2022 Tesla Model X Plaid on 2040-cars

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Saleen Tesla Model S announced as tuner's first EV

Saleen has made its name on building some of the meanest modern muscle cars around, which was why it was so surprising when it announced in December that its next project will go electric. Has the famed pony car modifier lost its mind? Or is it right in thinking the performance potential of the Tesla Model S is too big to ignore?
Details remain scant about the project, but Saleen promises to transform the Model S into an electric supercar. Power is getting a boost but exactly how much more than Tesla's own 416-horsepower Model S P85 is not known. Saleen has also not set a completion date for the car yet, but it promises that renderings and specs will be ready soon. The only real detail that Saleen gives about its version of the Model S is that it has "a revolutionary design all our own," so we're expecting some visual differentiation to go with its inevitable augmented power.
"I fully intend to produce one of the most compelling Tesla's to ever hit the roadway," said Steve Saleen, company founder and CEO. You can read the entire brief press release below.

Tesla will 'probably' raise Model S price in Europe

The price for the Tesla Model S around Europe started higher than the US price but then went down. On a recent conference call with investors last week, CEO Elon Musk said that the future price will be going up. Probably. The hike is unlikely to be major, and Musk said that it's all part of the occasional purchase price adjustments that the company needs to make: We're probably going to have to adjust the price of our car in euros upwards because there has been a 7 percent change in the exchange rates of the euro versus the dollar. So we'll periodically have to make pricing adjustments if the exchange rate band gets too wide. I would certainly encourage anyone in Europe to purchase their car soon because we probably will have to make an adjustment there. Some example Model S starting prices in Europe are 66,640 euros ($82,712) in Belgium, 65,740 ($81,595) in Germany and 59,440 euros ($73,776) in France. For now, anyway. At the beginning of 2014, a dollar got you 72 euro cents. Today, it gets you 80. That might not be a big difference when you're buying brews for your new best friends at the hostel, but as Deepak Ahuja, Tesla Motors' Chief Financial Officer, told investors that, "as the euro weakens, the effect on our revenue is immediate." You can read a full transcript of the call here and listen here.

Tesla Model X delayed, again, but Musk says Model S demand remains high

Tesla CEO Elon Musk made one thing clear today as he announced his company's third-quarter sales figures: the company has more than enough demand for its luxury electric vehicles and its main problem is getting production ramped up. In fact, Tesla expects Model S orders and deliveries to increase by 50 percent next year. Buried in the good news, though, was word that the upcoming SUV version, the Model X, is going to be delayed. Again. That the Model X isn't exactly on schedule is not news. There have been delays talked about before. The original release date was 2013 which became late 2014 and then early 2015. The company is certainly getting ready for the X but now says it wants to deliver an all-electric SUVs that offers a good experience to buyers, without any problems. In a year plagued with a record number of recalls in the automotive industry, this is not a surprising stance to take. In the shareholder letter (available in the gallery below), Musk writes: In anticipation of this effort, we now expect Model X deliveries to start in Q3 of 2015, a few months later than previously expected. This also is a legitimate criticism of Tesla – we prefer to forgo revenue, rather than bring a product to market that does not delight customers. Doing so negatively affects the short term, but positively affects the long term. Back to the good news. This is where Musk has some strong numbers to point to, including Tesla's highest ever quarterly deliveries of the Model S – 7,785 vehicles – and the most deliveries in a single day – 907. The company also said that the new tech announced a few weeks ago, the dual motor option and the autopilot capabilities, have "further accelerate[d] Model S demand." To meet this demand, Tesla is expanding its production capability so it can make "more than 2,000 vehicles per week by the end of 2015." Of course, if Tesla wanted to be a bit more transparent about global demand and US sales and deliveries in particular, it could simply announce monthly sales numbers, just like the major OEMs do, But, when asked if Tesla would consider releasing those numbers on a call with investors today, Musk's reply was short and sweet: "Um, no. Sorry."