OEMs – Page 4804 – I wish I had more to offer

Porsche Consulting: Higher Sales and More Hires

The globally active management consultancy Porsche Consulting posted new record sales of 173 million euros for the 2018 business year—up from 139 million euros in 2017 (+24.5%). Founded 25 years ago, the company currently employs 580 people. It expects to continue its growth trajectory in 2019 and hire 120 employees by the end of the… Continue reading Porsche Consulting: Higher Sales and More Hires

Innovative water treatment at Audi saves up to 500,000 cubic meters of fresh water a year

Audi has reached another milestone on its way to wastewater-free automobile production. The company has put a new service-water supply center into operation at the Ingolstadt site. In conjunction with the existing treatment plant, about half of the wastewater produced at the site can now be recycled and treated for reuse. In this way, Audi… Continue reading Innovative water treatment at Audi saves up to 500,000 cubic meters of fresh water a year

Volkswagen forms European Battery Union with Northvolt

The Volkswagen Group and further European partners are joining forces to form the Euro-pean Battery Union (EBU) with a view to forging ahead with battery research throughout Europe. The new consortium is to be led by the Volkswagen Group and the Swedish battery producer Northvolt. The joint research activities of the European Battery Union will… Continue reading Volkswagen forms European Battery Union with Northvolt

Tesla Brings “S3XY” To Life With Model Y Launch

Invest
Electric Cars
Electric Car Benefits
Electric Car Sales
Solar Energy Rocks
RSS
Advertise
Privacy Policy

Cars

Published on March 16th, 2019 |

by Matt Pressman

Tesla Brings “S3XY” To Life With Model Y Launch

Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook

March 16th, 2019 by Matt Pressman

Originally posted on EVANNEX.
After so much anticipation, Elon Musk walked on stage at the LA Design Studio in Hawthorne, California, and introduced Tesla’s newest addition to its lineup, the Model Y. Fortunately, Model Y looks to share much commonality with Model 3, which could translate to a production ramp that moves more rapidly than prior new cars introduced by Tesla.

Musk, Model Y, and hmmm … could Elon be teasing a custom “Tesla x Nike” sneaker collaboration coming soon? (Twitter: LikeTesla)

So, what did we learn last night? According to The Verge, “The cheaper, standard range version with a range of 230 miles won’t be available until 2021, Musk said, and will sell for $39,000 … [whereas] the long-range version will travel 300 miles on single charge, and will sell for $47,000, while the $60,000 performance version will be capable of sprinting from 0 to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds.” Higher spec versions of the Model Y are slated for deliveries in the fall of 2020.

A 3-minute recap of the Model Y launch event (Source: The Verge)

“It has the functionality of an SUV, but it will ride like a sports car,” Musk said. “So this thing will be really tight on corners.” And Musk added, “This will be the safest mid-sized SUV by far.”

Model Y’s stunning all-glass roof (Twitter: Tesla)

The Verge reports, “The Model Y will have a panoramic sunroof and 66 cubic feet of cargo space. … Roomier than a Model 3 but not as imposing as a Model X, the Model Y can seat seven, as demonstrated during the event Thursday evening at Tesla’s design studio outside Los Angeles.”

Under the skin of Model Y (Source: Tesla)

Musk also said progress was being made on the company’s Autopilot functionality. In reference to Model Y’s ability to execute self-driving functionality, Musk notes, “The cool thing is, it’s ‘feature complete’ … it will be able to do basically anything just with software upgrades.”

A side view of the Tesla Model Y (Image: Tesla)

Can Tesla attract a new market segment with Model Y? Jessica Caldwell at Edmunds says, “Tesla has the right foundation for the Model Y to be a turning point: Tesla has the youngest buyer base of any luxury brand, and the Model X has more female buyers than any other vehicle in the brand’s lineup. If the Model Y is priced right, offers a roomy interior, and delivers flawless safety and quality, it has the potential to be the ‘it’ vehicle for young families.”

First Ride: Model Y

Note: CleanTechnica has much exclusive content from the Model Y reveal coming soon.

Related: Tesla Model Y Will Be World’s Safest Crossover & Quickest Affordable Crossover Or SUV

About the Author

Matt Pressman is all about Tesla. He’s a TSLA investor, pre-ordered the Model 3, and loves driving the family's Model S and Model X company cars. As co-founder of EVANNEX, a family business specializing in aftermarket Tesla accessories, he’s served as a contributor/editor of Electric Vehicle University (EVU) and the Owning Model S and Getting Ready for Model 3 books. He writes daily about Tesla and you can follow his work on the EVANNEX blog.

Advertise with CleanTechnica to get your company in front of millions of monthly readers.

CleanTechnica Clothing & Cups

Tesla Model 3 Pricing Guide Before Monday’s Price Increase

Invest
Electric Cars
Electric Car Benefits
Electric Car Sales
Solar Energy Rocks
RSS
Advertise
Privacy Policy

Autonomous Vehicles

Published on March 16th, 2019 |

by Guest Contributor

Tesla Model 3 Pricing Guide Before Monday’s Price Increase

Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook

March 16th, 2019 by Guest Contributor

Originally posted on EVANNEX.
By Blane Erwin of Current Automotive
Note: The prices shown here are valid until March 18th. Tesla has announced plans “to raise vehicle prices by about 3% on average worldwide. … [However,] there will be no price increase to the $35,000 Model 3. The price increases will only apply to the more expensive variants.” So if you’re in the market for a Model 3, this handy guide can help — but you’ve only got a day or so left to take advantage of these lower prices.

Source: Current Automotive

Tesla’s announcement of the long-awaited Standard Range and surprising Standard Range Plus Model 3 also came with the introduction of two new interior trim levels. Previously, all Model 3s came with the premium interior, featuring Tesla’s soft synthetic seat material, heated seats for all five occupants, and a 14-speaker premium sound system, plus other features. Without needing to choose an interior trim level, building your Model 3 was pretty easy: pick a battery size, pick the colors, decide if you want Enhanced Autopilot.

With the addition of the Standard Range Model 3, there are now three interior trim levels, six battery and performance levels, five exterior colors, two interior colors, and two wheel styles to choose from. Popular features aren’t available on all interior trims, and it’s easy to increase the price of a Standard Range Model 3 to well over $40,000.

To make it easier, we’ll break down what features come with each interior trim, then show what interior is available with each performance level of the car.

Source: Current Automotive

The standard interior Model 3 comes with Tesla’s minimalistic interior style, but not much else. We have yet to see and feel the cloth seats of the standard trim, so we can’t comment on the quality of the materials used.

For just $2,000 more, the partial premium interior will probably entice a lot of buyers. Tesla adds its soft synthetic leather material and front heated seats, which are 12-way power adjustable, to that option.

Meanwhile, the premium interior has an exclusive hold on Tesla’s satellite maps and a navigation system that uses live traffic data, along with its 14-speaker audio system, in-car Internet media streaming, heated rear seats, and several other features.

Model 3 buyers don’t get to mix & match interiors with battery sizes though – each battery size is matched with a specific interior trim. If you want the premium interior, you have no choice but to drop at least an extra $5,000 for the Mid Range battery.

Take a look at the table below that shows what interior trim is available with each battery size, and the performance available at each level. [Reminder: prices shown below, excluding the base model, are scheduled to rise approximately 3% on Monday.]

Source: Current Automotive

Finally, there are five different options to choose from. Those include paint colors, wheel styles, interior colors, Autopilot, and Full Self Driving. The latter two can be added to any of the vehicles.

Here, it’s possible to add up to $13,000 in options to a Model 3. When you factor in Tesla’s $1,200 destination fee, it’s possible to turn the $37,000 Model 3 Standard Plus into a vehicle that costs $51,200 before taxes.

With the price cut for new Model 3s, it will be tempting for many to cross-shop used with new cars. When looking at the value of a used Model 3, one must keep options like interior trim and Autopilot in mind – Tesla’s changes to the Autopilot features means older vehicles may offer a better value depending on the exact features that are important to you.

Source: Current Automotive; Editor’s Note: Current Automotive is the first-ever U.S. car retailer focused exclusively on used electric cars launched by two former Tesla employees.

About the Author

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. 😀

Advertise with CleanTechnica to get your company in front of millions of monthly readers.

CleanTechnica Clothing & Cups

Mitsubishi COO was set for new alliance post, then Ghosn happened – Automotive News Europe

Mann is one of several high-level executives leaving in the wake of Ghosn’s removal as chairman of Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi. Also out is Vincent Cobee, 50, who joined Mitsubishi from Nissan as corporate vice president in charge of product strategy. Arun Bajaj, 48, global head of human relations for the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, left March 11.… Continue reading Mitsubishi COO was set for new alliance post, then Ghosn happened – Automotive News Europe

Ford F-150 Is Best Performing Pickup Truck in IIHS Passenger-Side Safety Testing; Earns All Good Ratings

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety rates the 2019 Ford F-150 as the only truck to earn the top-tier good rating in every category, and the best performing truck among 11 pickups evaluated in passenger-side small overlap front crash testing Top crash test performance of 2019 Ford F-150 – including best possible rating in passenger-side small… Continue reading Ford F-150 Is Best Performing Pickup Truck in IIHS Passenger-Side Safety Testing; Earns All Good Ratings

Audi Sales, Mercedes Sales, Toyota Sales, Infiniti Sales, Acura Car Sales, BMW Car Sales, Honda Car Sales, & Lexus Car Sales Down In February In USA

Invest
Electric Cars
Electric Car Benefits
Electric Car Sales
Solar Energy Rocks
RSS
Advertise
Privacy Policy

Cars

Published on March 19th, 2019 |

by Zachary Shahan

Audi Sales, Mercedes Sales, Toyota Sales, Infiniti Sales, Acura Car Sales, BMW Car Sales, Honda Car Sales, & Lexus Car Sales Down In February In USA

Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook

March 19th, 2019 by Zachary Shahan

Here on CleanTechnica, we keep a close eye on electric vehicle news and sales. However, it’s important to watch competing areas of the market to get a sense of the full dynamic. As part of that, I track the monthly US sales of all the automakers that publish monthly figures. The story lately has been a downtrend in sales at major automakers other than Tesla, and especially those automakers’ car sales.

In the month of February, the following luxury auto companies and car divisions had the following sales drops:

Acura Cars: −12%
Audi: −12%
Audi Cars: −12%
BMW Cars: −12%
Infiniti: −17%
Infiniti Cars: −46%
Lexus Cars: −2%
Mercedes-Benz: −13%
Mercedes-Benz Cars: −4%
Volvo Cars: −77%

On the flip side, these luxury auto companies had the following sales increases:

Acura: 11%
Jaguar Land Rover: 29%
Lexus: 4%
Volvo: 6%

Overall, luxury auto sales from all of those companies were down 2,099 in February and car sales from those companies were down 10,775. No car division saw increased sales.

A few luxury brands are missing here — Buick, Cadillac, Lincoln, and Tesla — because they only report sales on a quarterly basis, and Jaguar doesn’t break out sales by model or class, so its car sales are estimated.

Regarding Tesla, our estimate is that Tesla Model 3 sales were somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 in the United States in February, which would close the gap in 2019 versus 2018 premium-class auto sales, but wouldn’t quite close the gap in premium-class car sales. As has been written many times across the auto world, consumers have been moving from cars to SUVs & crossovers, so that is surely part of the story here as well.

However, as we’ve noted many times in many ways, the Tesla Model 3 actually competes with mass-market cars like the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry in terms of 5 or 6 year total cost of ownership, while being a much better forming, better driving, safer, higher tech car. So, I’ve also been curiously looking at mass-market brands. The following are the mass-market auto companies and car divisions that saw their sales drop in February 2019 versus February 2018 (and by how much):

Honda: −1.6%
Honda Cars: −5.5%
Toyota: −6.3%
Toyota Cars: −10.6%
Nissan: −11.4%
Nissan Cars: −9.4%
Kia Cars: −2.6%
Hyundai Cars: −22.3%

Hmm, among the Big 3*, sales are crap.

(*Let’s be honest — Toyota, Honda, and Nissan are the Big 3 in the US if you’re not talking pickup trucks.)

On the flip side, other than Tesla, the following two major automakers saw their February 2019 sales rise compared to February 2018 (despite their car sales dropping):

Kia: 6.4%
Hyundai: 2%

Those two sister companies had ~3,600 more sales, combined, compared to February 2018. Nissan sales were down more than 13,000, Honda sales were down almost 2,000, and Toyota sales were down more than 9,000.

So, what does all this mean in relation to electric vehicle sales, and more specifically Tesla sales?

Who really knows? But if Tesla’s going to deliver another 40,000 or so cars in the United States this quarter, there’s a solid chance Tesla is continuing to take sales away from these other automakers. Furthermore, based on owner satisfaction surveys from Consumer Reports and others, it’s unlikely those Tesla buyers are going to go back to those older brands. And with the Tesla Model Y coming to market in a couple of years, Model 3 owners may well abandon those other automakers completely as they convert their gasoline crossovers and SUVs to Teslas.

There’s a lot of hype among certain people who want to see Tesla fail that Tesla’s days are numbered, that it’s all a house of cards that’s about to fall down. I don’t buy that narrative, but I wonder sometimes how much the other automakers are under that exact threat.

Remember that it wasn’t a 100% collapse in auto sales that caused GM and Chrysler to go bankrupt approximately a decade ago. Overall, US auto sales dropped 11.7% from 2007 to 2008.

Scroll up again and look at those drops in US sales for numerous automakers.

Stepping back another month, in January, the following automakers saw sales down as follows:

Nissan: −20%
Toyota: −7%
Mercedes-Benz: −14%
Honda: −1.5%
BMW: −5%
Lexus: −3%
Infiniti: −3%
Audi: −2%

Nissan is already doing worse than the US auto industry as a whole in 2007–2008. Mercedes-Benz is also down worse than the auto industry as a whole in 2007–2008. Toyota is more than halfway there. Honda and BMW are holding on much better but are also down. Audi and Infiniti are down dramatically. Where will all of this lead?

Of course, I’m not implying that these companies will go bankrupt just based on huge drops in US auto sales. These automakers all have strong sales in other markets — China, Europe, and Japan, for example. Nonetheless, executives at the North America divisions must be sweating bullets. The problem is — how do you compete with Tesla?

About the Author

Zachary Shahan Zach is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species). He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. He's also the president of Important Media and the director/founder of EV Obsession and Solar Love. 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, and Canada.

Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG, & ABB — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in these particular companies and feels like they are good cleantech companies to invest in. But he offers no professional investment advice and would rather not be responsible for you losing money, so don't jump to conclusions.

Advertise with CleanTechnica to get your company in front of millions of monthly readers.

CleanTechnica Clothing & Cups

Ford Adds 2nd North American Site to Build Battery Electrics; Michigan Workers to Make Its First Autonomous Vehicles

Ford is investing approximately $900 million in its southeast Michigan manufacturing footprint and targeting 900 incremental direct new jobs through 2023 This includes the company’s plan to expand production capacity at Flat Rock (Mich.) Assembly Plant – including next-generation fully electric vehicles – targeting to invest more than $850 million through 2023 and adding a… Continue reading Ford Adds 2nd North American Site to Build Battery Electrics; Michigan Workers to Make Its First Autonomous Vehicles

Customer wishes – today, tomorrow, and thereafter

The Porsche Newsroom is a service provided by the Porsche Communication for journalists, bloggers and the online community. The official website of Porsche AG can be reached at www.porsche.com © 2019 Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG.*The data presented here was recorded using the Euro 5 test procedure (715/2007/EC, 692/2008/EC, 566/2011/EC and ECE-R 101) and the NEDC (New… Continue reading Customer wishes – today, tomorrow, and thereafter