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Autoblog Minute: VW Q3 financial woes, 2015 Tokyo Motor Show

Consumer Reports pulls its Tesla recommendation, the U.S. Copyright Office offers a ruling affecting car owners, VW gets hit hard with third-quarter losses, and lots of exciting news from Tokyo. Autoblog senior editor Greg Migliore reports on this edition of Autoblog Minute Weekly Recap. Show full video transcript text [00:00:00] Consumer Reports pulls its Tesla recommendation, the U.S. copyright office offers a ruling that affects car owners and gear heads, VW gets hit hard with third-quarter losses, and lots of exciting news from Tokyo. I'm senior editor Greg Migliore and this is your Autoblog Minute Weekly Recap. After a week away testing vehicles for Autoblog's Tech of the Year award, we're back in the office to recap the week in automotive news. [00:00:30] One of the things you might have missed was Consumer Reports pulling its recommendation of Tesla's Model S sedan. The blemish for Tesla comes after a tally of reviews from customer surveys. The most common problem areas for the Model S as cited by survey takers included: the drivetrain, power equipment, charging equipment, body and sunroof squeaks, rattles, and leaks. So lots of stuff. Though they could not ignore a score of "worse-than-average", Consumer Reports still [00:01:00] highlighted the fact that the Model S was "the best performing car" they've ever tested. Telsa CEO Elon Musk took to social media to defend his sedans saying: "Consumer Reports reliability survey includes a lot of early production cars. Already addressed in new cars." And, "Tesla gets top rating of any company in service. Most important, CR says 97% of owners expect their next car to be a Tesla (the acid test)." In Financial news, Volkswagen took a hit and reported an operating loss of [00:01:30] $3.84 billion. This is the first such loss for VW in 15 years. Toyota reclaimed the crown as the world's largest automaker as well. It's important that it's not all doom and gloom for VW though in Q3. Sales revenues were up and the company's automotive division boasts $30 billion dollars in liquid assets. It's a sizable war chest that will no doubt come in handy, as the company has yet to feel the full brunt of the diesel emissions scandal. Good news for gear heads. The US copyright office [00:02:00] ruled in favor of mechanics and car owners by granting an exception to existing copyright law. The law was originally meant to prevent software pirating and bootlegging of Hollywood movies.

Recharge Wrap-up: DIY Tesla charging arm, Tesla vs. Maserati smackdown

A Tesla Model S owner built his own version of an automatic charging arm. Assumingly inspired by the creepy, snake-like prototype Tesla previewed a while back, Deepak Mital's autonomous robot – which he calls the Evtron – finds the plug on his Model S and connects the cable to begin charging. Mital says he plans to open source his design once he's finished. It may not be as "sensual" as Tesla's prototype, but people are less likely to flee it in terror. See the Evtron in action in the video above, and read more at Electrek. A Maserati dealership has taken down a comparison between the Ghibli and the Tesla Model S after a thrashing from the EV community. First of all, the Tesla corner pointed out that the listed price of the Model S 60 at $89,320 is misleading, as the current model starts at $66,000 (a loaded 2015 could be optioned up to the price stated by Maserati, but to call that a fair comparison to the $69,800 Ghibli is highly debatable). Other, older Tesla specs also angered the EV supporters. After a Reddit post and a subsequent backlash toward Maserati of Kirkland, the dealership removed the comparison from its website. Read more at Electrek. A new report predicts that the EV charging system market will generate $8.02 billion by 2022. The report from Allied Market Research, titled "World Electric Vehicle Charging System Market," says that the market will see a CAGR of 30.7 percent from 2016 to 2022. In terms of region, Europe will dominate the market, and home charging systems will outpace public chargers. Forces like unstable fuel prices and government programs to reduce carbon emissions will spur EV sales, which, in turn, will boost the market for charging systems. Read more in the press release below. Electric Vehicle Charging System Market is Estimated to Generate $8.02 Billion by 2022 A new report by Allied Market Research titled, "World Electric Vehicle Charging System Market", forecasts that the world electric vehicle charging system market would generate revenue of $8.02 billion by 2022, registering a CAGR of 30.7% during the forecast period, 2016-2022. In 2015, Europe was the highest revenue-generating region owing to the increasing penetration of home and commercial charging systems in countries such as the Netherland, Denmark, UK and France.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk expects 'hundreds' of battery gigafactories

Tesla Motors has officially announced it will build a massive electric vehicle battery factory, which it calls a gigafactory, to make a huge amount of cheaper lithium-ion pack for the EVs of the future. It says these packs are so important that it is working on plans for a gigafactory in two locations, just to make sure there is a Plan B if something goes wrong with Site A. But how many gigafactories could there one day be? According to Musk's vision, expressed at the World Energy Innovation Forum held at the Tesla Factory in Fremont this week (where he also said that using the Lotus Elise as the basis for the Tesla Roadster was not the best idea), the auto industry will one day need hundreds of battery gigafactories. Now, that's not hundreds of Tesla gigafactories, but he thinks there will need to be 200 just to supply the automotive industry. Throw in stationary energy storage and iPads that run all year, and the number climbs even higher. One benefit of all these cells coming to market will be cheaper electric vehicles. Originally, Tesla said that its gigafactory would be able to reduce the per-kWh cost of a Tesla battery pack by "more than 30 percent." Musk repeated that number at the Forum this week, saying, "I think we can probably do better than 30 percent." The groundbreaking of the first Tesla plant could take place next month. Oh, and as a side note: doesn't Michigan look odd in the image above? We are one with the lake, apparently.