We bring you the behind the scenes story of how electric car startup Fisker Automotive spent over a billion dollars, took down a government loan and ultimately delivered about 2,000 cars, a small fraction of what it originally promised. Read more »
China’s cities are macro-laboratories that the government has been using to test out various roll-out strategies from industrial partnerships, to fast charging stations to rental systems. So why have the early numbers fallen short? Read more »
Mercedes-Benz, Bosch and the industrial insurance firm HDI have partnered up with European accelerator network Startupbootcamp. With names like that on the roster, it’s a fair bet that connected car technology will be a focus. Read more »
Taxi-hailing apps are already starting to crowd the U.S. market, but the German myTaxi may just have an edge. It already has 2.3 million users, for one thing, but it also has a clever plan in mind. Read more »
Overall, between 2012 and 2017, more than 900,000 light-duty PEVs will be sold in the United States. But there remain hefty inhibitors to mainstream plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) use, including limited vehicle driving range and large battery packs, not to mention steep prices. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Zipcar’s decision last week to make a strategic investment in peer-to-peer car-sharing startup Wheelz surprised many. But Wheelz is another way for Zipcar to access a young demographic, college students, which it has been courting for some time as a way to build its relationship with ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Our GigaOM Pro Green IT analyst Adam Lesser reports: Zipcar reported its third quarter after the bell yesterday and finds itself getting hammered this morning, down 5 percent. Sadly, the street is missing the story. Zipcar is finally profitable. Period. Read more »
The trials and tribulations of the solar industry dominated the third quarter as warnings about a storm of dangerous market forces in the industry finally reached an outcome with Solyndra’s bankruptcy. But not all was dismal for the cleantech industry during the quarter. Car sharing continues to reduce resource consumption, and much capital flowed to that sector. On the data center side of the industry, Google provided insight into exactly how much energy the tech giant uses, as well as the carbon footprint of its data centers. Companies mentioned in this report include Solyndra, Zipcar, Airbnb and Silver Spring Networks. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
The team approach is becoming popular in the electric car development space. General Motors and LG Group announced Thursday a plan to co-develop electric vehicles in order to speed up their deployment. Read more »
While it’s good news for Tesla that it will have $234 million to develop its third electric car the Model X, the funding underscores how Tesla will be transitioning into a period where the company will be generating a lot less revenue for several months. Read more »
Electric car company Tesla plans to raise $234 million in a combination of a follow-on offering and a private placement. On Friday morning, Tesla priced the 5.3 million shares it plans to offer for its follow-on offering (announced last week) at $28.76 per share. Read more »
Electric car company Tesla might say publicly that it wants to remain an independent company for growth purposes, but another reason is that auto maker Daimler basically has the right of first refusal when it comes to acquiring the company. Read more »
Silicon Valley electric car pioneer Tesla plans to stop production of its first electric car the Roadster in December 2011, according to a filing. Read more »
Electric car maker Tesla could raise another $214 million in a combination of a follow on public offering and a private placement. The move shows just how much money an electric car maker that is looking to make more mainstream cars needs to scale up. Read more »
Over the course of 2010, a rich ecosystem of services, startups and innovations began to take shape around the idea of sharing cars and bikes. Here’s seven steps taken this year toward shared transportation: Read more »
Tesla is showing off an investor presentation this morning that, while not earth-shattering, has a few tidbits of information, one of which is that a result of the Panasonic’s deal will be a custom-made battery cell that will have improved life cycle, performance, safety and cost. Read more »
Tesla Motors has just picked up a $30 million investment from Japanese electronics giant Panasonic. The two companies announced on Wednesday that Panasonic — a preferred battery cell supplier for Tesla’s electric vehicles — has bought a $30 million stake in the Palo Alto, Calif. car maker. Read more »
BMW Group is breaking into car sharing with a new pilot project in Munich that will let customers rent any current BMW model by the hour. It fits into much larger trends of innovation around providing mobility as a service — and growing competition for Zipcar. Read more »
While the market for electric vehicles will take years to go mainstream, electric scooters, motorcycles and bikes are being sold at a break-neck pace, in part thanks to China’s booming market. Here’s 10 electric 2-wheelers you can buy. Read more »
What’s a German car company doing getting into social networking and tech-enabled carpooling? Trying to figure out new business models for an era of accelerating urbanization, declining car ownership and expanding access to the mobile web. Read more »
French-Japanese allies Renault and Nissan, and German automaker Daimler AG, have a deal in the works to cooperate on development of hybrid and electric vehicle tech, and to share platforms for small cars. How could that shape the green car market? Read more »
There are smartphones and there are superphones, and the latter is heating up to a boil.The release of cool new phones often slows down to a trickle, but this year it’s becoming more of a firehose. Here are the 5 best superphones to watch. Read more »
Eight auto and car parts makers will get more than $187 million in federal funds to help them improve the fuel efficiency of heavy-duty trucks and passenger vehicles, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced today. The awards, funded largely through the Recovery Act, come as the […] Read more »
Daimler’s car2go, a car-sharing pilot project with 200 Smart Fortwo vehicles first announced in March, officially kicked off Wednesday in Austin, Texas. Now city employees will be able to pick up networked vehicles at stations and designated parking spaces around Austin, and drop them off anywhere […] Read more »
Daimler AG, as it closes in on the November start date for its initial run of electric vehicles — 1,000 Smart Fortwo minicars set to be built with Tesla Motors battery technology — is mapping out the road to large-scale production. The German automaker this morning […] Read more »
Compared with Tesla Motors co-founder Martin Eberhard, the startup’s other founder — Marc Tarpenning — has kept a relatively low profile. But Tarpenning spoke this morning at IBM’s Almaden Institute 2009 in San Jose, Calif., telling his version of the Tesla creation story that Eberhard and […] Read more »
Less than two months after the Department of Energy gave Tesla Motors the green light for $465 million in low-interest loans, the electric car startup has identified its first project for the funds: setting up a powertrain assembly facility and new headquarters at the Stanford Research […] Read more »
Lawyers for electric car startup Tesla Motors, CEO Elon Musk and founder Martin Eberhard will do battle in court tomorrow, the AP reports, as Musk and Tesla try to get Eberhard’s lawsuit thrown out. Nearly a month has passed since Tesla filed a motion calling for […] Read more »
When Daimler AG took a nearly 10 percent stake in electric car startup Tesla Motors two months ago, the German automaker had other plans brewing for the investment. This morning, Daimler says it has sold 40 percent of its equity stake to Abu Dhabi, United Arab […] Read more »
The growing number of companies and policy makers trying to build a booming electric vehicle battery industry in the U.S. have so far found the biggest competition coming from Asia, home of lithium-ion cell manufacturers that dominate the market for laptop and electronics batteries. But now […] Read more »
