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Tag: tesla

  • Tesla Co-Founder Straubel Aims To Build World’s Top Battery Recycler

    Tesla Co-Founder Straubel Aims To Build World’s Top Battery Recycler

    Tesla co-founder J.B. Straubel wants to build his startup Redwood Materials into the world’s top battery recycling company and one of the largest battery materials companies, he said at a technology conference Wednesday. Straubel aims to leverage two partnerships, one with Panasonic Corp, the Japanese battery manufacturer that is teamed with Tesla at the Nevada gigafactory, and one announced weeks ago with e-commerce giant Amazon.

    With production of electric vehicles and batteries about to explode, Straubel says his ultimate goal is to “make a material impact on sustainability, at an industrial scale.”

    Established in early 2017, Redwood this year will recycle more than 1 gigawatt-hours’ worth of battery scrap materials from the gigafactory — enough to power more than 100 Tesla cars.

    That is a fraction of the half-million vehicles Tesla expects to build this year. At the company’s Battery Day in late September, Chief Executive Elon Musk said he was looking at recycling batteries to supplement the supply of raw materials from mining as Tesla escalates vehicle production.

    Redwood’s partnership with Panasonic started late last year with a pilot operation to recover materials at Redwood’s recycling facilities in nearby Carson City, according to Celina Mikolajczak, vice president of battery technology at Panasonic Energy of North America.

    Mikolajczak, who spent six years at Tesla as a battery technology leader, said: “People underestimate what recycling can do for the electric vehicles industry. This could have a huge impact on raw material prices and output in the future.”

    Straubel’s broader plan is to dramatically reduce mining of raw materials such as nickel, copper and cobalt over several decades by building out a circular or “closed loop” supply chain that recycles and recirculates materials retrieved from end-of-life vehicle and grid storage batteries and from cells scrapped during manufacturing.

    In September, Redwood said it received funding from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, following an investment by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, backed by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

    “I’m excited about the work we can do together,” Straubel said of Amazon. “They have batteries in many devices,” from consumer electronics to data centers, as well as future electric delivery vehicles and drones.

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  • Musk Says Tesla To Use New Batteries

    Musk Says Tesla To Use New Batteries

    Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Wednesday the company will produce Model Y with a new structural battery design and technology at its Berlin factory next year and that could result in a “significant production risk”.

    The U.S. electric carmaker plans to manufacture a new version of its Model Y crossover vehicle, and possibly even battery cells at the site. Last month, Musk said that Tesla will use its Germany-based plant to demonstrate a radical overhaul of how its cars are built.

    The company plans to start the production of Model Y at Gigafactory Berlin during the second half of 2021.

    Tesla’s new battery cell – a larger cylindrical format called 4680 that can store more energy and is easier to make – is key to achieving the goal of cutting battery costs in half and ramping up battery production nearly 100-fold by 2030.

    The company’s new structural battery pack requires the new 4680 battery cells in order to work.

    Musk said on Wednesday that it will take about two years for Tesla factories in Fremont and Shanghai to embrace the new technology.

    “Fremont and Shanghai will transition in 2 years when new tech is proven,” Musk said in a tweet.

    The company said last week that it delivered 139,300 vehicles in the third quarter, a quarterly record for the electric carmaker.

    Tesla’s delivery push has been supported by its new Shanghai factory, the only plant currently producing vehicles outside California, as it is also building a new vehicle and battery manufacturing facility near Berlin.

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  • Tesla To Buy German Battery Assembly Maker

    Tesla To Buy German Battery Assembly Maker

    Tesla, the California-based electric vehicle manufacturer will soon be acquiring a German battery assembly manufacturing company. As per a report filed by Reuters, the EV maker has agreed to buy ATW Automation company, which is a subsidiary of the Canadian ATS Automation Tooling Systems Inc. It majorly focuses on assembling battery modules and packs for the auto industry. As per a German media report in September, the company was on the brink of liquidation due to a massive slump in orders.

    Last month, the company announced that certain assets and employees at one of its Germany-based units would be sold and transferred to a third party. However, the company did not disclose the name of the company. Based in western Germany, ATW has completed over 20 battery production lines for international automakers.

    As far as Tesla is concerned, the company plans to ramp up battery production in the coming year. And, the EV maker recently confirmed during an event that it would sharply reduce the cost of battery packs within the next three years. The company is also building its third Gigafactory near Berlin, which will also include a battery plant. It also aims to initiate construction at its new vehicle factory in Texas later this year.

    Tesla’s future product line-up includes the light-duty Cybertruck and the Semi truck. Both vehicles will require higher battery capacities. The company on Friday announced that it had delivered over 1.39 lakh vehicles globally in the third quarter and aims to sell half a million vehicles by the end of 2020.

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  • Tesla Autopilot Scores Low For Driver Engagement In European Safety Rating

    Tesla Autopilot Scores Low For Driver Engagement In European Safety Rating

    Tesla’s Autopilot has ranked sixth in 10 driver assistance systems evaluated in a European safety assessment, scoring low on its ability to keep drivers engaged. The Tesla Model 3’s Autopilot scored just 36 when assessed on its ability to maintain a driver’s focus on the road. But it gained the highest marks for performance and ability to respond to emergencies, receiving an overall score of 131 and a rating of ‘moderate’.

    In contrast, the Mercedes GLE’s system, which had the highest overall score of 174 and received the top rating of ‘very good’, received a score of 85 for driver engagement. Most other vehicles had scores of 70 or above for driver engagement.

    The European New Car Assessment Program (NCAP), which worked with UK insurance group Thatcham Research, called the assessments the first consumer ratings specifically focused on driver assistance systems – technology that automates some tasks, including acceleration, braking and steering support.

    Safety and insurance researchers have frequently warned of the risks of consumers overestimating the systems’ abilities, a misconception increased by some automakers calling their products Autopilot, ProPilot or CoPilot.

    Tesla’s Autopilot has been criticized by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board for allowing drivers to turn their attention from the road and U.S. regulators have investigated 15 crashes since 2016 involving Tesla vehicles equipped with Autopilot.

    “Unfortunately, there are motorists that believe they can purchase a self-driving car today. This is a dangerous misconception that sees too much control handed to vehicles that are not ready to cope with all situations,” said Matthew Avery, a Euro NCAP board member and research director at Thatcham Research.

    In addition to the Mercedes GLE, the BMW 3-Series and the Audi Q8, received the highest rating of ‘very good’ while two models, the Renault Clio and the Peugeot received the lowest rating of ‘entry’.

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  • Tesla To Support The Electricity Grid Soon In The Future

    Tesla To Support The Electricity Grid Soon In The Future

    Tesla has announced that in the future its electric cars will be able to feedback the stored energy back to the electricity grid. Tesla’s Model S Long Range Plus model can drive up to 644 kilometers using its 100 kWh battery which is often not fully utilized by its owners unless they plan on going on a long trip. While Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk hasn’t specified when it is coming, he did say at its battery day event that the feature was in the works. The billionaire however clarified that this feature wouldn’t be game-changing as the very concept of electric mobility.

    “Vehicle-to-grid sounds good, but I think actually has a much lower utility than people think,” Musk said.

    Musk instead was of the belief that users should start augmenting the electricity that comes in the household with Tesla’s PowerWall which is a battery-based electricity solution that Tesla sells in the US augmented with solar panels. “I think it’s actually going to be better for people’s freedom of action to have a Powerwall and a car,” said Musk.

    Using the PowerWall, users can even go off-the-grid and be fully self-sufficient on their power needs. That being said, having a Tesla with a 100 kWh battery at home can be very handy in the case of a blackout.  “The amount of energy storage you have driving on four wheels is much more than any electric utility will ever build and put on the grid,” says Gerbrand Ceder, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

    “So it now starts to make sense that you use this as a resource to stabilize the grid,” he added.

    This news comes as Tesla also announced its new tabless batteries which are more efficient and powerful. Tesla also announced that it was developing a new vehicle at the $25,000 price point which may even have the potential to come to India.

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  • Driver Arrested For Sleeping While Tesla Was On Autopilot At 140 kmph

    Driver Arrested For Sleeping While Tesla Was On Autopilot At 140 kmph

    A Tesla driver in Alberta, Canada was arrested for sleeping while the car was cruising at 140 kmph on the Autopilot. “Alberta RCMP received a complaint of a car speeding on Highway 2 near Ponoka. The car appeared to be self-driving, traveling over 140 km/h with both front seats completely reclined & occupants appeared to be asleep,” posted the official RCMP twitter account.

    “The driver received a Dangerous Driving charge & summons for court,” tweeted the RCMP. In a more detailed report on its own website, it was revealed that the driver was a 20-year old whose license was suspended for fatigue. “Although manufacturers of new vehicles have built-in safeguards to prevent drivers from taking advantage of the new safety systems in vehicles, those systems are just that – supplemental safety systems,” Superintendent Gary Graham of Alberta RCMP Traffic Services stated in the RCMP report. It also noted that Tesla’s didn’t come equipped with self-driving systems and onus is still on the driver to drive the car.

    Tesla itself doesn’t allow its users to implement the Autopilot feature for full autonomous use. It also adds a number of safeguards such as reminders and requires the driver’s hand on the steering wheel frequently for staying enabled. That being said, many users have proven the ability to manipulate the system and the same has been pointed out by many on Twitter who noted that this was probably a prank.

    This comes at the backdrop of Tesla’s founder claiming that a big update for its autonomous capabilities is in the works thanks to the neural network it is running on the DOJO supercomputer. The latest Tesla’s run its FSD chips for its autopilot capability while the older ones are based on Nvidia’s semiconductors. Next week, Tesla is also slated to announce some big updates related to its battery tech at its battery day event.

  • Tesla Launches Fast Electric Car Charging In Berlin

    Tesla Launches Fast Electric Car Charging In Berlin

    Managers at electric carmaker Tesla Inc on Thursday demonstrated new supercharger equipment on a Berlin research campus, saying they were looking at more target cities to attract potential buyers worried about access to charging.

    “Now, as part of our commitment to make Tesla ownership easy and convenient for everyone including those without immediate access to home or workplace charging, we are expanding out supercharging network into city centers,” said Jeroen van Tilburg, manager Europe of charging infrastructure at Tesla.

    A company spokesman told reporters Tesla would open at least one more inner-city fast-charging site in Germany in 2020, possibly more.

    He stressed that Tesla still believed in the slow workplace and residential charging as the main way to charge vehicles but wanted to offer a quicker option.

    The so-called V3 charger allows Tesla Model 3 cars to charge within five minutes enough to travel 120 kilometers (75 miles). Older Tesla models would receive relevant software upgrades. German policymakers aim to boost the demand for electric cars to cut emissions.

    “We have a lot to make up for in terms of charging infrastructure,” said Germany’s Economy Minister Peter Altmaier at the event.

    He reiterated pledges to speed the roll-out of public charging points and permits for private charging which had hampered sales in the past.

    The latest legislation for a green-led recovery after the coronavirus crisis offers buyers incentives and helps bump up power grids.

    Tesla has chosen a site near Berlin for a new factory due to start operating next year.

    Separately to the event, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper said on Thursday the factory had the potential to create 40,000 jobs, citing the economy minister of Brandenburg state.

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  • Elon Musk Hints At The Possibility Of A New Compact Electric Car

    Elon Musk Hints At The Possibility Of A New Compact Electric Car

    American electric carmaker Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, hinted at the possibility of launching a new compact electric car that will be positioned below the Model 3. According to Business Insider, recently, while speaking to some analysts and investors, Musk expressed his opinion that Tesla cars are too expensive, stating his desire to offer a more affordable electric car. Currently, Tesla sells four electric vehicles, including the Model 3, Model S, Model Y and Model X. In the United States, Tesla’s most affordable offering right now is the Tesla Model 3 that starts at $37,990.

    Talking about making affordable electric cars, Musk said, “I think we will not succeed in our mission if we do not make cars affordable. Like the thing that bugs me the most about where we are right now is that our cars are not affordable enough. We need to fix that.” While he did not go into the specifics of the new compact electric car, he did say, “It would be reasonable to assume that we would make a compact vehicle of some kind and probably a higher capacity vehicle of some kind. These are likely things at some point. But I do think there’s a long way to go with 3 and Y and with Cybertruck and Semi. So, it’s a long way to go with those. I think we’ll do the obvious things.”

    However, it’s very much possible that the new compact electric car will not be made in the US nor in China, but rather in Germany. Earlier this month, replying to a Twitter user’s direct query about Tesla coming up with a European style hatchback, Musk hinted at the possibility of designing and developing such a car in Germany. Currently, the company is building its new vehicle manufacturing plant, better known as the Gigafactory, in Berlin.

    More recently, Tesla has finally zeroed in on the location for its second Gigafactory for the US, which will come up near Arizona, Texas. Tesla is making an investment of $1.1 billion in building the new plant, which is expected to create up to 5000 new jobs in the US state. The new factory will mainly serve the eastern part of the country and will manufacture the upcoming Cybertruck, along with the Model 3 and Model Y. Recently, Elon Musk also hinted at the possibility of coming up with a second Gigafactory for Asia, outside China, sometime in the future.

  • Tesla Hiring In Shanghai As Production Ramps Up

    Tesla Hiring In Shanghai As Production Ramps Up

    Tesla has launched a hiring spree in Shanghai with plans to bring on designers at its China studio and about 1,000 factory workers, job posts show, as the U.S. electric vehicle maker ramps up production in the world’s biggest auto market.

    The posts on the Tesla human resources department’s official WeChat account mark the first time the California-based automaker has looked to hire designers in China. Tesla said in January it planned to open a design and research centre in China to make “Chinese-style” cars.

    The posts did not reveal how many designers Tesla planned to hire.

    The company also planned to hire 600 workers at stamping, bodywork, painting and assembly workshops in Shanghai, according to a separate job post by the Lingang local government. Another 150 workers were needed for quality checks, 200 for logistics work and 20 for security, it added.

    Two sources familiar with the matter said the recruitment drive was partly for the preparation of Model Y sport-utility vehicles at the Shanghai plant. Tesla is building manufacturing facilities for Model Ys in Shanghai from next year.

    Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    The company delivered over 30,000 units in China in the past quarter, most of them locally made Model 3 sedans.

    In March it advertised for solar and energy storage project managers in China, as it moves to expand its energy business into the country.

  • Tesla Share Rally Propels Some Early Fan Investors To Riches

    Tesla Share Rally Propels Some Early Fan Investors To Riches

    Convinced of Tesla Inc’s imminent meteoric rise, Orestis Palampougioukis, a Netherlands-based software developer, took out a 43,000 euro ($49,000) loan in early October to invest it all in the electric carmaker, which at the time was trading at around $230 a share.

    Since then, Palampougioukis’ bet has paid off as Tesla’s share price has increased more than six-fold, trading around $1,500 on Monday and surpassing every rival to become the world’s highest-valued automaker. After investing an additional 14,000 euros in personal funds, he has pocketed around 10,000 euros in profit to date, even when accounting for the 7% interest he pays the bank.

    “To me it didn’t feel like a bet because I studied what Tesla does very closely and it’s simply inevitable that it would dominate,” Palampougioukis said, adding that he plans to own the shares for decades.

    He is not alone. Retail investors around the world, staunch believers in the company’s mission to lead the auto industry into a battery-powered future, have invested their personal money, and at times their parents’ retirement funds, in Tesla and reaped handsome rewards.

    Tesla reports second-quarter results on Wednesday after the close of trading. While analysts polled by Refinitiv on average expect the company to report a loss, a surprisingly strong vehicle delivery report boosted hopes among many retail investors for a profitable quarter.

    Discussions about Tesla on online retail investor forums have surged, with users debating whether to hold their shares in hopes of even higher returns or cash out.

    While the total number of Tesla retail investors is not known, around 75% of the company’s stock is owned by large institutional investors and Tesla executives, including Chief Executive Elon Musk, according to Refinitiv data.

    Tesla shares are among the most popular on U.S. retail investor platforms, such as Robinhood Markets Inc and TD Ameritrade. The number of users holding Tesla stock on the Robinhood trading app increased more than 400% from the first two weeks of July 2018 to the same point this year, according to data from Robintrack.net, which compiles data on the investing platform.

    In South Korea, where Tesla has become the latest craze among tech-savvy professionals, the company is the most-traded overseas stock, with Koreans buying $3.2 billion worth of Tesla shares so far this year, up nearly 13-fold from all of 2019.

    Choi Jong-wan, the former head of Korea’s Tesla owners’ club, borrowed money to invest in Tesla after the company unveiled its Model 3 in 2016. He also bought Tesla stock for his seven-year-old son, taking advantage of Korean inheritance tax breaks.

    Choi, who bought a Model S, said the company’s shares are supported by its many fans buying stock. Convinced of Musk’s vision, Choi bought when Tesla shares tanked in the past.

    “I am getting more confident about Tesla,” he said. “I will sell Tesla stock when other automakers introduce better electric cars than Tesla at competitive prices.”

    Tesla outpaced analyst estimates for second-quarter vehicle deliveries on Thursday, defying a trend of plummeting sales in the wider auto industry as coronavirus-linked lockdown orders kept shoppers at home. This report produced by Yahaira Jacquez.

    Some investors have invested their stock proceeds in the company by buying its vehicles. David, a marketing specialist from Oakland, California, who asked that his last name not be used, bought a Tesla Model 3 last August after selling some of his Tesla shares.

    He bought his first Tesla shares for a couple of hundred dollars right out of college in 2010. The company had just listed publicly, with the shares trading around $29.

    David has since invested about another $40,000 and currently holds 180 shares.

    “Tesla has treated me well so far. I believe in their vision and I believe in Elon Musk,” he said. “But the house we bought needs a new roof and I’m thinking to just sell a few shares to pay for that.”

    Musk’s own net worth has soared even higher thanks to the latest share price rally. The outspoken Tesla boss is within reach of another share-based payday potentially worth as much as $2 billion. Including previously vested tranches, Musk would own options for about $4 billion worth of Tesla shares.

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  • Tesla Shares Surge 13% As Strong Deliveries Drive Profit Optimism

    Tesla Shares Surge 13% As Strong Deliveries Drive Profit Optimism

    Shares of Tesla Inc surged 13% to a record high on Monday, extending their rally to over 40% in five sessions after analysts raised their price targets on the electric car maker following its strong quarterly deliveries.

    The day’s jump increased Tesla’s stock market value by $30 billion (24 billion pounds), eclipsing the entire value of Ford Motor, currently at $25 billion.

    JMP Securities increased its price target to $1,500 from $1,050 after Tesla on Thursday reported higher-than-expected second-quarter vehicle deliveries, defying plummeting sales in the wider auto industry as the coronavirus pandemic slammed the global economy. With Tesla’s stock up nearly 500% over the past year, many investors believe the rally is unsustainable

    “We believe that the question to be considered is not whether the stock is expensive on current valuation measures, but what the company’s growth and competitive position signal about the stock’s potential for the next several years,” JMP Securities analyst Joseph Osha wrote in a client note. Tesla’s annual sales could hit $100 billion by 2025, he predicted.

    JPMorgan, which rates Tesla “underweight,” raised its price target to $295 from $275, while Deutsche Bank upped its target to $1,000 from $900. The median analyst price target for Tesla is $675, compared with its current price of $1,372, according to Refiniti. Alex Barrat from Stake takes us through the overnight moves – Tesla in focus, up over 40% in the last week.

    Tesla’s solid delivery numbers heightened expectations of a profitable second quarter, which would mark the first time in Tesla’s history that it would report four consecutive quarters of profit.

    However, with Tesla’s stock up nearly 500% over the past year, many investors believe the rally is unsustainable. The stock is trading at 158 times expected earnings, according to Refinitiv, an exceptionally high valuation.

    Following Monday’s surge, Tesla’s market capitalization stood at $245 billion, growing its lead as the world’s most valuable automaker.

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  • Tesla Becomes Most Valuable Automaker In Latest Stock Rally

    Tesla Becomes Most Valuable Automaker In Latest Stock Rally

    Tesla Inc on Wednesday became the highest-valued automaker as its shares surged to record highs and the electric carmaker’s market capitalization overtook that of former front runner Toyota Motors Corp. Tesla shares gained 5% in early morning trade to a record of $1,133, boosting the company’s market cap to $209.47 billion – roughly $6 billion more than Toyota is currently valued by investors. Tesla is now worth more than triple the combined value of U.S. automakers General Motors Co and Ford Motor Co.

    The shares’ meteoric rise, up more than 163% since the start of 2020, highlight growing confidence among investors about the future of electric vehicles and Tesla’s shift from a niche carmaker into a global leader in cleaner cars.

    After several years of losses, Tesla has delivered three straight profitable quarters since the third quarter of 2019 and surprised investors with solid first-quarter deliveries despite the virus outbreak.

    Toyota, one of the world’s most profitable automakers, sold 10.46 million vehicles during its 2019 financial year, ending on March 31, 2020. It reported net revenues of 30,226 billion yen, or roughly $281.20 billion, during that time.

    Tesla, in comparison, ended 2019 with $24.6 billion in revenues, having delivered 367,200 vehicles last year. Chief Executive Elon Musk in the past said Tesla would deliver at least 500,000 vehicles in 2020, a forecast the company has not changed despite the coronavirus pandemic.

    Tesla is expected to report second-quarter delivery numbers this week.

  • Tesla Plans Battery Manufacturing Facility Under Project ‘Roadrunner’

    Tesla Plans Battery Manufacturing Facility Under Project ‘Roadrunner’

    Tesla Inc plans to build a battery research and manufacturing facility in Fremont, California, to be operated around the clock, under a project dubbed Roadrunner, documents from the city government showed.

    The plan signals the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) maker’s efforts to make its own automotive batteries, EVs’ most expensive components.

    Tesla, which said it currently has a “small-scale” battery manufacturing operation in Fremont, applied for city government approval to build an expanded battery operation. It estimated construction of the project, including the installation of all manufacturing equipment, can be completed in around 3 months.

    Tesla’s stock jumped above $1,000 a share for the first time on Wednesday after Chief Executive Elon Musk told his staff it was time to bring the Tesla Semi commercial truck to “volume production.” Conway G.

    Workers assigned to the facility would total 470, of which 400 would “work in shifts, such that there are 100 employees working at manufacturing and production operations at any given time, all day, every day.”

    Tesla did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

    Chief Executive Elon Musk earlier this week said it will give a tour of Tesla’s battery cell production on Sept. 15, the tentative date for what the automaker has dubbed Battery Day.

    Tesla currently produces batteries with Japan’s Panasonic Corp at the so-called Gigafactory near Reno, Nevada. It also has battery contracts with South Korea’s LG Chem Ltd and China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd.

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  • Geely’s Polestar Plans China Showroom Expansion To Compete With Tesla

    Geely’s Polestar Plans China Showroom Expansion To Compete With Tesla

    Polestar, the premium electric vehicle maker owned by China’s Geely, plans a big expansion of its showroom network in the mainland, sources said, as it prepares for delivery of cars to compete with Tesla Inc’s locally made Model 3.

    Showroom strength is becoming an important differentiator for electric vehicle (EV) makers in the world’s biggest auto and EV market, as they line up new model launches.

    Polestar, which plans to deliver Polestar 2 electric sedans in China from July, currently has one showroom, in the capital of Beijing. It plans to have 20 showrooms, with most of the opening in the third quarter of this year.

    Polestar plans to deliver Polestar 2 electric sedans in China from July 2020

    Unlike sales of cars through dealers that most traditional automakers rely on, Polestar will sell directly to customers, a strategy also pursued by other EV makers including Tesla, Nio Inc, and Xpeng Motors, backed by Alibaba.

    Direct sales to customers can help automakers to better manage a car’s retail price and its production and inventory. However, it also adds to costs if automakers need to invest in self-owned showrooms like Tesla.

    Polestar, however, will partner with investors to build and operate the showrooms while still managing sales and delivery of cars, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the plan is not public.

    A rocket ship designed and built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX has lifted off with two Americans on a history-making flight to the International Space Station.

    A Polestar representative declined to comment.

    The automaker, based in Gothenburg, Sweden, started producing Polestar 2 sedans earlier this year in China and will also export them to Europe and the United States.

    It will open showrooms firstly in Shanghai and then expand to coastal Ningbo, northern Tianjin and southern Guangzhou. The showrooms will be mostly in shopping malls.

    In China, Tesla has over 50 showrooms. Nio currently operates around 110 showrooms, with some of the properties belonging to partners. Xpeng plans to have over 200 outlets by the end of the year from about 150 now, many of them belonging to partners.

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  • Tesla, California County Reach Deal To Reopen U.S. Plant Next Week

    Tesla, California County Reach Deal To Reopen U.S. Plant Next Week

    Tesla Inc and officials in California have resolved their acrimonious clash over safety procedures at the automaker’s sole U.S. assembly plant with a deal that allows production to resume as early as Monday, county officials said.

    The county said the automaker could take additional steps ahead of next week after Chief Executive Elon Musk had vowed to defy authorities, saying Monday he was resuming production despite the prohibition. On Tuesday, he also won the backing of President Donald Trump.

    In a tweet, Alameda County said that following talks with Tesla it agreed that the electric carmaker can take steps “in preparation for possible reopening as soon as next week.”

    Tesla did not immediately comment Wednesday but around the same time the county issued its statement, Musk tweeted: “Life should be lived.”

    Tesla’s sole U.S. electric vehicle assembly plant is in Fremont, California, which is in Alameda County.

    The county said it would work with the police in Fremont “to verify Tesla is adhering to physical distancing and that agreed-upon health and safety measures are in place for the safety of their workers as they prepare for full production.”

    Tesla and officials in California have resolved their acrimonious clash over safety procedures at the automaker’s sole U.S. assembly plant with a deal that allows production to resume as early as Monday, county officials said. This report produced by Yahaira Jacquez.

    On Monday, Musk said production was resuming in Fremont, defying an order to stay closed and saying if anyone had to be arrested, it should be him.

    On Tuesday, Musk won Trump’s backing. “California should let Tesla & @elonmusk open the plant, NOW. It can be done Fast & Safely!” Trump wrote on Twitter. The White House did not immediately comment on the announcement.

    Tesla fell 3.3% in afternoon trading to $782.43.

    California Attorney General Xavier Becerra told CNBC that “conversation is going on between Tesla and the county. But at the state level, we’re ready to enforce if we find that anyone is violating the state orders issued by the governor.”

    On Tuesday, employee parking lots at Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, were packed with cars. Trucks could be seen driving in and out of the factory grounds.

    At the Fremont factory’s outbound logistics parking lot, where only a dozen Tesla cars were parked last week, hundreds of Tesla vehicles were seen on Tuesday.

    The company had sued Alameda County challenging its decision that the plant should stay closed.

    A county health official on Friday said the county had asked all manufacturers, including Tesla, to delay operations by at least another week to monitor infection and hospitalization rates.

    Tesla on Saturday released a plan to keep workers returning to the factory safe.

    The measures, which include temperature screenings, the installation of barriers to separate work areas and protective equipment for workers, are similar to those set up by Detroit-based automakers General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler. Those automakers are set to resume at most U.S. auto plants starting Monday.

    Trump is eager for the U.S. economy to reopen and for Americans to return to work.

    Musk over the weekend threatened to leave California for Texas or Nevada over his factory’s closure. His move has highlighted the competition for jobs and ignited a rush to woo the billionaire executive by states that have reopened their economies more quickly in response to encouragement from Trump.

    Last month, Musk was on a call with Trump and other chief executives to discuss the reopening of the U.S. economy in which Musk said he wanted to be able to resume production by May 1 or earlier, a person briefed on the call confirmed. Details of the call were reported earlier by the Washington Post.

    Musk’s fight with local authorities has gotten the attention of those who scout sites for new factories and corporate offices, as well as economic development officials hungry for more jobs.

    Since the disagreement between Tesla and Alameda County gained national attention, officials from such states as Texas, Nevada, Georgia, Utah and Oklahoma have pitched Musk about considering their state. Analysts estimate it would take Tesla 12 to 18 months to move production.

    The Fremont factory employs more than 10,000 people, according to the automaker.

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