2018 Tesla Model S P100d Ludicrous+ Full Self Driving $98k Msrp on 2040-cars

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Tesla Model X delayed thanks to Model S production lessons

Besides the third-quarter sales figures for the Model S this year, the big news from the Tesla investor earnings call yesterday was another delay of the Model X electric SUV. CEO Elon Musk made it clear in his letter to investors that he did not want to "bring a product to market that does not delight customers," and he expounded on this in the call yesterday afternoon. Musk even named the X's falcon-wing doors as a potential problem. When Patrick Archambault from Goldman Sachs asked for more details on the Model X delay, Musk said his company would have no real problem making a few great X EVs, but that, "making lots of something consistently that's going to last a long time is extremely hard." Designing the car is easier than figuring out how to actually build the darn thing, he said, and building a lot of them is where Tesla can "really move the needle." We all know that that's what Musk wants to do, and he now says the third quarter of 2015 is when that'll be possible. Musk even named the X's falcon-wing doors as a potential problem. The powertrain and the chassis are based on the Model S, so that has been sorted out to some degree but, "with the falcon wing door and the second row of seats, ... we're adding some very new stuff that's really not out there, that never really has existed in a way that was useful," Musk said. Musk's argument that the X should be delayed has a lot to do with what he and the company found out by building the Model S. "We also learned a lesson in manufacturing that you have issues that are sometimes one out of 100, but unless you make 100 of something, you don't see it," he said. "Then you think the car is all good, but actually randomly one out of 100 is wrong, but you don't know necessarily which one out of the 100, then you've got to go look at all 100 cars. So just once you get into volume manufacturing there are just these statistically rare issues, but you really need to make a bunch of something in order to know that it's there. We want to make sure we do that with the X, that's really just a lesson we've learned." So, despite repeated rumors of potential rivals, Tesla is going to stay the course and bring out the X when it's good and ready. You can read the full transcript of the call here and listen here.

What to do if you run out of juice in your Tesla Model S

After writing about their Tesla Model S running out of juice on the side of the road between Las Vegas and Barstow, CA recently (read about it here), the fine folks at Teslarati figured they had some 'splainin' to do. The brief explanation is headwinds. Yes, headwinds. A Model S has about 10 miles of range even after it shows a big fat "0" on its dash. Thankfully, the drivers took notes about what to do if your Model S is about to shut down like C-3PO in A New Hope. Step one is to know that the EV has about 10 miles of range (maybe 20) even after it shows "0" on its dash. Once that distance is used up, it's time to pull the car over, and even then there is enough reserve juice to power the screen for a half hour. After that, all that works are the door handles and the flashers. So, before everything goes completely dark, it's best to remember to put the car into "tow mode" and get it into neutral so that the EV doesn't have to be jumpstarted just to get it onto a truck. Also, once the Model S has been recharged from empty, it needs to be powered off in order to reset the system and not keep it in "depleted power" mode. Now you know. The way Teslarati learned all of this was that, after using a Las Vegas supercharger to give their Tesla Model what they thought would be about 240 miles worth of range for the 160-mile drive, the car unfortunately provided them with just 157 before shutting down. The culprit was a sand storm that sent 35-mile-per-hour headwinds (and probably a bit of grit) into the car as it maintained a 75-mph cruising speed. Teslarati also said elevation changes were part of the problem. Las Vegas and Barstow are both about 2,200 feet above sea level, but there are a bunch of hills in between, and we guess the declines giveth less then the inclines taketh away. Happens to the best of us.

Norway about to run out of EV incentives; plan to be reviewed

As electric vehicle advocates in Norway may ready to celebrate, executives over at Tesla Motors and Nissan may be preparing for a healthy bawl. That's because Norway, whose financial support of plug-in vehicle use have pushed the country to the forefront of plug-in vehicle adoption, is about to reach its government-imposed threshold for electric vehicle and plug-in vehicle incentives, Hybrid Cars says. Two years early, in fact. Norway's perks for EVs and PHEVs include free access to bus lanes, highway tolls, ferries and parking, not to mention a big tax rebate. As a result, the country is less than 250 units away from hitting its 50,000-vehicle limit for those perks, which were initially estimated to expire in 2017. In fact, last month, more than 25 percent of the four new cars sold in Norway were plug-in vehicles. The government is now saying it will review the incentives and put forward a new plan in the next budget, which is due in May. Late last year, Nissan put out a video saying that electric vehicles had about a 15-percent new-vehicle market share in Norway, and that the Japanese automaker had sold more than 15,000 all-electric Leaf vehicles in the country since starting sales there in 2011. Last spring, The Wall Street Journal reported that the Tesla Model S broke Norway's all-time monthly sales record for a single model in March 2014, with almost 1,500 Model S vehicles sold. This is for a country whose population is less than that of Colorado. Whether those days will soon be gone remains in question. Advocates will push for some sort of extension on the perks, but opponents in government say the incentives have cost the country as much as $500 million a year in tax revenue. News Source: Hybrid CarsImage Credit: Elbilforeningen/Flickr Government/Legal Green Nissan Tesla Electric incentives government incentives