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Recharge Wrap-up: QR code hints at Tesla Supercharger in Mexico, Lyft tests scheduling

A QR code in a parking garage hints at an upcoming Tesla Supercharger in Mexico. The mysterious QR code directs to a tweet from Elon Musk where he affirms that Tesla will expand its charging network into Mexico "this year." The folks at Teslarati reached out to the automaker, and a spokesperson responded by saying, "Yes, we can confirm that we are planning on having our first Supercharger in Mexico in Cuernavaca City." That's about 50 miles south of Mexico City, where the country's lone Tesla store is located. Read more at Teslarati. Lyft is testing out a ride scheduling system for its ride-hailing service in San Francisco. When requesting a ride, users can select a pickup time up to 24 hours out, ensuring they'll be able to get where they need to go. Users can cancel or change the time up to 30 minutes before their scheduled ride. Lyft says it plans to expand the scheduling service to more users this summer. Read more from Lyft, or at Green Car Congress. Renault is partnering with other automakers and charging operators as part of the EU's Fast-E charging project. Fast-E seeks to install fast-charging infrastructure for electric vehicles along Germany and Belgium's main motorways, financed by the EU and nine companies, including Renault, BMW, Volkswagen and Nissan. The 278 charging stations will be installed every 50 miles along the major roadways by the end of the year, at a cost of about $20 million. A sister project in the Czech Republic and Slovakia plans to add another 30 charging stations in those countries. Read more in the press release below. Renault is a partner of the European fast-charging project Fast-E in Germany • Official launch of Fast-E project co-financed by the European Union and nine companies, including Renault, in Berlin and Brussels. • 241 charging stations installed in Germany and 37 in Belgium by the end of 2016. • A sister project between the Czech Republic and Slovakia adds another 30 charging stations. The 278 charging points set up every 80 km along Germany and Belgium's main motorways, will allow drivers of electric vehicles to "refuel" and extend their car's range. The total investment of the EU-funded cooperation is approximately ˆ18 million. Every one of the multi-standard fast-chargers spread out over four countries have AC and DC connections, allowing drivers to charge their vehicles' batteries easily and quickly. Electric vehicles can be charge up to 80% on the charging stations within an hour.

Tesla investor says selling 500,000 EVs in 2020 is totally doable

Tesla Motors may make good on chief Elon Musk's claim of selling a half-million vehicles a year by the end of the decade, Motley Fool says. Of course, the author of the Foolish report in question owns Tesla shares but, now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's check out the logic. Tesla moved almost 22,500 Model S vehicles last year and it was the best-selling plug-in vehicle in the US during the fourth quarter. The company expects to sell about 35,000 this year but the rate of global sales could be double that by the end of the year. From then on out, it's all about economies of scale, with demand mushrooming overseas, costs dropping as a result of the company's slated "gigafactory" and the introduction of the $35,000-ish Model E by 2017. Add it all up, and you can get to 500,000 EVs a year, the Fool says. Late last month, Tesla disclosed details about its gigafactory, saying it will be fed by sun- and wind power, will employ about 6,500 people and will produce those half-million battery packs a year. Between the company and its partners, as much as $5 billion will be invested in the plant, which is slated to be somewhere in the southwestern US (but not in its native California). To put those projected half-million vehicles in perspective, let's look at the unquestioned champion of the green car movement for the past decade, the Toyota Prius and its many Toyota and Lexus gas-electric siblings. It's taken many years to get to this point, but Toyota can now sell about a million hybrids around the world in nine months.

Tesla hires Hacker Princess Kristin Paget away from Apple

Might it be that one of Apple Computer's software-security gurus wasn't quite, ahem, secure enough to resist the pull of Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk? Kristin Paget, who held the illustrious title of "Hacker Princess" at Cupertino, CA-based Apple, starts working for nearby Tesla this week, Re/code says. Paget would only say on her Twitter feed that the gig was "something security-related" and added that she "shouldn't say too much." Paget would only say that the gig was "something security-related." Paget joined Apple in 2012 after spending time with Microsoft, where she was responsible for security in the Vista operating system. Paget was also known within the Silicon Valley cognoscenti for her instructions on how to build a fake cell tower that could intercept cellphone calls. Tesla's headquarters in Fremont are just 25 miles from Apple's, but the poaching is far more than merely geographic. Tesla has always been big on technological advancements and has been steadily making over-the-air software upgrades to the Model S. Most recently, Musk and Tesla Chief Technology Officer Straubel toured Western Europe, talkind to Tesla owners and followers. They said the company was on the cusp of releasing Version 6.0 of the Model S software, which includes more suspension control as well as real-time traffic data. We wonder what features Paget will bring to Version 7. Featured Gallery Tesla Model S: Quick Spin View 33 Photos News Source: Re/code via Pulse2Image Credit: Copyright 2014 AOL Green Tesla Electric microsoft security software