Relatively few auto-company CEOs would publicly mention sleeping on the roof of one of their factory buildings. But Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not like most other chief executives of auto companies. Most also don't break news via tweet, for instance. A tweet by Musk Thursday evening referred to the eighth circle of Hell and suggested he'd slept on the... Parts order for Tesla Model 3 cut by 40 percent starting in December: report
Relatively few auto-company CEOs would publicly mention sleeping on the roof of one of their factory buildings. But Tesla CEO Elon Musk is not like most other chief executives of auto companies. Most also don't break news via tweet, for instance. A tweet by Musk Thursday evening referred to the eighth circle of Hell and suggested he'd slept on the...
Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, is expected to announce that it will invest up to $1 billion to build electric SUVs and batteries in and around its Alabama assembly plant. The plans, first reported reported Thursday in The Wall Street Journal (paywalled), represent a major expansion of electric-car manufacturing in the U.S. So far...
VW Group remains one of the world's three largest carmakers, along with Toyota and General Motors, but the German automaker foresees challenges ahead. Specifically, VVolkswagen believes the industry will face a shortage of lithium-ion batteries if new investment is not made soon for additional cell fabrication factories, often referred to using...
In the wake of its diesel emission scandal, Volkswagen has done its best to portray itself as a cleaner, more thoughtful automaker. Part of the damage control plot includes a slew of new electric vehicles to round out the German automaker's portfolio in the coming years. But, what about the environmental impact and carbon-emission burden of the...
The state of Nevada has been fairly generous to startup electric-car makers that pledge to establish manufacturing operations within its borders. After offering a generous incentive package several years ago, the Silver State landed Tesla's lithium-ion battery "Gigafactory," which is now up and running just outside Reno. Then it lured the...
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has responded vigorously to an employee's claims of low wages and commonplace on-the-job injuries. In an email to employees and statements to media outlets, Musk denied the claims and accused the employee who made them of being a paid union agitator. Earlier this month, Jose Moran said Tesla employees, "routinely work well over...
For some buyers, where a car is made can be as important as the qualities of the car itself. "Made in America" can be a powerful selling point, especially after a presidential election in which domestic manufacturing jobs were a hot-button issu. But in the age of globalization, U.S. automakers no longer have a monopoly on cars with largely...
Modern electric cars have developed to the point where range itself may become less of an issue than the cost of providing it. Automakers can create longer-range electric cars simply by installing larger battery packs, but that adds significant cost tot he car's single priciest component. Just ask Tesla, which sells multiple versions of its Model...
As it works toward moving past its diesel-emissions scandal, the Volkswagen Group is making ambitious plans for electric cars. By 2025, the company hopes to be selling 1 million electric cars per year, and it has said it will launch 30 different electric models across multiple brands in the coming years. Now VW says some of those cars may be built...
Lucid Motors has become the latest startup automaker proposing to build electric cars in the U.S. The company—formerly known as Atieva—says it plans to break ground next year on a new factory in Casa Grande, Arizona. Lucid will begin production of its first electric car by 2018, it said in a statement, and expects to employ more than...
Tesla Motors is facing a huge increase its production output in order to meet the ambitious goals set by CEO Elon Musk. He says he expects the company produce 500,000 electric cars per year by 2018. Much of that volume will come from the Model 3, the 215-mile, $35,000 sedan Tesla unveiled earlier this year, and plans to put into production by the...
Faraday Future's ambitious plans to launch a production electric car in less than two years appear to have hit a snag. Before the Chinese-backed startup can begin production, it needs to complete a new factory in North Las Vegas, Nevada, which has a stated cost of $1 billion. Last month, lead contractor AECOM warned Faraday that it was late on a...
Plug-in electric cars are going to be a bigger part of the vehicle mix in future than they have been to date. That much is abundantly clear. Electric cars are one of four significant forces that will likely change what we think of as an "automobile" forever, the others being autonomy, connectivity, and sharing. DON'T MISS: Tesla and China: why an...
Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler is pushing for more electric cars, and that has the company's labor leaders thinking about how such a shift might affect its workers. Electric motors and drivetrains require far fewer components than internal-combustion engines, meaning fewer workers are needed to assemble them. The technical knowledge needed to design...
They may be known as the "Detroit Three," but the biggest U.S. automakers are exporting production of small cars elsewhere. Ford confirmed yesterday that it will move small-car production to Mexico, joining Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) in eliminating small passenger cars from its U.S. factories. Two years hence, only General Motors will still...