GM is expected to announce a $300 million investment and a new production EV for the Orion Township plant.

General Motors will be announcing a “a major new investment” in “future technologies” at 10 a.m. Friday morning. The press conference will be held in Michigan at the Orion Township plant. Orion is home to Chevy Bolt EV, Chevy Sonic and GM Cruise vehicle production. While GM has not gone into details, Autoblog reports that the facility will add a new EV to its production line.

Two individuals familiar with the plans told Autoblog that the Detroit automaker will be making a $300 million dollar investment in Orion. In addition, it will formerly announce a new production bound EV based on the Bolt to be assembled at the Michigan facility.

GM CEO Mary Barra will be presenting the plan alongside United Auto Workers’ Vice President Terry Dittes. Recently, GM has been facing criticism from local officials, unions, and the White House. Tensions began when Barra announced thousands of layoffs and the end of several product lines last year. Because of this, GM’s message is likely to focus on creating hundreds of new jobs in the region. The move to a U.S. facility will also likely coincide with an endorsement of the new North American free trade agreement.

Buick Velite 6

According to Autoblog, production was originally slated for China. Since Buick is one of GM’s most popular brands in China, it is possible we will finally see the long rumored Buick Encore EV. In addition to the Bolt EV, GM has a new BEV3 platform slated for early next decade.

If a new model is indeed shown, it might be intended to bridge this gap until the new platform arrives. A fresh model would also help compete with multiple EV crossovers hitting the market in the coming years.

Source: Autoblog

Source: Electric Vehicle News

The relaunched program contains some new rewards and new restrictions.

For a young high growth company, a customer referral program can be a great marketing tool. For years, Tesla owners and prospective owners could take advantage of the automaker’s generous referral program. Existing owners would provide a referral code to their friends, family, acquaintances or random strangers. The referee would typically get free Supercharging for a set period of time. In exchange for getting the word out about Tesla, the referrer could earn a variety of rewards such as free charging stations, a child sized Model S, free Supercharging and potentially even a new Tesla Roadster… or two.

That last factor ended up costing the automaker more than it expected. A number of celebrities, content creators and bloggers used their influence to amass enough qualifying referrals in a short period of time. At least 80 owners nabbed one of these $250,000 vehicles for free. In fact, a few individuals racked up enough referrals to earn two. As a result, Tesla announced the end to their long running referral program earlier this year citing the growing costs.

Now the the referral program is back and so are the free Roadsters. However, this time with a more reasonable set of restrictions. Referrers and their referees will each get 1,000 miles of free supercharging when they purchase a new Model 3, Model S or Model X. In addition, each referral will earn the Tesla owner “a chance to win a Founders Series Model Y monthly and a Founders Series Roadster supercar quarterly, both signed by Elon and Franz.”

No doubt many owners will be happy to see the return of the referral program. To keep the rewards more fair, owners that have already won a prize will be disqualified from nabbing that reward a second time.

No, it’s cumulative, but once you win one of the prizes, referral count resets to zero & you can’t win that prize again. Intent over time is to enable those without a massive social media presence to win.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 22, 2019

Below is Tesla’s full blog post:

Tesla’s New Customer Referral Program

The Tesla Team March 21, 2019

Customer referrals have been a key part of our growth ever since we began selling Roadster in 2008. Since then, our customers’ enthusiasm for their vehicles has propelled Model 3 to become the best-selling luxury car in the U.S. and the best-selling electric vehicle in the world last year. We’ve heard from our customers that the Referral Program was one of their favorite reasons to tell their friends about Tesla, so today, we’re introducing an all-new Referral Program to give customers another way to share what they love about their cars.

While our previous Referral Program was very successful, it came with significant costs, and ending the program last year allowed us to pass those savings along to customers. We’ve since restructured the program to save the company money while also offering rewards that are super exclusive:

Now, each time a friend purchases a new Tesla using your referral code, you’ll both get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging. Each referral also gives you a chance to win a Founder’s Series Model Y monthly and a Founder’s series Roadster supercar quarterly, both signed by Elon Musk and Franz von Holzhausen. Tesla owners who already have unlimited Supercharging get two chances to win with each referral.

The continued growth and excitement we’ve generated have been driven largely by the passion of our current and future customers. Our goal is simply to build the best and safest cars according to U.S. government testing, so that owners will share their experiences with others and help accelerate our mission towards a sustainable future.

Source: Tesla

Source: Electric Vehicle News

Let’s all just ride this here wave.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk emailed all Tesla employees to detail an unprecedented delivery push.

The Tesla delivery wave is higher than ever and this is gonna be epic. Of course, it’s driven largely by the Tesla Model 3.

The email, which went out today, states:

“What has made this particularly difficult is that Europe and China are simultaneously experiencing the same massive increase in delivery volume that North America experienced last year. In some locations, the delivery rate is over 600% higher than its previous peak!”

Musk added that this delivery push is the “biggest wave in Tesla’s history” and “won’t be repeated in subsequent quarters.” 

Let’s just use the proper word here:

EPIC!

Source: Business Insider

Source: Electric Vehicle News

Who waits to charge until the battery is completely depleted? Nobody.

Automakers often promote their electric vehicles by telling consumers how quickly the battery can be charged from empty to 80-percent of its range. This zero-to-80 number doesn’t make sense on many levels.

First of all, publishing the time to charge an EV from empty doesn’t reflect how electric cars are used. It’s a carryover from gas cars. With a petrol-powered vehicle, drivers commonly fill up a tank and wait until the fuel gauge approaches empty before taking the time for a special trip to a gas station. EV drivers have it much easier because we can charge at home.

It’s so painless to recharge every night that an EV with decent range usually rarely dips below nearly full. Drivers of an EV with, for example, about 200 miles of range return from a commute of 40 miles with 160 miles of remaining range – and then plug in at night so there’s a full battery ready by the next morning.

How often does an EV driver return home with a completely empty battery? Almost never. And yet, EV newbies are led to believe that it takes eight or more hours to recharge. No, it only takes as long as necessary to replenish the electrons from that day’s driving. That’s usually a couple of hours, but it doesn’t matter if it’s two hours or eight hours. The car is sitting there all night anyhow.

Distance Driving

Most EV drivers charge at home about 95 percent of the time. Of course, for those rare long-distance road trip, charging times are more important. Once again, very few EV drivers arrive at a highway DC fast-charger with zero-percent state-of-charge. Yes, charging times go faster when the battery level is lower. But it’s not helpful for automakers to say that a particular EV can charge from zero to 80-percent in, for example, in 40 minutes.

Here’s a sampling of automaker claims:

• Nissan says the LEAF Plus charges to 80 percent in 60 minutes at 50 kW –
  or in 40 minutes at 100 kW
• Hyundai claims the Kona Electric gets to 80 percent in 75 minutes at 50 kW –
  or 54 minutes at 100 kW
• Jaguar says the I-Pace charges to 80 percent in 40 minutes at 100 kW
• Audi says the e-tron goes from zero to 80 percent in 30 minutes at 150 kw
• For its upcoming EQC, Mercedes-Benz says from 10 percent (rather than zero) to 80 percent in about 40 minutes at 110 kW

Given all the variabilities of charger capacity, temperature, and the state-of-charge when the session begins, these numbers are not helpful and could be misleading.

A Better Way

I’m not sure what number can best convey charging rates and times. Fortunately, Chevrolet advertises “90 miles in 30 minutes” of charging in a Bolt rather than a zero-to-80 number. That’s an optimistic number, but it’s a good start.

Tesla’s Superchargers, which can charge up to 145 kW, are currently state-of-the-art. (Chargers with even faster rates using liquid-cooled cables are not yet widely available.)

Tesla’s website reports that drivers use a Supercharger on average for about 30 minutes before driving on. And forums commonly report that Superchargers add about 170 miles of range in those 30-minute stops.

To me, it makes a lot more sense to estimate how many miles you can add in a pit stop of 15 or 30 minutes – enough time to stretch your legs or grab a quick bite – than the arbitrary, theoretical number of charging when the battery is empty. What number or metric would you like to see?

Source: Electric Vehicle News

There must be logic behind the choice, or is it all just emotion?

As the majority of all-electric cars sold in the U.S. are Teslas. It’s a valid question as to why? Do those Tesla cars bring so much more value compared to other models?

Cooley On Cars recently listed five reasons why people buy Tesla cars, based on customer opinions.

Those reasons are fun, proven long range, Supercharging network, mobile service and confidence in Autopilot (although this reason has decreased over time). We assume that the fun (also acceleration), range and Supercharging are the major reasons for choosing a Tesla over other electric cars.

From the video description:

Top 5 reasons to buy a Tesla: Never mind insane mode, here’s what really moves Tesla cars. Brian Cooley breaks down the reasons why people want to buy the Model Y, Model 3 and Model S more than other EVs on the market –

5. The Supercharger network

4. EV Range

3. Tesla Mobile Service

2. Autopilot Confidence

1. Most Fun to Own

Source: Electric Vehicle News