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Will Audi surprise us with an all-electric SUV?

Audi may be looking to get seriously competitive in the electric vehicle market, according to a report from Reuters. The company has plans prepared for a range of EVs that would compete with the likes of BMW and Tesla. In a market where innovation is seen as valuable, getting on board with electrification could help Audi avoid appearing out of step with the rest of the crowd (and the market), with analysts predicting a sharp uptick in battery-powered cars in the next several years. Building on the E-Tron line, which already includes the A3 E-Tron, Audi will begin offering an electric version of its R8 supercar in Europe next year. According to two confidential sources at Audi, the company also has plans for high-performance electric sedans and SUVs. It appears as though Audi is taking direct aim at Tesla with alternatives to the current Model S and the upcoming Model X SUV. Advantage: Audi? Without getting into too many specifics about such plans, the sources did confirm the existence of blueprints for an Audi Q8 E-Tron. Audi has said that any future electric cars would have a target range of 400 kilometers (about 249 miles), but previous reports suggest that the Q8 E-Tron could have a range of about 370 miles. That could be a serious challenge for Tesla. Advantage: Audi? All the German automakers have electric tricks up their sleeves. BMW has its i line, with the i3 making headway and the i8 expected to sell well. Mercedes-Benz has gotten into the game the B-Class Electric Drive. Also, its parent company Daimler has a stake in Tesla. Now, Audi appears poised to launch its own diverse electric fleet, and the next move might just be an SUV. And while this added competition might seem like tough news for Tesla, the proliferation of EVs, and the growing infrastructure that goes along with it, is more likely a tide that raises all (electric) ships - something that Elon Musk seems to understand very well.

Tesla loses $50 million in Q1, Model X could be delayed until 2015

Maybe it's just because of our interest in the green automotive sector, but to us, Tesla Motors has got to be the most interesting and exciting company in the US to watch. We get giddy, for instance, over the release of stuff like shareholder letters and financial results, whereas when other companies announce these things, we yawn. Our feelings about today's publication of the California automaker's 2014 first quarter financial results, with accompanying letter and call with financial analysts, is no different. They contained, after all, tons of small news nuggets that help us put together a better picture of how it will move towards its overarching goal of changing the gasoline-powered paradigm. The important numbers released today are $50 million and 7,535. The first is how much the company lost (on a GAAP basis) – using the non-GAAP method that Tesla prefers, it actually saw $17 million in net income – while the second is the number of cars it produced in the first three months of this fiscal year. Though the reported earnings per share of $0.12 exceeded the expectations of many analysts, it was less than some of the more rosier forecasts, and so the stock (TSLA) is taking a beating in the after hours market and has tumbled down 14.5 percent to $186.85 as of this writing. Musk gave instructions to the China team that they "spend money as fast as they can without wasting it." Stock price aside, there is a lot to be happy about. Contrary to some recent reports, Tesla is continuing to see a rise in domestic demand – up 10 percent in the quarter – along with "significant sequential increase in worldwide net orders for Model S." China, the market that could easily become the company's biggest, is also the source of glad tidings with CEO Elon Musk saying he is "blown away" by the level of enthusiasm there. Since getting government approvals, the necessary building out of the Supercharger and Service Center infrastructure needed to support owners is going full speed ahead and Musk gave instructions to the China team that they "spend money as fast as they can without wasting it." Already there is a four-to-five month wait for cars in the country's mid-sized cities, where the work needs to happen, and that has led to some customer frustration.

In-demand BMW i8 deliveries start in June, and it's more efficient than we thought

Memo to Elon Musk: objects in the rear-view mirror may be closer than they appear. In this case, it's a couple of plug-in BMWs. And they represent the closest thing to a true competitor for Musk and the Tesla Motors electric vehicles. The German automaker re-confirmed that demand for its upcoming i8 plug-in hybrid will exceed the initial supply batch, though BMW didn't release any specific numbers, Reuters says. BMW will start production next month with deliveries commencing in June for the 362-horsepower i8. The news is consistent with a November estimate from BMW that indicated that the first year of i8s were essentially spoken for in advance. We learned in late January that the number of i3 battery-electric vehicles imported to the US won't meet demand during that vehicle's first year of sales either. Here's the thing: all these people were interested in the i8 when BMW said the car got the equivalent of 94 miles per gallon. Turns out, those calculations were a bit off. Reuters also notes that the new numbers show the i8 gets 112 MPGe. That's on the lenient European cycle, but if anyone was holding out for an i8 with triple-figure fuel economy, your time (to get on the waiting list) has come.Motley Fool proposed late last month that BMW is positioned to be Tesla's only real competition when it comes to high-performance plug-in vehicles. The reasoning was that the BMW plug-ins, like the Teslas, are being built from scratch and don't just have EV powertrains dropped into existing vehicle platforms. Whether or not the competition is truly a two-team race is something we're not sure is completely decided yet, but we know it'll be fun to watch unfold either way. Want proof? Check out Autoblog's enjoyable First Drive of the i8 here.