Friday, March 29

Tag: tesla

Tesla Rolls Out a Cheaper, Mid-Range Model 3
BUSINESS

Tesla Rolls Out a Cheaper, Mid-Range Model 3

One of the largest EV companies Tesla is coming up with a new, cheaper mid-range battery version of the Model 3 that starts at $45,000 before federal tax incentives. Tesla CEO Elon Musk made an announcement about the new variant through Twitter and also stated that it has an estimated battery range of 260 miles. The company’s website has already been updated and the customers in the U.S. can order the mid-range version as of today. The model will soon be offered in Canada as well.   Just released lower cost, mid-range Tesla Model 3 & super simple new order page https://t.co/cz0TQn7IOZ — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 18, 2018   “As Model 3 production and sales continue to grow rapidly, we’ve achieved a steady volume in manufacturing capacity, allowing us to diversi...
Elon Musk to Pay a $20 million Fine & Step Down as the Chairman
News

Elon Musk to Pay a $20 million Fine & Step Down as the Chairman

Elon Musk, the CEO of the electric vehicle giant Tesla is the largest shareholder of the company and is again looking to buy another $20 million in common stock. As a part of the deal, Musk has agreed to pay a $20 million fine and step down as chairman of the board for at least three years. He will still keep a board seat and has not admitted or denied any of the SEC’s allegations. Along with this, Tesla will pay a separate $20 million fine. The company also agreed to monitor and pre-approve Musk’s communications through channels such as Twitter and the Tesla blog. The 8-K document detailed a settlement agreement between Musk, Tesla and the SEC over allegations of securities fraud connected to his August 7 “funding secured” tweet about taking the electric automaker private. At the...
Tesla’s Second Largest Shareholder Acquires Stake in Rival Nio
ACQUISITION

Tesla’s Second Largest Shareholder Acquires Stake in Rival Nio

The second largest shareholder of Elon Musk’s Tesla called Baillie Gifford has now acquired 11.44 percent stake in Chinese electric vehicle automaker Nio which is Tesla’s rival. The company disclosed that it had purchased 85.3 million shares, which were valued at about $515 million as of the close of trading Monday. Baillie Gifford is the largest outside shareholder of Tesla stock. CEO Elon Musk, Tesla’s largest shareholder, own about 20 percent of the company. The filing pushed shares of Nio to close at $7.39, up from its opening of $6.19 this morning. Nio wants to become the Tesla of China and beyond. The company has operations in the U.S., U.K. and Germany, although it only sells its ES8 vehicle in China. Those tariffs, plus other costs like shipping Tesla vehicles overseas, is...
Following, SEC’s settlement, Elon Musk out as Tesla Chairman
News

Following, SEC’s settlement, Elon Musk out as Tesla Chairman

In the charges against Tesla and Elon Musk, the entrepreneur has agreed to pay a total of $40 million and make a series of concessions to settle a government lawsuit. This settlement is enabling Musk to remain CEO of the electric car company but requires him to discontinue his role as chairman for at least three years. However, he will continue to be the company's CEO. Following this, Tesla is looking to hire an independent chairman to oversee the company. "I do not doubt the value of Musk to Tesla," John Coffee, a Columbia University law professor and corporate governance expert, said. "Without him, they are just a struggling startup that is burning cash at a hopeless rate and is facing a debt refunding crisis in the near future. Besides a new chairman, Tesla was also ordered to ...
Tesla CEO Elon Musk Charged with Fraud by US Regulators
USA

Tesla CEO Elon Musk Charged with Fraud by US Regulators

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Tesla CEO Elon Musk with securities fraud accusing him of misleading investors in tweets about taking the company private last month. It was in August that Musk tweeted about taking Tesla private. He also stated that he had raised funds for the same purpose. But, he never took the company private, instead continued with it being public. The SEC said Musk's statements on Twitter were "false and misleading" and that he had never discussed the plans with company officials or potential funders. However, Musk rejected the SEC's allegations, calling the charges baseless and swearing to defend himself. "This unjustified action by the SEC leaves me deeply saddened and disappointed," Musk said in a statement. "I have always taken action i...
Tesla to Build its own Car Carrier Trailers to Boost Deliveries
USA

Tesla to Build its own Car Carrier Trailers to Boost Deliveries

With an aim to accelerate deliveries, electric car maker Tesla has started manufacturing its own car carrier trailers as stated by CEO Elon Musk. The company is seeing a production of about 4,000 Model 3 vehicles per week. Also, it is witnessing an increase in delivery volume by a factor of 3-4 in some markets and therefore, logistics is becoming a bottleneck. "Shortages of railway cargo carriers, trucks, trailers and drivers are already common in the industry, but Tesla's sudden volume increase highlights the issue even more," a report stated. Tesla's delivery volume is increasing so much this week as the company is looking to end the quarter strong. The company is now facing a problem where they are running out of car carriers. As it is often the case with Tesla, they decided to com...
Polestar Debuts First Production EV to Overtake Tesla
Automobile

Polestar Debuts First Production EV to Overtake Tesla

Sweden-based Polestar debuted its first production EV and previewed its electric car line in New York. Polestar is a Volvo subsidiary which unveiled its Polestar 1, positioned less as a hybrid and more as a fully electric car to attract fence sitters to EVs. This car will hit the streets in 2019 and will be priced around $155,000. It has 3 electrical motors powered by twin 34kWh battery packs and a turbo and supercharged gas V4 up front. It is the first in a series, with an all-electric Polestar 2 to debut in 2019. “Polestar 2 will be a direct competitor to the Tesla Model 3…” CEO Thomas Ingenlath said while the launch event. Also, he stated that the company will focus more on creating converts to EVs than pulling away Tesla’s existing market share. According to Ingenlath, Polesta...
Tesla Stock Drops After Elon Musk Smokes Weed on a Talk Show
News

Tesla Stock Drops After Elon Musk Smokes Weed on a Talk Show

Elon Musk led Tesla's share price drops 8.2% after he took a puff of marijuana during a live YouTube talk show. In The talk show of The Joe Rogan Experience, the anchor host Rogan who lit up a joint more than two hours into the interview and this is how Elon started asking about the joint, Elon asked, “So is that a joint? Or is it a cigar?” Rogan said, it's marijuana inside tobacco, and asked Elon, did you ever tried it? “I think I tried once,” Musk replied with a laugh. “C’mon, man. You probably can’t because of stockholders, right?” Rogan said. “I mean it’s legal, right?” Musk said. “Totally legal,” Rogan said. “OK,” Musk said. Then Elon took a puff of a cigratte and drink whisky. After a while Musk starts receiving the messages from his friends saying, ‘What the he...
Tesla Rival NIO Raises $1 Billion in US IPO to Accelerate Growth
Market

Tesla Rival NIO Raises $1 Billion in US IPO to Accelerate Growth

One of the largest electric vehicle startup NIO which is also a rival of Tesla has reportedly has made its market debut on the US stock market with a $1 billion IPO (initial public offering). The company’s basic motive behind this move is to boost up the production of its electric vehicles as well as and expand their EV infrastructure. With this IPO, the company has become the first Chinese-backed electric vehicle startup to go public in the US. The startup was backed by Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. Last year, NIO raised up to $600 million in its latest financing round led by Baidu. “We had actually a healthy book and then some orders got pulled or reduced because of market conditions,” NIO’s chief financial officer, Louis Hsieh, said. It was last month that an ann...
Mercedes Benz Forays into the EV Segment with Newly Launched SUV
News

Mercedes Benz Forays into the EV Segment with Newly Launched SUV

The luxury car maker Mercedes Benz is all set to foray into the electric car segment. Benz has launched its much-anticipated electric SUV today which might give a tough fight to the predominant EV player Tesla. While Tesla has been facing challenges a few days back against going private, Benz has taken a great step and took advantage of the situation brewing up. The market for upscale electric cars is Tesla's to lose, with sales of its entry-level Model 3 sedan expected to reach about 50,000 cars this year and almost double that in 2019. "While Tesla currently has a strong hold on the luxury electric market, I don't think this will be the case after the arrival of the German premium offerings," said Wajih Hossenally, an automotive powertrain analyst with IHS Markit. "Tesla has virtuall...
Elon Musk’s Tesla To Remain a Public Company
News

Elon Musk’s Tesla To Remain a Public Company

After brewing up all the excitement of people regarding Tesla going private, the company announced that it will remain a public company. CEO Elon Musk on Friday stated that after interacting with shareholders and investigating the procedure and process of taking the company private, he believes the better way for Tesla is to remain public. For the same purpose, Musk had a meeting with Tesla’s board of directors on Thursday and announced his decision. "Elon communicated to the Board that after having done this work and considered all factors, he believes the better path is to no longer pursue a transaction for taking Tesla private," the board members wrote. On the other hand, the special committee that was formed for the purpose of taking Tesla private has been dissolved. When Musk...
Saudi’s Public Investment Fund to Invest in Lucid Motors
MIDDLE EAST

Saudi’s Public Investment Fund to Invest in Lucid Motors

Saudi Arabia-based public investment fund is reportedly looking to invest in Lucid Motors, a Newark, CA-based electric car maker which is also a rival of Elon Musk’s Tesla. The amount of the fund is expected to be more than $1 billion and the fund ownership of the company will be transferred as stated by the reports. Under this particular deal, the fund will provide an initial investment of $500 million and then make two subsequent investments if Lucid hits certain production targets. Lucid Motors was established in 2007 by Sam Weng (former Oracle executive) and Bernard Tse (former Tesla vice president). The companies that have backed Lucid include Venrock and Tsing Capital. Unlike Tesla, the company has yet to release any cars on the open markets. However, the previous year Lucid...