Electrek - EV and Tesla N United States of America

VW CEO teases Tesla’s Elon Musk in Twitter debut - Electrek

VW CEO Herbert Diess is poking fun at his friendly rivalry with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in his Twitter debut as he tries to position Volkswagen as a leader in electrification. Tesla and Twitter Tesla CEO Elon Musk is an avid Twitter user and managed to build a fo…

VW CEO Herbert Diess is poking fun at his friendly rivalry with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in his Twitter debut as he tries to position Volkswagen as a leader in electrification. Tesla and Twitter Tesla CEO Elon Musk is an avid Twitter user and managed to build a following of over 42 million people on the platform. You could easily make the argument that Musk’s Twitter account has been an important asset to Tesla as one of the main ways for the automaker to propagate information about its products, services, and technology. Musk has also used the platform to help recruit people at Tesla and receive feedback from customers. We recently reported on Tesla looking to hire people to address complaints to Elon Musk on Twitter. On the other hand, the CEO also used the platform to spread false information about the Covid-19 pandemic. VW CEO Herbert Diess follows Musk’s lead to Twitter While they are technically competitors, Diess and Musk say that they have a friendly relationship. The two met late last year when Diess showed the VW ID.3 to Musk. Diess often publicly shared that he admires what Musk and Tesla did for the electrification of the industry, and since becoming CEO of Volkswagen in 2018, he tried to steer the German automaker to try to catch to Tesla’s lead in key aspects of electrification. Now, Diess is also going on Twitter, and in his first tweet, he decided to poke fun at his rivalry with Musk: Hello @Twitter! Im here to make an impact with @VWGroup, especially on political issues. And, of course, to get some of your market shares, @elonmusk after all, our ID.3 and e-tron have won the first markets in Europe. Looking forward to productive discussions! — Herbert Diess (@Herbert_Diess) January 20, 2021 While the comment is obviously tongue-in-cheek, it actually could help VW’s electrification effort if Diess can spread more information about VW’s electric vehicles to the strong electric vehicle community on Twitter. Diess is also trying to get some of Tesla’s stock market momentum to rub off on the Volkswagen group. Tesla is worth about 8 times Volkswagen’s $100 billion valuation despite the German automaker also heavily investing in electric vehicles and battery production. Are you going to follow Diess on Twitter? Let us know in the comment section below. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More. Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

Tesla updates Model 3 with new design accent and heated steering wheel - Electrek.co

Tesla has updated the Model 3 again with a new design accent recently introduced in the new Model Y in China and the long-awaited heated steering wheel. 2021 Tesla Model 3 Tesla officially launched the Model 3 2021 refresh with more range and new features in …

Tesla has updated the Model 3 again with a new design accent recently introduced in the new Model Y in China and the long-awaited heated steering wheel. 2021 Tesla Model 3 Tesla officially launched the Model 3 2021 refresh with more range and new features in October of 2020, but as we previously reported, the refresh is still sort of on-going. The automaker started introducing changes to the Model 3 produced in China first, like the chrome delete, and they added new features like double-paned windows, powered trunk, and a new center console. With the update, Tesla also introduced “under-the-hood” improvements, like a new heat pump and a new battery pack with higher capacity. Now Tesla is again updating the Model 3 made-in-China and like previous changes, we expect that it will soon come to the Model 3 produced in the US. Last week, we reported on Tesla updating the interior design of the Model Y electric SUV based on an update to the Model Y configurator in China as they are starting production at Gigafactory Shanghai. One change was a new wood panel inside the doors of the Model Y and now we see that the change has made it to the Model 3 too: Tesla has also added a heated steering wheel, which has been a long-awaited option, which we heard was coming with the 2021 Model 3 udpate. In the Chinese configurator, you can see the new option when choosing the premium interior, which is available for Model 3 Performance buyers: However, like it has been the case with previous Tesla options, we believe that the hardware is becoming standard and Tesla is likely to offer the heated steering wheel option as a software upgrade through its mobile app to buyers of the cheaper version of the vehicle. While these changes are currently only reflected in the Model 3 made-in-China, we expect Tesla to make those changes to the Model 3 vehicles produced in Fremont in the coming weeks months – making them accessible to North American customers. Stay tune for more information. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More. Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

Tesla (TSLA) gets stock price boost on strong delivery expectations - Electrek

Tesla’s stock price (TSLA) is pushing higher on people trying to figure out if it can hit its delivery target with only a few days left in the quarter. One analyst is raising the expectations. As we have been reporting over the last few weeks, Tesla aims to d…

Tesla’s stock price (TSLA) is pushing higher on people trying to figure out if it can hit its delivery target with only a few days left in the quarter. One analyst is raising the expectations. As we have been reporting over the last few weeks, Tesla aims to deliver a record number of vehicles this quarter to achieve 500,000 deliveries in 2020 a long-time goal for the automaker. In order to achieve the milestone, Tesla must deliver over 181,000 vehicles this quarter. Thats more than 40,000 vehicles over its last quarterly delivery record, which was just achieved last quarter. In a new note to clients on Wednesday, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said he sees Tesla delivering between 190,000 to 200,000 vehicles in Q4: “Based on our initial analysis of demand and the delivery trajectory globally for Tesla in 4Q, it appears Musk & Co. will likely handily exceed Street and internal expectations.” This is certainly raising expectations higher as many still have doubts about Tesla even achieving its goal of ~181,000 vehicles. Last weekend, we reported on an email Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent to employees in which he wrote that Tesla can still achieve the milestone of 500,000 cars in 2020, but they will need to go all out with only a few days left in the year. Looking into the next few years, Ives is positive on Tesla’s business in China: “We believe this demand dynamic will disproportionately benefit the clear EV category leader Tesla over the next few years especially in the key China region which we believe could represent ~40% of its EV deliveries by 2022 given the current brisk pace of sales.” The analyst believes that Tesla could go from 500,000 vehicles delivered in 2020 to 1 million global deliveries by 2022. Wedbush has a $715 price target on Tesla one of the highest on Wall Street. Tesla’s stock is trading 2% higher today at around $680 a share just shy of its all-time high of $695 per share. How many cars do you think Tesla will deliver in Q4 2020? Let us know in the comment section below. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More. Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

Elon Musk pushes Tesla to have more in-car gaming in preparation for self-driving future - Electrek.co

CEO Elon Musk is pushing Tesla to have more in-car games and entertainment, which he sees as 'critical' in a self-driving future.

CEO Elon Musk is pushing Tesla to have more in-car games and entertainment, which he sees as ‘critical’ in a self-driving future. Is he getting ahead of himself? Last weekend, Tesla started pushing a new software update that Musk had been hyping as ‘fire’ over the last few weeks. The update ended up consisting of a few changes to the user interfaces and the main new features were 3 new in-car video games and new ‘Boombox’ feature to play custom sounds through external speakers. Musk followed up the update with several comments regarding in-car video games and entertainment, which he sees as ‘critical’ when achieving autonomous driving: He said yesterday: “Entertainment will be critical when cars drive themselves.” The CEO announced that Tesla would be bringing an online multiplayer version of one of the games that they released in the recent update and asked his followers what Tesla should do with in-car gaming once achieving autonomous driving: What should Tesla do with in-car gaming in an autonomous world? — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 28, 2020 Currently, Tesla’s in-car video games are only playable when the vehicles are parked. Musk received many suggestions, including supporting cloud gaming platforms, like Stadia, but he also got roasted for focusing on this when autonomous driving is not solved. Tesla is currently missing Musk’s famous prediction to have “1 million robotaxis by the end of 2020.” The automaker’s interest in video games also go beyond Musk’s tweets. As we previously reported, Tesla has a team of software engineers working on video games in Seattle and they recently started building a similar team in Austin. Is he getting ahead of himself? Yes, I think he is. This feels like a distraction from the fact that Tesla is missing another important FSD timeline put forward by Elon. Right now, the focus should really be on solving autonomous driving and not finding what to do when we achieve that. No one is doubting Tesla’s ability to deliver in-car entertainment once vehicles are driving themselves. On the other hand, many people are doubting Tesla’s ability to deliver vehicles that truly can drive themselves without driver supervision. Right now, I want to hear more about that effort and not in-car gaming. Tesla was supposed to have a wider release of FSD beta this month and the update was also supposed to propagate to Canada. We have yet to see that happen and I’d like to see more transparency from Tesla and Elon on that front. Maybe they could share some data from the limited release FSD beta. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More. Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

Tesla offers one year of free Supercharging to incentivize deliveries in record quarter attempt - Electrek

Electrek has learned that Tesla is now offering one year of free Supercharging to incentivize deliveries by the end of the year as it attempts another record quarter. Yesterday, we reported on Elon Musk writing in an email to employees that Tesla is seeing st…

Electrek has learned that Tesla is now offering one year of free Supercharging to incentivize deliveries by the end of the year as it attempts another record quarter. Yesterday, we reported on Elon Musk writing in an email to employees that Tesla is seeing strong demand but the automaker needs to increase production fast in order to deliver on expectations. As we previously reported, Tesla is currently in the middle of its end-of-year delivery push as it aims to deliver a record number of vehicles this quarter to achieve 500,000 deliveries in 2020. The automaker needs to deliver over 181,000 vehicles this quarter in order to achieve this goal. Thats more than 40,000 vehicles over its last quarterly delivery record. Now we learn that despite Tesla apparently seeing strong demand, the automaker added a new incentive for buyers. Electrek has learned that Tesla authorized today its sale staff in North America to give one year of free unlimited Supercharging for undelivered Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. The automaker wrote in a meme seen by Electrek: “Effective December 12 to December 31st, all undelivered Model 3sand Model Y vehicles (excluding Model 3 Standard Range) that deliver by December 31st will receive one year of Free Supercharging.” Tesla used to offer free Supercharging as a referral award and it has periodically used the incentive to boost deliveries at the end of quarters. Last quarter, we reported that Tesla briefly offered an extra 1,000 free Supercharging miles to deliver cars by the end of the year. At first glance, some might think that Tesla is sending mixed messages. Elon says that demand is strong, but now Tesla adds an incentive to help deliver more vehicles. The key word here is “deliver”. Tesla is indeed seeing strong demand, but it is trying to give incentives to buyers to take delivery of their cars by the end of the year. Tesla, unlike other automakers, owns the entire distribution system and it has a big effect on the automakers financials since it cant recognize revenue until vehicles are delivered and it spent the money upfront to make those vehicles. It results in Tesla pushing hard every quarter to reduce its inventory and deliver as many vehicles as possible toward the end of the quarter. So even if Tesla has the orders in place, sometimes, its difficult to lineup deliveries with buyers due to availability, trade-in timing, or whatever other reasons. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More. Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

Elon Musk is ‘extremely confident’ Tesla will release full autonomy in ‘some jurisdictions’ next year - Electrek.co

Elon Musk now says that he is "extremely confident" that Tesla will release full autonomy to customers in "some jurisdictions" in 2021.

Elon Musk now says that he is “extremely confident” that Tesla will release full autonomy to customers in “some jurisdictions” in 2021. However, we have seen that timeline slip in the past. Musk has long been making predictions about when Tesla will achieve full self-driving capability. His most famous prediction is that Tesla will have 1 million robotaxis by the end of 2020. Of course, that is not happening, but with the recent release of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Beta software update, the CEO’s predictions for the release of an actual fully autonomous driving system are gaining in credibility. Yesterday, Musk received an Axel Springer Award in Germany, and during an interview with CEO Mathias Döpfner, he was asked when Tesla can deliver full autonomy. Tesla’s CEO answered: To actually answer your question, I am extremely confident of achieving full autonomy and releasing it to the Tesla customer base next year. Now Musk clarified that this is the simple answer and the regulatory landscape is more complicated. However, the CEO did say of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system: But I think at least some jurisdictions are going to allow full self-driving next year. Musk didn’t specify where he thinks it will be approved first, but he did mention that European regulators were generally more conservative. Some jurisdictions have already put in place frameworks for autonomous driving systems to be approved in commercial uses, and companies like GM’s Cruise in California and Alphabet’s Waymo in Arizona are already going through the process. Tesla’ CEO reitirated that they are going to have to accumulate billions of kilometers of autonomous driving in order to show regulators that their autonomous driving system is safe. Elon’s full self-driving predictions have become somewhat of a running joke in the Tesla community, but I think we can start to take them more seriously now that the FSD beta is getting into the hands of more customers. I think it is starting to look more credible, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. During the interview, Elon mentioned Tesla’s Autopilot safety data showing that Autopilot is a lot safer than human driving, but we know that this data is extremely flawed due to the nature of when Autopilot is being activated and deactivated. It’s a bit worrying to me that he would reference that data in the context of the data needed to convince regulators of full self-driving, which I think is going to have to be very different to have any weight with regulators. We are going to have to see a more detailed look at disengagement events and things of the sort something that Tesla has been staying away from reporting in the past. I expect some transparency in that process, so we should be able to get the data at some point when Tesla starts the approval process, which is now apparently going to be next year. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More. Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

Tesla is now under NHTSA scrutiny over Model S/X suspension after disputing recall in China - Electrek

Tesla is now facing NHTSA scrutiny with a new preliminary evaluation over potential suspension failures in Model S and Model X vehicles produced between 2015 and 2017. The new investigation comes after Tesla started a recall over the issue for vehicles in Chi…

Tesla is now facing NHTSA scrutiny with a new preliminary evaluation over potential suspension failures in Model S and Model X vehicles produced between 2015 and 2017. The new investigation comes after Tesla started a recall over the issue for vehicles in China, but the automaker argues that there’s no defect and China is forcing an unnecessary recall. Earlier this month, we reported on Tesla recalling almost 30,000 Model S and Model X vehicles that were shipped to China over an alleged issue with its suspension. As we stated in the report, there were a few things that were strange about this report primarily the fact that it only affected Model S and Model X vehicles sent to China between 2013 and 2017 even though those vehicles were produced in the US, and Tesla used the same suspension as all other Model S and Model X produced during that period. Later, we learned that Tesla disagrees with the Chinese authorities about the need to recall those vehicles and argues that theres no defect. Tesla said that the failure in question happened in less than 0.05% of vehicles outside of China and in about 0.1% of vehicles in China. The automaker blames the higher rate in China on “driver abuse, including that driver usage and expectation for damageability is uniquely severe in the China market. If the customer inputs an abuse load (e.g., curb impact, severe pothole strike, etc.).” Now we learn that NHTSA is looking into the front suspension issue as well. The U.S. transport agency overseeing the auto industry announced that it started a new preliminary evaluation into the alleged defect that could affect 114,761 Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles in the US produced between 2015 and 2017: NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) has received 43 complaints alleging failure of the left or right front suspension fore links in Tesla model year (MY) 2015 through 2017 Model S and MY 2016 through 2017 Model X vehicles. Thirty-two (32) of the complaints involve failures that occurred during low-speed parking maneuvers (e.g., backing from driveway or parking space at speeds below 10 mph). Eleven (11) incidents occurred while driving (e.g., incidents on roadways at speeds above 10 mph), including four at highway speeds. The complaints appear to indicate an increasing trend, with 34 complaints received in the last two years and three of the incidents at highway speeds reported within the last three months. In addition, ODI has identified eight complaints that may involve front fore link failure, but have not been confirmed by repair records or photographs. The potential fore link failures were all reported in the last two years and include two incidents that occurred while driving.” Interestingly, back in 2016, NHTSA supposedly did investigate a very similarly described alleged defect in the Model S suspension after several complaints, though many of them not made by Tesla owners, were filed with the agency, but they determined that there was no defect at the time. Now the new “Preliminary Evaluation” aims to “evaluate the scope, frequency and consequences of the alleged defect.” Here’s the full report: FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More. Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

Tesla Semi electric truck to have up to 621 miles of range, says Elon Musk - Electrek

Elon Musk made new comments about the Tesla Semi program, Tesla’s upcoming electric semi truck, and said that the vehicle will eventually have up to 1,000 km (621 miles) of range. This new range is going to be achieved, thanks to Tesla’s new in-house battery …

Elon Musk made new comments about the Tesla Semi program, Tesla’s upcoming electric semi truck, and said that the vehicle will eventually have up to 1,000 km (621 miles) of range. This new range is going to be achieved, thanks to Tesla’s new in-house battery cells and battery pack technology. When launching Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker said that the production versions of Tesla Semi, which is a class 8 truck with a 80,000-lb capacity, will have 300-mile and 500-mile range options for $150,000 and $180,000, respectively. However, CEO Elon Musk said that they found opportunities to extend that range during testing. A year later, Musk said that the Tesla Semi production version will have closer to 600 miles of range. Now the CEO elaborated on the range of the Tesla Semi in new comments during an interview early this morning: Getting a range of let’s say 500 km is I think quite easy, trivial to be frank, for a semi truck and this is assuming a truck that is pulling a load of 40 metric tons. If you want, for long-range trucking, you can take the range up to, we think, easily 800 km, and we see a path over time to 1,000 km range for an heavy duty truck. Those first two range figures are in line with what Tesla previously announced for Tesla Semi: 500 km or 310 miles and 800 km or 497 miles. However, 1,000 km (621 miles) is the new information here. Also, Musk meant to say that the total weight of the truck with load would be in the range of 40 metric tons and not actually pull a load of 40 metric tons, since that’s 88,000 lbs and trucks in the US have a total weight limit of 80,000 lbs with their load. Speaking of Tesla Semi’s capacity, a semi truck’s weight and load capacity are very important since how much cargo it can carry affects its profitability. This has been a problem for electric trucks due to the weight of the battery pack. Musk commented on that for the first time and he said that Tesla might have to give up a ton of capacity to the weight of the Tesla Semi: You are able to carry basically the same cargo as a diesel truck. We think that maybe there’s 1-ton penalty. Maybe. At this point, we think that we can have less than 1-ton cargo reduction and we think long term it’s going to be zero cargo reduction for electric trucks. Here’s the interview in which Musk has made those new comments: The CEO also confirms that Tesla Semi is going to use Tesla’s new 4680 cells and even the new structural battery pack design that Tesla unveiled with the new cell at its Battery Day event. He said that those kind of ranges are achievable for an electric semi truck at “around 300 Wh/kg” of energy density at the cell level hinting at the energy density of Tesla’s new cells. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More. Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

Tesla (TSLA) surges on finally getting greenlight to join S&P500 - Electrek.co

Tesla (TSLA) is officially going to join the S&P500 and it is sending the stock price on a wild ride in after-hour trading. After lining up profits in now 5 quarters in a row and seeing its valuation surge to become one of the world’s most valuable company, T…

Tesla (TSLA) is officially going to join the S&P500 and it is sending the stock price on a wild ride in after-hour trading. After lining up profits in now 5 quarters in a row and seeing its valuation surge to become one of the world’s most valuable company, Tesla was expected to join the S&P500 earlier this year. The S&P 500, or simply the S&P, is a stock market index that measures the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is basically a representation of the US stock market, and it is often updated to add growing companies in order to better represent the market. The indice did a reshuffle in September, but Tesla was surprisingly not included. Now the S&P has announced that Tesla will be included in the next reshuffle coming in December: “On November 16, 2020, S&P DJI announced that TSLA will be added to the S&P 500 effective prior tothe open of trading on Monday, December 21 to coincide with the December quarterly rebalancingeffective date.” They didn’t disclose which company is going to by taken out of the indice now that Tesla is being included. It will be announced closer to the reshuffle. Tesla’s inclusion is so significant that the S&P is seeing feedback on who it should be handled: Due to the large size of the addition, S&P Dow Jones Indices is seeking feedback through aconsultation to the investment community to determine if Tesla should be added all at once on therebalance effective date or in two separate tranches ending on the rebalance effective date. The announcement sent Tesla’s stock (TSLA) on a wild ride in after-hour trading. It went up by as much as 12% – adding over $40 billion in market capitalization to the automaker. It’s not unusual for a company’s stock price to increase after being included in the S&P500 since funds tracking the index generally buy into it. Glad that the S&P committee came to its senses. Even if you think that Tesla’s valuation is 5 times too high, it would still be one of the biggest companies in the US and it would make sense to have it in the S&P500. Now I don’t know if the stock’s reaction is appropriate to simply being added to the index, but we are only talking about after-hour trading right now. It’s going to be more interesting to see how the market reacts tomorrow. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More. Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

Tesla Tequilla shows brand strength, selling out before Elon Musk could even tweet about it - Electrek.co

The Tesla brand has shown its strength this week with its new Tesla Tequilla selling out even before Elon Musk could tweet about it. Now the bottles are already getting listed for 4 times the original price. As we reported earlier this week, Tesla launched it…

The Tesla brand has shown its strength this week with its new Tesla Tequilla selling out even before Elon Musk could tweet about it. Now the bottles are already getting listed for 4 times the original price. As we reported earlier this week, Tesla launched its own tequila – something that originated from a joke Elon Musk did back in 2018. It’s not a cheap joke. Tesla started selling the tequila bottles for $250 a pop. Yet, the product sold out in hours after it appears on Tesla’s website and even before Elon Musk could tweet a link to the Tesla Tequila to his close to 40 million followers. Tesla Tequila, which again is basically a joke, generated a ton of attention for Tesla. Electrek’s own article about the launch of Tesla Tequila was read by over half a million people within a day of posting about it: The product is not even in the hands of consumers just yet, but some people who placed reservations for it are trying to reselle them already. Based on some listings on ebay, people are asking between $400 to $1,500 for a bottle of Tesla Tequilla: Some are even selling empty bottles and still asking for up to $1,000. This is a clear show of strenght of Tesla’s brand. We don’t even know if the tequila is any good. This is purely selling on the strength of Tesla’s brand. Even though we don’t know how many bottles Tesla made available for sale, I knew that it would sell out once Elon Musk tweets about it, but I didn’t expect it to sell out on its own. It’s not unusual for automakers, especially luxury automakers, to leverage their brands to sell other luxury products, but I think Tesla is bringing it to a new level here – joke product or not. This is consistent with Tesla slowly climbing the ranks in brand valuation rankings. I think we are soon going to see Tesla surpass many automakers in brand valuation even though many of those companies have a century-long lead over Tesla in building their brands. They should take notice of that. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More. Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

GM announces $2 billion for electric vehicle factory in Tennessee, will build Cadillac LYRIQ and more - Electrek.co

GM announced today that it is investing $2 billion to produce electric vehicles at its factory in Spring Hill, Tennessee. The updated factory will produce the Cadillac LYRIQ electric SUV, among other electric vehicles. Only days after announcing Factory ZERO,…

GM announced today that it is investing $2 billion to produce electric vehicles at its factory in Spring Hill, Tennessee. The updated factory will produce the Cadillac LYRIQ electric SUV, among other electric vehicles. Only days after announcing Factory ZERO, GM’s new electric vehicle only factory built out of the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly Center, GM is now announcing a new investment in electric vehicle production. Today, GM announced the transition of its its Spring Hill, Tennessee, assembly plant: General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) announced today that its Spring Hill, Tennessee assembly plant will begin the transition to become the company’s third vehicle manufacturing site to produce electric vehicles, joining Factory ZERO in Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan, and Orion Assembly in Orion Township, Michigan. In addition, the company is confirming investments in five Michigan plants, including the Lansing Delta Township Assembly and Flint Assembly for future crossover and full-size pickup production. However, unlike Factory Zero, GM said that Spring Hill will produce both EVs and gasoline-powered vehicles since the Cadillac XT6 and XT5 will continue to be assembled at the plant. The Cadillac LYRIQ electric SUV is going to be the first all-electric vehicle produced at the newly updated factory. GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra commented on the announcement: We are committed to investing in the US, our employees and our communities. These investments underscore the success of our vehicles today, and our vision of an all-electric future. Earlier this year, GM unveiled the Cadillac Lyriq electric SUV, the first electric vehicle using GMs Ultium platform. The automaker announced 300 miles of range and 150 kW fast charging, and everything is packaged into a design that has been well-received. We reported yesterday that the electric SUV is also going to be equipped with a new advanced augmented reality HUD. The Cadillac Lyriq electric SUV is expected to launch in 2022 and start at less than $60,000. That’s we like to see: new electric vehicle production capacity. I would have preferred to see a full transition to only produce electric vehicle, but this is still a massive investment that should result in volume EV production. I am liking what I know so far about the Lyriq, but I don’t know how competitive it is going to be against other EVs in the segment when it reaches the market in 2022. What do you thinK? Let us know in the comment section below. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More. Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.

Tesla is getting into the mining business, buys lithium claim on 10,000 acres in Nevada - Electrek.co

Tesla is now officially getting into the mining business with a lithium claim on 10,000 acres in Nevada. At the Battery Day event yesterday, as part of its entire new battery supply strategy, Tesla announced that it is developing its own lithium processing me…

Tesla is now officially getting into the mining business with a lithium claim on 10,000 acres in Nevada. At the Battery Day event yesterday, as part of its entire new battery supply strategy, Tesla announced that it is developing its own lithium processing method. Drew Baglino, SVP of engineering at Tesla, said: “We are going to use a new process that we will pioneer. It’s a sulfate-free process again, we skip the intermediate. It will result in a 33% reduction in lithium cost.” They didn’t go into too many details about that process. CEO Elon Musk added: “What is the best way to take the ore and extract the lithium and do so in an environmentally-friendly way? We have been looking at from a first principle physic standpoint instead of just the way it has always been done. We found that we can actually use table salt, sodium chloride, to basically extract the lithium from the ore. Nobody has done this before to the best of my knowledge. He didn’t into more details about the process, and the comment is already raising some eyebrows in the lithium industry. But the big news is that Tesla plans to secure the lithium itself. The CEO confirmed that it acquired a lithium claim in Nevada: “We got rights to a lithium claim deposit in Nevada – over 10,000 acres.” Nevada is known to have a large reserve of libitum that is still not being exploited in volume. Lithium Americas is one of the companies most far along in the development of mining operations in the region. Musk said that Tesla is planning to have a low impact on the environment that it is mining: “We take a chunk of dirt in the ground, extract the lithium, and put the chunk of dirt back where it was. It will look pretty much the same as before.” Tesla didn’t offer a clear timeline on getting its mining operations up and running. However, it indicated that it plans to ramp up battery cell production to 10 GWh next year, 100 GWh in 2023, and 3,00 GWh in 2030. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links.More. Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.