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How to get incredibly accurate information on your EV's charging power

One would think that paying about $300 to receive a bit of bad news about electric-vehicle charging would be counterproductive. But the fine folks at Teslarati believe that truth is beauty, and they're willing to pay a little extra for the straight dope. There are always losses when taking power from the grid and shoving it into an EV's battery pack. The question is how big are these losses. Teslarati calculated digital read-outs from the dashboard of their Tesla Model S all-electric sedan and found that Tesla builds in about a nine percent efficiency loss when it comes to recharging the car. But the blog thought the Tesla couldn't know exactly what was transpiring between the wall and the battery, so it footed the bill for about $300 to install a digital submetering unit from EKM Metering. With a little calculation, Teslarati was able to figure out after a couple of recharging rounds that the efficiency loss per recharge was closer to 15 percent than nine percent. That means that, instead of paying about 48 cents on the dollar relative to filling up an economy car (factoring in the AAA average price of $3.66 per gallon), Tesla owners are paying about 52 cents on the dollar. Not much compared to paying upwards towards $100,000 for the vehicle itself, but, hey, every cent counts, right? Get all of the details here. Featured Gallery Tesla Model S View 10 Photos News Source: Teslarati Green Tesla Electric recharging

New Tesla, McLaren, and Ferrari models added to Takata recall list

UPDATE: A McLaren spokesperson confirmed to Autoblog that "a number" of McLaren models in the US, Japan, and South Korea will be recalled to fix non-dessicated airbag inflators. However, the recall only affects passenger airbags, as all driver's-side inflators use a different technology and are not affected. The timeline is still being determined. It's been more than two and a half years since the Takata airbag recall first made waves. Despite knowing which airbags were at fault and the exact cause of the failure, manufacturers like Audi, Ferrari, McLaren, and Tesla have been building and selling cars with defective airbags. Although it takes several years for the airbag to degrade to the point of failure, all of these new cars will eventually have to be recalled for replacements. It appears that time has come, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has now issued a recall on some of these new models. Models from Tesla and McLaren have been added to NHTSA's recall list for the first time. Tesla is recalling every 2012 - 2016 Model S while McLaren is bringing back every model it's made since relaunching its road-car business in 2012. Not even the P1 is free from failure. Other automakers have expanded their affected-vehicle list. All of Ferrari's 2016 - 2017 lineup now falls under the recall and joins a number of previously recalled models, while Audi is recalling the 2017 R8. Since the recall started, dozens of automakers have recalled millions of affected cars to replace potentially fatal and highly flawed airbags that can deploy bits of metal at occupants. Eleven deaths in the United States are directly related to the faulty airbags. Before the recall, Takata held a sizable share of the airbag market. When the failures began to occur, some automakers were left with no alternative suppliers. As it takes a few years for the airbags to fail, automakers without other options faced a choice: they could either build cars that would be recalled in the future or stop building cars altogether until a secondary supplier could be found. These recalls seem to be happening so frequently that owners may not know what to do or where to check to see if their car is potentially affected. NHTSA is keeping a comprehensive list of all affected models. Their website can help owners determine if they have a potentially problematic airbag installed and the steps to take to replace it.

Elon Musk: Tesla Gigafactory location announcement coming late 2014

Tesla's Gigafactory is going to be a huge deal. So huge, in fact, that Tesla's not going to announce where it will be located until later this year. You may remember that, just a month ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that, "The No. 1 thing is we want to minimize the risk timing for the Gigafactory to get up and running." Well, apparently getting the timing right doesn't mean rushing to get things done before they're ready. 30 percent cost decrease is "probably conservative at this point" – Elon Musk The reason Tesla needs the Gigafactory, as you may remember, is to supply packs for the company's Gen 3 car, the EV that is supposed to cost $35,000 and be able to go over 200 miles on a charge. To get down to that price point, the batteries need to be cheaper, and Musk has said that the Gigafactory should reduce the per-kWh cost of a pack by "more than 30 percent." Speaking at the annual shareholder conference this week, Musk confirmed that planning for the battery plant is "quite advanced" and that Tesla is meeting daily with Panasonic, the other partner in the deal. Panasonic was originally unsure that those kinds of cost reductions could be achieved, Musk said, "but I think they are now convinced they can." In fact, he said 30 percent is "probably conservative at this point." The Gigafactory should be up and running by the "late 2016 timeframe," Musk said, right around the time the Gen 3 car will be ready for volume production. While there will still only be one Tesla Gigafactory to begin with, Musk said that Tesla might start the process in two or three states (as opposed to just one or two, as hinted earlier). "We're probably going to do two or maybe three states all the way to creating a foundation and completing the plans and getting approvals and everything," he said. Sounds like someone wants to be ready to build gigafactories #2 and #3 in a hurry if need be. We've got more from the meeting, including videos of Musk's talk, here and here. You can read Tesla's original Gigafactory proposal here (PDF).