Receiving a recommended rating for any product or vehicle from Consumer Reports is a big deal. It's also a big deal if a product receives a recommended rating from the publication and then has that rating pulled. Consumer Reports recently announced that the publication no longer recommends electric vehicles from Audi and Kia.
If you can remember April Fools 2018, you may recall Tesla's own joke: a Tesla-branded tequila product company CEO Elon Musk called 'Teslaquila.' That product is now a real thing -- though it is officially called Tesla Tequila -- and it comes in a very unusual eye-catching bottle. The only problem? It quickly sold out.
Cadillac's Super Cruise has once again beat out Tesla's Autopilot in independent tests of driver-assistance systems, with Consumer Reports weighing in again on the controversial topic. Seventeen different systems - combining adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping - from mainstream and luxury automakers were put through their paces, the results demonstrating that expectations about, and for, the tech still vary considerably.
When Tesla first unveiled its all-electric pickup called the Cybertruck, the design was polarizing, to say the least. The pickup has a body made of stainless steel and is highly angular and strange looking compared to any other vehicle on the market. Some people loved the design; others hated it.
One of Tesla's most controversial options on its electric cars is going up in price, with Elon Musk confirming that from next week the so-called Full Self Driving package is going to cost you about $2,000 more. The price change will apply to both new Tesla buyers and those upgrading their EV, and comes as FSD hits an equally controversial milestone.
Tesla has been working on updates for the new 2021 Model 3 electric vehicle. The vehicle has now officially launched with a refresh that brings more range and new features to the car. The online configurator has been updated, and while the exterior has been refreshed, the more important features are under the skin.
One of the things that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has touted as evidence of the confidence the automaker has in its vehicles is its no questions asked seven-day return policy. The automaker has now quietly abandoned that seven-day return policy. The return policy allowed new Tesla buyers to return the vehicle within the first seven days of taking delivery as long as it had less than 1000 miles on the odometer.
Tesla has given its Model 3 and Model Y a refresh, with Elon Musk's most affordable cars gaining range and speed along with some trim tweaks. While Tesla prefers not to think of itself as on the same model year cadence as its automaker rivals, focusing instead on incremental updates for both software and hardware, this 2021 Model 3 and 2021 Model Y do have more upgrades than most.
Tesla has quietly dropped the price of its Model S electric sedan, trimming several thousand dollars from the luxury EV. Oldest vehicle in Tesla's current range, the Model S still puts most electric rivals to shame when it comes to range, while the recently-announced Tri Motor All-Wheel Drive "Plaid" edition car proves speed is no problem, either.
One of the craziest things that Elon Musk has done in his days at SpaceX is to shoot his own Tesla Roadster into space. The car left Earth atop the very first Falcon 9 Heavy rocket that the company ever launched. The vehicle has been orbiting the sun ever since.
It's been a few years since we last saw Tesla's faintly-disturbing robot snake charger in action, but if you assumed Elon Musk had forgotten about the time-saving gadget, think again. Teased in late 2014, and then shown as a functional prototype in mid-2015, the "solid metal snake" robo-charger promised to rescue drivers of the EVs from having to plug in their car manually to charge.
Two of the most eagerly-anticipated new electric cars of the year have their official US range figures, with the 2021 Volvo XC40 Recharge and the 2021 Polestar 2 finally getting EPA test results. The two EVs could reasonably be described as cousins, given their similarities under the sheet metal and indeed in the cabin, with Polestar being Volvo's electric collaboration with Geely.