Editor’s Note: Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Tesla Motors (TSLA) In China: Zhan Baosheng Takes Down Sites Depicting His Chinese ‘Tesla’ (International Business Times)
As Tesla Motors, maker of the exotic all-electric Model S luxury sports car, puts the final touches on its largest showroom, a man who has been the proverbial nail in the tire of the U.S. carmaker’s Chinese rollout abruptly took down a website that had depicted images of his own electric “Tesla” concept car. On Wednesday, three Web addresses registered to Zhan Baosheng – tesla.com.cn, teslamotors.com.cn and tesla.cn – pointed to a website depicting a “Tesla” electric sports car emblazoned with Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s distinctive “T” logo. But on Thursday the same addresses pointed to a domain’s back-side index, indicating the pages were purged from the server.
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) delivered on its promise to sell a $50,000 EV, and then promptly cancelled production of the 40 kWh Model S, and followed that with a $2,500 price increase for the remaining variants. Well Tesla is at it again, discreetly jacking up the price on certain option packages that could add thousands of dollars to customers waiting for their cars. HybridCars reports that average the Tesla website went down for maintenance last week, it came back online with new base prices for the Model S sedan, as well as some substantial price increases for customers with cars on reserve. One Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) Model S owner who bought his car in December estimated that the same car would have cost him $10,000 more had he waited until now to buy it.
A Tesla Model S Crashed Into an Electric Pole and Caused a Blackout (Gizmodo)
Stop me if you heard this before but an electric car and an electric pole walk into a bar… Okay, seriously. This is one of those ridiculous local news stories that are too perfect to be true but actually are. A Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) Model S crashed into a utility pole in Tennessee and caused a local blackout. An electric car causing a blackout by crashing into a pole is a little funnier than a regular car driving into a gas station, right? The crash, which occurred in the afternoon, was actually a result of a DUI.
Tesla working to eliminate side mirrors (Autoblog)
Of all the concept car technologies, one of our favorites has been the deletion of side-view mirrors in favor of video cameras. Besides improving the look of the car, it’d lower drag and improve fuel economy. However, cost, available technology, and most importantly, the government, stand in the way of this tech making it onto a production model. It’s that last facet that Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is seeking to change. As Automotive News explains, when the Model X debuted in concept form, it was without wing mirrors. But when the production car was revealed, it had the conventional mirrors, largely because the camera’d car violated the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Federal Motor Vehicle Safety code (Standard 111, to be precise).
Tesla To Open Supercharger Station At Fremont Factory (SiliconBeat)
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) will open a new Supercharger station at its Fremont factory, the 18th in a growing network. The maker of the all-electric Model S sedan is rapidly expanding charging stations, which are free to Model S drivers, along the West Coast and across the country. The Supercharger station in Fremont will be available for public use beginning Friday, August 16. I see a fair number of Model S sedans on Interstate 880, so this is likely to be a stop for people doing the Oakland-to-Silicon Valley commute.
