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Tesla to earn $250 million from sales of California environmental credits

Tesla Motors is expected to release quarterly earnings figures within the next few days, and the Silicon Valley automaker is thought to have attained profitability for the first time ever. As it turns out, a good bit of that profit will reportedly come from the State of California.
According to an article from the LA Times, Tesla, which is reportedly on pace to sell 20,000 vehicles in 2013, receives as much as $35,000 in environmental credits from California for each Model S it sells. These credits can then be sold to other automakers that do business in the state but don't sell zero-emission vehicles of their own. Some experts believe Tesla could earn up to $250 million from such ZEV credits.
While profits from ZEV credits equals good news for Tesla, some experts and rival automakers aren't very pleased with California's strong-arm tactics when it comes to the sales of electric vehicles. "At the end of the day, other carmakers are subsidizing Tesla," said Thilo Koslowski, an analyst at Gartner Inc.

Recharge Wrap-up: Dedicated stop-start battery, anti-Tesla states win Luddite Award

Arizona, Michigan, New Jersey and Texas have been awarded a Luddite Award for blocking Tesla sales. The collective honor is bestowed by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) for standing "resolutely in opposition to innovation." It's a particularly hard blow for the proudly auto-centric state of Michigan, whose Governor Rick Snyder signed an anti-Tesla bill into law in October. ITIF is now accepting votes for the "worst of the worst," with the "winner" to be announced February 5. Among the awardees in the running are Virginia and Nevada for their stances on ridesharing services. Read more in the press release below, in the ITIF's report or at the Detroit Free Press. Tesla has put the finishing touches on its underground Supercharger station in London. The subterranean chargers reside below the Westfield London shopping mall, which is also home to a Tesla Store. The Westfield London station is Tesla's largest underground station in Europe. Have a look in the attached photo gallery, or visit Tesla's Facebook page for more. Johnson Controls has developed a dedicated battery for stop-start system. The small lithium-ion battery allows for more frequent and longer engine stops, improving fuel economy by as much as eight percent. It weighs just nine pounds, and with no need for thermal management, it offers more packaging freedom within the vehicle. The battery offers a lifespan of four to six years, with a price in the hundreds of dollars. Johnson Controls will debut the start-stop battery at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, with deployment beginning in Europe in 2018. Read more at Automotive News. ITIF Announces 2014 Luddite Awards WASHINGTON – (January 5, 2015) Technological innovation is the wellspring of social and economic progress. Despite this, a growing array of interests-some economic, some ideological-now stand resolutely in opposition to innovation. These "neo-Luddites" have worked to convince the public and policymakers that technological innovation is something to be feared and contained. Their targets include genetically modified organisms, new Internet apps, smart electric meters, health IT, big data, and increasingly productivity itself. And if these advocates are successful Americans will suffer in the form of lower quality of life and reduced societal growth.

Tesla attempting LA-NY Guinness record using Superchargers

Right now, two Tesla Model S EVs are crossing the US from Los Angeles to New York, hoping to be a big deal. Sure, a father-daughter team already claim they've made the cross-country drive, but this time, it's an official Tesla event and the company has its eyes on a Guinness World Record prize. The drivers left the Tesla design studio in Hawthorne, Los Angeles at midnight last night, and the plan is to use the company's just-completed Supercharger network to achieve the "lowest charge time for an electric vehicle traveling across the United States." We didn't know that was a category, either. Tesla now has over 70 Supercharger stations in the US and all of them are free-to-use for Model S drivers, which is why you can follow along on this record attempt via Twitter using the #DriveFree tag. As of early this morning, the teams made it to the Supercharger station in Kingman, AZ and posted this sunrise pic. We wish them safe travels – they will soon reach the snowy northern parts of the country since the current Supercharger route will take them through the upper Midwest on the way to the East Coast.