Must read
Tesla CEO: With loan repayment, U.S. taxpayers made $20M profit off us
Tesla has now paid off its loan to the U.S. government entirely, plus interest, meaning U.S. taxpayers actually made a $20 million profit. Read more »
Tesla could pay off the rest of the DOE loan today, says CEO
Electric car maker Tesla Motors could make history again, if it pays off its loan from the Department of Energy many years before its due. According to a tweet from the CEO that could be as early as today. Read more »
Tesla shares soar almost 30% in after hours on profit news
Tesla stock jumped almost 30 percent in after hour trading on the news that electric car maker Tesla has delivered a profit for the first time. Read more »
Tesla delivers 1st profit, record revenue and boosts Model S guidance to 21K
Tesla hit its goal of the first profit in its 10-year history, and also delivered a record revenue, and boosted its guidance of Model S car sales by 1,000, to 21,000 for the year. Read more »
10 milestones Tesla hopes will make it a $43 billion company
Tesla is about to announce what is says will be one of the best quarters in the company’s history, reaching profitability for the first time. But Tesla’s ambitions are much higher than its current $6.4 billion marketcap. Read more »
Flash analysis: the Fisker debacle and its implications on investing, innovation, and government incentives
Electric car startup Fisker Automotive, along with its plug-in sports car, is turning out to be one of the worst venture capital bets of all time. We asked GigaOM readers a variety of questions about what they think will happen to Fisker and what they think will be the broader implications of and lessons learned from Fisker’s high-profile crash and burn. Here are the results. Read more »
Electric car startup Coda getting buried in lawsuits
Like Fisker Automotive, electric car company Coda Automotive is getting hit with lawsuits. It’s got over a half dozen filed within the last couple of months. Read more »
The Fisker hearing kicks off today, meanwhile unhappy customers emerge
Fisker’s founders will testify before a House Committee in Washington D.C. this afternoon, while Fisker Karma customers come out of the wood work about how the cars aren’t working properly. Read more »
Fisker fails to deliver 1st government loan payment, DOE has already taken $21M
Fisker seems to move even closer to bankruptcy as it defaults on its first loan payment and has funds seized by the government. Read more »
Fisker lawsuits piling up, another from its web designer over alleged unpaid bills
The lawsuits are piling up for electric car startup Fisker Automotive — here’s the third this month, this time from design and communication firm Ignited over an alleged unpaid bill of $535K. Read more »
Fisker’s landlord says pay rent or get out
Fisker’s landlord has filed a suit that says the electric car company has to pay its April rent or evacuate its headquarters. The company seems to be getting ever closer to bankruptcy. Read more »
Cleantech first-quarter 2013 analysis and outlook
The first quarter of cleantech was a mix of good and bad news. Avis’ purchase of Zipcar and Silver Spring Networks’ long-awaited IPO finally occurring were further signs of thawing capital markets and movement in the acquisition space. However, in both situations valuations were lower than hoped, a sign of how investors view cleantech. Read more »
Fisker hit with lawsuit over layoffs
Following Fisker’s decision to layoff 160 employees, or 75 percent of its staff, last week, the company has been hit with a class action lawsuit for allegedly violating the WARN Act, which says large companies need to give employees 60 days notice for mass layoffs. Read more »
Sources: Fisker to lay off many of its employees today
According to sources electric car startup Fisker Automotive is laying off most of its staff and is announcing that to employees today. Read more »
Tesla, Fisker, and what could have been: A tale of two electric car startups
Tesla is successfully morphing into a profitable electric car maker, while Fisker is coming ever closer to stumbling, has lost its founder and hasn’t made a car since last Summer. How did these two end up in such different places? Read more »
Tesla’s stock soars over 20% on profit, sales news
Tesla’s stock hit over $46 per share on Monday on news that the company would be profitable on a GAAP basis, and ship 250 more Model S cars than expected. That’s the highest Tesla’s been since its IPO in the Summer of 2010. Read more »
Tesla ditches Model S with smallest battery, bumps up guidance
Tesla Motors is cancelling its basic Model S car with the smallest battery pack due to lack of demand. Only 4 percent of Tesla customers wanted to version of the Model S with a 160 mile range. Turns out the early customers care about range. Read more »
Electric car startup Coda quietly dealing with lawsuits over unpaid bills
As electric car startup Coda faces slow sales of its electric sedan, its been hit with a series of lawsuits buy vendors for not payings its bills on time. While the company is dealing with those, the future of the startup is uncertain. Read more »
Better Place CEO departs, following Shai Agassi’s exit
Better Place is once again changing up its CEO, and after three months at the helm, Evan Thornley is stepping down. Founder and former CEO Shai Agassi stepped down in October, amid mounting losses and slow uptake of the electric car service. Read more »
Tesla’s solar powered super chargers hit the east coast
Tesla’s solar-powered super chargers — which can charge Model S cars in 30 minutes — have officially hit the east coast. Last week Tesla announced it had installed two fast chargers, one in Connecticut and one in Delaware. Read more »
Electric car startup Coda laying off 50
Yet another electric car startup is having trouble. Coda Automotive is laying off 50 employees — or 15 percent of staff — after a delayed launch, slow sales, and a car recall. The bad news follows Better Place layoffs, and A123 System’s bankruptcy. Read more »
Going electric: Adding the 2013 Chevy Volt to a solar-powered home
After a year of using 41 solar panels on our home, we generated more excess electricity than expected. So this past weekend, we drove a 2013 Chevy Volt of the lot and our first impressions are pretty positive, both for the technology and the efficiency. Read more »
Elon Musk: Tesla has made it through the ‘valley of death’
Tesla was in danger of missing its delivery goals for its Model S by a wide margin earlier this year. But the company has now been able to achieve its scaled-back milestones in the third quarter. Read more »
Better Place raising $100M more in the wake of Agassi departure
Electric car charging startup Better Place continues to raise money from its investors — particularly Israel Corp — as it seeks to finish building out its networks in Denmark and Israel. The company is raising another $100 million on top of its previously raised $750 million. Read more »
Now live: Tesla’s solar-powered Superchargers in Cali
The market for electric cars is so new that Tesla wants (and needs) to help build out the charging infrastructure, which is one of the industry’s biggest barriers. Tesla’s first six solar-powered fast chargers are now live (and free) for Model S owners. Read more »
Elon Musk paints rosier picture of Tesla’s slower production, fund raising
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk speaks out on why Tesla is raising more money, why the production has been pushed back and just what were the changes to the DOE loan agreement. Read more »
How to design a store in a world of connectivity
Is the store still relevant when consumers can buy goods online anywhere, anytime? For sure, but it has to become something else, according to Tesla’s George Blankenship. You can learn more about this topic through this short video clip, or in depth at our RoadMap event. Read more »
Tesla to unveil details of super charger next Monday night
Electric car company Tesla plans to unveil the details and deployment plans for its super charger technology. Previously Tesla has said it will build a super charger station between LA and SF that will fully charge a Tesla battery in 30 minutes. Read more »
Want a Tesla Model S? Try eBay
Want to get your hands on an early Tesla Model S electric car next month, but haven’t gotten in the reservation line? Try eBay. There’s one starting at $145,000 on the online auction site. Read more »
The battery performance deficit disorder
Batteries fall pathetically short of our customary fossil fuel energy storage medium. When we wake up to a declining global availability of petroleum, we won’t just switch over to electric cars. Read more »
What you need to know about the new fuel efficiency standard
The feds finalized the new fuel efficiency standard for passenger cars and trucks in a bid to reduce oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Here’s what you need to know about it. Read more »
Coda recalls 78 electric sedans
Electric car startup Coda Automotive joins the ranks of its peers that have recalled early cars because of faulty parts. On Sunday Coda recalled 78 of its electric sedans because of a mis-installed side curtain air bag. Read more »
Fisker needs more money, could attempt IPO next year (seriously)
Fisker is raising even more money — another $150 million — on top of the $1 billion it’s already raised. How long will private investors be willing to keep funding the electric car maker? Read more »
Chinese auto firm Wanxiang swoops in to rescue (& own) A123
Suffering battery maker A123 Systems has found a lifeline in Chinese auto giant Wanxiang. Wanxiang will invest up to $450 million in A123 which could see it own up to 80 percent of the company. Read more »
Tesla needs to gear up to meet Model S shipment goal
Tesla Motors needs to make a profit and is counting on the Model S to get it there. The electric car company began shipping the sedan last month, and it has collected about Model S 12,200 reservations now, compared with roughly 11,500 by the end of June. Read more »
Today in cleantech: Soft costs of solar, electric cars & carpooling apps
Today in cleantech, we bring you the soft costs of solar, some awesome new research reports and content on electric cars, and the news of the day. Read more »
Today in Cleantech: Zipcar’s pricing, the paleo diet & the cost of climate change
Zipcar tweaks its pricing (a sign of increasing competition), scientists peg the cost of climate change at $1,240 trillion, and there’s a new fuel cell outta an MIT lab that uses vanadium oxide as the anode to both generate and store energy. Today in cleantech! Read more »
How Intel Labs is using data to curb energy use
Intel Labs held an annual showcase in San Francisco on Tuesday and it showed off how it’s researching ways to use data to help curb energy consumption in residential homes, in offices, on factory floors and across smart cities. Read more »
Tesla investor Steve Jurvetson drives off in the first Model S
Tesla investor Steve Jurvetson — a partner with Draper Fisher Jurvetson — drove off in the very first Model S electric car recently and just published this video and photo to prove it on his Flickr feed. Read more »
The generational shift & alternative transportation
There’s definitely a generational shift going on as young folks care about fuel efficiency and environmental impacts, which makes them question the absolute need to own a car in the first place. Read more »
