SolarCity is one of the leaders when it comes to installing solar panels on home owner’s rooftops. But the company’s $31 million loss, in its latest quarter, shows the growing pains for the retail solar players. Read more »
Fifty-seven percent of drivers Cisco surveyed said they would let themselves be chauffeured around town by a driverless car. The number was even higher among Americans. Read more »
Mark Zuckerberg’s immigration reform group Fwd.us is losing two big players this week: Elon Musk and David Sacks. A bad sign for the Valley’s latest political group? Read more »
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 »
The Tesla CEO says he’s weighing a form of autonomous driving technology that would do away with the expensive laser tracking systems adopted by most automakers and instead uses cameras to sense the car’s surroundings. Read more »
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 »
Tesla is offering a new financing option that will provide a lease for potential Model S customers. Leasing electric cars could help bring the technology to more mainstream car buyers. Read more »
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 has quietly pushed back production of its third electric car, the SUV/minivan, the Model X. The car is important for the company and signals to the world that Tesla is an automaker with a line of cars that appeals to a broader demographic. Read more »
Here’s a roundup of all of our coverage from SXSW — both the legendary Interactive section and the relatively new education conference. Sorry, no up and coming musicians. Read more »
In a wide ranging interview at the SXSW festival in Austin on Saturday, entrepreneur Elon Musk talked about his crazy life bringing the world life on Mars, electric cars, and solar rooftops. Read more »
The world needs more crazy energy entrepreneurs, said Bill Gates. Well here’s five potentially disruptive but a little out there energy projects spotted at the ARPA-E Summit this week. Read more »
Tesla continues with its goal of getting EVs to the mass market after announcing its fourth-quarter earnings. But the challenges the Model S-maker faces are many, and there are limits on how much the company can scale. Read more »
Tesla CEO Elon Musk pledges to pay back the company’s loan to the Department of Energy in five years instead of ten. Musk says if the DOE should be criticized for failures like Solyndra it should be praised for successes like Tesla. Read more »
One thing that Tesla’s’ battle with the New York Times has reinforced is how the balance of power has shifted in media now that everyone — companies included — has the ability to publish their side of a story. Read more at paidContent »
Tesla has released the data logs that tracked a negative review by a New York Times reporter, and I think they reveal five important lessons about electric cars, about Tesla and CEO Elon Musk and about reporting in the data age. Read more »
In contrast to an analyst report this week, I’ve heard that Silver Spring Network’s IPO plans are still on and that the company could go public within the next four weeks. Read more »
The fourth quarter in cleantech saw attention paid to two prominent, publicly traded companies: EV maker Tesla and newly minted public listing SolarCity. It remains a transitional period for the sector as investment declines, with a shift toward those companies able to scale with little additional capital. Read more »
In 2013 cleantech investing will move toward companies serving unsubsidized markets where software plays a role in reducing power consumption. In many ways this is a return to plays for energy efficiency, and there’s still money to be made from business models built around saving energy. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
In a new filing SolarCity says it plans to sell 11.5 million shares at $8 per share, well below its previous range of $13 – $15 per share. However the IPO seems to be still moving, and only slipped past its original deadline to price Tuesday night. Read more »
Will solar rooftop installer, and financier, SolarCity hold its IPO before the end of the year? If so, the company could break the dry spell for venture-backed solar and next-gen energy startups, and also deliver Tesla CEO Elon Musk another win. Read more »
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 »
Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk says Tesla has now assembled 1,000 bodies for its Model S electric car. The company is going through a difficult period right now of needing to ramp up production quickly for the remainder of 2012. Read more »
SolarCity publicly disclosed its documents for its planned IPO on Friday, giving us a look at some of its risk factors. Those include that the company is being investigated by the Inspector General about the Treasury Grant program. Read more »
Electric car maker Tesla has quietly built out solar-powered rapid electric car chargers at six locations around California and has plans to install many more next year. The tech, which uses a solar system from SolarCity, will be offered for free for Model S owners. Read more »
Today SpaceX is an aerospace sensation, but several years ago the prospects of the fledgling space travel startup weren’t so certain. That’s when satellite communications provider Iridium decided to place a huge bet on SpaceX, handing it the single biggest commercial launch contract in history. Read more »
Electric car maker Tesla Motors faces one of the toughest times in its history in the fourth quarter of this year. The company’s got to ramp up production of its Model S to be able to deliver thousands of the cars, and make no mistakes. Read more »
Walmart will be getting battery storage combined with its solar panels, courtesy of SolarCity. It’s a big deal because battery grid storage has been prohibitively expensive and is still in an early stage. Read more »
SpaceX is one of 3 rivals competing — with NASA’s help — to power the next U.S. manned space launch. Boeing, Sierra Nevada (no not that Sierra Nevada) and SpaceX will benefit from NASA expertise — and millions of dollars of its dough — under the 21-month contract. Read more »
Have strong opinions about Tesla’s electric sedan the Model S? It’s officially shipping starting this Friday and represents a new chapter for the Silicon Valley firm. Take our survey and weigh in on it. Any chance you’ll reserve or buy one? Read more »
Electric car company Tesla Motors says they will officially start delivering Model S cars to its first customers on June 22 — a month from today (see how they conveniently made it a nice headline). Read more »
The anticipated SpaceX launch was aborted at the last possible second after a computer detected a glitch in one of the rocket’s nine engines. The snafu raised anew questions of whether private industry can handle a space program. Read more »
Electric car company Tesla Motors is continuing to spend heavily to get its second electric car the Model S out the door, but now says the first Model S shipments will happen in June, a month earlier than expected. Read more »
As The Daily Show’s John Stewart says in this interview with Tesla co-founder Elon Musk: a lot of people talk a good talk about ambition and sustainability, but not everyone builds a rocket, an electric car and a company to proliferate solar power. Watch the clips! Read more »
A startup called Envia Systems that’s been working on lithium ion battery technology says it’s developed a key breakthrough that could one day lead to an electric car that has a 300-mile range and could cost around $25,000 to $30,000. Read more »
Tesla’s unveiling of the Model X, an SUV-minivan electric car, this week signals to the world that the electric car can truly go mainstream despite the current difficulties in the EV market. A minivan — the world’s least cool car — just got hip, green, and sporty. Read more »
Following the sneak preview of Tesla’s third electric car the Model X, an SUV/minivan combo, on Thursday, Tesla threw a party where it officially unveiled the car and invited a thousand or so guests to celebrate the launch. Here’s our pics from the event: Read more »
Tesla has decked out its Model X, an SUV-minivan hybrid, with innovative design features that, along with a relatively affordable price tag, could attract a mainstream audience. This research note examines why Tesla will be the brand to watch in the electric vehicle market. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
We took GigaOM TV’s Green Overdrive show down Tesla’s sneak preview of its Model X, electric SUV/minivan launch, and got this first hands-on video with the car and an interview with Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk. Check it out: Read more »
At a sneak preview in Hawthorne, Calif. on Thursday, electric car maker Tesla unveiled its third car, an all-electric SUV called the Model X, for the first time to the public. And yep, true to speculation it’s got so-called “falcon wing” doors. Read more »
