Tesla Motors, the electric car startup scheduled to debut in public trading on Tuesday, could deliver the biggest IPO for a U.S. car company since Ford Motor. It will also reveal the degree of public confidence in electric vehicles at this early stage of the market. Read more »
While the physical doors of this month’s Electronic Entertainment Expo were only open to professionals from the video gaming world, E3 video coverage by YouTube, Viacom and G4TV.com successfully brought the biggest announcements and demos to online audiences, with hundreds of thousands of gaming fans tuning in. Read more »
I’ve been working on several big projects in recent months, and after the whirlwind started settling down, I realized how important it was to take time off. How can we ensure that we get enough time away from our work before burning ourselves out? Read more »
Tesla Motors, gunning for an IPO next week, has won over members of the Silicon Valley, Capitol Hill and Hollywood elite. But will the company, which has never turned a profit, charge up Wall Street with a blockbuster IPO? Read more »
Might the battery from your old plug-in hybrid or all-electric car eventually store energy for your home? A group of companies and researchers in California hope to establish some viable models for doing just that. Read more »
Electric Smart cars with Tesla battery packs in their bellies are coming stateside this fall. Smart USA today detailed its plans to launch pilot fleet of 250 electric Smart Fortwo mini-cars in October 2010, ahead of the model’s 2012 commercial launch. Read more »
The newest music video by pop music sensation/possible crazy person Lady Gaga is a darker spin on her signature “out there” style. While free of product placement (as well as eyeliner) it’s getting a perfectly-executed premiere courtesy of Vevo and YouTube. Read more »
Rev your engines, auto startups — there’s a new VC in town. General Motors announced this morning that it has created a new subsidiary to identify, develop and invest in innovative technologies in the transportation sector. Read more »
Tesla Motors’ road to securing a production facility for its second-generation electric car, the Model S sedan, has been a long and at times bumpy one. Here’s a timeline for how it’s gotten — and plans to get — there. Read more »
Tesla’s latest filing with financial regulators fills in some of the gaps about its deal with Toyota and plans for the NUMMI facility. Tesla expects to pay about $42 million for the plant. The partnership with Toyota is a very limited one. Read more »
BYD, the China-based battery giant turned electric car developer, has just struck a deal with Germany’s Daimler to form a 50-50 joint venture focused on researching and developing an electric vehicle for the Chinese market, and launching it “as soon as possible.” Read more »
Expect this summer to be a busy one for Jonathan Silver, the former venture capitalist whom the Obama administration tapped to head up the Department of Energy’s highly competitive loan guarantee and green car loan program. Here’s our interview with Silver: Read more »
General Motors moved this week to link its upcoming Chevrolet Volt and in-vehicle communications system, OnStar, with Google navigation tools and smartphones based on the search giant’s Android platform. This marks a key intersection in the trajectories of automakers and Internet giants and could pave the way to much more comprehensive partnerships across previously disconnected industries and systems. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Tesla Motors, gearing up for an IPO, has heavyweight backers including Uncle Sam and most recently, Toyota. How will the hybrid leader’s vote of confidence in Tesla and the startup’s latest manufacturing plans affect how Tesla fares on Wall Street? Read more »
UPDATED: Electric car startup Tesla Motors plans to buy the NUMMI plant in Fremont, Calif. and start building its Model S sedan there in 2012. Toyota has agreed to partner with the startup and buy a $50 million stake after Tesla’s IPO. Read more »
When running a business, it can sometimes be hard to draw the line between being of service and being taken advantage of by customers, clients and other professionals. Here are a few ways to reinforce that line. Read more »
General Motors and Chrysler, in their bids for government loans for green car manufacturing, have cleared the hurdle of demonstrating financial viability. Now it’s a matter of showing that their ideas for producing more efficient vehicles are on the cutting edge. Read more »
Gateway has introduced a new line of notebooks aimed at providing affordable performance for multimedia enthusiasts. The NV series comes in two sizes — 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch, and is available with Intel or AMD processors. A unique social networking button provides one-touch access to social networks. Read more »
Regulatory filings indicate Tesla may come in just under the wire to meet its 2012 production and delivery goals for the Model S. In the meantime, the electric car startup has moved to boost the price per share for its IPO. Read more »
Interested in finding out what information Facebook is sharing about you through its new open-graph API? Developer Ka-Ping Yee has come up with a simple tool that shows you everything the social network is sending to anyone whose app or service uses the new feature. Read more »
Nissan says it collected 6,635 reservations for its upcoming LEAF electric sedan in just one day — far more than companies like Tesla, Aptera and Ford have raked in during early reservation periods for some of their models. Read more »
The federal government and Fisker Automotive have just closed a $528.7 million loan agreement meant to help the startup launch its luxury plug-in hybrid, the Fisker Karma, and set up manufacturing in Delaware for a line of lower-cost plug-in hybrids. Read more »
V-Vehicle, the startup with big name investors and plans to build low-cost gas sippers with funding from Uncle Sam, let its factory lease expire last month after losing a bid for federal loans. But now V-Vehicle has renewed its lease on the facility. Read more »
The news coming out of Palm just gets worse and worse. Analysts are quick to point out what Palm has done wrong to find itself in this untenable position, but the way forward is anything but clear. Is it time for Palm to call it quits? Read more »
Clean technology investment has kept up its recession-beating pace so far this year. Will the front-running startups in the field find an exit? The cleantech sector shows continuing momentum — and that’s just what longtime VC investors need. Read more »
This week Apple introduced a new line-up of MacBook Pros. While they look no different from the previous generation, it’s what’s under the hood — the stuff you can’t see — that makes all the difference. Read more »
Upstart Saba Motors, a finalist in the $10 million Automotive X Prize competition, is looking for cues in Dell’s business model as it sets out to build an electric sports car. Read more »
This morning the Irish government announced plans to offer electric car buyers grants of 5,000 euros ($6,815), in the country’s latest move to support a goal of having plug-in vehicles make up at least 10 percent of the national fleet by 2020. Read more »
Will the iPad change the way we watch video? The jury is still out on questions like these, but let’s face it: iPad users love video, and the video world loves the iPad, with numerous sites and apps already serving up movies, TV shows and web […] Read more »
In the move from gas powered cars to hybrids, plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles, our cars will become more like overgrown consumer electronics than ever before. That trend brings with it potential for a new breed of errors. Read more »
It’s official: the 800-pound green car gorilla has arrived. Executives from Daimler and Renault-Nissan Alliance this morning in Brussels announced a comprehensive partnership to share powertrains and architecture for compact cars and light commercial vehicles. 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 »
The end of the week is here so time to share the past week at Mobile Tech Manor with you, my friends. It was a typical week full of gadgets, software and good e-books. I used a different notebook each day and it went well. Read more »
“Extremely surprised” and “shocked” are some of the words that secretive startup V-Vehicle and local officials in Louisiana have used this week in the wake of V-Vehicle’s failed bid for a federal loan to build a low-cost, high-MPG car. Is it really so shocking? Read more »
