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Tesla will fix 1,100 Model S motors in Norway

As far as we know, Tesla didn't build all of the Model S sedans it has sold in Norway at once, but it is just those vehicles that have been found defective and will soon be fixed. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that the company will replace defective Model S drive units sold in the Northern European country. Not a great way to start the holiday season. The issue involves a part that connects the Model S' drive motor to the gearbox, according to Dow Jones Business News. The part could break down because the company didn't apply enough grease to the part when the cars were produced. The issue may impact about 1,100 vehicles that had been shipped to Norway, though about one percent of those have already experienced "premature" wear and tear. The repairs for the couplings will take about a month. We suspect the news won't put much of a damper on Model S demand in a country that's been on the leading edge of electric-vehicle adoption with its high subsidies and cheap electricity. In March, Tesla set an all-time monthly sales record for any type of vehicle in Norway, moving almost 1,500 units that month. In fact, on a per-capita basis, the Model S sold more than the best-selling Ford F-150 here in the states that month.

Hertz adds Tesla Model S to Dream Cars fleet

The Tesla Model S is slowly infiltrating our rental car and chauffeured lives, having already gone to Las Vegas with Zappos as a taxi and San Francisco with car-sharing service Get Around. Now a lot more people will have the chance to get into one with its inclusion in the Hertz Dream Cars fleet, joining 19 petrol-powered rockets like the Aston Martin V8 Vantage, Mercedes SLS AMG and SRT Viper. What's more, in case you missed it when it was new, the Tesla Roadster will join its sibling in the Dream Cars corral.
Although the Dream Cars are available in 35 markets, the Teslas will only come to two: San Francisco and Los Angeles airports. The rental Model S gets the 85-kWh battery with a range of 265 miles, and appears to be the P85 Performance model since Hertz lists a 0-to-60 mile per hour time of 4.2 seconds.
You can read more about it in the press release below, and if your vacation plans include California, this could give you a chance to get into a Model S faster than someone who buys one.

CARB scrapping plan for $60,000 limit on EV rebates

In April, we heard about a discussion within the California Air Resources Board (CARB) that would have put a $60,000 MSRP limit on plug-in vehicles that would qualify for CARB's $2,500 rebates. A new report in Silicon Beat says that CARB is once again ready to give EV money to everyone, no matter what expensive car they buy. There's no question that the CARB proposal would have had an inordinate effect on Tesla Motors, the only company selling a EV expensive enough to cost more than $60,000, the Tesla Model S. Okay, the Cadillac ELR plug-in hybrid would also have been affected, but that only would have applied to a small handful of people. According to Silicon Beat, the updated CARB proposal says clearly that, "at this time staff is not proposing any significant changes to the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project as part of this year's Initial Funding Plan." CARB spokesman David Clegern told Silicon Beat that, "It's fair to say [the $60,000 limit] been removed. I never say anything is dead until after the vote, but I'm not aware of any plans to revisit it." In other words, Tesla, you're good to go. We've asked CARB for confirmation of this, but have not yet heard back.