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Recharge Wrap-up: Telsa's aerodynamic modeling program, new toll plan for NYC

A video shows the digital aerodynamic modeling Tesla used when making the Model S. The video is from Exa, which uses predictive airflow software to create a "digital wind tunnel." Tesla's aerodynamics guru Rob Palin said the digital modeling helped them pinpoint areas with the most drag - the mirrors and wheels being the big anchors - and make the car more slippery overall. "One of the objectives with the Model S was to minimize the airflow around the front wheels and to line up the airflow so it hits the front wheels head on," says Palin. "This was an area where we made a huge improvement from the initial concept designs to the final design." See the car's 0.24 drag coefficient in action in the video above, and read more at Teslarati. A new toll plan in New York City could help ease congestion and pay for infrastructure. A report from Move NY Fair finds that drivers in the outer boroughs end up paying most of the tolls, while Manhattan drivers do not. "The toll levels charged to motorists do not accurately reflect travel demand nor do they appropriately act as a disincentive to drive into the most congested part of the city," according to the report. Under the new plan, driver's entering central Manhattan would pay $8, while tolls would be lowered by 45 percent on bridges that don't lead into the central business district. The plan would encourage mass transit, and generate an expected $1.5 billion in annual revenue. Read more at Wired. More and more, utilities are getting into the business of electric vehicle charging. More energy providers are looking to install and operate EV charging stations in order to promote electric driving and create new revenue selling electricity. EV charging can also help to manage the grid more efficiently. Some charging companies and energy consumers oppose utilities getting into the charging game, though. They worry about stifling competition and burdening customers with the costs of creating the infrastructure. The large utility companies, though, are better poised to take on such large projects. Read more at The New York Times. Related Gallery Tesla Model S: Quick Spin View 33 Photos News Source: Teslarati, Wired, New York TimesImage Credit: YouTube: exacorporation Green Tesla Alternative Fuels Electric recharge wrapup

Automaker interest in open Tesla EV patents is decidedly lukewarm

Tesla Motors made big headlines when CEO Elon Musk announced a few weeks ago that he would open up all of the automaker's patents. The response has been interesting, to say the least, with some electric vehicle advocates and investor groups praising the news and others saying that what Musk did wasn't all that big a deal, in the end. "No major car company would be foolish enough to use Tesla's patents." – Motley Fool The Motley Fool, for example, says that the patents themselves are not all that revealing since, "There often is only so much information that you can get from a patent. Only Tesla knows how to put it all together in a cost-effective manner." And who's to say that once you dig into the patents, they won't be outdated? A search of the US Patent Office reveals 1,444 patents for "Tesla and motors" including some from inventor Nikola Tesla and other sources. The Washington Post says Tesla Motors itself only has around 300 patents. The Motley Fool also notes that Musk's statement was not a legal document and that, "no major car company would be foolish enough to use Tesla's patents based on some undefined words in a blog post by one executive who may not even be working at Tesla in five years." Then there's the fact that the battery technology that Tesla uses, linking up thousands of small format cells from Panasonic, is not something most other automakers have expressed an interest in. The cell patents belong to Panasonic and most automakers use larger format cells anyway. Still, there is some excitement over the announcement in the EV space. The most concrete evidence we have of a major global OEM working with Tesla are the stories about BMW and Nissan meeting with Tesla in secret to discuss charging technology. Details are sadly lacking, but BMW of North America's product and technology communications manager, Matthew Russell, told AutoblogGreen, "We can confirm that BMW Group executives met on June 11th, 2014 with Tesla executives. Both companies are strongly committed to the success of electric vehicles and discussed how to further strengthen the development of electro mobility on an international level. We are interested in the success of electro mobility, but we cannot comment on the business announcements from other companies." But the news has been greeted with a lukewarm 'meh' from most of the rest of the automotive industry.

Battery price skeptic says Tesla's $35,000 EV won't happen [UPDATE]

UPDATE: The story's been updated to include a response from Tesla. It's a good thing Dr. Menahem Anderman doesn't run the Nevada state government. The longtime battery-technology researcher, who heads the Advanced Automotive Batteries conference, isn't buying Tesla Motors' claim that it'll get lithium-ion battery costs down to less than $100 per kilowatt hour within the next 10 years. That would be bad news, since that price will be key to the automaker's ability to make a $35,000 electric vehicle. The good doctor is instead pegging battery costs at about $167/kWh in 2025, and says they will "unlikely" drop below $200/kWh before the end of the decade. He makes a rather detailed case in his report, which can be found here (PDF). We all know how confident CEO Elon Musk has been on his company's price predictions to drop the price of a pack by "more than 30 percent." As for Anderman's estimates, Tesla is taking the high road, as company spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson, in an e-mail to AutoblogGreen, declined to comment directly on the report, choosing instead to defer to Musk's previous comments. Tesla has said its planned Gigafactory will provide the scale needed to bring battery costs down enough to make the $35,000 EV. By Anderman's estimates, the battery costs will be more commensurate to a $50,000 EV, which isn't horrible, but it's not the type of mass-market price that the industry (and Tesla stockholders, for that matter) are expecting. Earlier this month, Nevada offered an incentive package worth about $1.3 billion to Tesla, which is planning its plant near Reno. Battery-maker Panasonic is an investor in the factory as well.