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Recharge Wrap-up: No Tesla Gigafactory deal with California, BMW i3 recalled

Before the Nevada announcement was hinted at, a deal to incentivize a Tesla Gigafactory in California fell through. Tesla was looking for around $500 million in incentives, which the California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development was willing to offer in tax breaks along with making the permit and environmental processes easier. According to Senator Ted Gaines, there still remained "a gap between what Tesla wanted and what California was willing to offer," the contents of which were undisclosed. California could still be chosen for another of Tesla's battery plants, should those ever materialize. Read more at The Desert Sun. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) will consider allowing a bit of compliance flexibility to its Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) regulations for some automakers. CARB will hold a hearing to discuss giving intermediate volume manufacturers (IVMs) - carmakers that do between 4,501 and 60,000 new vehicle sales in the state - some leniency catching up to the larger manufacturers when it comes to clean vehicle production. The ZEV regulation changes take into account the amount of revenue IVMs have available for developing the cars, particularly plug-in hybrids. Read more at Green Car Congress or see the notice from CARB here. Certain units of the BMW i3 are subject to an airbag recall. For cars built March 31, 2014, the passenger airbag inflator may have been assembled incorrectly, which could keep it from deploying when needed. Owners will be notified by BMW, and the problem will be fixed for free. The recall also affects certain 2014 Mini Cooper models. Learn more at the NHTSA website. The Renault-Nissan Alliance is providing 200 electric vehicles to telecommunications company Orange in France. The cars, which will include the Nissan Leaf, Nissan e-NV200, Renault ZOE and Renault Kangoo ZE, will be used mostly for carsharing. Through the program, Orange employees can book a car for work or personal travel using a smartphone. The Alliance will also help Orange install charging stations for the new cars. The addition of the EVs to the fleet will help Orange achieve its goal of reducing its carbon footprint by 20 percent by 2020. Read more in the press release, below. Jianghuai Automobile Company (JAC) is delivering its first 100 EVs to the US. The shipment is part of a larger order of 2,000 cars to be sold by GreenTech Automotive in the US market. Read more at ECNS.

Recharge Wrap-up: more than 600K EVs worldwide; Musk sees demons in AI

More than 600,000 battery electric and plug-in hybrid cars have been sold worldwide. This number is up 20 percent in the last four months, and includes the top 10 countries for EVs. The number does not include most commercial vehicles, motorcycles, buses or EVs not legal for highway use. The US accounts for about 260,000 of those tallied, and is the largest adopter of EVs, while Sweden is the most aggressive. The largest growth occurred in Sweden, Germany, China and the UK. Read more at Hybrid Cars. EV drivers can now pay for charging at ChargePoint stations with Paypal. Drivers can link Paypal to their ChargePoint account, and can use their ChargePoint app or card at the station. The first time drivers use Paypal at a station that charges a fee, they will be charged a $25 deposit from which the fee will be deducted. Read more in the press release below. The first NTx Apps Challenge awarded cash to five app development projects, including Juxt and GridLock. Juxt is a mobile app that helps drivers find alternative fuel, parking spots and other points of interest along their routes. GridLock is a traffic light network that monitors traffic patterns and controls lights to optimize traffic flow. Winners get cash, continued mentorship and office spaces. Read more in the press release below. Renault says it could sell the Eolab at around the same price as its diesel-powered Clio. The Eolab, which debuted as a concept at this year's Paris Motor Show, is said to be capable of up to 235 mpg. While Renault has not announced plans to mass-produce the super-efficient Eolab, the company's chief competitive officer Thierry Bollore said that if it did, it would "not cost more than a Clio DCi 90hp," which starts at about $23,900. Read more at Automotive News Europe. An author at Teslarati has created his own system to get notifications whenever Tesla adds a new Supercharger to its network. Using a web scraping tool, Rob M. has set his @TeslaLiving Twitter account to tweet the details whenever Tesla updates its Supercharger page, or when Teslarati's Interactive Tesla Supercharger Map gets a new location added. Rob has also created notifications for whenever new versions of Tesla software are added. Read more at Teslarati. Tesla CEO Elon Musk considers artificial intelligence an "existential threat." In a symposium at MIT, Musk said, "With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon." It's a demon he fears we can't control.

Need more cup holders for your Tesla Model S? 3D print some

What do you get for the car owner that has everything? Well, if it's the owner of a Tesla Model S electric vehicle, you can either get him or her a $500 cup-holder insert that sets atop the car's center console or, better yet, score him or her a 3D printer that can print one out. Street Insider directs us to this oh-so-technologically-advanced option for anyone with a bit of extra cash on hand. Apparently, there are blueprints circulating for a cup-holder insert that can be printed on a Stratasys MakerBot printer. Those printers run anywhere between $2,200 and $2,800 a pop, but, hey, that's nothing compared to the Tesla itself, right? The cool thing is that the 3D cup-holder inserts can be printed out in a myriad of colors for the EV driver who wants to make the ultimate fashion statement ... or faux pas. Of course, how that printed holder will handle that first spilled cup of scalding coffee after the Model S driver gets a little too frisky on a hairpin is anyone's guess. The good news? The driver can simply go home and print another one. Sure beats shelling out $500 for the factory version. News Source: Street Insider via Value WalkImage Credit: Thingiverse Green Tesla Green Culture Electric stratasys