Tesla Model 3 net reservations clarified after 16 months: 455,000

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk at Tesla Store opening in Westfield Mall, London, Oct 2013Sometimes, if you ask a question often enough for long enough, an answer will eventually be forthcoming. In the case of the net number of $1,000 reservations for the Tesla Model 3 electric car, it took 16 months for the company to cough up the latest data. It came, not surprisingly, from CEO Elon Musk, speaking on a conference call for financial...

RIP Mitsubishi i-MiEV: lowest-range, slowest electric car departs U.S. market

2016 Mitsubishi i-MiEV Quick Drive  -  Portland OR  -  July 2015   [photo: Doug Berger]The Mitsubishi i-MiEV electric car deserves a place in history. It was arguably the first mass-produced modern electric car put on sale, well before the Nissan Leaf arrived in December 2010. Pre-production i-MiEVs were operating in test fleets in Japan as early as 2007, and it was on sale in that country even as Tesla struggled to get its Roadster...

New propaganda video on electric-car tax credits: time to debunk!

Nissan Leaf at West Coast Electric Highway charging station (Photo by Pine Mountain Sports)The U.S. federal income-tax credit for purchase of an electric car has seen its share of attacks over the years. Now a new video seeks to twist the facts to paint those subsidies in a bad light. While facts don't lie, it's easy to create a new narrative by taking carefully chosen facts out of context and presenting only a small part of a broader...

Tesla’s won’t discuss net Model 3 reservations number; why?

2017 Tesla Model 3, in photo tweeted by Elon Musk on July 9, 2017One year ago today, a communications staffer (since departed) wrote that Tesla had received 373,000 reservations for its future Model 3—a number first issued in April 2016. In a splashy event for owners, fans, and media, a few dozen early-production Model 3 electric cars were delivered last Friday. During the year leading up to that event...

Tesla Model 3 Easter eggs, discovered by board member Steve Jurvetson

Tesla Model 3 Easter eggs screenThe few dozen 2017 Tesla Model 3 owners who've already taken delivery of their electric cars will find a few surprises inside if they look closely enough. The Silicon Valley automaker handed over the first examples of its new Model 3 to customers, one of whom happens to be Steve Jurvetson. Jurvetson is well known among the Tesla community not only...

2018 Nissan Leaf caught without camouflage in ad shoot

2018 Nissan Leaf spotted during photo shoot - Image via BroomIts maker has begun the countdown to the early-September unveiling of the 2018 Nissan Leaf electric car with a series of staged teaser photos and factoids. But with the prevalence of smartphone cameras, it's harder and harder for carmakers to keep their new models completely under wraps. Which is how we come to have a shot of the 2018 Leaf...

Fiat Chrysler to electrify more vehicles as diesels fall out of favor

2017 Chrysler Pacifica HybridAmong the Detroit Three automakers, General Motors has a quarter of a century of electric-car experience, from the legendary EV1 to the 238-mile Chevrolet Bolt EV. Ford launched hybrids in 2004, before any other maker, but its battery-electric efforts thus far have been strictly compliance cars. Chrysler, however, was by far the most pessimistic...

Porsche prototype 350-kw electric car fast-charging station installed

Porsche solar pylon Porsche has big plans to expand the capability of the Combined Charging System (CCS) DC standard into much higher voltages to allow much faster electric-car charging. Now, it's completed a first step: at the brand's new branch office in Berlin-Adlershof, Porsche has installed a prototype 350-kilowatt, 800-volt charging station. The new technology...