tesla

Elon Musk promises Tesla battery-swap demo on June 20

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has promised a swappable-battery demo at a company event on June 20 event.

In a Tuesday tweet, Musk said the Tesla event, which will take place at 8 p.m. PT Thursday at the company's design studio in Hawthorne, Calif., will include a "live pack swap demo."

Rumors have been swirling for months that Musk's Tesla was working on a technology that would allow drivers with batteries running low to get out of one of its electric cars and swap the battery for one that's ostensibly full. That would allow for … Read more

Tesla Model S and the Top 5 electric cars: CNET (On Cars, Episode 20)

Subscribe:

iTunes (HD) | iTunes (SD) | iTunes (HQ)

RSS (HD) | RSS (SD) | RSS (HQ)

Follow @CNETOnCars

We round up and update a bunch of favorites this episode, including a look at the Tesla Model S that, since we first saw it in fall 2012, has gone on to become about the most celebrated car in the world.

We have also updated our Top 5 Electric Cars list with two cars getting bumped by new entrants in the market; six months from now we'll do it again as more solid EVs are in the wings. It's … Read more

Tesla expanding Supercharger network for coast-to-coast drives

PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- It appears that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk got bored with the Internet. After PayPal, Musk said creating another Internet company would have been like falling off a log. Instead he went for some more risky and ambitious projects -- sustainable energy and space exploration to make life interplanetary.

The sustainable energy project turned into Tesla Motors, and that seems to be going well after years of struggles and naysayers. "If I had a dollar for every time someone brought up DeLorean or Tucker I wouldn't need to IPO," Musk said in … Read more

Tesla repays government loan early, a boost for electric cars

In what could be viewed as a shot in the arm for U.S.-made electric cars, Tesla Motors has repaid a government loan nine years early.

"Today, Tesla Automotive repaid the entire remaining balance on a $465 million loan from the Department of Energy nine years earlier than originally required," the U.S. Department of Energy said in a statement Wednesday.

That clean-energy loan was made in 2010.

And the U.S. energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, seemed to address critics of clean energy loans while trumpeting the success of Tesla.

"When you're talking about cutting-edge … Read more

Tesla's path to the upgradable car

At Tesla's sunny headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., I asked CTO JB Straubel when to expect the next model upgrade for the Model S. He quickly dismissed the automaker cliche of updates based on model years, saying that Tesla would release new features for the Model S as his team finished creating them.

One of the Model S' great strengths, beyond its zero emissions, minimal running costs, excellent driving character, and luxury appointments, is that Tesla can deliver over-the-air updates to its cabin electronics.

And those updates can be very extensive, as the Model S features few hard controls. … Read more

Tesla stock revs up after first profitable quarter

Tesla's stock is on a roll following the electric car company's blockbuster first quarter.

As of about 9:15 a.m. PT Thursday, shares had already risen almost 25 percent in trading, reaching close to $70 apiece.

Investors were clearly geared up by Tesla's first-quarter results, in which the company reported a profit of $11 million, its first time in the black since it launched 10 years ago. The company also witnessed an 83 percent jump in revenue, which hit $562 million.

Some Apple talk may also have aroused investor interest.

In an interview with Bloomberg published … Read more

Tesla hits first profitable quarter ever

In his quarterly earnings letter to shareholders on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that "Tesla reached profitability in the first quarter of 2013 for the first time in our 10-year history."

Not only did the electric car company exceed analyst expectations, but Musk said (PDF) Tesla even outdid its own expectations for deliveries and gross margin. The company reported adjusted earnings of 12 cents per share on revenue of $562 million, which is far higher than the expected 3 cents per share. Its profit was $11 million after charges.

Tesla's total revenue for the first quarter … Read more

Tesla eyes 'autopilot' partnership with Google

Tesla, the electric car maker, has been in talks with Google about the development of a self-driving car, the former's CEO revealed Tuesday.

In a Bloomberg interview, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that his company has "had some technical discussions with Google" about the search giant's self-driving car technology. However, he pointed out that the technology that Google uses, which is based on laser sensors to detect what's around, is too expensive to be feasible anytime soon.

Instead, Musk told Bloomberg, he'd like to see a camera-based system that "sees" what's … Read more

Thor's hammer gets a Tesla coil, puts out 80,000 volts

Thor's hammer + Tesla coil = zzzzap. Before we get into this, let's talk about safety. You probably shouldn't try this at home. Or at work. Or pretty much anywhere else. We're talking 80,000 volts of electricity. Unless you really know what you're doing, don't try to mess with the elemental forces of nature that were harnessed for this project.

Caleb Kraft from Hackaday and Tesla coil expert Staci Elaan teamed up to bring a comic book legend to life. To make Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, truly summon lightning, they had to provide the lightning in the form of a solid-state Tesla coil embedded into a foam prop. At the push of a button, 80,000 volts of electricity arc from the hammer's top.… Read more