For a model that won’t appear for over a year, we know a lot about Tesla’s third-generation electric car.
Because Tesla is targeting the segment-defining BMW 3 Series with this new small sedan, it’s possible to make educated guesses about its size and price. However, its name has been a mystery.
Reports suggested it would be called Model E, until Tesla said it wasn’t.
The speculation is over through. Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed the car’s name to Auto Express in a recent interview.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientists to realize what the letters “S”, “E”, and “X” spell, and Musk apparently found that as amusing as any 12-year-old would, choosing the Model E name until Ford sued.
“I thought this is crazy, Ford’s trying to kill sex,” Musk said. Model III it is, then.
The Model III will reportedly be unveiled in 2016 and go on sale by 2017. It will ride on a new platform and feature styling that differentiates it from the larger Model S and Model X.
It will also have a range of around 200 miles, and a base price of around $35,000 to compete with the vaunted Bimmer.
That lower price will be made possible in part by a lithium ion battery cell “Gigafactory”, which will produce cells on a large enough scale to meet Tesla’s insatiable demand while keeping costs down.
Volkswagen’s newest EVs in China are making its American and European models look unusually conservative.
With Xpeng’s help, VW has introduced 800-volt charging and advanced urban driving assistance. The new VEGA technology package brings its locally developed vehicle platforms and CEA electronic architecture under one umbrella. Bloomberg reports that Volkswagen intends to update VEGA every three months. Western buyers can find pieces of that package, but not the whole thing in a Volkswagen.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?