.

“There’s no precedent for building a large, modern auto-assembly plant and starting its production in under a year, manufacturing experts say. In fact, even Tesla’s official goal of ramping up to 3,000 Model 3 electric sedans per week at some point in 2020 won’t be easy.

“‘Unless he’s mastered some approach that I’m not aware of to do everything in a more effective and efficient way, that lead time to build is going to be really challenging,’ said Laurie Harbour, CEO of manufacturing consultant Harbour Results Inc. in Southfield, Michigan. ‘It definitely seems completely optimistic.'”

Optimistic? Or realistic?

After claiming that Tesla was not known for meetings its production goals (note that Tesla is on track to nail Elon Musk’s 2014 forecast for 2020 production and delivery goals), Business Insider writer and frequent Tesla critic Linette Lopez expressed great skepticism about Elon Musk’s plan to have Tesla producing the Model 3 at its Shanghai gigafactory by the end of 2019. “So far, the China plant is, um, basically an open field with some digging going on,” she said. “It’s harder and harder to believe that there will be Model 3s coming out of the Tesla China gigafactory by the end of the year.”

A February 8th article on GuruFocus by the president of Almington Capital — Merchant Bankers, short Tesla [TSLA] at the time, was titled “Tesla’s Shanghai Plans Don’t Add Up.” The article contained paragraphs like these: “Tesla has been talking about China for a number of years, but not much material came of all that talk. Then, in October, the company announced it had leased a plot of land in Shanghai’s Lingang area. The swampy land had found little interest among potential domestic anchor developers, which goes some way to explaining the slightly below-market $140 million price Tesla agreed to pay. …

“When Musk broke ground at Gigafactory 3, the plot was still nothing but a field with a temporary wall erected around it (and a worryingly muddy field at that). Tesla had claimed to be ramping up construction efforts even before the official groundbreaking, but there was little sign of construction activity, despite the convenient presence of heavy construction machinery at the event.

“Since then, updates have been somewhat scant. Some intrepid observers, however, have provided independent status reports via aerial drones. The most recent video footage of the site was recorded and released on Feb. 5. It shows little in the way of progress. There appears to be some poured concrete, yet there is virtually no visible work activity or sign of life around the place. That is certainly inconsistent with Tesla’s own extremely aggressive timetable.”

To be fair, there’s still mud on the site. But I think you get the point.

Is Elon Musk a magic maker? Or are people just too skeptical? Or have they simply been pushing an agenda, for one biased reason or another, that we can now see was completely disconnected from Tesla’s future in the physical world?

If you’d like to buy a Tesla — whether you believe it exists or is simply elaborate vaporware — and also get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging, feel free to use my referral code: https://ts.la/zachary63404.

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China Tesla Demand Is Spiking

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Published on October 3rd, 2019 |

by Guest Contributor

China Tesla Demand Is Spiking

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October 3rd, 2019 by Guest Contributor

Originally posted on X Auto and EVANNEX.
By Iqtidar Ali

Tesla Model 3 and Model X demand are skyrocketing in China, especially since the Chinese government gave a 10% car purchase tax exemption to Tesla last month — a sign of aggressive electric vehicle policy implementation by China.

A large number of Tesla Model 3, Model S, and Model X vehicles outside the Beijing Department of Motor Vehicles (Source: Jay In Shanghai)

There are several reports coming out of Beijing and Shanghai about massive amounts of deliveries happening via Chinese Tesla stores. As evidenced in the featured image above, Teslas have flooded Beijing’s Department of Motor Vehicles in order to obtain license plates. In addition, below is a short video from outside the Beijing DMV that shows a long line of Model 3s at the facility.

Meanwhile, Chao Zhou is consistently updating the Tesla community about Gigafactory 3 developments by reporting directly from the ground. Chao recently visited the Tesla Shanghai Jinqiao Store and the number of Model 3 sales he saw at the location was nothing short of astonishing.

According to Chao’s meeting with Tesla staff at the Jinqiao Store, a surge in Model 3 orders occurred post-tax exemption. Crunching the numbers, the Jinqiao Tesla Store alone is expected to accumulate 3,000 orders by the end of this month.

It’s quite conceivable that Tesla China will deliver these cars by the end of October, which should bolster Tesla’s Q4 delivery report.

In addition, large numbers of Model X vehicles also await delivery — proof of the popularity of Tesla’s SUV in China. It turns out even Elon Musk used a Model X convoy on his Shanghai visit recently.

China’s 10% tax exemption drops the purchase price of the Tesla’s electric cars by up to 99,000 yuan ($13,960), according to Reuters. Needless to say, this big discount is attracting a lot of attention from Chinese auto buyers searching for a reliable, premium electric car.

The Tesla China website states that the maximum tax break obtainable on a Model 3 is ¥52,000 ($7,345). This tax break can be realized on Model 3’s highest priced variant. For more details, Tesla’s website has a tax incentive info page covering the policy details of every Chinese region.

And it’s not just new Teslas in high demand. According to Quartz, “Nobody wants a used electric vehicle in China, unless it’s a Tesla.” It’s reported that, “A Tesla’s residual value—basically the future value of a car after a certain amount of use—at one year is more than 70% of its original price, far higher than the value of any Chinese EV model at the same mark.”

Tesla’s traction in China (YouTube: CNA)

Meanwhile, Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 buildout remains in “ludicrous” mode. The company’s Model 3 assembly lines are already in place and other parts of the huge complex are nearing completion.

According to Reuters, “Tesla Inc’s China factory aims to start production this month.” Furthermore, CleanTechnica reports, “Tesla will cut off orders of the Model 3 Standard Range after October 13th in anticipation of the start of production at Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai, China.”

To that end, in the coming months, Tesla China customers will be able to get their Model 3s delivered far quicker (in larger quantities) from Shanghai’s Gigafactory 3.

Featured image via Tesla

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Guest Contributor is many, many people. We publish a number of guest posts from experts in a large variety of fields. This is our contributor account for those special people. 😀

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I Invest In Tesla Because I Believe In Elon Musk

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Published on October 5th, 2019 |

by Johnna Crider

I Invest In Tesla Because I Believe In Elon Musk

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October 5th, 2019 by Johnna Crider

Image: screenshot of Tesla stock summary from Google.com

I invest in Tesla because I believe in Elon Musk, and what he and Tesla are doing for our world. There’s more, though. I am writing this because I want to address something I’ve seen in my Twitter feed all too often.

First of all, I am not a stockbroker and am I not giving stock buying advice. I’m just sharing my story, what I’ve seen and how and why I am investing. I am a small shareholder of Tesla, meaning that I don’t own that many shares. However, I have become friends through Twitter with people who own much more stock in Tesla.

The waves that Tesla is making will eventually become tsunamis of change. This change is what people are afraid of. This is why, in my opinion, the stock is moving as if caught in the winds of a hurricane.

Tesla is a volatile stock. When a company is out there making really big waves, those waves have to go somewhere. Sometimes they splash back onto the source making those waves. In this case, Tesla is making waves in the market by affecting major industries — oil, autos, and energy. This means that the stock will be like that of riding the Blue Hawk at Six Flags. It’s going to be intense, and watching the price movements on a day-to-day basis could be insanely stressful for those who have invested everything they have into Tesla, or at least a lot of money.

A year ago, I’d just barely begun to learn about the stock end of Tesla. I didn’t know about the symbols, didn’t really understand what shorting a stock meant, and, honestly, I thought Elon was just being weird when he talked about burning shorts. Why burn shorts? Just donate them to a shelter or thrift store. That was what was going through my head.

As a student of life, as my mentor always said we all are, we are always on a learning path. A master or teacher of a topic is just someone who is a bit further ahead of you on whatever path of knowledge you are own. In this case, who actually knows where Tesla and TSLA are headed?

Last year, I went through a dramatic life change that took me by surprise, leaving me adrift and emotionally devastated. When Elon took the time to be kind to me — a stranger who he didn’t have to do that for — it just fueled my belief in him. From my own perspective, Elon Musk isn’t just a role model who is trying to make a difference, he is someone who is making a difference despite those gigantic waves coming back on to him. My thought was, how can I, someone who just started a minimum wage job, help someone like Elon Musk?

That’s when I discovered investing. I started with apps like Stockpile, but the fees were too much. So I saved up the money and used the Robinhood app to make my first purchase of Tesla in November of last year. It was a late birthday present to myself, but also my way of giving back to not just Elon Musk, but to a community of supporters who love Tesla, SpaceX, and Elon Musk. This is a community that offered me friendship and knowledge, and kept me grounded. By purchasing the stock, to me, I am taking part in helping Tesla reach its goals of advancing us to a sustainable future. I did it because I wanted to support something larger than myself.

Investing Isn’t For Everyone, And Here’s Why
What I want to address is the panic over the stock price’s movements. If you are worried that you are going to lose money, then straight up, you should not invest. In fact, if you don’t have a steady income and are struggling to meet your basic needs, you should not invest. If you want to do something to make a difference, you should build yourself up first. Society has taught some of us to put ourselves last, whether it’s taking care of loved ones or working nonstop because your job needs you when in actuality you are replaceable and they will replace you after you’ve worked yourself to death.

To build yourself up, you need to find something you love doing and make money doing it. I do with jewelry. My jewelry sales revenue is what I used to invest in Tesla. I make sure I have enough to buy more wire, gems and minerals, findings, and whatever else I need first. Then I divide what’s left into two parts. One part is a gift to myself — because I believe in rewarding myself for my own hard work. The other part is for buying Tesla stock.

If you are in a situation where you are barely making ends meet, you need to build yourself up. How can we take care of others before we take care of ourselves?

To The Naysayers & Worriers, I Say This
Image: screenshot from Robinhood app

I’ve often seen messages from TSLA short sellers saying, “Thank you for your money,” or other tweets that jeer at me for investing in Tesla. I have a lesson for you. Money comes and goes. Sales come and go. I used to get so sad when I would miss a discount on beads at some of my vendors. Then, over time, I realized that they always have these sales. It’s the same thing with the stock. The price falls and rises so much that, really, it’s not a loss to me.

Money is like energy. Energy changes shape and form. In fact, money to many equals security. If I have all of my needs met, then am I really losing anything by investing extra into something I believe in? No. I’m not. I remember one time I lost $20. I was devastated that day. Then a week later I found $100 on the ground. The lesson: money comes and goes constantly.

For those who think the stock has nothing to do with actually helping Tesla, I think you’re wrong. True, I am still learning, but the continuous fluctuation of the stock keeps Tesla in the news — and for a company that doesn’t buy advertising, this is a good thing. The constant negative headlines attacking Tesla create more opportunities for owners and shareholders to start conversations that will lead to the truth. I invest in Tesla because I believe in Elon Musk and the Tesla mission.

About the Author

Johnna Crider Johnna Crider is a Baton Rouge artist, gem and mineral collector, and Tesla shareholder who believes in Elon Musk and Tesla. Elon Musk advised her in 2018 to “Believe in Good.”

Tesla is one of many good things to believe in. You can find Johnna on Twitter

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