2023 Tesla Model Y Long Range on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Tesla prepping Supercharger network for big growth across Europe

It'd be a nice life to be able to tour across Europe in a Tesla Model S. And that's something the California-based electric-vehicle maker is looking to enable by the end of the year. We're ready. Who's got the key fob? Tesla opened three Supercharger stations in Germany on Thursday and is aiming to string enough together to let drivers roam across the continent purely by Supercharger power by the end of 2014, Bloomberg News says. The company now has 23 Superchargers in Europe, including nine in Germany and six in Norway. Those high-powered stations can half-charge a Model S in about 20 minutes. Tesla has 97 Superchargers in North America. Tesla's most recent Supercharger deployments across the Pond merely reinforces Tesla chief Elon Musk's pledges earlier this year to ensure that all European Tesla owners would be within reach of a Supercharger by year-end, Tesla spokeswoman Liz Jarvis-Shean wrote in an e-mail to AutoblogGreen. Musk said in March that Tesla drivers would be "able to travel almost anywhere in Europe using only Superchargers" by the end of 2014. Earlier this month, Tesla started deliveries of right-hand-drive Model S sedans in the UK. Additionally, Musk estimated that the company would open a factory in Europe once annual sales on the continent reached 160,000 units. By all accounts, that's likely to be a long way off. Earlier this year, Tesla dropped the price of the Model S in Europe, though the company said that move was due to the strengthening Euro and not because of any demand issues.

Musk: Tesla Model S production up to 'around 80 cars' per week *UPDATE

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently spoke to Fox Business about the state of Model S production, and to hear the CEO tell it, things are going very well. Assembly line production has been climbing every week; the interview was conducted on September 13, and Musk said when asked how many cars they'd build, "I think it's probably going to be around 80 cars this week." If they hit that number it would represent double the production of the week before.
Tesla's Model S production goal this year is 5,000 units, and the outside estimate is that 400* have been built so far. To make the target in the roughly 14 weeks left in the year, Tesla would need to - as of this week - quadruple last week's production to a little more than 320 units. That's a steep climb, but the numbers so far point to it being still being possible. Musk said that orders continue to come in and the company is working through its backlog, and he expects an annual profit to come in 2013. You'll find both parts of the interview in the videos below.
*UPDATE: Tesla spokeswoman Christina Ra pointed out that the last publicly confirmed number is just 100 Model S units, and that Tesla will "likely make another announcement on that front soon." She added, "400 is really inaccurate."

Elon Musk: Tesla Gigafactory location announcement coming late 2014

Tesla's Gigafactory is going to be a huge deal. So huge, in fact, that Tesla's not going to announce where it will be located until later this year. You may remember that, just a month ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that, "The No. 1 thing is we want to minimize the risk timing for the Gigafactory to get up and running." Well, apparently getting the timing right doesn't mean rushing to get things done before they're ready. 30 percent cost decrease is "probably conservative at this point" – Elon Musk The reason Tesla needs the Gigafactory, as you may remember, is to supply packs for the company's Gen 3 car, the EV that is supposed to cost $35,000 and be able to go over 200 miles on a charge. To get down to that price point, the batteries need to be cheaper, and Musk has said that the Gigafactory should reduce the per-kWh cost of a pack by "more than 30 percent." Speaking at the annual shareholder conference this week, Musk confirmed that planning for the battery plant is "quite advanced" and that Tesla is meeting daily with Panasonic, the other partner in the deal. Panasonic was originally unsure that those kinds of cost reductions could be achieved, Musk said, "but I think they are now convinced they can." In fact, he said 30 percent is "probably conservative at this point." The Gigafactory should be up and running by the "late 2016 timeframe," Musk said, right around the time the Gen 3 car will be ready for volume production. While there will still only be one Tesla Gigafactory to begin with, Musk said that Tesla might start the process in two or three states (as opposed to just one or two, as hinted earlier). "We're probably going to do two or maybe three states all the way to creating a foundation and completing the plans and getting approvals and everything," he said. Sounds like someone wants to be ready to build gigafactories #2 and #3 in a hurry if need be. We've got more from the meeting, including videos of Musk's talk, here and here. You can read Tesla's original Gigafactory proposal here (PDF).