Tesla Archive

  • Is the Next Prius Going To Be A Tesla?

    Is the Next Prius Going To Be A Tesla?

    Posted on May 20, 2010 | No Comments
    Toyota and Tesla announced a new partnership at Tesla's headquarters in Palo Alto today, the auto makers will collaborate on technology, the development of new electric vehicles and Toyota will purchase $50 million of Tesla's common stock. The press conference featured the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tesla CEO, Elon Musk and TMC President, Akio Toyoda. Calling it an "explosion" for California (I think he meant this in the positive sense, not the Terminator sense) Schwarzenegger framed it as a victory for California's environmental agenda and the economy. He predicts it will create 1,000 jobs for the state's embattled economy.

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  • Tesla to bring out CUV in 2013, other vehicles in 2014

    Tesla to bring out CUV in 2013, other vehicles in 2014

    Posted on April 29, 2010 | No Comments
    Tesla is quickly turning into a legitimate automaker with a full line of vehicles. It already has the sports car and soon a sedan, but now we’re hearing that there’s more autos coming include a CUV (crossover utility vehicle) in the pipeline for 2013. First, however, the company needs to get the Model S out [...]

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  • Zero Motorcycles Kicks It Into Gear With $5.5 Million Series A

    Zero Motorcycles Kicks It Into Gear With $5.5 Million Series A

    Posted on January 5, 2010 | No Comments
    California-based Zero Motorcycles has taken $5.56M in a Series A add-on according to an SEC Report, filed today. Investors in this round were not disclosed. The company previously raised $5M in April of 2008, bringing their total funding to just over $10.6M. Formerly Electricross, Zero Motorcycles specializes in high performance electric street and dirt bikes--the Tesla of the motorcycle industry so to speak. CEO Gene Banman tells us the purpose of the funding is to "expand the business." He declined to expand upon that statement. Given the emerging sector and the influx of competitors, it seems Zero is simply trying to stay ahead of the curve.

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  • Spooky Tesla Radio in a jar

    Spooky Tesla Radio in a jar

    Posted on October 30, 2009 | No Comments
    This fun little DIY device is labeled as a "crystal radio circuit in a jam-jar." But that description doesn't even to begin to do it justice. According to Tesla, this electronic wonder allows you to hear the disembodied, ethereal voices, of the, well, ether, I guess.

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  • Report: Panasonic to use notebook batteries to power electric cars

    Report: Panasonic to use notebook batteries to power electric cars

    Posted on October 1, 2009 | No Comments
    Japan's biggest business publication, the Nikkei, is reporting that Panasonic is thinking about using lithium ion batterries used in notebooks to power electric cars. Obviously, the big idea is to bring down the overall costs of these vehicles (and make some money for the company, too).

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  • Vacuum Tube Chess Set Flickers and Glows

    Vacuum Tube Chess Set Flickers and Glows

    Posted on July 7, 2009 | No Comments
    This wonderful vacuum tube chess set, by maker Paul Fryer, actually has electricity running inside the board so that the tubes can draw power and glow as you move them from square to square. It is called, somewhat appropriately, Chess Set for Tesla, and Paul actually made seven sets last year. The colors respect the good/evil [...]

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  • Can you name a scientist? Not too many Americans can, it turns out.

    Can you name a scientist? Not too many Americans can, it turns out.

    Posted on July 2, 2009 | No Comments
    Some hard science-related news for you now. Try this: name a scientist. Go ahead, name one, any one. If you're like me the first name that pops into your head is Bill Nye or Michio Kaku. And if you're also like me you can name several others. The average American? Not so much. USA Today ran a little poll a few days ago asking Americans to name a scientist, and a whopping 23 percent of respondents couldn't name one. That's right: 23 percent of the people USA Today asked couldn't name a single scientist, living or dead, famous or obscure. And only 47 percent could so much as muster the name “Albert Einstein”! What person, let alone American, couldn't come up with the name “Albert Einstein”?

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  • Ford, Nissan, Tesla all to get Energy Department loans

    Ford, Nissan, Tesla all to get Energy Department loans

    Posted on June 23, 2009 | No Comments
    The U.S. Government created a requirement that by 2020, the majority of cars sold here must get at least 35 miles per gallon. This requires a big commitment on the part of auto makers and so the Energy Department was authorized last year to lend $25 billion dollars. The first round of financing is expected to be announced today with Ford, Nissan, and Tesla getting all getting a sizable chunk during this first round. GM and Chrysler both wanted a bunch of money too, but neither fit the criteria of being a "financial viable" so they were disqualified for this first round. Nissan hasn't announced how much the Japanese automaker has requested from the U.S. Government, but we know that Michigan-based Ford and California-based Tesla Motors Inc. are expected to get $5 billion and $450 million respectively. This $25 billion fund was approved by Congress in 2008 to help auto makers retool facilities and speed up development of more energy efficient vehicles. It was the Government after all that decided that vehicles needed to reach an average of 35 miles per gallon by a random date instead of the natural evolution of development and technology.

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  • Haynes Manual for Apollo 11 Lunar Module

    Haynes Manual for Apollo 11 Lunar Module

    Posted on June 8, 2009 | No Comments
    Since manufacturers starting making cars which are pretty much non user-serviceable, we imagine that Haynes, maker of car-repair manuals, has been struggling for trade. Make no mistake — those books are fantastic if you have an older car. I used to own a Morris Minor and over the years I tore pretty much every part [...]

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