This could get messy.
California is probably the most electric vehicle-friendly state in the country and its policies reflect that. You can hardly go five minutes without spotting a Tesla Model 3 on the road. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has issued stricter emissions standards than the feds require for years and announced just last year that it ll be the first state to ban sales of new passenger vehicles with internal combustion engines beginning in 2035. Other states have since followed suit. The Golden State s trendsetting status could now potentially mean trouble for Tesla which is headquartered in California.
According to the LA Times, the EV automaker is currently under review by the California Department of Motor Vehicles over whether it intentionally mislead customers with claims of full self-driving capability. This $10,000 package, as Tesla finally admitted in March, is not rated at Level 5 but rather Level 2. As a refresh, self-driving is ranked on a scal
Musk is doing his own share of needling too.
Four Saturday Night Live cast members and writers have publicly made comments about the decision to put Tesla CEO Elon Musk on the weekly live comedy sketch show. His guest appearance was announced earlier this week with Miley Cyrus as the musical number. Musk has been tweeting about the appearance, recently saying Let s find out just how live Saturday Night Live really is, with a purple devil emoji.
New cast member Bowen Yang was one of the doubters. He reacted to the tweet with an Instagram story, a frowny face and a what the f - does that even mean? comment. Andrew Dismukes, another cast member, put a picture of old SNL cast member Cheri Oteri with the line the only CEO I want to do a sketch with is Cher-E Oteri.
We re talking at least 100 charging stalls.
General Motors owned the news spotlight over the past week following the reveal of the GMC Hummer EV SUV and the Silverado EV announcement. But there s a certain other automaker that continues to be a thorn in GM s side (and all other legacy brands). Tesla remains the global market EV leader and is expected to remain so for the foreseeable future. Earlier this week it added $50 billion to its value, now rated at $660 billion. To compare, GM is barely worth $90 billion. Tesla is unafraid of rivals and even welcomes them.
Another critical area where Tesla leads is charging infrastructure. It currently has 16,103 superchargers strategically located throughout the world, 908 of which are in the US. That number will soon increase to 918.
Enthusiasts want more power, and tuners big and small will bring it to them.
It seems a new manufacturer (rightly) jumps on the electrified bandwagon every day. Jaguar has promised to electrify its fleet, Audi is taking its bread-and-butter A4 and A5 are adding volts and Volkswagen, well, you know what it did. But right now, it seems like we re at polar ends as enthusiasts.
There are cheaper hybrid and electric vehicles like the Toyota Prius and VW ID.4, and then insane electric supercars like the Porsche Taycan and McLaren P1. But in a decade or two, when the kids are driving used Nissan Leafs and Toyota Priuses and Chevy Bolts, what will they be able to do improve performance, beyond tires and suspension?