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Tesla Nabs 8% of the U.S. Luxury Car Market By Chris Neiger | More Articles August 4, 2013 | Comments (0) As if Tesla's (NASDAQ: TSLA ) 280% stock price increase since the beginning of 2013 or becoming profitable in Q1 of this year wasn't enough, the Electrification Coalition released a report last week stating that Tesla's Model S made up 8.4% of the U.S. luxury automotive market in the first six months of the year. In the first quarter of this, year Model S sales outpaced Audi A8, BMW 7-series and Mercedes S Class sales. But what's really striking...

The overwhelming reception for his forthcoming biopic about Nikola Tesla has led American director Michael Anton to deliver a new name to sum up the iconic nature of the man and his unique legacy. “Nikola Tesla does not need a controversial label,’ said Michael Anton. “The fact that his name is not as familiar as it should be is one of the issues we intend to address with this film, which has progressed from a strong script with a modest budget into a potential voice that will finally break the great silence that is the history of Nikola Tesla. “From...

Oil prices have been given a lot of scrutiny and consumers are not seeing relief at the pump. Nobody will argue that price fluctuations do not play games with consumers’ minds and wallets. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, has proposed that electric vehicles are a way to free ourselves from foreign sources of energy, and giant price fluctuations. To import, or export that is the question As supply increases, we should see gasoline prices come down, right? Wrong. We are seeing a huge supply glut of oil in the US, but refineries like Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) are...

"Were we to seize and eliminate from our industrial world the result of Mr. Tesla's work, the wheels of industry would cease to turn, our electric cars and trains would stop, our towns would be dark and our mills would be idle and dead. His name marks an epoch in the advance of electrical science."Vice President Behrend of the Institute of Electrical EngineersNikola Tesla symbolizes a unifying force and inspiration for all nations in the name of peace and science. He was a true visionary far ahead of his contemporaries in the field of scientific development. New York State and...

Tesla Motors unveiled a system that will let drivers swap out the battery in a Model S in about 90 seconds,

Elon Musk, the co-founder of PayPal and Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA ) , and founder of SpaceX, has a keen ability to make good predictions. Source: Businessweek. Though not always accurate, many of his predictions are eerily on target -- especially for Tesla. For the most part, Musk has been able to stay on schedule with his original plan for the electric car manufacturer. Perhaps Tesla's soaring stock price has emboldened Musk's forecasting spirit, because he's made quite a few bold predictions lately. Though they should be taken with a grain of salt, four of his recent predictions are worth...

Can Tesla Motors really make it in the automotive mass market? It's the question that haunts (or that should be haunting) current and potential Tesla investors. Tesla has already achieved big things, designing and building a great electric luxury sedan in the Model S, pictured above. It has also proven that it can sell enough of them to turn a profit. It's true that so far the profit has been tiny, and the economic conditions in the U.S. quite favorable, but still: That's an enormous achievement. But it's another big leap from there to becoming a mass-market carmaker - but...

Tesla Motors said Thursday it would demonstrate a way to quickly recharge electric cars by swapping drained batteries for fresh power cells. Tesla chief executive and founder Elon Musk used popular the messaging service Twitter to put out word that a "live pack swap demo" was taking place at the company's design studio in the Southern California city of Hawthorne. Video from the event was to be posted on the Tesla website about 0430 GMT on Friday, according to Musk. Making it fast and easy to restore full power to electric car batteries is seen as a big step in...

Despite the looming bankruptcy of electric carmaker Fisker Automotive, and disappointing sales of electric vehicles across the country, the Obama administration has harnessed some of the country’s top scientists, engineers, economists and auto experts to push electric car use deeper into the fabric of American society. Among the ideas being considered: new and bigger consumer subsidies for electric-car purchases, stiffer gasoline or carbon taxes, more federal subsidies for electric-car research, more subsidies for public-access battery-charging stations, and even broad, publicly-funded ad campaigns extolling the virtues of cars that the public currently seems disinterested in buying. Those possibilities, and more, have...

Hi guys. Any car lovers out there? China watchers? I discovered this little interesting tid bit on China. It's going to subsidize R&D to build the next Tesla. Thing with China is, they wont go broke doing it...

Wealthy Californians would like to thank you for buying them expensive automobiles. Didn’t know you that generous, eh? In fairly recent political history, left-of-center ideologues and other special needs people have advocated “public/private partnerships”. Once opposed to anything corporate, alleged progressives now embrace funneling tax funds to corporations of every ilk that sustain their ideology, regardless of how insane the plot sounds to common folks with common sense. No less of a man than Bill Clinton (and given his serial freelance philandering, there is no lesser of a man) has focused his face into television cameras proclaiming that government funded...

To date, 80 North Carolina residents have squeezed their savings for the bragging right of owning the Tesla Model S electric car, some paying more than $100,000 for their g-force ride, but they may be among the last. A legislative proposal, backed by the N.C. Automobile Dealers Association, would make it illegal for Tesla, or any other car maker, to bypass dealerships and sell directly in the state. The proposal cuts at the heart of Tesla’s business model: selling luxury cars over the phone or Internet and then delivering them to the front door of high-net-worth customers. **SNIP** The whole...

Consumer Reports went big on the Tesla Model S today, announcing the car had scored 99/100 on its rating system – the highest rating of any vehicle the magazine has ever tested. It’s “truly a remarkable car,” an excerpt of the review concludes, although one still limited by the inherent constraint of any all-electric vehicle: a battery that can take hours to fully charge, complicating long distance travel.

Well, that didn't take long. Yesterday, just before 5 pm Eastern time, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] released details of its new "lease-like" financing product. The general consensus in the media (we read a lot of Tesla coverage here, folks) has been that it's smart for Tesla to offer financing for its Model S electric luxury sport sedan. It will expand the pool of potential owners. But the press release, and a subsequent media call with CEO Elon Musk, mentioned a cost calculator on the company's website that purports to let users calculate the true net out-of-pocket cost for a 2013 Tesla...

"PALO ALTO, California, April 1, 2013 — A formal announcement will be made April 7 at the NASCAR STP Gas Booster 500 at Martinsville Speedway, but Edmunds has learned exclusively that Tesla, the electric car manufacturer, will enter the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series ......Industry sources suggest that the reveal was supposed to take place one week later, at the NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway, but with the announcement that the National Rifle Association would be the title sponsor of that race, the federal government decided to move the announcement to Martinsville. "We aren't sure how many fans would be...

Quote of the Day: Uncle Sam Disses NASCAR Nation Edition Posted on April 2, 2013 by Robert Farago “Industry sources suggest that the [Tesla] reveal was supposed to take place one week later, at the NASCAR race at Texas Motor Speedway, but with the announcement that the National Rifle Association would be the title sponsor of that race, the federal government decided to move the announcement to Martinsville. ‘We aren’t sure how many fans would be friendly toward alternative energy at an event sponsored by the NRA,’ said the source, ‘and we have to assume a large percentage of them...

Taxpayer-supported Tesla, recipient of a $465 million stimulus loan guarantee to produce yet another electric toy car (the Model S) for rich people, reported its 4th quarter earnings last week. The word from billionaire CEOElon Musk (Flickr photo: Jurvetson) was, “ we’ll do better next quarter – promise.” That’s a paraphrase, but nonetheless Tesla’s announcement fell short of most Wall Street analysts’ expectations. The company lost $90 million for the quarter as it ramped up production to fill pre-orders, paying workers to put in an average of 68 hours per week in December. On Thursday the company suffered the biggest...

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The plural of anecdote is statistics. There are lies, damned lies and statistics. So take what I am about to say for whatever it is worth. Maybe nothing. I own some Tesla (TSLA) stock, after all, just so I can go to the annual shareholder meeting, get a free coffee and be my usual pest. You could argue that what I am about to present is the equivalent of saying, "I've never seen a non-Apple (AAPL) tablet out in the wild, so therefore..." -- and you would be right. But people are still justifying this kind...

You may have heard recently about an article written by John Broder from The New York Times that makes numerous claims about the performance of the Model S. We are upset by this article because it does not factually represent Tesla technology, which is designed and tested to operate well in both hot and cold climates. Indeed, our highest per capita sales are in Norway, where customers drive our cars during Arctic winters in permanent midnight, and in Switzerland, high among the snowy Alps. About half of all Tesla Roadster and Model S customers drive in temperatures well below freezing...

Undoubtedly alternative energy and transportation innovator Elon Musk (Flickr photo: Jurvetson) – like his competitor for the taxpayer-funded, six-figure electric automobile market Henrik Fisker – is a smart guy. But will economic and technological realities humble him, or worse, make him look like a fool? After the experiencerecounted last week by New York Times journalist John Broder, who test drove the Tesla Model S in frigid conditions that required frequent unplanned recharging stops throughout the Northeast, humility is out of the question for Musk. The jury is still out on inanity. The Times published Broder’s devastating account on Friday. The...