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Recharge Wrap-up: Chicago and NY taxis consider their own hailing apps; Zipcar extends one-way service in Boston

Chicago and New York are considering creating hailing apps for taxis. In order to keep up with rivals like Uber and Lyft, Chicago has approved plans for an app (or perhaps multiple apps) that allow users to hail a cab from their smartphone. A New York City councilperson has also proposed a similar app that has yet to be voted on. The Chicago plan, which is part of the city's Taxi Driver Fairness Reforms package, has the backing of a taxi union, as drivers would benefit from keeping pace with the technology and convenience other hailing apps provide. Read more at The New York Times. Zipcar is extending its point-to-point service test, called ONE>WAY, to all of its members in the Boston area. This service is available between Zipcar Pod locations throughout the area (including Logan International Airport), and includes a reserved parking space at the destination. Zipcar has 200 Honda Fit vehicles available at its Pods for ONE>WAY trips. "ONE>WAY remains true to our mission of enabling simple and responsible urban living by continuing to reduce congestion in cities as members are not circling the block searching for parking," says Zipcar President Kaye Ceille. Read more in the press release below. Two early investors in Tesla are raising a new investment fund worth $300 million. Nancy Pfund and Ira Ehrenpreis are raising a fund through DBL Investing called DBL Partners III. Pfund, through DBL, has invested in various cleantech companies, as well as Elon Musk's Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity. Ehrenpreis invested in Tesla through Technology Partners, and runs the World Energy Innovation Forum. The plans for the newest DBL investments are unclear, but it's not hard to imagine more green technology and more involvement with Musk. Read more at GigaOM. Andromeda Interfaces has released a video for its Electric Vehicle Interface Controller (EVIC). The EVIC is a display module that monitors efficiency and consumption and interprets that data for the driver. It works as a configurable dashboard with all the important data especially important and specific to EV driving, whether that's range, voltage, rpm, temperatures and the like. The EVIC is meant to be affordable, and suitable for aftermarket or OEM customers, as well as commercial and industrial EVs. See the video below for more information. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Battery price skeptic says Tesla's $35,000 EV won't happen [UPDATE]

UPDATE: The story's been updated to include a response from Tesla. It's a good thing Dr. Menahem Anderman doesn't run the Nevada state government. The longtime battery-technology researcher, who heads the Advanced Automotive Batteries conference, isn't buying Tesla Motors' claim that it'll get lithium-ion battery costs down to less than $100 per kilowatt hour within the next 10 years. That would be bad news, since that price will be key to the automaker's ability to make a $35,000 electric vehicle. The good doctor is instead pegging battery costs at about $167/kWh in 2025, and says they will "unlikely" drop below $200/kWh before the end of the decade. He makes a rather detailed case in his report, which can be found here (PDF). We all know how confident CEO Elon Musk has been on his company's price predictions to drop the price of a pack by "more than 30 percent." As for Anderman's estimates, Tesla is taking the high road, as company spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson, in an e-mail to AutoblogGreen, declined to comment directly on the report, choosing instead to defer to Musk's previous comments. Tesla has said its planned Gigafactory will provide the scale needed to bring battery costs down enough to make the $35,000 EV. By Anderman's estimates, the battery costs will be more commensurate to a $50,000 EV, which isn't horrible, but it's not the type of mass-market price that the industry (and Tesla stockholders, for that matter) are expecting. Earlier this month, Nevada offered an incentive package worth about $1.3 billion to Tesla, which is planning its plant near Reno. Battery-maker Panasonic is an investor in the factory as well.

Musk reports positive cash flow for Tesla last week

According to Bloomberg, Tesla actually earned money last week. CEO Elon Musk sent out a message on Twitter saying his company was "narrowly cash positive." That's big news for a company that hasn't turned a quarterly profit as of yet. Tesla is currently in the middle of stepping up production for its Model S sedan, and has announced the vehicle's MSRP will jump by $2,500, presumably to help fund that expansion.
So far, Tesla says it has built will build around 20,000 Model S units at its California production facility next year, though analysts say the ability to repeatedly generate a positive cash flow would go a long way toward the company's evolution into a "sustainable operating entry." So far, the Model S has garnered substantive praise, earning the Motor Trend Car of the Year Award among others. Tesla shares are up 19 percent this year over the same time period in 2011.