Tag: Tesla

Volvo may not sell its Tesla rival electric car in the US over tariffs

Wang Zhao | AFP | Getty Images
A man uses his mobile phone to take a picture of a Polestar 1 car at the Beijing auto show on April 26, 2018. –

Volvo Cars may not sell its high-performance Polestar electric vehicles in the U.S. if Washington slaps tariffs on imports from China, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.

The automaker recently revealed its Polestar 2, which executives said is priced competitively with Tesla's Model 3 sedan.

But Volvo is owned by Chinese auto company Geely, and the group has so far intended to make the cars at a factory in China. It expects to sell more than 50,000 Polestar vehicles.

A lot of those cars won't make it to the United States if tariffs on Chinese imports are too high, Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath told the FT.

The Polestar 2 is one of several vehicles automakers are hoping will draw customers from Tesla.

Competition is expected to heat up around the 2021 model year, said CFRA analyst Garrett Nelson. Competitors are already on the market at a midrange price that's competitive with the Model 3 and higher prices where Tesla's more premium Model S and Model X vehicles sit.

The global automotive industry has found itself caught up in President Donald Trump's trade war with China, leading many automakers to re-evaluate where they build and sell their products.

Read the full story from the Financial Times.

Tesla issues $13.8 million in stock to buy trailers to take cars from factory floor to customers

Andrei Stanescu | Getty Images
Car transporter carries Tesla Model 3 vehicles along the highway.

Tesla issued $13.8 million in stock to pay for trucks and trailers to transport its electric vehicles from the factory floor to customers, according to a new securities filing.

Instead of cash, the electric car maker used 49,967 shares at a maximum price of $277.05 a share as of Feb. 12 to buy the trailers from Central Valley Auto Transport, a California company that specializes in car carriers, Tesla said Monday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Central Valley Auto Transport hung up the phone during two attempts by CNBC to get comment. An email to the CEO wasn't immediately returned outside of normal business hours. Tesla declined to comment on the filing.

Tesla finally launched its standard Model 3 starting at $35,000 — Here's what it means for investors
12:21 PM ET Fri, 1 March 2019 | 02:03

Tesla said in its fourth-quarter shareholder letter that it is “continuing to purchase our own car-hauling truck capacity for vehicle shipments.”

Getting its cars from the factory to customers has been a challenge for Tesla in the past. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in September that the company had moved on from its troubles producing the Model 3 midsize sedan to “delivery logistics hell,” but that the problem was “far more tractable.”

Tesla shares were about flat Monday morning. The company's market value is approximately $50 billion.

Tesla to raise prices worldwide

Tesla is increasing prices of its electric cars after scaling back a store closure programme. The carmaker said the 3% price rise would not apply to the new mid-market Model 3. Earlier this month Tesla said it would close an unspecified number of stores to fund a cut in the price of the Model 3… Continue reading Tesla to raise prices worldwide

Elon Musk says Tesla will raise prices and slow down store closures

Mike Blake | Reuters
Elon Musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk told employees in an e-mail late Sunday night that the electric car maker would shift its sales plans yet again — raising prices by about 3 percent on most of its cars and keeping more stores open than it had previously planned.

In addition to the e-mail to all employees, Tesla also published a blog post Sunday night, conveying these details to shareholders and the general public.

Tesla caused controversy in recent weeks announcing it would shut its stores and shift worldwide sales to online only. The move was presented as a full embrace of e-commerce, and a cost-cutting measure that would enable Tesla to sell the base version of its electric sedan, the Model 3, at the long-awaited price of $35,000 finally.

Many Tesla sales employees were left wondering whether their stores — and jobs — would be among those immediately cut.

The internal e-mail Musk sent on Sunday may help calm those who remained at Tesla after lay-offs in January, and ongoing job cuts after that.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for further information, including which specific stores would be reopening.

Here's the memo in its entirety.

From: Elon Musk
To: Everybody
March 10, 2019
We are making an adjustment to our plans and will, at least for the next several months, retain more stores than previously announced. For the most part, the roughly 10% of Tesla sales locations we closed recently don't pass the Sherlock Holmes test. Meaning, most of these stores are in such difficult or obscure locations, only Sherlock Holmes could find them! Even if selling through stores were our only means of sales, we would still have closed them down. A few stores in high visibility locations that were closed due to low apparent demand generation will be reopened, but with a smaller Tesla crew.
There are another 20% of locations that are under review. Depending on their effectiveness over the next few months, some will be closed and some will remain open.
As a result of keeping significantly more stores open, Tesla will need to raise vehicle prices by about 3% or so on average worldwide. All things considered, this seems like a reasonable compromise between current and future customers. We will only close about half as many stores, but the cost savings are therefore only about half.
Potential Tesla owners will have a week to place their orders before prices rise, so current prices are valid until March 18th. Note, there will be no price increase to the $35,000 Model 3. The price increases will only apply to the more expensive variants of Model 3, as well as Model S and X.
To be clear, all sales worldwide will still be done online, in that potential Tesla owners coming in to stores will simply be shown how to order a Tesla on their phone in a few minutes. And the generous return policy of 1000 miles or 7 days, whichever comes first, should alleviate the need for most test drives at stores at the potential Tesla owner's request. Stores will also carry a small number of cars in inventory for customers who wish to drive away with a Tesla immediately.
Thanks,
Elon

Tesla extends delivery times for base Model 3 by one month

Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images If you thought sales for the fabled $35,000 Model 3 would quickly lead to a backlog… well, you guessed correctly. Tesla has extended US delivery times for the base EV by a full month, with new orders arriving in six to eight weeks instead of the original two to four. You’ll have… Continue reading Tesla extends delivery times for base Model 3 by one month

Tesla Drops 1st Real Image Of The Model Y As Event Invites Go Out

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Autonomous Vehicles Published on March 9th, 2019 | by Kyle Field
Tesla Drops 1st Real Image Of The Model Y As Event Invites Go OutTwitterLinkedInFacebookMarch 9th, 2019 by Kyle Field

Tesla casually dropped a new teaser image into the invites for the Tesla Model Y reveal event that went out last night, several hours and thousands of email refreshes after CEO Elon Musk tweeted to confirm that invites would be sent out that day. The reveal event is set for March 14th at 8pm at the Tesla Design Studio in Hawthorne, California, which is also where Tesla revealed the Model 3 nearly 3 years ago (click that link for completely exclusive video footage of the test track on that night).
The new image gives us the first look at the actual exterior of the car (sort of) and shows off similar headlight accent lights to those used in the Model 3. It also previews the higher ride height of the Model Y compared to the Model 3, while still maintaining the wide, stable posture of a Tesla.
We expect the Model Y to follow in the same footsteps as the Model X did compared to the Model S, in this case building a higher SUV body on top of the existing Model 3 platform. However, this product addition will come without all the one-off, headache-inducing innovations Tesla crammed into the X (like the falcon-wing doors). In fact, we know those are definitely out of scope for the Model Y, which will instead have normal doors — presumably, doors just like the Model 3 but a bit taller. For example, look for the manual door handles from the Model 3 to make another appearance as lower cost, functional alternatives to the electrified versions used on the S and X. (To chat all about these possibilities, jump over to our brand new Tesla Model Y Club forum.)
Elon has previously said that the Model Y will have 76% of parts in common with the Model 3. The new Model Y teaser image gives us the first real insight into where the sharing might come from. Actually, at ~76%, the question is what is not shared. Being taller, the doors will be taller and a different shape, but otherwise, the burning question is what Tesla will need to change for the body type and perhaps as an improvement over the current Model 3.

The rEVolutionary event will be televised (er, livestreamed) on Tesla’s newly minted Model Y page. There has been no mention of the reservation process for the Model Y to date, but there are expectations that will go live for $1,000 per reservation just before the event as hundreds of thousands of customers look to get their own next-generation electric crossover. That said, CleanTechnica Director Zach Shahan asked Elon Musk in the middle of last year if the reservation process would be the same as with the Model 3 and Elon indicated they hadn’t thought much about it yet and weren’t sure.
As a CUV, the expectation is that the Model Y will be in higher demand than the Model 3. Add onto that the increased awareness of Tesla’s brand thanks to the success of the Model 3 and Tesla could have another powerful storm on its hands as hundreds of thousands (or even millions?) of reservations flood the Tesla website. We should find out soon.
If you want to jump into wild speculation about what we’ll find out in 5 days, here’s a reminder that we have a brand new Tesla Model Y Club forum online, and it uses the new Model Y teaser image now as well. 😀
Update: Here’s a nice little photo shop from a reader putting the Model 3 nose on the Model Y teaser image:
Update: Marques Brownlee found that playing with the dark image Tesla sent revealed a license plate on the teaser image that reads “NICE TRY.” Classic Tesla Easter Egg on a trick they knew people would pursue in the quest to learn as much as possible about Tesla’s latest automotive creation.

About the AuthorKyle Field I'm a tech geek passionately in search of actionable ways to reduce the negative impact my life has on the planet, save money and reduce stress. Live intentionally, make conscious decisions, love more, act responsibly, play. The more you know, the less you need. TSLA investor.

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Nissan Leaf crosses 400,000 cumulative global sales

2019 Nissan Leaf
With Tesla looming in its rearview mirrors, the little Nissan Leaf is chuffing ahead in the global electric-car sales race.

The company that built the original modern electric car announced on Tuesday that it sold its 400,000th copy of the Leaf worldwide, just as the longer-range Leaf Plus version goes on sale to spar with Tesla's new Short Range Model 3. (The Leaf Plus is rated at 226 miles of range from its 62-kwh battery.)

MUST READ: Tesla Model 3 owns the EV market, outsells all other plug-ins combined in the fourth quarter race

Over its now seven-year lifespan, the Model S has sold more than 260,000 globally. (The Model X doesn't come close, at a little less than 90,000 sales since 2015.)

Although the Tesla Model 3 sells almost twice as many cars per month as the Leaf globally, it may take a long time for it to catch up with the Leaf's six-year head start.

Bloomberg estimates that Tesla has sold 215,000 Model 3s so far.

CHECK OUT: Was 2018 the peak for internal-combustion car sales?

It's a different story in the U.S., where Nissan sells only a small fraction of the number of Model 3s that Tesla sells every month. In the U.S., Tesla sold 77,000 Model 3s to the Leaf's 19,455. Even with the Leaf's head start, going on sale in 2011, Tesla sold more model 3s last year than the 129,000 plus Leafs that Nissan has sold in the U.S. since the car went on sale.

Regardless of who's winning the sales race, it's worth celebrating that so many people are buying efficient electric cars in a few short years.

Tesla secures up to $521m loan from Chinese lenders for its vehicle factory

March 8, 2019 Tesla Inc. secured as much as $521 million in loans from Chinese banks to build a vehicle and battery factory in the country, putting the carmaker a step closer to producing Model 3 sedans at its first overseas plant. The loans from China Construction Bank Corp., Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., Industrial… Continue reading Tesla secures up to $521m loan from Chinese lenders for its vehicle factory

German regulators tell Tesla to drop ‘gas savings’ from pricing

Tesla will stop factoring estimated fuel savings into the price of its cars in Germany, according to Reuters. The German Centre for Protection against Unfair Competition said Wednesday that Tesla agreed to be more straightforward with pricing on its website by March 20th. The order pages of Tesla’s website currently feature multiple prices for each… Continue reading German regulators tell Tesla to drop ‘gas savings’ from pricing