Free Republic

3:07 If Democrat-run California wants to force residents into electric vehicles (EVs), Democrat-run California had better start cracking down on crime. Talk about the law of unintended consequences… “Thieves are targeting high-powered Tesla and other EV charging stations and stealing the heavy cable for the copper metal inside,” reports San Francisco’s NBC affiliate. “In Vallejo, someone cut cables from nine charging stations — leaving Tesla drivers in a bind and causing tens of thousands of dollars in damage and repair costs.” “I think this is the second time or third that these have been cut,” a local EV driver added....

Is the Obama, I mean Biden, Administration playing Electric Boogaloo? Or is it Electric Boondoggle? The average price of a used Tesla has declined 18 months in a row, moving from a record high of $67,900 in July 2022 to a record low of $35,844 today (-47%). On January 11, I noted Hertz Is Selling 20,000 EVs Due to Lack of Customer Demand Hertz is selling a third of its EVs globally, with 20,000 in the US and will use some of the money to buy more Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) gasoline-powered cars. On January 18, I commented $2 Billion...

Tesla shouldn’t be calling its partially automated driving system Autopilot because the cars can’t drive themselves, the top US transportation official says. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says he’s concerned about Tesla’s marketing of the system, which is under investigation by his department in connection with crashes that have caused at least 14 deaths. “I don’t think that something should be called, for example, an Autopilot, when the fine print says you need to have your hands on the wheel and eyes on the road at all times,” Buttigieg said in an interview with The Associated Press. The National Highway Traffic...

The Tesla Model S that braked sharply, triggering an eight-car pileup in San Francisco on Thanksgiving Day, reportedly had Elon Musk’s Autopilot “full self-driving” software engaged at the time of the crash. Breitbart News previously reported that nine people, including a 2-year-old child, were hurt in an eight-vehicle crash caused by a Tesla Model S on Thanksgiving Day on the San Francisco Bay Bridge. The collision happened as the car abruptly changed lanes and stopped in the bridge’s far-left lane. I obtained surveillance footage of the self-driving Tesla that abruptly stopped on the Bay Bridge, resulting in an eight-vehicle crash...

Have you gone electric? Elon Musk thinks you should. That’s why he’s slashed Tesla prices in the U.S. and Europe by as much as 20 percent in an effort to get more drivers into electric vehicles (EVs) and out of legacy gas powered alternatives. The aggressive sales drive follows questions raised on Thursday about the safety risks posed by heavy EVs in any collision with lighter vehicles that pushed the head of the National Transportation Safety Board to issue a general warning to all U.S. road users, as Breitbart News reported. Reuter’s reports the dramatic Tesla discounting, which prompted a...

A Tesla Megapack battery caught fire at PG&E’s Elkhorn Battery Storage facility in Monterey County, California. A shelter-in-place advisory was in place for 12 hours due to fears of toxic smoke from the fire caused by Elon Musk’s battery system, with county officials announcing that even though the fire was “fully controlled” by 7:00 p.m. PT, “smoke may still occur in the area for several days.” KSBW Action News 8 reports that a Tesla Megapack battery caught fire at the local utility company PG&E’s Elkhorn Battery Storage facility in Monterey County, California. The fire reported started at around 1:30 a.m....

Despite the news and pictures from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, America's once great space program is on life support because we no longer have a serious manned space exploration program....And the Obama Administration's unimaginative and amateurish vision for space exploration -- even if successful -- will not revive the dying program. It merely follows the disturbing pattern of the Solyndra scandal, funneling tax dollars to Obama donors and fundraisers. [SNIP] ....SpaceX collects tax dollars so that it can learn how to build and develop something that other companies were doing a generation ago. It is curious that SpaceX is now...

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the plane belonged to Doug Bourn, a senior electrical engineer for Tesla Motors. Although it's unclear whether or not he was on board at the time. As we reported first earlier, two other Tesla employees were in the plane at the time of the crash. Fox Business News reported earlier today Tesla CEO Elon Musk was not on board the plane, and that he's calling this the " worst day in Telsa's history." Later on, he issued a full statement, which can be read here at Wired . . .