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Tesla's Elon Musk made $1.1 billion yesterday, how about you?

Thanks to skyrocketing share prices, yesterday was a very big payday for Tesla founder Elon Musk. The already wealthy businessman added another $1.1 billion, ten percent of his net worth, to his overflowing wallet yesterday after Tesla's shares hit $248. This time last year, TSLA was trading at roughly $34 per share.
Tesla's latest jump in a year that has already seen share prices climb 65 percent is thanks to positive reports from Consumer Reports on the company's Model S electric sedan, and some kind words from Morgan Stanley about the brand's plans for a battery factory.
Despite all the good news for Tesla yesterday, not all of the $1.1 billion Musk earned came from his automotive pursuits. SolarCity, which Musk is also the largest shareholder in, saw its share prices jump 3.1 percent, as part of a 43-percent jump in 2014.

Superchargers power Tesla Model S EVs for over 8M miles [UPDATE]

Ahead of the company's press conference at the Detroit Auto Show tomorrow, Tesla is talking up its Supercharger network with some impressive numbers. Tesla's Alexis Georgeson told AutoblogGreen that Tesla Model S EVs have driven more than eight million miles on Supercharger fill-ups. That's the equivalent of 33-and-a-half trips to the moon and back. We can see how quickly the free Superchargers are getting popular by comparing this milestone to where we were four short months ago. At the end of September, after the Superchargers had been installed for a year, Tesla drivers had hit 3.2 million miles. The rapid increase since then is due mostly to there simply being a lot more chargers being available now. Tesla representatives told us that there are over 70 Supercharger stations in the world today (58 in North America and 14 in Europe) and that six were installed in the past week. Georgeson didn't have numbers on hand to say which stations were the most popular or other details, but did say that it's safe to assume that the Supercharger in Lusk, WY (pictured), part of a sweeping 'S' shape from Los Angeles through the northern US and on to Chicago and the East Coast, is not the most frequently visited. The next target for expansion is finishing the Boston-to-Miami corridor, which means putting in more Superchargers in North Florida and South Carolina. At CES last week, the Supercharger network won our AOL Technology of the Year award. *UPDATE: Tesla just let us know that 8 million is a little premature. The current number is actually closer to 7.5 million, but the total should crest the 8-million mark soon.

Tesla's 'D' Adds All-Wheel Drive, Safety Features

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk unveiled a new version of the luxury electric car maker's Model S sedan that includes all-wheel drive and self-driving "auto pilot" features. The open-to-the-public event Thursday night included free alcohol and test rides on an airport tarmac. With more than 1,000 Tesla fans in the audience, Musk explained that the current Model S is a rear-wheel-drive car with one motor, but a new version will have two motors - one powering the front wheels and one powering the rear wheels. All-wheel drive helps grip slippery roads and is standard on many luxury sedans. Analysts have said Tesla needed it to boost sales in the Northeast and Midwest, as well as Europe. The company sold 13,850 cars in the U.S. this year through September, down 3 percent from a year ago, according to Autodata Corp. Unlike all-wheel-drive systems on gas-powered cars, Tesla's system improves speed, acceleration and mileage by optimizing which motor is used, Musk said. The dual motor version of the P85 performance sedan will have a top speed of 155 mph, compared with the current 130 mph. It will accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds, akin to exotic sports cars. "This car is nuts. It's like taking off from a carrier deck," Musk said at the municipal airport near Los Angeles where another of Musk's companies - the commercial rocket firm SpaceX - is based. The crowd obliged with cheers and applause. Tesla is also significantly upgrading its safety features through a combination of radar, image-recognition cameras and sonar. The Model S will right itself if it wanders from its lane and brake automatically if it is about to hit something. Those features are offered on luxury competitors, as well as mainstream brands such as Ford, Hyundai and Toyota. But Tesla is going a step further. Its new system will move the car over a lane when the driver uses the turn signal. It will also use cameras to read speed limit signs and decelerate accordingly. Volvo has a system that reads signs and alerts drivers if they are over the limit but does not change the speed. Musk said "auto pilot" does not mean the car could drive itself - as he put it, a driver cannot "safely fall asleep." Pulling together all the driver-assist features impressed Brian A. Johnson, an analyst with Barclay's. "It's a year ahead of the timeframe I was expecting," he said.