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China Tesla driver goes crowd-funding route to get chargers installed

Tesla Motors has at least one Chinese businessman in its corner. Andrew Zong, CEO of heat-pump maker PHNIX, recently engaged in a bit of crowd-funding to establish a charging network for new owners of the Model S battery-electric sedan throughout at least part of the world's most populous nation. And it's good publicity, of course. Zong hatched a plan to buy 20 electric-vehicle chargers from Tesla after picking up his new sedan in Beijing and realizing he'd have a hard time recharging in on the 1,300-mile drive south to Guangzhou. Zong then went onto online sites such as WeChat and Weibo and solicited volunteers to install his chargers. And after more than 3,000 miles worth of driving (or about a dozen or so odd recharging sessions), Zong got his 20 chargers installed. You can read PHNIX's press release below. Zong's efforts are a far cry from those of fellow Chinese businessman Zhan Baosheng, who registered for the trademark on the Tesla name in the country in 2006. Zhan, who has long been scuffling with the California-based automaker, recently sued Tesla for trademark infringement and was seeking almost $4 million in damages. That would buy a lot of chargers. Crazy Charging Plans for Tesla GUANGZHOU, China, July 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- "When I picked up my Tesla in Beijing, I realized that it's impossible to drive it back to Guangzhou as there are hardly any places to recharge the batteries," Andrew Zong, the CEO of PHNIX and also one of the first Chinese Tesla owners, said this to reporters. As a result, Andrew Zong got a crazy plan that by utilizing the power of the Internet and folk strength, he could make the first charging facility network in China to solve the electric vehicles' charging problems. With this plan, Andrew Zong bought a batch of original chargers for Tesla and promised that he would donate all the chargers to new-energy-loving car owners. Next Andrew Zong posted on online social network platforms, like WeChat and Weibo, to recruit volunteers who were willing to provide installation sites and offer free charging service for Tesla motors. During the next three days, there were thousands of volunteers applying to install charging piles at their places. Taken everything into consideration, 20 of the volunteers were selected. During the following twenty days, Andrew Zong and his companions have self-driven his Tesla for 5,750 kilometers via sixteen cities, in which they have donated twenty charging piles.

Connecticut may let Telsa sell EVs directly to customers

Republicans and Tesla lovers unite! Connecticut may become the next state to legalize the direct factory-to-customer distribution method championed by the California-based electric vehicle maker. And that's because one state senator had to drive a little too far to get his new rig. Republican Senator Art Linares was forced to drive to White Plains, NY, to buy his Model S (those senators get paid well, don't they) because Connecticut has just one showroom in the state, and no sales are allowed, Green Car Reports says. Linares, of course, says catching flack from the state's dealership association is worth the trouble because of the new jobs he says Tesla dealerships would bring. Connecticut has been close to the leading edge of electric-vehicle promotion, though still hasn't joined states like New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania in allowing for Tesla to employ its distribution model. Last March, the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) started a new promotion called the "Connecticut Revolutionary Dealer Award, in which dealers were provided state incentives to sell electric vehicles. And last May, Connecticut became one of eight states (led by California) that were named part of the Multi-State ZEV Action Plan. Those states, which also included Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont, vowed to collectively have 3.3 million zero-emission vehicles (ZEV) on their roads by 2025. Featured Gallery Tesla Model S View 10 Photos News Source: Green Car Reports via Clean Technica, Transport EvolvedImage Credit: AP Photo / Al Behrman Green Tesla Electric ev sales dealer fight connecticut

Tesla tidbits: Roadster getting 'exciting' upgrade in 2014

It's been quite a while since we've had news about the Tesla Roadster. The original Tesla electric vehicle hasn't been sold in the US for years and we're in a quiet period before the next-generation shows its face. We were fine with the status quo – it's not like Tesla Motors isn't keeping busy with other projects in the meantime – but something that CEO Elon Musk said during the annual shareholder meeting caught our eye this week: the Roadster will get some sort of update before the end of the year. Details were obviously not disclosed, but Musk did say that something cool is coming: We are planning on I think a fairly exciting upgrade to the Roadster. I'm hoping we can get it done later this year. I did say it would be this year and ... yes, we will get it done this year. ... So, we're going to do something cool with Roadster before the end of this year. Anyone want to guess what this upgrade might be? We know that Roadster batteries are performing better than expected, so we're going to discount that possibility that these older EVs will be made compatible with Tesla's Supercharger technology. But Musk did say at the meeting that this tech is available to other automakers, if they could somehow make an EV that can handle the Supercharger's 135-kW output (a number that Tesla hopes to increase in the future): There is no other electric car that can accept anything close to 135 kilowatts. We are more than happy to have other manufacturers do this. And I've said this publicly on a few occasions. No one's approached us and said they'd like to use it. We are happy to have them do so. They just have to contribute to the capital cost, so figure out what percentage of the time are their cars using the Supercharger network and then they can make a contribution proportionate to their customer usage of the Supercharger network. So, we're very open to such a thing. Musk also confirmed he is open to remaining at Tesla for another half decade or so, until at least when the company's lower-cost, third-generation car gets to "volume production." He said that's maybe four or five years away and that there is "a lot of time" to figure out who will replace him when he does finally step down. We know the car is not going to be the Model E (thanks to Ford's trademark, Musk said) and that the company's targets are for it to cost around $35,000 before incentives and have a range of more than 200 miles.