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Recharge Wrap-up: Derailing Malaysia's B10 plans, Tesla and Solyndra

Tesla Motors will lease the Solyndra building near its Fremont, California factory. The manufacturing facility is more than 500,000 square feet, but the cost of the lease and the production capacity remain undisclosed. The lease of the building, "located conveniently down the road from the Tesla Factory, gives us the space to expand our manufacturing and build more engineering labs as we build up production," says a Tesla spokesperson. The added manufacturing space will help Tesla meet its production goals for the upcoming Model X electric SUV. Trip Chowdhry, senior analyst at Global Research Equities, says that shifting some engineering duties from the Deer Creek facility to the new one could help solve current parking shortages, as well. Read more at Business Finance News. BMW has expressed concerns over Malaysia's planned B10 biodiesel mandate. Malaysia recently announced that it would use crude palm oil to make the B10 blend that would be required to be sold beginning in October, up from the current B7 mandate. "In our tests with B10 biodiesel worldwide, we have found technical challenges," says BMW Group Malaysia Managing Director and CEO Alan Harris, such as the fatty acid methyl ester in palm oil thinning motor oil. Mercedes-Benz also urges reconsideration of B10. The Malaysia Automotive Institute says it will include representatives from the auto industry in talks with the Malaysian Palm Oil Board. Read more from The Star. Pacific Ethanol's acquisition of a competitor, Aventine Energy Holdings, has been approved by shareholders. Pacific is buying Aventine for $192 million in stock. In 2009, ethanol suffered a price drop that forced Pacific Ethanol to decrease production and declare bankruptcy for four of its plants. Now its base extends from the West Coast to the Midwest, as Aventine Energy Holdings has four plants in Illinois and Nebraska. The merger more than doubles Pacific Ethanol's production capacity, making it the fifth-largest ethanol producer in the US. Read more from The Sacramento Bee. Related Gallery Tesla Model X View 15 Photos News Source: Business Finance News, The Star Online, The Sacramento BeeImage Credit: Tesla Green Plants/Manufacturing BMW Tesla Alternative Fuels Biodiesel Ethanol Electric recharge wrapup

2014 BMW X5 configurator goes live

BMW won't begin selling the 2014 X5 for another few months, but the German manufacturer has brought the third-generation SAV's configurator online, allowing interested customers to poke around and look at the X5's optional goodies.
Like the 3 Series, the X5 is available in a number of lines that load up extras automatically. There's also a do-it-yourself truck that allows owners to pick and choose if they're not enamored with the styling or trim of one of the dedicated packages. As usual, the options list is quite vast, regardless of which line is chosen. We were able to easily take the new, rear-drive X5 sDrive35i, which started at $52,800, and bring the total price up past $80,000.
The new X5 carries over its 4.4-liter, twin-turbo V8 from the current model, as well as BMW's excellent 3.0-liter, turbocharged inline-six. The X5 xDrive35d, with the 3.0-liter turbodiesel will also be available on the third-generation SUV, but won't hit dealers until early 2014. BMW is stepping outside of the X5's usual bounds, offering a dedicated rear-drive model, available with all the same trimmings as the xDrive vehicles. Head over to BMW's US consumer page and have a go.

BMW moves car-sharing program from San Francisco to Seattle

BMW is shifting more focus towards mobility services, which include car sharing and ride sharing. A new service, called ReachNow, will start out from Seattle and expand to other cities later. At first, the main competitors are ZipCar and Car2go, but ReachNow will also have to battle Uber. In a number of European cities, BMW already operates under the DriveNow program, which is getting revamped to better suit the US marketplace. Up until December, BMW made DriveNow available to San Francisco customers, but was forced to pull out due to parking space issues that are characteristic to SF. Perhaps Seattle makes things easier for BMW, though parking in any major metro area is sure to present some level of difficulty. BMW's idea is to offer pay-per-use pricing for driving a BMW 3-Series, BMW i3 electric vehicle or a Mini, which can be picked up from a street corner either by a 30-minute reservation or on-the-go, depending of the user's needs. Flexibility is key, whether you need a car for just a short while or for a longer weekend trip. The Seattle fleet will consist of 370 vehicles distributed across town. Later on, the service will expand to offer taxi-like ride sharing, to compete with Uber. As the glimmer of car ownership has faded in big cities, BMW wants to make sure it can still put people behind steering wheels or in the back seats. Luxury vehicle ride sharing is also on the cards, seemingly as a way to balance out the decidedly utilitarian choice of cars currently available. Related Video: Green BMW Transportation Alternatives Driving Ownership Technology Emerging Technologies Uber car sharing zipcar car2go apps