2023 Tesla Y 1-owner * 43,000 Miles on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Why is Tesla getting more and more secretive?

Tesla's unorthodox vision and the even more unorthodox means it is using to achieve that vision have made it what it is: a tiny company with an overachieving product and an oversized stock valuation and voice in the global EV discussion. However, one of its unorthodox practices has been giving investors pause for a year now: not divulging information in its quarterly reports that could be taken as adverse developments. An article in Seeking Alpha called "The Incredible Shrinking Tesla Disclosure" lays out the timelines and details to support one analyst's suspicions for why Tesla will no longer say how many reservations it has, how many cars it's building, and where those cars are going. The company has never reported sales by month, not in the US or any other market. However, for more than two years it provided the number of reservations it had, but stopped that practice in Q1 of 2013 after it revamped its reservation process to allow prospective buyers to customize a Model S in three steps and place a non-binding order, rather than place their names on a list. The change meant, to Tesla, that the new reservations numbers wouldn't accurately correspond to the previous numbers, so they disappeared to be replaced by general numbers preceded by phrases like "were over" or "up from about." Yet Tesla still calls that three-stop process "a reservation" and continues to give them general numbers, and those numbers have gone down. Analysts take that as one instance of Tesla going dark when a metric heads down. Then, again after years of doing so, the company stopped reporting deliveries by market. Instead of investors and analysts getting a breakout of how many cars went to each market - the US, Europe, the Asia-Pacific - Tesla only provided a global delivery number, which Tesla says is how many cars were delivered to customers. Observers, having tried to parse the numbers and detected a downturn in US sales, and knowing China is missing its targets, said this was the second instance of Tesla getting quiet about numbers it didn't like. The third instance is production numbers, which didn't make an appearance in the Q3 report of 2014. Tesla used to say how many cars it had built in the quarter, but in its last report it said instead that production was affected by a two-week shutdown to retool its factory in Fremont, California, and it wouldn't predict production for the coming quarter, either - something else it formerly did.

Rivian R1T, Mini Cooper Electric owners happiest with their EVs

The J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience (EVX) Ownership Study is out, and there's change at the top. With the swelling adoption of electric vehicles in the U.S. over in the past two years especially, the third year of the EVX study changes focus to first-time EV buyers. Those two factors encouraged change at the top of both premium and mass-market segments. Among premium EVs, the Rivian R1T pickup scored overall victory in its first year of eligibility with a satisfaction score of 794 out of 1,000. The Tesla Model 3 takes second place with 759 points. Tesla had won the top two premium spots in the study in 2021 and in 2022. The average score in the premium segment was 756. The Tesla Model Y (754), Audi E-Tron (735), and Polestar 2 (724) filled out the list of the five eligible models this year. Among the ten eligible mass-market vehicles, the Mini Cooper Electric nabbed the overall win by scoring 782. The Kia EV6 came second with 762 points, keeping Kia in the top two; the Kia Niro EV won the mass-market segment the previous two years. The Ford Mustang Mach-E (742), Hyundai Ioniq 5 (738), and Volkswagen ID.4 (735) completed the top five, the Niro EV (733) in sixth. All were above the segment average of 730. The four models fell below the segment average were the Ford F-150 Lightning (723), Chevrolet Bolt EUV (716), Chevrolet Bolt (711), and Nissan Leaf (698). How are the scores derived? J.D. Power worked with EV app maker and research firm PlugShare to get owner responses in ten areas: accuracy of stated battery range; availability of public charging stations; battery range; cost of ownership; driving enjoyment; ease of charging at home; interior and exterior styling; safety and technology features; service experience; and vehicle quality and reliability. Brent Gruber, executive director of the EV practice at J.D. Power, said, "Recent vehicle launches from both new brands and traditional automakers have had a profound effect on what factors are most important in the ownership experience. Today’s EV owners are looking for quality, reliability, driving enjoyment, safety and technology features." The Mini, in fact, scored highest of any premium and mass-market EV in the studyÂ’s highest-weighted index factor, quality and reliability.

Recharge Wrap-up: Elon Musk in Reddit AMA; Honda releases annual environmental report

Elon Musk will answer questions in a Reddit AMA tonight. The "Ask Me Anything" event will begin at 9:00 pm EST, and will last one hour. Musk will answer as many reader questions as he can in the allotted amount of time. Reddit's /r/TeslaMotors board is selecting official questions from users to pose to Musk as well. If you have any aching inquiries for the CEO of Tesla and Spacex, you probably don't want to miss this. Read more at Clean Technica, or at Reddit. Powertree Services plans to build solar-powered EV charging at San Francisco apartment buildings. The group will rent parking spaces at apartment buildings and put solar panels on the roof. Tenants with EVs can pay a monthly fee to charge their cars at their own apartments and Powertree Services parking spots around town. It takes the responsibility of building and maintaining the chargers off the building owners, but provides them with some revenue from renting the space to Powertree. Read more at Treehugger. The market for environmentally friendly cars will remain strong despite cheap oil prices, according to IHS Automotive Advisory Services. James Chao, director of the company's Asia-Pacific region, says his clients are still very focused on fuel economy. IHS has predicted green car production to triple by 2020 from 2014 figures. Hyundai and Kia, who are clients of Chao, have new EVs, hybrids, plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles on the way - a seemingly "unfocused" plan that Chao defends. "Especially at times when uncertainty is dominant, it could well be referred to as being prudent," he says. Read more at The Korea Herald. Honda has released its annual North American Environmental Report. In the report, Honda notes environmental progress it has made over the last year in a number of areas. It points out the introduction of the 2014 Accord Hybrid and the FCV Concept. It enumerates reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in transportation, use of its products and even from Honda's suppliers (however, there was a 0.7 percent rise in CO2 emissions during manufacturing due to, or rather "despite a significant increase in production"). Honda is using less water, and producing less waste - only 0.8 kilograms are sent to the landfill per car manufactured. Honda also worked with SolarCity to get solar panels on 1,650 rooftops in the US. Read more on Honda's website. Marco Andretti will race in the Formula E Buenos Aires ePrix.