Despite being invited by the Transport Minister of India to set up a manufacturing facility in the country, Tesla has revealed that it has finalized a new manufacturing factory in China.

Tesla's new plant will be located outside Shanghai in a free-trade zone. This makes the electric vehicle manufacturer the first foreign company to set up a factory on its own in China. As of now, a company is required to have a tie-up with a local company to set up a factory in China. In 2017 the Asian country has accounted for 18.7% of Tesla's total sales. The total electric vehicle sales in China stood at 3.51 lakh units last year and the country aims to cross the 70 lakh unit sales mark by 2025. In September, the country announced that it was working on a plan to phase out conventionally powered cars.

Speaking on the occasion of the company's Q3 results, Elon Musk - CEO of Tesla revealed that the production is tentatively expected to start in 2020 and the company aims to build over 2 lakh cars annually to serve the Chinese as well as other Asian markets.

With India announcing an electrification target by 2030, this could be a setback for the Indian government. This target date is even earlier than some other countries that have a partial electric infrastructure in place already.

Source - CNBC

YouTube user Jim Beaubien has spotted the upcoming Tesla semi-truck in action, albeit in the body of a regular truck.

It is highly likely that Tesla is testing the electric powertrain and battery performance of the truck. Visible clues to this claim include a lack of exhaust vents and a large battery pack behind the driver's cabin. A small diesel-powered engine is also heard, most likely powering the compressor for the air brake system. Under US laws, trucks must have an engine-driven compressor.

The jerk-free nature of the truck moving from a standstill is commendable. A few days ago, a similar mule was spotted along with the prototype of the Tesla truck at the Inyokern Airport, which is a known testing site for the company.

Image Credit - Teslarati

Tesla Motors' CEO and serial entrepreneur, Elon Musk, has recently revealed the company's future plans. In his detailed blog post, Musk has described the way forward for the American electric car manufacturer, and has talked about what all milestones he expects Tesla to achieve in the next 10 years.

Musk started off by remembering a similar blog post he made around 10 years ago, when Tesla Motors was in its inception stages. The first master plan, as he terms it, has now been completed, and thus the CEO has penned down the strategy of what the company needs to do in the future. He calls it "Master Plan, Part Deux".

Following are the major points of his blog post:

Tesla - SolarCity Merger

Musk stressed on the fact that Tesla Motors was formed to provide sustainable energy solutions to people throughout the world. The CEO is also a co-founder and major investor in SolarCity, an American company that deals in solar power systems for houses and industries. Last month, Tesla had pitched Rs. 23,500 crore to acquire SolarCity, and the CEO's blog post confirms that the two companies will soon come under the same umbrella. Musk claimed that since both the companies are chasing the same overarching goals, it would be better to merge them for easing the overall operations. Through the said merger, both companies would be able to achieve the goal of integrated energy generation and storage.

Expand product portfolio - Compact SUV and pickup coming soon

Tesla Motors managed to develop quite a stir when they launched the Model 3. Priced at USD 35,000 (around Rs. 22 lakh), the Model 3 is the most affordable Tesla car ever produced. And CEO Elon Musk has made it clear that they won't launch any product below the Model 3 in the near future. However, the company will now try to stretch its portfolio to various segments. As a result, Tesla is currently working on a Compact SUV and a pickup truck. Launch deadlines haven’t been made public.

Commercial Vehicles

Elon Musk also revealed Tesla's plans to venture into the commercial vehicle space. The automaker is reportedly working on heavy-duty trucks and high passenger density urban transports (buses). These Tesla commercial vehicles are still in their early stages of development, and will thus be introduced next year. Musk claims that these new commercial vehicles from Tesla will reduce the cost of cargo transportation, while making it safer and fun to operate.

Autonomous Driving

Tesla's autopilot feature has been under scanner since the last few weeks. But the CEO still stressed that Tesla would soon be introducing fully-autonomous driving in its cars. This will allow the users to simply punch-in their destination, and the car will automatically take them to the entered spot. Moreover, customers will be able to summon their distantly parked Teslas, so that the car can drive itself and pick them up, without any human intervention.

Tesla shared fleet

Elon Musk has also talked about the possibility of earning revenue from your car, when you aren't using it. For this to be applicable, autonomous driving would need to be approved by the concerned regulatory authorities of the region. As part of this mission, customers would be able to add their Tesla car to the company’s shared fleet through the Tesla car app. The customers' vehicle will then operate as a fleet car and earn revenue for the owner. The CEO claims that this could help lower the overall cost of ownership of the Tesla car.

Source: Tesla Blog

Union Transport Minister, Nitin Gadkari, has extended an official invitation to Tesla motors for setting up a manufacturing plant in India. Gadkari met top officials of the EV manufacturer during his visit to Tesla's manufacturing facility in San Jose, California. Interestingly, this visit comes 10 months after India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi's trip to the same facility.

In order to lure the company to make India a manufacturing hub for its Asian operations, Nitin Gadkari has also offered to provide land near any one of the major ports of the country, in order to facilitate exports to South and South-East Asian nations. Moreover, the minister has offered to promote the possibility of a joint venture with Tesla and the existing Indian automotive OEMs, in order to work in the field of commercial and public vehicles.

Tesla officials have welcomed the Indian invitation and have said that the offer would be considered at the right time in the future. Tesla is indeed looking to set up a manufacturing hub in Asia, in order to enhance its footprint in the market. Reportedly, the company is also in talks with China to put up a plant near Shanghai.

Source: Autocar Professional

Tesla Motors has made an offer worth Rs. 23,500 crore to buy SolarCity, an American company that deals in solar power systems for houses and industries. Tesla, in an official statement, has suggested that SolarCity's technology can be used to supply energy to its fleet of electric cars.

Interestingly, Elon Musk, who is the founder and CEO of Tesla Motors, was a co-founder of SolarCity, which is now under the reigns of his cousin. Musk is also the largest shareholder of both companies, and is currently designated as the Chairman of the SolarCity board. Moreover, Tesla supplies battery packs for the solar systems employed by SolarCity. Keeping in mind this close relation between the two companies, market experts suggest that a deal will be signed soon.

The proposal from Tesla involves a stock-swap deal under which, Tesla will exchange all outstanding shares of the common stock of SolarCity, by Tesla common shares. As a result, Tesla is offering a 21 to 30 percent hike on each share of SolarCity. In monetary terms, this deal is being valued at £2.4 billion, which translates to around Rs. 23,623 crore.

If the above deal does see the light in the near future, it will make Tesla the only vertically integrated energy company in the world to offer end-to-end solar power solutions. These would include solar systems at your home or office, electric cars, and a solar system to supply power to charge the electric car.

SolarCity is currently under a debt of $3 billion, while the most recent earning reports claim that the company isn't profitable either. But SolarCity officials claim that they would start making profits from the end of this year.

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, has indicated that owners of its upcoming car - the Tesla Model 3, will not be given free lifetime access to the company's supercharging stations. Interestingly, this facility is currently free to all owners of present Tesla models. The announcement was made at Tesla's annual shareholders' meeting, which was held in California.

At the meeting, Elon Musk said, "Free supercharging fundamentally has a cost". So as a matter of fact, Tesla used to charge customers for the free lifetime supercharging in the car's price itself. But, the Model 3 is supposed to be the company's mass market, high volume product, which demands an economical price tag. As a result, the company decided to decouple the free supercharging package from the cost of the car. This would make purchasing the vehicle easier on the customer's pocket.

At present, Tesla has 632 superchargers across the globe, which are mainly located at highway malls between major cities. The company claims that these superchargers can charge Tesla cars in just 30 minutes to give a driving range of around 273 kilometres. This supercharging facility is currently free to all owners of the Model S and Model X.

Source: ET Auto

Tesla Motors has revealed the Model 3 electric car. It will be the company's most affordable model with prices starting from US $ 35,000. The production of the car is scheduled to start in late 2017.

The Model 3 is a 4-door sedan with 5 seats, a large touchscreen instrument panel located at the centre of the dashboard and a panoramic sunroof.

The car has a claimed range of 215 miles (346 km) and a 0-96 km/h time of less than 6 seconds. More powerful versions have been planned as well. 

The Model 3 will come with Tesla's supercharger technology. Tesla plans to have 7,200 superchargers by the end of 2017 in Europe, North America and Asia when the car goes on sale.

The car can been pre-ordered for US $ 1,000. India is one of the countries from which Tesla will be accepting pre-orders for the Model 3. However, the company has not yet revealed any plans of making an official entry into the country.

Tesla has issued a recall of 90,000 Model S sedans over a suspected issue with the seatbelt. The issue came to light earlier in November, after one report was sent to the company of a front seatbelt assembly breaking when a customer turned around to talk to a passenger in the rear seat.

Tesla has emailed customers, requesting them to bring their cars to any of the company's 125 service centres for an inspection of a bolt that attaches the seat belt mechanism to the body of the car. Tesla may send service technicians to the customers if required. Most of the vehicles affected are in the USA with a few others in Asia and Europe. There haven't been any reports of accidents or injuries due to the suspected issue.

Given the fact that seatbelts are a preliminary safety feature, it's no wonder that Tesla swung into action after just one incident was reported.

Source: Reuters

Electric car manufacturer Tesla, has launched the Model X SUV at a price of $ 132,000. The vehicle comes in six or seven seater configurations.

The Model X has a sloping roofline, giving it a coupe-like look and "falcon wing" (gullwing) rear doors which, the company claims, allow easy access to second and third row seats from any parking space. The car has a large windshield with solar tinting, independently reclining seats in the second row and third row seats that can be folded flat. Other equipment includes daytime running lights, maps and navigation with real time traffic updates, power-folding and heated ORVMs, automatic keyless entry, four child seat attachments and parking sensors.

The Model X has a drag coefficient of 0.24 and an active spoiler, which deploys to one of three preset positions when the vehicle is in motion. The vehicle has a floor-mounted battery, which lowers the center of gravity and reduces the risk of a rollover. The company claims that the battery support structure strengthens the car against side impact intrusions. The front trunk of the car acts as an impact-absorbing crumple zone.

Additionally, the Model X is equipped with camera, radar and sonar systems, which scan the surroundings and providing the driver with real-time feedback to avoid collisions. At highway speeds, the brakes of the car are automatically applied in an emergency.

The Model X also comes with medical grade HEPA filter, which filters out pollen, bacteria, viruses and pollution from outside air before circulating it into the cabin. There are three modes - circulate with outside air, re-circulate inside air and a bioweapon defence mode.

The Model X gets an all-wheel drive system and a 90 kWh battery. The car is available in two variants:

90D

• Front motor - 259 HP
• Rear Motor - 259 HP
• Range - 414 km
• 0-96 kph in 4.8 seconds
• Top speed - 250 kph

P90D

• Front motor - 259 HP
• Rear motor - 503 HP
• Range- 402 km
• 0-96 kph in 3.8 seconds (3.2 seconds with Ludicrous Speed Upgrade)
• Top speed - 250 kph

The Model X has a towing capacity of 5,000 lbs (2,273 kg).

Tesla is offering an 8-year, infinite mile battery and drive unit warranty on the SUV.

Later this month, Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, is scheduled to make a trip to the US West Coast. He is expected to visit the state of California and try to attract investments and expertise for the Digital India programme as well as innovation projects and clean energy initiatives. He will meet top IT CEOs of Silicon Valley. The trip itinerary could see the inclusion of a visit to the headquarters of Tesla.

Tesla, which manufactures premium electric cars, could be persuaded to bring its technology to India. The company could manufacture affordable electric cars in the future. Tesla's latest inventions, Powerwall and Powerpack, are lithium-ion charged batteries with large storage capacities. These could be used to in off-grid power systems that could be introduced in India.

The Prime Minister is also likely to visit the Google headquarters. India-born Sundar Pichai, has been appointed as the next Chief Executive Officer of the company.

Source: ET Auto