Companies like GM, Toyota and Nissan have been trying to compete against Tesla for years with sub-par electric vehicle offerings. Inexpensive, but ultimately not up to the standards of vehicles produced under Elon Musk's guidance. Now, however, Tesla's years of minimum competition may be over. High-end automakers like Jaguar and Audi are bringing new models to customers with features and performance that rival Tesla, and according to some analysts are stealing market share from the electric vehicle pioneer. Maggie Fitzgerald reports for CNBC: Competition is weighing on Tesla’s sales, … [Read more...]

Back in September of 2018, the SEC sued Elon Musk over tweets in which the agency claimed he had made “false and misleading statements.” The issue involved statements Musk had made about potentially taking Tesla private, and funding for that effort which he told his followers was "secured." Now another federal agency is coming for Musk over statements he's made regarding Tesla. This time, it's the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The agency is upset over Musk's claims that the Model 3 sedan Tesla is building has the “lowest probability of injury of any vehicle … [Read more...]

Uber executive Brooks Entwistle tells Reuters that Africa is a target for potential expansion for Uber. The continent's low personal car ownership and population growth are tailwinds for a service such as Uber. Alexis Akwagyiram reports for Reuters: In much of sub-Saharan Africa there are low levels of personal car ownership, rapidly expanding populations and a lack of efficient mass transport systems in fast-growing cities. Uber, which said it has 36,000 active drivers in sub-Saharan Africa, operates in a number of countries in East and South Africa but is largely absent from West Africa, … [Read more...]

Adam Jonas, an analyst for Morgan Stanley, has lowered his bear case estimate for Tesla share prices from $97 to just $10. Jonas isn't the only analyst lowering expectations for Tesla though. Now that prices have fallen 48% since shares hit $376.79 in December, Wall Street analysts have come to the conclusion that they can no longer risk their reputations on a bullish case for Tesla. Bloomberg's Oliver Ssachgau and Tom Lavell report: “Demand is at the heart of the problem,” analysts led by Adam Jonas said in a note. “Tesla has grown too big relative to near-term demand, putting great strain … [Read more...]

For ten straight months auto sales have fallen in China. April saw another sharp decline of 14.6% compared to the year before. Trefor Moss reports at MarketWatch: Vehicle sales were down 14.6% year over year at 1.98 million, the government-backed China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Monday, as concerns over the Chinese economy's growth prospects sapped consumer confidence. Sales had declined 11.3% in the first quarter of 2019, having fallen 12% and 9.6% in the two previous quarters, respectively. Passenger-car sales were down 17.7% in April, while sales of commercial … [Read more...]

Lithium based batteries are the best mass-production batteries in the world today, but they have a nasty habit of exploding. Can engineers solve the batteries' problems or is a new approach needed? Bloomberg's Brian Eckhouse and mark Chediak report: Another lithium-ion battery has exploded, this time at an energy-storage complex in the U.S. At least 21 fires had already occurred at battery projects in South Korea, according to BloombergNEF. But this latest one, erupting on Friday at a facility owned by a Pinnacle West Capital Corp. utility in Surprise, Arizona, marked the first time it has … [Read more...]

Automakers are currently racing to fix one of the most significant problems with electric vehicles, charging times. Ultra fast chargers are available that could add 215 miles of range to a battery in 10 minutes, if today's batteries could handle it. Unfortunately they cannot, and so automakers are looking for solutions. Bloomberg's David Stringer reports: A typical, slow-speed public EV charger offers about 20 miles of driving distance per hour at the plug. The next level up, called a fast charger, can add about 75 miles in 30 minutes, according to Los Angeles-based station operator EVgo … [Read more...]

For the first time ever, electric cars have outsold fossil fueled cars in Norway for a month. In March, 58% of all car sales were of electric vehicles. NPR's Bill Chappell reports: Electric vehicles are now the norm in Norway when it comes to new car sales, accounting for 58 percent of all car sales in March. Tesla's mass market Model 3 was especially popular, accounting for nearly 30 percent of new passenger vehicle sales, the Norwegian Information Council for Road Traffic, or OFV, says. The figures reflect Norway's desire to move away from fossil-fuel vehicles — with help from lucrative … [Read more...]

The Chinese government has signaled a phase out of electric vehicle subsidies that experts are saying will kill off many of the smaller firms in the industry. The country's EV industry has exploded under government support, with 487 manufacturers operating in China last year. Now all that is about to change. Trefor Moss explains in The Wall Street Journal how a mixture of national and local subsidies are to be reduced and eliminated, and what it means for the industry as a whole: Under a Finance Ministry plan released this week, the maximum central-government subsidy for an electric car is … [Read more...]

Batteries have always had problems in extreme temperatures, that why it is interesting to see such surprise at revelations from a AAA study that suggest that electric vehicles perform worse in hot and cold temperatures than they do in milder weather. Lucas Laursen reports for Fortune: Not too hot and definitely not too cold–that’s when electric car batteries work best. “Batteries are like humans,” Anna Stefanopoulou, director of the University of Michigan’s Energy Institute told Wired: they do best at temperatures between 40°F and 115°F. In results that are unlikely to shock the many … [Read more...]