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Tesla Model X spotted testing in motion for first time

What we've got here appears to be the first spy video of the Tesla Model X testing in the real world – we think. The vehicle's lines match up with the Model X EV prototypes we've seen before, but the car is wearing camo and the video was shot from a distance on a zoomed-in cell phone. Sadly, no one gets out to show off the falcon-wing doors, but we're 99-percent sure this is the highly-anticipated all-electric crossover that's due later this year (especially since the vehicle can be seen better in this Instagram picture, which also says there was a Model S nearby and that the towing vehicle was marked at belonging to Tesla). So, what do we have in the video? There's (understandably) no engine noise and lots of squealing tires to be heard. The driver seems to be testing acceleration and turning maneuvers on an unoccupied airstrip in Alameda, CA, near some docks, and the CUV appears to handle the tests with aplomb. Granted, that may be wishful thinking and conflated with our experience in the Model S, but watch for yourself and tell us what you think.

There's a lot of odd, unauthorized Elon Musk gear out there

A strong personality like Elon Musk's, especially one that also happens to head some very successful companies, brings with it all kinds of perks and penalties and, well, some odd "benefits." What you're looking at above is a 12-gallon fish tank clock - called an "aqua clock" - that houses a picture of Musk, and you can get it on Zazzle for the eminently fair price of 48 British pounds ($77 US). A single Internet search turns up scads of results of Musk-associated merchandise, one of the most popular being Tesla's own apparel shop; in 2013 it was reported that the company pulls in millions just on jackets, shirts, and water bottles, and the SpaceX shop adds its own icing. A revenue stream like that is going to get some more personal company, which is why Zazzle also offers more than 100 different kinds of Musk-themed merchandise beyond that aqua clock, RedBubble has a couple of dozen offerings, Threadsquad throws in the singular "Elon Musk is my homeboy" tee and even Amazon rocks a poster page for the EV rock star. The man is also used to sell unrelated products. CosmeSys hair transplants, for example. All this for a man who needs no promotion assistance. If the Model 3 does what's promised, we're guessing it will lead to one piece of merch that is so far missing from the pile: the Mighty Musk action figure. News Source: Zazzle, RedBubble, Threadsquad, Tesla Motors Club Auto News Design/Style Green Marketing/Advertising Tesla merchandise t-shirt

Recharge Wrap-up: Tesla battery degradation graphed, Hyundai plans fuel cell hub in Korea

A man has created a graph of Tesla Model S battery degradation over time. Merijn Coumans of Holland is tracking the owner data gathered on from Model S owners in a single file and graphing it visually. Coumans continually updates the graph of drivers' maximum ranges to give a look at battery degradation over the life of the car. Coumans tracks mileage and even number of visits to Superchargers in his data. Tesla provides an eight-year battery guarantee regardless of mileage. Read more at the Steinbuch blog. US plug-in vehicle sales are expected to surpass 300,000 when the data is tallied at the end of this month. That is 30 percent of President Obama's goal of 1 million battery electric cars and plug-in hybrids by the end of 2015. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz admitted the US won't reach the goal, saying, "We're going to be a few years after the president's aspirational goal of the end of 2015, but I think that we are within a few years of reaching that goal." Green car analyst Alan Baum projects the 1 million EV milestone will be met in 2018. Read more at Hybrid Cars. Hyundai and the South Korean government plan to create a hub for fuel cell technologies. Hyundai and Kia will give up unused patents to automotive startups focused on fuel cells at a recently launched innovation center in Gwangju. "Hyundai Motor will offer substantial assistance in the whole process of corporate growth ranging from the development of ideas to industrialization to making inroads into global markets," says South Korea's President Park Geun-hye. Hyundai hopes this will make the city a center for hydrogen technology. Read more at Just Auto. Mayor Boris Johnson has approved a cycling superhighway for the city of London. Set to be built along the Thames embankment, the system of cycling lanes could help encourage more people to ride their bikes, reducing automotive traffic congestion and relieving pressure on other transit networks. Opponents are upset that the cycling highway will increase driving time across the city, and call cyclists a "loud minority," whose numbers doesn't justify the new lanes. Read more at Treehugger. Kansas and Nebraska are joining the challenge against the EPA's new ethanol emissions rules. The EPA's Moves2014 regulations seek to reduce automotive sulfur emissions by 60 percent, but, says Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, the ethanol emissions measurement model is faulty and was adopted without public comment or review.

Tesla Model S P85D makes old women swear like sailors

The Tesla Model S P85D, in its explosive insane mode, affects different people in different ways. Some will react to its shock-and-awe acceleration in exhilerated-yet-PG astonishment, while others express their amazement with slightly less couth. Today, we share a couple of reaction videos filled mostly with examples of the latter. When Brooks Weisblat is not filming his new all-wheel-drive electric car embarrassing Dodge Challenger Hellcats on the drag strip, he is apparently turning his camera on his friends as he takes them for rides in his battery-powered sedan. As the accelerator hits the floor, mouths open wide and the air turns sailor-blue as his victims crudely enunciate their amazement. It doesn't matter if they're a woman of a certain age or massively-muscled he-man, the astonishment is cursedly palpable. Likewise, Raphael Colantonio, when not acting as a video game director or musician, relishes imbuing his friends with expletives and giggles, courtesy of his car. You can watch a safe-for-work version of Brooks' video above, or see the unedited NSFW footage from both of these Tesla owners below. Enjoy! This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Toyota takes aim at Musk's criticism of hydrogen 'fool cells'

Tesla's Elon Musk has called hydrogen fuel cell cars "a load of rubbish" and "fool cells," and he's nowhere near alone in his disdain for the technology. Toyota has been fighting back waves of condescension for years now, and did so again when Senior VP Bob Carter took the stage at the recent J.D. Power Automotive Summit this month. His target was comments that Musk made at the Automotive News World Congress at the Detroit Auto Show, when Musk said an FCEV was an "extremely silly way" to store energy, that "the best-case hydrogen fuel cell doesn't win against the current-case battery" and that hydrogen's failings will become obvious in the next few years. Carter's response was that the fuel cell initiative isn't about the next few years. "This is not a 24-to-36-month play, but when you start looking into the 2020s," then you can see the necessity of hydrogen fuel cells, which Toyota considers an extension of EV technology, he said. The Toyota Mirai will begin its defense of the FCEV industry in the US later this year. The Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell is already available in California and Honda's hydrogen car will arrive in 2016. Until then, we can let some more of Carter's words ring in our ears: "If I was in a position where I had all my eggs in one basket," he said of Musk's BEV-only focus, "I would perhaps be making those same comments." News Source: Automotive News - sub. req. Green Tesla Toyota Electric Future Vehicles Hydrogen Cars toyota mirai fcev bob carter

Recharge Wrap-up: Telsa seeks to open new Texas Gallery, Gigafactory boosting NV real estate

Tesla's Gigafactory battery production facility is helping to create a real estate boom near its building site outside of Reno, NV. Land that stood vacant for years is being snatched up by developers eager to make a buck in what is appearing to become a new hub of high-tech industry. Much of the money influx seems to be coming from investors outside of the area. New apartment complexes are going up, and the usual six months of real estate inventory has been shrunken to about 2.6 months. Read more at Teslarati. Tesla is seeking approval for a limited-service showroom - or "Gallery" - in San Antonio, TX. The area's News 4 discovered the proposal in a schedule for the San Antonia planning commission. Texas laws don't allow Tesla to sell directly to consumers, so the gallery would offer the public a chance to see the car in person, but not take a test drive or get pricing information. The Tesla Gallery could be a foothold for Tesla in the San Antonio area, which, according to Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, would be a positive addition to the city and its future. Judge Wolff says that Tesla moving in "shows that San Antonio is up with technology, blends with other efforts that we're doing with solar power." Read more at ValueWalk. Kansas City Power & Light Company (KCP&L) will install over 1,000 ChargePoint EV charging stations in the greater Kansas City area. This will be the largest charging installation by a utility company in America. Drivers will be able to use these stations, which will be built by the end of this summer, for free for the first two years. The first 15 stations will be fast chargers provided by Nissan. KCP&L expects the charging network to help drive down electricity costs for customers in general. "People generally charge their cars at non-peak periods when KCP&L's electrical grid is being underutilized," says Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Energy Economist Ashok Gupta. "By stimulating electric vehicle adoption with their Clean Charge Network, what KCP&L is doing is encouraging people to use the electrical grid more efficiently and drive down the cost of electricity for everyone." Read more in the press release below. KCP&L BECOMES ELECTRIC VEHICLE INFRASTRUCTURE LEADER WITH GROUNDBREAKING ANNOUNCEMENT KCP&L's Clean Charge Network will be the largest utility electric vehicle charging station installation in the country KANSAS CITY, Mo. (Jan.

Five years ago, the DOE loaned Tesla Motors $465 million

*This post has been updated to reflect the nature of the new funding. Five years ago this week, the US Department of Energy finished the paperwork on its Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan to Tesla Motors. Despite a lot of controversy about that program, Tesla managed to pay back the $465 million loan early and with interest. The DOE made four other loans under the ATVM program – to Ford, Nissan, Fisker and a small startup, VPG, that wanted to make natural gas powered vehicles for people in wheelchairs. Ford and Nissan are paying the money back, Fisker and VPG are not. Speaking at the Washington Auto Show this week, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said that while the two loans "did not fully perform," the portfolio overall is doing well. Even the vehicle that VPG was going to make is still moving forward because another company stepped in. That's why Moniz was proud to discuss details of a separate funding program that will hand out over $55 million for what the DOE calls, "cutting-edge vehicle technologies that strengthen the clean energy economy." Moniz said the new money – as well as a separate $35-million funding program that will be available in February – will be used for improved batteries and other electrification technologies, lightweight materials and better engines for both light- and heavy-duty vehicles. One thing Moniz singled out was a way to make recharging an EV even easier. "This is directly supporting our EV Everywhere Grand Challenge," he said. The Secretary joked that the manager of the new funds has just had a baby, so anyone who wants some of the money should apply soon, while he's still groggy. "Our goal is to help establish these industries and help them grow," Moniz said, adding that the DOE may emphasize private partnerships in handing out the new loans. The two consequences of that would be to increase the amount of money available and also that, "we think there is an advantage in bringing more lenders and more banks to have experience in terms of getting into debt financing across this whole spectrum of technologies." Moniz said that the US government is handing out all of this money on generous terms.

You, too, can sleep in a Tesla Model S for just $85

The Tesla Model S has received near universal praise for its ability to combine the efficiency the electric power and the performance expected from a luxury sedan. However, rarely has the Tesla been complimented for its capability as a camper capable of sleeping two people; in fact that has never happened. Though, a guy named Steve on Airbnb in Phoenix, AZ, is trying to change that perception by renting out his Model S (pictured above) as a motel for $85 a night. If you're not familiar with it, Airbnb is a peer-to-peer lodging service that lets people rent their homes to visitors for short stays. Steve isn't offering his house, at least not all of it, just the Tesla Model S to sleep in. Although, folks are also able to use the kitchen, living room, TV and bathroom in his condo. It's actually hard to tell if this guy is joking or not during some portions of his ad. For example, you shouldn't worry about comfort because photos show an airbed able to sleep two people in the back of the Model S. Also, security shouldn't be a concern because renters are "locked securely in my attached garage" at night. Don't you feel safer already? Light shouldn't be a problem either because the vehicle is equipped with two remote-controlled candles. This might not be the most relaxing vacation to Phoenix, though. The host admits that the Tesla is his personal car, and that means renters need to be up by 8:00 AM for him to go to work. Since Steve's also a licensed limo driver, you can hire him to drive you around, even on guided tours. Related Video:

Connecticut may let Telsa sell EVs directly to customers

Republicans and Tesla lovers unite! Connecticut may become the next state to legalize the direct factory-to-customer distribution method championed by the California-based electric vehicle maker. And that's because one state senator had to drive a little too far to get his new rig. Republican Senator Art Linares was forced to drive to White Plains, NY, to buy his Model S (those senators get paid well, don't they) because Connecticut has just one showroom in the state, and no sales are allowed, Green Car Reports says. Linares, of course, says catching flack from the state's dealership association is worth the trouble because of the new jobs he says Tesla dealerships would bring. Connecticut has been close to the leading edge of electric-vehicle promotion, though still hasn't joined states like New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania in allowing for Tesla to employ its distribution model. Last March, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) started a new promotion called the "Connecticut Revolutionary Dealer Award, in which dealers were provided state incentives to sell electric vehicles. And last May, Connecticut became one of eight states (led by California) that were named part of the Multi-State ZEV Action Plan. Those states, which also included Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont, vowed to collectively have 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) on their roads by 2025. Featured Gallery Tesla Model S View 10 Photos News Source: Green Car Reports via Clean Technica, Transport EvolvedImage Credit: AP Photo / Al Behrman Green Tesla Electric ev sales dealer fight connecticut

Recharge Wrap-up: BMW tests AdBlue pumps, Drivr is a Tesla taxi service

BMW is testing AdBlue pumps in Germany. AdBlue fluid is used to remove NOx from diesel exhaust, and it is stored in its own tank within the vehicle. Filling AdBlue is easy enough for drivers to do it themselves, and with the proliferation of diesel vehicles in Europe, a pump filling system could make more sense than using the current hand-held containers. BMW is testing AdBlue pumps at three fueling stations in Munich and Berlin to help develop further AdBlue dispenser technology. Read more at Green Car Congress. Drivr Green Personal Transportation is a Tesla taxi service in Cincinnati. Two former employees of Tesla Motors founded the startup, which bills itself alongside ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft. Customers book a ride online, and are picked up by a Tesla Model S. The ride costs $2.50 per mile with a $15 minimum. Drivr currently operates three cars with seven drivers, with plans to lease another 10 Teslas and employ up to 30 drivers. The service will also be expanding to Denver soon, according to the website. Learn more at the Drivr website, or read more at Clean Technica. Ford is opening a research and development facility in Silicon Valley. The Ford Research & Innovation Center, which will be located less than three miles from Tesla Motors headquarters in Palo Alto, California, is expected to be one of the automotive industry's largest R&D facilities. "We're driving to be both a product and a mobility company, and ultimately to change the way the world moves," says Ford CEO Mark Fields. Read more at Automotive News. Law firms advising Fisker Automotive have been denied a $2.50-million fee enhancement in the car company's bankruptcy. Brown Rudnick LLP and Saul Ewing LLP were denied the extra fees, as a Delaware bankruptcy judge ruled there is "no evidence" that the firms provided anything more than what they originally expected. In denying the fee enhancement, the judge cited a "very high bar" for such awards. Read more at Law360. Featured Gallery BMW Tests AdBlue Pumps in Germany Related Gallery Tesla Factory News Source: Green Car Congress, BMW, Clean Technica, Drivr, Automotive News Green BMW Fisker Ford Tesla Transportation Alternatives Diesel Vehicles Electric recharge wrapup