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Tesla tires turning on Stretchla Vanagon EV conversion project

It is one thing to say you are going to Frankenstein a Tesla Model S with a pair of Siamese-twinned Volkswagen Vanagons and quite another to actually start taking your newly-acquired, smashed-up electric sedan apart in an effort to bring it back to life. Otmar Ebenhoech is doing just that, and having no small successes along the way. The Stretchla project, as it is being called, has officially started and our protagonist has put together another bit of video to document his progress and let us know about some of the different challenges he's encountered and conquered. While our original post about this endeavor featured video of the stretched Vanagon's drivetrain removal, this latest installment focuses on the Model S. Otmar received the Tesla in less-than-operable condition. Otmar received the Tesla in less-than-operable condition and has been tackling some of the basic problems one might expect to encounter: lots of error messages and an electrically disconnected battery pack. Without the aid of a manual or technical diagrams, he's removed the battery pack and discovered why it wasn't sending power to the car. Scroll below to watch the ten-minute presentation and celebrate some initial victories. You can also check out the official Stretchla blog for more photos and updates, including the most recent one that discusses how he talked himself into paying (*spoiler alert) $42,000 for a wrecked, non-functional electric car, along with more recent struggles with the steering rack. Hit us up in the comments to let us know what kind of trouble you would get into with a Model S drivetrain of your own. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Tour a Tesla showroom, get inside Model S on Google Street View

Even in the US states (like Texas) where Tesla is not able to sell cars at one of its stores, residents can now visit a virtual EV sales space. Thanks to Google Street View and the company's high-tech cameras, a digital visit to a Tesla store in Seattle on Westlake Avenue is now possible by clicking here. A slightly misshapen exterior view is available here. Tesla Tweeted its excitement about the virtual visitor's pass – fitting for a company that has to sell some of its vehicles online – and so we spent some time clicking around in the studio. It's so immersive we almost wanted to knock on the restroom doors and touch the exposed battery pack "skateboard" in the back room. Go ahead and tour the showroom in Street View here, and see if you can figure out how to climb inside one of the Model S EVs parked inside (it's possible). We've put together a gallery of screen grabs of our favorite odd-looking and stretched images from the store as well as a fun example of how this just doesn't quite compare with being there (day turns to night instantly, if you click just right around the red Model S). Still, it's fun. If you'd like to visit another plug-in vehicle in a dealership, check out this Chevy Volt at Bachman Chevrolet. Or, why not, the Nissan Engine Museum here. Anyone got other, similar options?

Tesla working on snake-like auto charger

When people complain about electric cars, the gripes usually focus on range anxiety and the hassle of waiting for a charge to complete. The physical act of plugging the vehicle into the charger is seldom that big of a concern. However, for the contingent of customers who find hooking up their model to be torturous, Tesla CEO Elon Musk appears to have a rather bizarre (but potentially cool) solution on the way. In back-to-back tweets (embedded below), Musk announced his company is hard at work on a new charger that would automatically emerge from the wall of your garage and hook up to a Model S to begin charging. To make the tech just the teeniest bit more impressive, he claims the bot works with all versions of the company's electric car Í– not just new ones. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Musk broached the idea of automatically plugging a Model S into the charger during the Tesla D unveiling and said, "we will probably do something like that." He didn't explain much more at the time, though. There still aren't many hard details on the scheme, but the idea of having a robotic snake living in the garage is both somewhat nightmarish and amazingly cool. We can't wait to see this thing in action. News Source: Twitter [1], [2]Image Credit: Tesla Green Tesla Green Automakers Ownership Technology Electric Sedan EV charging