Battery Electric Vehicle News / Enjoying the Transportation Revolution

michaels · 4 February 2021 at 11:17AM

JKenH said:

Tesla says its faulty touchscreens that led to a recall were only built to last 5-6 years

Tesla's legal chief, Al Prescott, pushed back against the regulator's definition of a "defect," arguing that the eMMC memory devices in question were only built to last five to six years. He said that lifespan is standard for infotainment systems in the industry.

https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-computer-touchscreen-recall-nhtsa-designed-for-6-years-2021-2

Disingenuous much - sure a car media player might start getting glitchy after 5 or 6 years but that would not stop you adjusting the hvac controls etc on most cars.

Martyn1981 · 4 February 2021 at 6:14PM

The importance of Government incentives, nudges, penalties etc became obvious when I watched a vid on the launch of Tesla products in Israel. If I recall, the tax on an ICE is over 80%, drops to 50% for a HEV, 30% for a PHEV but is only 10% for a BEV, so you get the interesting situation where a TM3 costs about $50k, but a base model BMW318 costs about $80k, and a BMW330e (PHEV) costs around $95k. I'd suggest the potential 318 buyer can get twice the car for $30k less, which must have an impact on the market. A Toyota Camry Hybrid works out at about $56k. Obviously this applies to other BEV makes too, not just Tesla, so the effect on ICE sales should be significant.

This article has some of the information:

Tesla Moves Into Israel With Fairly Low Prices

Tesla has entered the Israeli market with prices that were lower than expected, HAARETZ reports. Tesla’s Hebrew site shows that customers can take delivery of their vehicles in March and reflects Tesla’s plans to target the mainstream market.
Tesla’s “soft launch” just began in Israel this week and the prices start at 180,000 shekels (after taxes), or $54,600, for a Tesla Model 3. That number, the article noted, was well below what was expected. If you don’t count the sales taxes, the cost is 169,990 shekels, or $51,640.

JKenH · 4 February 2021 at 7:29PM

UK BEV sales grow by more than 50% versus this time last year

https://www.zap-map.com/uk-bev-sales-grow-market-share/

Martyn1981 · 5 February 2021 at 10:55AM

It's nice to see the big players like Gerber Kawasaki (long time Tesla bulls) are seeing the potential of Arcimoto's FUV platform, and how it differs from a conventional trike. [And as an investor, I'm not complaining!

]

Arcimoto's latest stock surge gives it $1B market cap

The apparent fuel to the stock’s latest rocket ride was the backing of Ross Gerber, an investor and head of money manager Gerber Kawasaki — and a longtime Tesla bull.

“Pay attention EV investors,” Gerber tweeted to his 116,800 followers on Tuesday. “This could be tesla lite. Arcimoto is a great solution for many needs. Including FUN. We’re invested in $FUV $TSLA.”

Of course their recent success will almost certainly attract the attentions now of the shorts and Seeking Alpha. But hey-ho.

Martyn1981 · 5 February 2021 at 11:07AM

I don't think many will find this surprising but the rumour mill suggest Tesla has been sandbagging their production dates again, and Berlin / Semi production may be a bit earlier than suggested. But the big problem still remains, they are ramping up auto and storage faster than battery production can keep pace ....... first world problems perhaps!

Tesla Semi & Tesla Giga Berlin Production Starting In Mid-2021 — Rumor & Website Update

How fast can Tesla grow? That’s a question worth a few hundred billion dollars or so. It seems that the answer mostly comes down to battery supply. Tesla is currently building giant automotive factories in Germany and Texas while expanding its Chinese factory. Its battery supply is also ramping up, but it seems like it can never catch up to vehicle demand and production capacity. On the last Tesla quarterly conference call, CEO Elon Musk indicated that they could be producing the Tesla Semi — a fully electric semi truck unveiled a few years ago — if they just had enough batteries for it. The only real holdup at this point is the lack of batteries.

Electric vehicle fans, especially climate and air quality hawks, have been eagerly awaiting production of this truck since then, since it could cut emissions so dramatically and could seemingly outcompete fossil-fueled semi trucks on cost and performance right out of the box. But we’ve had to wait as Tesla has ramped up Model 3 and Model Y capacity in order to turn profitable and remain profitable (while also decarbonizing a huge number of light-duty vehicle miles).