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Even hardcore Tesla fans can get stranded sometimes

Driving a few laps around the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a Tesla Model S can be quite a treat. Driving between Los Angeles and Las Vegas? Sometimes, not so much. The fine folks at Teslarati had the good fortune of taking the all-electric luxury sedan for a few spins around the racetrack near Sin City, and found that the Tesla handled "quite well" and was able to reach a top speed of 110 miles per hour on one of the straightaways. And the car turned in a best time of two minutes and 17 seconds around the 2.4-mile circuit. Still, the car started limiting its own power as early as its second lap, and by the seventh lap or so, the car brought down its power capacity to about 25 percent in order to conserve juice. The drivers were able to make do because a Tesla Supercharger fast-charging station was 11 miles away and they could get a good charge in about an hour. Less of a treat was the car's performance between Vegas and Southern California. Despite being big Tesla fans (the driver writes for Teslarati, after all), the unexpected appearance of 35-mile-per-hour headwinds and the totally expected elevation changes between Las Vegas and Barstow, CA proved particularly problematic. The driver slowed down to 40 mph and dropped the Model S' power consumption to something in the 400-500 wh/m range, but still, our intrepid explorers ran out of juice and were stranded beside the road until Tesla kindly arranged for a tow. D'oh!

Recharge Wrap-up: Tesla firmware update videos, Mercedes S500 Plug-In Hybrid

See the Tesla Model S with Firmware 6.0 in action in new videos from Teslarati. The large software update includes improved traffic-based navigation, a calendar function, updated power management, "Location-Based Smart Air Suspension" as well as other improvements. Drivers get more route options to save energy, and more control over how the car saves energy. The car can also remember ride height settings when driving in those same locations again. Additionally, you can start and drive the car without a key, just using the smartphone app. See how it all works in the videos below, the second of which focuses on pairing with the updated phone app. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has deemed ride-hailing app Uber's carpooling service illegal. The way the UberPool service is categorized by the CPUC, charging multiple riders separate fares for a single ride runs afoul of the law. The technical details are a bit convoluted, and what supporters could deem arbitrary, but Forbes delves into the details a bit further to try to make sense of California's intentions (even considering the possibility of other ride services, such as airport shuttle companies, fueling the fire). Lyft - which operates a similar service called LyftLine - and Sidecar have also received notices from the CPUC. Read more at Forbes. China's recent enthusiasm for electric vehicles could be largely attributed to a single person, Ma Kai. After the Politburo member was named vice premier, he encouraged maintaining and increasing EV subsidies when China sought to decrease them. He also seems ready to fight for more EV deregulation to encourage more clean vehicles. Read more about Ma Kai and what he's done for China's EV legislation at Automotive News. Mercedes-Benz begins deliveries of the S500 Plug-In Hybrid this month. The high-tech luxury PHEV features energy saving modes based on driver, route and traffic, and features a haptic accelerator that can signal when the driver should ease off to save power. It's powered by a biturbocharged V6 and 85-kW electric motor. Its 8.7-kWh battery offers about 20 miles of electric driving. The S500 plug-in starts at about $146,000. Read more in the press release below. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Tesla talking about first European factory, but it won't happen soon

Tesla Motors is, as always, thinking big. The company already has a factory in California with a lot of empty space. But with Model S deliveries happening in Europe and a right-hand drive version just launched in the UK, CEO Elon Musk is already talking about building EVs in Europe. We did some math and let's just say we think any such facility is likely a long way off. The California-based company plans on eventually building a factory in Europe, Automotive News Europe says, citing an interview with Musk. But Musk says Tesla would have to sell 160,000 vehicles a year in Europe to justify such a factory. Musk sees that many sales as a given, eventually, and is planning on building an R&D center in the UK within the next two years while expanding its assembly factory in the Netherlands. "It will take Tesla a bit longer to ramp up in Western Europe than in the US" – Ed Kim But just how long might it take to get to that 160,000 figure across the Pond? Well, through the first four months of the year, Tesla sold 3,467 units of its Model S electric sedans in Europe, Automotive News says, citing research firm JATO Dynamics. Extrapolating from Tesla's first-quarter 2014 delivery numbers (the company doesn't publish monthly sales totals), Tesla sold about 8,600 Model S sedans worldwide through April. Even if Tesla speeds things up in Europe this year and approaches, say, 15,000 units, that's still less than 10 percent of Musk's goal. Even with new models, 15,000 is a long way from 160,000, and it appears that Tesla will grow slower in Europe than it has in the US. "It will take Tesla a bit longer to ramp up in Western Europe than in the US," Ed Kim, vice president of industry analysis at AutoPacific, told AutoblogGreen. "This is partially due to infrastructure issues. In the US, most potential Tesla customers live in detached single family homes, making installation of a personal charging infrastructure at home a snap. In Western Europe, many potential customers – even affluent ones – live in communal living situations like condos and apartments. And even having assigned parking does not guarantee that they would be able to install chargers there." Earlier this year, Tesla dropped the prices of its Model S in Europe because of the strengthening of the Euro. The company initially priced the Model S in the UK at almost $20,000 above the US base price.