Tesla has added a new, mid-range battery version of the Model 3, the most affordable iteration of the automaker's all-electric car. The announcement was made by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who also confirmed that the automaker has a new ordering system for the Model 3 which aims to make the process more smooth.
In July, word was going around that Tesla had become the first EV maker to hit the threshold for units delivered that would prevent some from getting the $7,500 federal tax credit. Tesla is now saying that anyone who orders a new Tesla car before October 15 will be eligible for the full $7,500 tax credit. Tesla also promises that the cars ordered by that date will be delivered by the end of the year.
Not long ago we talked a bit about the high crash test ratings that the Tesla Model 3 had received from the NHTSA during the crash testing for the EV. Crash test videos always make us wince, they're, after all, crushing cool cars that have never really had a life. Tesla's cheapest EV earned 5-star ratings all around in testing.
News recently surfaced that Tesla had been sued by the state of Nevada over an allegedly unpaid $655,000 unemployment tax bill. Soon after, Tesla has issued a statement on the matter, explaining that it has been resolved and that a clerical error resulted in the legal issue. A Nevada government agency has confirmed the news.
Lots of car folks take the engine out of one car and cram it under the hood of another. The engine swap is nothing new. As EVs have become more common people have taken to swapping EV powertrains into cars that were never intended to run on batteries. This is exactly what this Honda S2000 is.
Tesla has begun pushing out Software Version 9.0 to its cars, billing the update as its "most substantial" so far, and adding features like Dash Cam, remote navigation programming, and a new UI while paving the way for Navigate on Autopilot. The update has begun rolling out to Model 3, Model S, and Model X cars in North America, though will be distributed progressively.
Consumer Reports (CR) recently ranked autonomous driving systems for the first time and in that test, it pitted Cadillac against Tesla, Nissan, and Volvo. Tesla's Autopilot system is the partially autonomous driving tech that we hear about most, but Cadillac has a similar system called Super Cruise. In CR's testing, the Cadillac system came out on top.
Elon Musk has settled with the SEC, stepping down as chairman of the Tesla board and paying $20m in penalties - a figure matched by the automaker - though the biggest loss may well be on his Twitter account. The outspoken and often controversial billionaire found himself on the wrong side of the US Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this year, after tweets about taking Tesla public were accused of being securities fraud.
Tesla is recruiting its own employees to be part of an internal fully autonomous car testing program, according to a new report. Details about the testing program were revealed by a leaked email, which reportedly states that approximately 100 additional employees are needed to work as beta testers. This will be in additional to their regular job, according to the report, and come with a couple big perks.
Last month, Elon Musk published a tweet stating that he was "considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured." He later clarified the latter part of that tweet, pointing toward past talks with the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund. Questions were soon raised over whether the tweet would get Musk in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and now we have the answer.
The NHTSA has completed and announced the side impact crash test ratings of the Tesla Model 3. The car did very well in the testing earning a five-star overall safety rating. NHTSA breaks the ratings down a bit further with an overall side star rating of five combining the side barrier and side pole star ratings into one rating.
Tesla may have had the early bird advantage in electric cars, but while increasing competition from vehicles like the new 2019 Audi e-tron may give Elon Musk's business plan a headache, for drivers it's all good news. The new electric SUV won't just headline Audi's new electric car strategy when it arrives in dealerships next year: it'll also mark a turning point in a new EV infrastructure that's great news for Tesla drivers too.