So what happened to Tesla Model X electric SUV sales, anyway?

2016 Tesla Model XA few years ago, before the Tesla Model X electric SUV went into production, company CEO Elon Musk said he thought it could outsell the older Model S hatchback luxury sedan. That hasn't happened. In the first three months of this year, Tesla said it delivered 11,550 Model Xes—but 13,450 Model Ses. DON'T MISS: 2016 Tesla Model X first drive...

Tesla Model 3 acceleration found in chart on Model S advantages

Tesla Model 3 spotted at service centerElectric-car maker Tesla doesn't announce models in the usual fashion. It trickles out bits and pieces of information, often in the form of tweets from CEO Elon Musk, punctuated by occasional large flashy debut events for owners and investors at which a vehicle is revealed. That's the pattern followed by the upcoming Tesla Model 3, which the...

Tesla moans about media as it fights workers’ union efforts

Tesla factory, Fremont, CaliforniaTesla's position is clear: the California electric-car maker doesn't feel a union is needed to protect its factory workers from what it claims are only anecdotal stories about worker safety and wage levels. Last weekend, Tesla continued to punch back at United Auto Workers organizating efforts at its assembly plant in Fremont, California...

VW to Tesla: ‘Anything you can do, we can do better’

2017 Volkswagen Beetle 1.8T Dune Auto GrilleWith a new book imminent that gives new details on its diesel-emission cheating scandal, Volkswagen Group continues to struggle for positive corporate PR. Yet the company publicly appears to be confident that it has weathered the worst of that storm. Moreover, while its first high-volume electric cars won't hit the market until 2019 or 2020, the...

Solar panels, EV chargers required in new homes in Fremont, CA

Tesla factory, Fremont, CaliforniaHalf a century ago, the General Motors assembly plant was the largest employer in Fremont, California, and the town was known for its dragstrip. Today, that plant makes Tesla electric cars and Fremont is a part of the San Francisco Bay Area's Silicon Valley, creating advanced technology for the world. The city has now taken another step into the...

Life with Tesla Model S: out with the old, in with the new

2013 Tesla Model S owned by David Noland, Catskill Mountains, NY, Oct 2015Over the first three years of driving my 2013 Tesla Model S, there wasn't a single time when I looked at another car and said, “You know, I’d really rather be driving that car than this one.” Not once. The Tesla’s combination of performance, style, economy, technology, plus the addictive allure of electric acceleration...

Why BMW uses Tesla electric cars to scare its staff into the future

BMW Vision Next 100 conceptWhen Tesla arrived on the scene 10 years ago, no major automaker took it very seriously—let alone thought it would cause the disruption it has in the market for luxury cars. At the same time, BMW, once the harbinger of performance and luxury, worries that it may be falling behind when it comes to electric vehicles and technology innovation...

Elon Musk teased Tesla’s electric semi truck at a TED talk

Teaser for Tesla semi truck debuting in SeptemberIt's no secret Tesla CEO Elon Musk is an ambitious man, but he continues to fuel the hype surrounding the company by recently teasing the first Tesla semi truck. In typical Tesla fashion, the semi truck will be all electric. Its goal is to showcase the possibilities of electric range over diesel fuel, and Musk is confident the truck will...

Manufacturing expert says Tesla Model 3 plan to skip beta testing is risky

Tesla Model 3 design prototype  -  March 2016Tesla is taking a major gamble regarding the production of its upcoming Model 3 sedan in skipping prototype tooling and jumping straight to permanent production tooling, says a noted auto-manufacturing expert. "He's pushing the envelope to see how much time and cost he can take out of the process," Ron Harbour, a manufacturing consultant at Oliver...

Tesla Model S battery life: what the data show so far

Tesla Model S lithium-ion battery pack in rolling chassis   [photo: Martin Gillet via Flickr]Perhaps the biggest question in buyers' minds over electric cars is how long the batteries will last. Most new-car buyers have mobile phones whose batteries have only lasted a couple of years, perhaps less. Even as electric-car battery packs are warranted against outright failure for eight or 10 years, how much degradation should owners...

Tesla recalls 53,000 Model S, Model X electric cars for parking-brake issue

2016 Tesla Model STesla has issued a voluntarily recall for roughly 53,000 of its Model S and Model X electric cars to address an issue in which the parking brake might stick in the engaged position. The recall was first reported yesterday by CNBC. The vehicles affected were built between February and October of 2016, and 31,000 of them were sold in the U.S. It is...

2017 Tesla Model X electric-car pricing, feature changes

2017 Tesla Model XTesla has released updated pricing and features for its 2017 Tesla Model X all-electric crossover utility vehicle, including lower prices for both the 75D and 90D models. Like the changes released at the same time to the Model S sedan, the new lineup increases the distance between the two lower-end models and the top-of-the-range 100D and P100D...

Tesla Model S pricing, feature changes: breaking them down in detail

2017 Tesla Model SAs its owners know, although much of the car-buying world doesn't, Tesla doesn't believe in the idea of model years. Rather than updating its electric cars each autumn, to correspond to a new model year, it simply changes them when it feels the updates are ready. This can lead to some confusion over the features and capabilities of a give car...

Tesla trucks: semi to be shown in Sept, pickup in 18-24 months

2012 Tesla Model S beta vehicle, Fremont, CA, October 2011Relative few companies regularly make major announcements via their CEO's Twitter account, but electric-car maker Tesla is different. From software updates to dates for new product lines, tweets from Tesla's CEO Elon Musk routinely make news. And so it was this week, when Musk announced the months in which the company plans to reveal designs for...

Q: Why is Tesla worth more than GM? A: The sins of Detroit

Tesla Motors, Palo Alto, CaliforniaIt remains unclear whether Tesla will survive as an independent company, given that it's had exactly two profitable quarters in its 12-plus years of existence. And yet, last week, Tesla briefly passed General Motors to become the most valuable U.S. automaker by market capitalization. It had passed Ford last week, and long ago surpassed the value...

Tesla delivered 25,000 electric cars in Q1 2017, plus or minus

2017 Tesla Model SThe numbers are in, and Tesla says it delivered 25,000 electric cars globally in the first quarter of this year, from January through March. That's a new quarterly record for the Silicon Valley company, which delivered 76,230 cars last year. Analysts and Tesla fans had eagerly watched for this number, as they do all Tesla financial information...

Tesla electric cars have quality issues, but owners love them regardless

2017 Tesla Model STesla electric cars have many notable and pioneering qualities. Faultless reliability has not necessarily been one of them. Since the Model S launched in 2012, multiple quality issues have been documented by both owners and media outlets like Consumer Reports. The Model X debuted with a particularly high level of initial-quality issues, likely a...