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Luxury Automakers Target Tesla’s Electric Car Success

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Audi Quattro

Ready to go 310 all-electric miles with Audi in 2018? [Source: Audi]

There’s a reason why Tesla is an electric car success, Musk and company dismissed conventional wisdom and released a luxury electric car first. Now, the rest of the automakers are playing catch-up in the luxury segment and Audi just announced they will be demonstrating the Audi e-tron Quattro concept at the Frankfurt International Motor Show this September.

Audi says the four-passenger SUV Quattro — to me, a CUV — will achieve up to 310 miles on a battery charge when it’s released for full production in 2018. As seen above, the concept sketch shows a body design eerily similar to the conceptual drawings of the original Chevy Volt (see original design). A design, which I really liked.

With success comes imitation and the e-Tron Quattro will store the battery pack under the passenger compartment and run the length of the vehicle, much like the Model S and Model X. This vehicle will have all-wheel drive and borrow from the Audi R8 e-tron sports car by having three electric motors – one on the front axle and two on the rear axle.

Competition is heating up in the SUV space. This fall, Volvo will roll out a plug-in hybrid vehicle called the XC90 T8 and will offer a mere seventeen miles with its battery pack – good enough for those wanting to ease their way into the electric vehicle market.

It’s a nice looking vehicle and Volvo hopes to capitalize on the success of its internal combustion engine XC90 version. According to Volvo, the company has more than 30,000 pre-orders on the books (from July). However, this SUV starts at $69,095, which positions it very close to a presumed base price of a Tesla Model X.

And this begs the question, what will be the differentiator at this luxury level? BMW and Mercedes are also playing in the PHEV sandbox, too. Both will have their luxury PHEV vehicles debut this fall with a battery range similar to Volvo’s SUV.

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Related Story >> Model X Will Stimulate Luxury SUV Plug-In Segment

Electric Panache
The Andy Palmer-lead Aston Martin is throwing its hat into the ring with their recent announcement of the , able to produce 200 miles per charge when it arrives in 2017, according to Aston Martin representatives.

aston-martin-rapide-01

Aston Martin Rapide S [Source: Aston Martin]

According to the Detroit Bureau and Auto News, the 800-horsepower — yeah that’s right — Rapide will cost between $200,000 to 250,000 when it finally hits showrooms. The Rapide won’t have 2.8 seconds 0 to 60 acceleration gusto like the Ludicrous Model S P90D. Andy Palmer, CEO of Aston Martin added recently “that the Model S acceleration is “stupid” (fast) and the Rapide’s strength will be on a road course, not the drag strip.”

Ok, sir Andy Palmer let’s not get so high-and-mighty. Anyway, Palmer said that the Rapide will be just the first in its all-electric lineup, with a DBX crossover coming in the next five years.

The competition is ramping up announcements and commitments to all-electric vehicles, which is great news, and watching the competition should be fun. However, company partnerships is also possible with this new drivetrain technology.

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"Grant Gerke wears his Model S on his sleeve and has been writing about Tesla for the last five years on numerous media sites. He has a bias towards plug-in vehicles and also writes about manufacturing software for Automation World magazine in Chicago. Find him at Teslarati

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Tesla Giga Berlin hits a sustainability milestone that’s so impressive, it sounds fake

As per the facility’s plant manager, Giga Berlin has completed one whole year without any of its process wastewater being discharged into the municipal sewer system.

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Credit: Tesla Manufacturing/X

Tesla Gigafactory Berlin-Brandenburg has achieved a sustainability milestone that is so impressive, it almost sounds fake. As per the facility’s plant manager, Giga Berlin has completed one whole year without any of its process wastewater being discharged into the municipal sewer system. 

The announcement comes just over a month after Tesla Germany revealed that Gigafactory Berlin had returned 377,000 cubic meters of annual water rights to local authorities due to the facility’s sustainability systems. 

Insane one year feat

Andre Thierig, Giga Berlin Senior Director of Manufacturing, stated that the factory’s one-year milestone was made possible by the facility’s industry-leading waste treatment systems. With no process wastewater discharged into the municipal sewer for a year now, Giga Berlin has effectively become one, if not the region’s, most environmentally friendly vehicle production facilities. 

“Today, we completed 1 YEAR without any process waste water being discharged into the municipal sewer, achieved by an incredible team (aka Ninja Turtles) with our futuristic waste water treatment facility. Making a sustainable product matters a lot but doing it sustainably is just as important! This underlines our strong environmental commitment to region of Berlin-Brandenburg,” the plant manager wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Credit: Andre Thierig/LinkedIn

Officials and Giga Berlin’s water consumption

Jochem Freyer, Chairman of the Management Board of the Employment Agency Frankfurt (Oder), shared his congratulations to Tesla Germany. “The decision in favor of the facility was a strong move – for the environment, for the brand, for East Brandenburg! I hope for further innovations from Giga Berlin-Brandenburg, the official noted.

In late September, reports emerged stating that Tesla Germany had returned 377,000 cubic meters of annual water rights to the Strausberg-Erkner Water Association (WSE). This was because the facility ended up using significantly less water than originally planned. WSE chairman Thomas Krieger stated that the water Giga Berlin was saving would be distributed to municipalities and other users in the region. 

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Tesla’s latest Robotaxi job posting takes the whole program a step forward

On Tuesday, Tesla posted a new job for a Senior Insurance Claims Specialist, Robotaxi, the first of its kind.

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(Credit: Tesla North America/X)

Tesla’s latest Robotaxi job posting goes beyond what has been posted in the past and truly takes the entire program a step forward.

Tesla has been hiring some employees for Robotaxi, but a vast majority of the job postings have been related to Vehicle Operator positions, meaning the people who are Safety Monitors or Validation Vehicle Drivers.

Some job postings have hinted at Robotaxi expanding to new cities.

However, on Tuesday, Tesla posted a new job for a Senior Insurance Claims Specialist, Robotaxi, the first of its kind.

The job description says the employee will “oversee the company’s corporate insurance, risk management and surety programs across all business components.” Additionally, it says the position plays “a critical role in managing incident reporting a claim processes for Tesla Robotaxi and ride-hailing operations.”

Essentially, Tesla could be looking to prepare for when it eventually will have to take liability for accidents completely. This would be when the company launches fully autonomous vehicles, meaning Cybercab and the Robotaxi program, specifically. It would also include passenger vehicles with Full Self-Driving.

Tesla is currently operating a Robotaxi program in Austin, Texas, as well as a ride-hailing platform in the California Bay Area.

These programs are the company’s first foray into ride-hailing, with or without someone in the driver’s seat of the vehicle. In Austin, Tesla operates most of its rides without a Safety Monitor in the driver’s seat. Only freeway routes require the Monitor to be directly behind the wheel.

In California, someone sits in the driver’s seat at all times.

The job posting seems to indicate that things could be relatively close in terms of solving self-driving, especially if Tesla is looking to fill a role that would handle autonomous insurance claims.

Of course, it will take Tesla to solve autonomy, and with the company aiming to start Cybercab production (without a steering wheel) in Q2 2025, it surely feels like it is on the brink of something great.

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Tesla snags Lamborghini alum to help in newly entered market

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tesla showroom
Credit: Tesla

Tesla has snagged a Lamborghini alum to help with its entrance into a new market, which has proven to be an intricate situation for the automaker.

A report from Bloomberg states that Tesla has hired Sharad Agarwal, who was formerly employed by the Italian luxury carmaker, to run its operations in India. With Lamborghini, he was employed to handle operations in India.

Tesla launches in India with Model Y, showing pricing will be biggest challenge

Tesla has gone through quite a few different team members with its launch in India, starting with a few hirings a few years ago, well before the company actually committed to selling cars in the country.

The move helps Tesla streamline its executive decision-making process, as it previously had employees in India reach out to managers based in China, among other areas. Agarwal will be stationed in India and will handle the company’s operations.

Tesla’s mentality behind the strategy is to have local leadership, something that seems to cater to the market specifically.

Tesla had previously put Isabel Fan, the manager of Southeast Asia for the company, in the position. However, Tesla seemed to want someone who was more permanent and would be dedicated to India exclusively.

India has the largest population on Earth and has a massive automotive market for that reason. Tesla stands to gain a lot from a strong performance in India, and its clean energy vehicles could help with pollution of all kinds in the region.

Tesla’s path to entrance in the Indian market was a long one, as the company tried for nearly ten years to get into the elusive region. Back in 2016, CEO Elon Musk said Tesla “would love to be in India,” teasing the Model 3.

By 2017, Tesla had met with officials from the country, but tried to get import duties down to nothing from 100 percent.

Indian authorities denied Tesla’s request.

For years, Musk met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to try and iron out a deal of some sort. Nothing truly came to fruition, at least until last year, when real movement started.

By 2024, India had introduced a strategy to reduce import duties for some companies, which was enough for Tesla to make a move. It is now 2025, and the company still has not committed to building a factory in the region. However, it is not completely out of the question.

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