Definitely a good move and poke in the eye of the fermented-dinosaur-only lobby. They are still going to bitch about government picking winners and losers, etc., but this is definitely a good day for EVs.
Definitely a good move and poke in the eye of the fermented-dinosaur-only lobby. They are still going to bitch about government picking winners and losers, etc., but this is definitely a good day for EVs.Congrats to Tesla - big news today!
http://www.teslamotors.com/about/press/releases/tesla-repays-department-energy-loan-nine-years-early
Predicting Fox's headline on this: "Tesla cheats taxpayers out of millions of dollars of interest payments by paying off their government loans early; Investigation to follow."Even Jalopnik, who never misses a chance to bash EVs, begrudingly admitted this was good news, ableit in the most backhanded way they could come up with:
http://jalopnik.com/loser-tesla-will-repay-government-loans-nine-years-ea-509262553
Nah, the market knew it was coming for too long and it was already priced in.I was hoping this news would also cause their stock to rise, but no such luck![]()
This is hilarious.Predicting Fox's headline on this: "Tesla cheats taxpayers out of millions of dollars of interest payments by paying off their government loans early; Investigation to follow."
GM didn't get a DOE ATVM loan. GM and Chrysler got government bailout loans as part of TARP, not to be confused with the ATVM program which was about promoting "alternative technology".I don't think GM (AKA Government Motors) paid back yet..
Tesla actually announced recently they will try to mimic the better place "technology" or idea of battery swap in the future..Another EV company bites the dust. More kudos to Tesla.
http://www.greenprophet.com/2013/05/israel-better-place-bankrupt/
Apartment dwellers and many other individuals among the masses don't have access to their own charging stations and battery swapping would allow them access to EVs. But how does this model make financial sense? The inventory and infrastructure investment would be enormous. I don't know if Elon is serious about doing this or just blowing smoke.Tesla actually announced recently they will try to mimic the better place "technology" or idea of battery swap in the future..
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-tesla-wants-battery-swapping-160927037.html
Now that Better Place is Out of the game, they can take the good engineering folks that are there and throw away the crippled management for delivering something that should work, as the concept of battery swap makes since, it's just too early to be deployed for the masses.
Here's one scenario that might make sense for Tesla. It involves co-locating battery swap stations with Superchargers. Assume Tesla stocks swappable batteries at Superchargers. As a Model S owner arriving at Harris Ranch, you can Supercharge for free (45 minutes minimum to get enough juice to advance to the next Supercharger at Tejon Ranch + possible waiting time), or you can hot-swap a fully charged battery (if available) for say $25-$35. During the night or other times when the Superchargers are not in use, the swapped batteries get recharged.Apartment dwellers and many other individuals among the masses don't have access to their own charging stations and battery swapping would allow them access to EVs. But how does this model make financial sense? The inventory and infrastructure investment would be enormous. I don't know if Elon is serious about doing this or just blowing smoke.
The value of swapping at Service Centers is that they are in metropolitan areas where currently there are no Superchargers so it is hard to get a full charge overnight. For example, when I drove from Silicon Valley to LA I had to make an extra Supercharger stop on the return trip because I couldn't get a full charge in LA.Having to have personnel just seems like a huge negative in my mind. Tesla can barely keep its stores and service centers staffed, and they don't need the added expense.
It sounds like swapping, in some form, is inevitable. I just don't know how practical it is. Perhaps swapping can be done only at service centers during business hours. No additional bodies needed, and you have a secure place for stock,
Oh trust me, I get the positives for the end user... Just seems like a massive undertaking for a small company. Plus, I baby my battery. Can't see just leaving it for someone else to grab.The value of swapping at Service Centers is that they are in metropolitan areas where currently there are no Superchargers so it is hard to get a full charge overnight. For example, when I drove from Silicon Valley to LA I had to make an extra Supercharger stop on the return trip because I couldn't get a full charge in LA.
But I believe that issue is not well understood and the perception problem is the time it takes to Supercharge while road tripping vs. the time it takes for a gas fill up. So the investment in batteries and personnel at the Supercharger stations might be worthwhile. It could be similar to the impact Tesla had when they announced that supercharging would be free, which was not expected. In one instant they turned a perceived negative into a positive.