2020 Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus 4dr Sedan on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Nissan edges out Tesla for most ZEV credits sold in California

When it comes to California zero-emissions vehicle (ZEV) credits last year, Nissan was selling and Mercedes-Benz was buying. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) put out its ZEV-credits numbers for the year that ended September 30, which is why we now know that Nissan, maker of the battery-electric Leaf, transferred 663.6 ZEV credits out of its account last year. That just edged out the 650.195 credits that Tesla sold. Chrysler's Fiat affiliate was a distant third, but its limited-production Fiat 500E was still able to generate some ZEV credits and then transfer out 235.2 of them. We don't know how much the buyers paid for these credits, since those details are kept private. It's an ever-changing rulebook over at CARB, anyway. On the flip side, Mercedes-Benz had to buy 663.6 ZEV credits in order to comply with clean vehicle-sales mandates in the most populous US state, indicative of the German automaker's gas-guzzling tendencies. Honda has cars that get better fuel economy than your average Benz, but its plug-in vehicles represent just a fraction of total sales and so it had to shell out for 542.5 ZEV credits. Chrysler-Fiat basically tread water, since the 237.8 ZEV credits it required for compliance canceled out gains on the other side of the ledger. Those Dodge Ram pickup trucks don't exactly help matters. Last year, Tesla sold the most ZEV credits while GM purchased the most. Overall, Californians bought about 3.5 million vehicles for the year that ended September 30, including 38,000 battery-electric vehicles, 30,000 plug-in hybrids and 570,000 conventional hybrids. The longstanding ZEV program means that California now has more than 100,000 ZEVs on its roads. Read this for more details on ZEV credit transfers in California. Featured Gallery 2013 Nissan Leaf View 55 Photos News Source: California Air Resources Board via Green Car Congress Government/Legal Green Mercedes-Benz Nissan Tesla Electric California zev credits

EV buyers not exactly happy with dealership experience

If Tesla Motors chief Elon Musk was an I-told-you-so type of guy, here's his chance to do so. It turns out that plug-in vehicle buyers are generally less satisfied with their dealership experience than conventional-vehicle buyers. And the dealers themselves don't like the process much, either. So says a study from the University of California, Davis. The report cited 43 interviews with automakers and dealers that sell in California as well as the JD Power 2013 Sales Satisfaction Index. The study found customer-satisfaction scores to be "much lower" for plug-in vehicle buyers than others. Maybe that's because the dealers themselves are less patient and find that selling plug-ins are more time-consuming, labor-intensive and stressful. And that's just getting the car out the door. More complications arise when dealing with the federal tax incentives issue. Of course, Tesla scored well, relative to the other dealerships. And all that gives more credence to the company's insistence on selling its vehicles directly to customers and without a third-party dealership network. Representatives of some of these dealership groups have been lobbying against the prospect of Tesla getting direct-sales rights. Michigan is the latest battleground between Tesla and pro-dealership entities. See below for an abstract on the UC Davis report and then read more here. New Car Dealers and Retail Innovation in California's Plug-In Electric Vehicle Market Abstract: Innovative new products like plug-in electric vehicles may need new approaches to market and sell them. We conducted 43 interviews with automakers and dealers selling plug-in vehicles in California's major metro markets and analyzed data on customer satisfaction with new car dealers and Tesla stores. Initial findings revealed: • Plug-in vehicle buyers rated the dealer purchase experience much lower than conventional vehicle buyers while Tesla earned industry-high scores; • Plug-in vehicles returned higher gross profits but place greater demands on dealers, including the provision of support services beyond traditional offerings; • New retail approaches undertaken by 'dealer innovators', including new methods for building and scaling dealer competence, could improve the PEV buying experience; an • Public incentives could better align with established dealer practices and business drivers to improve program effectiveness.

Tesla Model S vulnerable to hackers?

Next time you walk by a parked Tesla and its sunroof is opening and closing with nobody sitting inside or around it, you could be witnessing a hacker moment. For all of its strengths as a car, the Model S reportedly has a weak spot: the security of its API (application programming interface) authentication, according to an article in the O'Reilly Community by George Reese, executive director of cloud management at Dell. Tesla develops and uses its own API authentication protocols, which have made access to certain Model S functions too easy for hackers, Reese says - himself a Model S owner.
At question is the Tesla REST API, which is accessed via a web-based portal, usually by Model S owners with their iPhone or Android-based smartphone, to perform a variety of menial tasks and check the status of the car. The Tesla-registered e-mail and password of the car owner is used to access the API through a web portal, which creates a "token" that lasts for three months. During that period, owners access the Tesla REST API via the token without the use of their log-in information. Unfortunately, the tokens and their respective cars are stored on website databases that are all too easy to hack, Reese explains, and if a hacker gains access, "it has free access to all of that site's cars for up to three months with no ability for the owners to do anything about it." On top of that, there is no way to revoke access of a compromised application.
Reese says that "there's nothing in the API that (can? should?) result in an accident if someone malicious were to gain access." The API can check the car's battery charge, operate climate control, operate the sunroof, identify car location, honk the horn, open the charge port, and perform other similar operations. But, he cautions, "Perhaps the scariest bit is that the API could be used to track your every move."