Following their disastrous and costly ban on nuclear power, Germany is doubling down on long-term anti-market greenery by mandating that all cars be emissions free by 2030. Rather than letting the market decide – as it has (mostly) with the vastly successful Tesla in the US – German lawmakers will force the switch with continued subsidies worth £3,160 per green vehicle. In 14 years time, you won’t be able to buy a proper Mercedes in Germany…
Tesla have rolled out an “Autopilot” update to its Model S cars today; watch as the new software drives by itself through New York traffic:
It’s not quite a fully driverless car yet, but it’s not far off. The cabbies must be quaking in their boots…
Elon Musk may be the world’s most eco-loving, planet-hugging billionaire, but that isn’t enough for some of his shareholders – they are demanding he makes his Tesla cars “cruelty free“.
The unusual request was made at Tesla’s AGM this week by two shareholders who demanded that they phase out the use of leather in their cars by 2019:
“Tesla has two choices. Tesla can continue to fill cars with the skins of sentient beings that suffer unspeakable horror while adding massive amounts of greenhouse gas into the air. According to the UN and other sources, this is the fundamental truth of using animal skins or Tesla can adopt one of the many faux leather materials used by Mercedes Benz, Lexus, BMW, Infiniti and others that are cruelty free, have wonderful reviews, last the long time, come in multiple colors and have — and involve far less greenhouse gases.”
Musk said he’d “look into it”…
Elon Musk may have a reputation for being a Randian entrepreneur, trailblazing a future for electric cars, cheap rockets and solar energy, but new research shows that he has snaffled $4.9 billion in government support. While the figure uncovered by the LA Times does include tax-breaks, it also shows that Musk has raked in vast amounts in government incentives, grants and discounted loans – not to mention the discounts enjoyed by his electric car and solar panel customers who have also been bathing in the US government’s taxpayer funded largesse. Musk has also been raking it in by selling off government-awarded environmental credits to less planet-hugging car manufacturers..
It’s hard to blame Musk – who wouldn’t take the free money? But it does somewhat dull the shine of his self-made billionaire status…
Gaia is a big fan of the all electric Tesla, but can’t help thinking that Tesla owners charging their cars from diesel generators might be defeating the point of driving one. The above picture was taken by a Californian blogger and allegedly shows a diesel generator being used to power an official Tesla supercharger station. When Tesla introduced their superchargers back in 2012 they promised that they would be entirely solar-powered…
The guys from Motor Trend found out what happens when you race the new tree hugging, CO2 friendly Tesla Model S P85D against the oil slurping 6.2-liter V-8 Dodge Challenger Hellcat. Surely the poncey eco-car couldn’t win…
