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Traveling to the Moon just got a whole lot cheaper. A NASA-funded study (PDF) has found that the cost of lunar missions could be reduced by a factor of 10 using a number of techniques – and it could also have implications for getting humans to Mars. The extensive NexGen Space study by the National Space Society (NSS) and the Space Frontier Foundation (SFF) said that partnerships with private companies could return humans to the Moon for $10 billion (£6.4 billion), rather than the previosuly estimated $100 billion (£64 billion) that had turned off potential suitors. Utilizing fuel sourced from...

Tesla Motors has earned more than $295 million in state cap and trade-type emission credits during the past three years for a battery-swapping technology customers weren’t getting, a Watchdog investigation reveals. In fact, the electric car company, owned in part by billionaire Elon Musk, may have earned credits up to nearly half a billion dollars in value from the 11 states that use the Zero Emission Vehicle barter as part of a green auto industry mandate. California created the program and leads the pack, doling out $173 million in credits to the Silicon Valley-based Tesla. Tesla claimed the credits between...

It’s been six years sinceelectric vehiclemanufacturers enjoyed their windfall from U.S. taxpayers via the stimulus, but the thirst for subsidies, and pain from financial losses, have not waned. The pursuit of government goodiescontinues apace forTesla Motors, even more vigorously after the Los Angeles Timesreported last month that CEO Elon Musk depends on more than $4.9 billion in corporate welfare for his companies, which also include SolarCity and SpaceX. Tesla’s quest may more accurately be portrayed as preservation of the golden goose that is California’s zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) credit scheme. The Golden State requires the six largest auto manufacturers to...

Toyota has been very vocal about its lofty plans for the new Mirai. After severing ties with Tesla in 2014, Toyota has shifted its focus toward fuel cells and away from all-electric cars. On Wednesday, Toyota announced that the Mirai had achieved an EPA-estimated range of 312 miles. That’s the longest range of any zero-emission vehicle on the market today, including electric vehicles. “Toyota realized in the early 90’s that electrification was key to the future of the automobile,” said Toyota’s North America CEO Jim Lentz in a statement “Just as the Prius introduced hybrid-electric vehicles to millions of customers...

Musk, Schmidt, Simons and billionaire buddies build empire based on climate and energy BS Elon Musk and his fellow barons of Climate Crisis, Inc. recently got a huge boost from Pope Francis. Musk et al. say fossil fuels are causing unprecedented warming and weather disasters. The Pope agrees and says Catholics must “ask God for a positive outcome” to negotiations over another UN climate treaty. It matters not that the predicted calamities are not happening. There has been no warming in 19 years, no category 3-5 hurricanes making US landfall for a record 9-1/2 years, indeed none of the over-hyped...

Electrek is reporting that Tesla has signed a lease for the former Solyndra manufacturing site just a few miles away from its assembly plant in Freemont, California. Its current production facility can build up to to 500,000 cars a year, but Elon Musk says Tesla will be building “millions” of cars by 2020. What will it do with the new space? In an e-mail to Business Journal, it said “901 Page, located conveniently down the road from the Tesla Factory, gives us the space to expand our manufacturing and build more engineering labs as we build up production.” There is...

Elon Musk our billionaire, whose Stimulus funded Tesla Motors, Solarandra City and (only option to Russia, NASA is out) Space X has received $4.9 billion in FedSlush. Is Elon Musk a billionaire welfare queen of Federal grants, discounted loans, tax breaks, government RICO & Carbon credits? Tesla is set to receive an incentive worth $1.3 billion from the state of Nevada. Anyone who buys a Tesla gets a $7,500 federal income tax credit, Californians receive an additional rebate of $2,500 from the state. In all, Tesla Motors Inc. has received close to $2.391 billion in form of government subsidies. SolarCity,...

Fast-growing Tesla Motors has leased a Fremont building once occupied by Solyndra before the solar company’s high-profile implosion, the Silicon Valley Business Times reported Thursday. The 500,000-square-foot facility, at 901 Page Ave., was the last of Solyndra’s former buildings to remain empty. Seagate Technologies snapped up Solyndra’s main factory — built with $528 million in federal loans — in 2012. And earlier this year, SolarCity leased a two-building Solyndra complex at 47700 Kato Rd. Tesla CEO Elon Musk chairs SolarCity’s corporate board.

Alt-energy/transport-tech CEO Elon Musk and his trio of companies (Tesla,SolarCity andSpaceX) didn’t cooperate with the Los Angeles Times on its article that tabulated his businesses’ whopping sum of corporate welfare ($4.9 billion) , and he was predictably miffed by the (accurate) portrayal. So he went about trying to fix things on CNBC and with the Times on Monday, but not by denying the conclusions reached by reporter Jerry Hirsch, but instead by essentially pointing at fossil fuel industries and saying “they do it more.” “If I cared about subsidies,” Musk told Hirsch in a follow-up to his Sunday expose’,...

Well, somebody did it, and it was the mainstream media. Congratulations to the Los Angeles Times for taking the time to research and estimate the total amount of U.S. public (local, state, and federal) subsidies for companies owned or run by South African-born Canadian-American Elon Musk. The total amount calculated by reporter Jerry Hirsch for taxpayer-backed incentives – of many different forms, including tax credits and rebates provided to customers – was $4.9 billion. The corporate beneficiaries have been Tesla Motors and SpaceX, where Musk is CEO, and SolarCity Corp., where he is chairman. The sum does not include SpaceX’s...

If you want to buy a Model S in Texas, you're going to have to jump through some hoops for at least the next couple of years. Bills that would let Tesla sell cars directly to customers aren't going to get a vote before the state's legislative session wraps up on June 1st, leaving the electric vehicle maker high and dry until the next session kicks off in 2017. This doesn't mean that you're completely out of luck if you want Tesla-made transportation in Austin (see above for proof), but you can't simply pick one up. The setback isn't completely...

If you build it we will come could be the mantra for Los Angeles billionaire mogul Elon Musk. Well the Los Angeles entrepreneur built Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, and what came was an estimated $4.9 billion in government subsidies, according to data compiled by The Los Angeles Times. “He definitely goes where there is government money,” said Dan Dolev, an analyst at Jefferies Equity Research. “That’s a great strategy, but the government will cut you off one day.” Now after a plethora of government incentives, such as grants, tax breaks, factory...

Bishop Hill points us to this video of the Tesla Supercharging station at the Harris Ranch exit of Interstate 5 in California. He writes: “How can one resist posting a video of Tesla electric cars being recharged (so it is claimed) using a diesel generator? These people love the environment you see.” The video shows a portable diesel generator next to the charging station and some Tesla automobiles. Watch this short video:

Tesla Motors Inc: Gigafactory To Be A Major Turning Point In Auto Market Posted By: Michelle JonesPosted date: May 26, 2015 08:08:59 PMIn: TechnologyNo Comments Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is leading the way in electric vehicle technology, especially in batteries, and this is a good time to be in Tesla’s position. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) estimates that “electrified vehicles” will be one-quarter of the car sales in the world in the next ten years. The analysts define “electrified vehicles” as those with an electric powertrain, which include not only EVs but also hybrids and fuel cell vehicles.Tesla is taking one of...

A new car shouldn't have problems when you’ve owned it for less than a month. Yet Consumer Reports' brand-new $127,000 Tesla Model S P85 D, with the fancy retractable door handles refused to let us in, effectively rendering the car undriveable. After we’d owned the P85 D for a mere 27 days, with just over 2,300 miles on the odometer, the driver-side door handle failed. The door handles in the Model S retract electrically so they rest flush with the sides of the car when they’re not in use. Walk up to the car with the key fob in your...

A new car shouldn't have problems when you’ve owned it for less than a month. Yet Consumer Reports' brand-new $127,000 Tesla Model S P85 D, with the fancy retractable door handles refused to let us in, effectively rendering the car undriveable.

For several months now, rumours of increasing credibility have circulated that Apple is secretly working on an electric car project. This week, the Cupertino company reportedly will settle a lawsuit brought against it by A123 Systems — a large-battery company that alleges Apple deliberately poached its employees to develop its own car battery technology.

Henry Ford did a lot for the automobile in America. What everyone knows is that he figured out how to improve manufacturing efficiency so much that the auto was transformed from a toy for the rich into an item that ordinary people could afford. ... But very few people know that Ford had to fight against a cartel to be allowed to sell his vehicles. In this 2001 article published in The Freeman, “How Henry Ford Zapped a Licensing Monopoly,” Melvin Barger goes into the fascinating history of Ford’s legal battle against the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM). In...

Late Thursday, the glitzy electric car company Tesla Motors, run by billionaire Elon Musk, ceased to be just a car company. As was widely expected, Tesla announced that it is offering a home battery product, which people can use to store energy from their solar panels or to backstop their homes against blackouts, and also larger scale versions that could perform similar roles for companies or even parts of the grid. For homeowners, the Tesla Powerwall will have a power capacity of either 10 kilowatt hours or 7 kilowatt hours, at a cost of either $ 3,500 or $ 3,000....

Never lacking daring ideas, billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is determined to jolt the electricity market. The CEO of electric car maker Tesla Motors hopes to park hundreds of millions of large, solar panel-connected batteries in homes and businesses so the world can disconnect from power plants—and he can profit. On Thursday night, before an adoring crowd and a party-like atmosphere, Musk unveiled how he intends to do it. Musk took the stage at Tesla's design studio near Los Angeles International Airport, an audience of drink-toting enthusiasts cheering him on, in a scene fitting for an audacious dreamer renowned for pursuing...