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Honda, SolarCity expand sun-powered partnership with new $50 million fund

It must be solar-power announcement time. The DOE is ready to throw $25 million at concentrating solar power and New York State just announced $94 million for solar projects. At the broadly green-minded South By Southwest Eco festival in Austin, TX this week, Honda announced an expansion of its work with SolarCity to include a new fund that could finance up to $50 million in solar projects for dealerships and homes. Well, the homes of people who have purchased a Honda or Acura vehicle, at least. Stop us if this all sounds familiar. Honda and SolarCity announced back in early 2013 that they would work together on a $65-million fund to partially subsidize the installation of solar-panels at Honda dealers and on homes of Honda and Acura drivers. The new $50 million will be used to pay for not only the equipment but also the installation, which means that if you can get access to the money, you're looking at a pretty sweet 20-year lease deal to get solar energy for your home and could make it a bit more like the Honda Smart Home in Davis, CA (pictured). How sweet a deal? Well, there's zero down payment required and a 3-kW system starts could cost you just $25 a month, according to the fine print. Rates will vary, for sure, but if that sounds like something you're interested in, check out the Honda SolarCity site. The new fund builds on the previous work that, the two companies say, created enough solar capacity to offset "more than 400 million pounds of CO2 over a 30-year lifecycle." There's more in the press release below. SolarCity and Honda Announce $50 Million Commitment to Provide Solar Power to Honda and Acura Customers and Dealerships SAN MATEO and TORRANCE, Calif., Oct. 8, 2014 – Today, at the SXSW Eco conference in Austin, TX, SolarCity® (Nasdaq: SCTY) and Honda have renewed their partnership with a new fund expected to finance $50 million in solar projects. The new commitment will make solar power more affordable and available to Honda and Acura customers and dealerships in the U.S. The companies have completed or initiated a range of solar projects for homeowners, dealerships and corporate facilities that total more than 12.5 MW of solar generation capacity. The two companies have already brought enough solar capacity online to offset more than 400 million pounds of CO2 over a 30-year lifecycle . The $50 million fund is a follow-up to a $65 million fund the companies created in 2013.

Acura TLX's early sales results look promising

Acura made a bold move earlier this year when it decided to axe two fairly popular models in the TL and TSX and replaced them with a single sedan: the TLX. After all, how often have you seen modern automakers consolidating vehicles in the lineup? But early indications have shown that the gamble might have paid off, at least so far, because the TLX has been outselling its predecessors for its first months on sale.
Acura has only released TLX sales numbers so far for August and September, but the results have been promising. In August, the company moved 2,286 of the new sedans, beating last year's figures for the same month from both the TL at 2,227 sold and the TSX at 1,755. Then in September, the newcomer did even better with 3,884 units leaving dealers to surpass the two previous vehicles combined from their 2013 monthly stats.
According to The Truth About Cars, the TLX's September numbers were even more impressive when looking even deeper into Acura sales history. It claims that you would have to go back to March 2011 when the TL sold 3,995 units to have seen it beat the new TLX. And the TSX hasn't surpassed the latest model's figure since December 2010.

Acura launches ad spots for Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

Acura and Jerry Seinfeld are expanding their partnership as season three of the comedian's web series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, prepares to debut. Seinfeld has paired with director Barry Sonnenfeld to create a series of ads for the luxury brand showcasing the new Acura RLX and MDX.
There are eight spots, written by Seinfeld and directed by Sonnenfeld, that seemingly mock advertisements of the 1960s, with a deep-voiced, smooth-talking host highlighting the cars in question. It's all very folksy, Leave it to Beaver style humor. We'd be lying, though, if we said we weren't reminded a bit too forcefully of Dodge's successful range of Will Ferrell ads when watching the eight Acura spots.
"My idea for Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee was to show this certain aspect of the stand-up comedy world in a way that comedy fans would enjoy experiencing as if they were there," said Seinfeld. "There is absolutely no doubt that without Acura's support I would not have been able to continue beyond the initial experiment. And now Acura has enabled me to extend the concept by creating ads that fit the comedy tone of the show."