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2015

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The Electrek Review – 2015 Zero DS ZF 9.4 Electric Motorcycle

The Electrek Review – 2015 Zero DS ZF 9.4 Electric Motorcycle

Earlier this summer, we had the opportunity to test a 2015 Zero DS (Dual-Sport) Motorcycle for a few days. What a blast we had! If you are used to riding traditional ICE motorcycles than, yes, you will miss the exhaust note, the vibrations and shifting through the gears. With the Zero, you get none of that, but as it turns out, that doesn’t detract from the riding experience at all. Actually, the fact that it is a near silent bike adds to the experience. We took the Zero DS to Bear Mountain in New York for some spirited riding and we had a great time.


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Tesla’s sales were flat in Norway in 2015, but December looks encouraging

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Tesla had an incredible year for sales and deliveries in 2015. The California-based automaker delivered 50,580 vehicles last year, which represents a 60% increase over the previous year. It’s hard to find any weaknesses with such an incredible sales performance. Yet the company increased its deliveries in almost all markets but Norway, where according to registration data, Tesla delivered the exact same number of Model S’s in 2014 and 2015: 4,039 units.
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Tesla is poised to achieve its ambitious 2015 delivery goal based on early data

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As the end of the year, and consequently the end of the fourth quarter, is getting closer, investors and analysts are debating whether or not Tesla can achieve its ambitious delivery goal of 17,000 to 19,000 cars in the last 3 months of the year for a total of 50,000 to 52,000 in 2015.

Achieving the lower-end of the guidance would mean a 46% quarter to quarter increase and a 73% increase over the same period last year. We’ve already reported on registration data for October and November for Tesla’s most important European markets, but now with more data coming from California and Denmark, as well as new information about the Model X and demonstration vehicles, it looks like Tesla is poised to achieve at least the lower-end of its guidance.
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A look at Tesla Model S deliveries in Europe – November 2015

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Tesla needs to deliver a record-breaking ~17,000 units in the last quarter of the year to achieve the low-end of its 2015 delivery guidance of  50,000-55,000 vehicles. Since the company now sells more cars in Europe than in North America or Asia, Model S deliveries in European markets are more important than ever.

Here’s our November 2015 look at Model S deliveries based on registration data in Tesla’s most important European markets:
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Tesla delivered 225 Model S’s in Norway in November

EV_Rally_Trollstigen_Tesla_Model_SBased on registration data, Tesla delivered 225 Model S’s in Norway last month – up from 198 units in October and 202 in November 2014. The company recently ran in some troubles in Norway after Model S owners expressed concerns over the way Tesla is reporting the power output of the car, especially the Dual Motor version. Tesla is now in mediation with over 150 Model S owners in the country over these concerns.


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Elon Musk: “We designed civilization to be super sensitive to climate change”

Musk Paris nov 2015On the margins of the UN conference on climate change in Paris, Elon Musk was at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University yesterday for a talk about what can be done to curb CO2 emissions, which he followed with a Q&A with students.

The main point Musk was trying to make during the talk was that the fundamental problem with carbon emission is that companies are currently incentivized to use fossil fuels rather than sustainable energy. He argued that to end the incentives, you need to attach a price to carbon emissions, and the best way to that is to introduce a carbon tax.
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Nissan LEAF sales down 60% in the U.S. in November – 1,054 units

2014 Nissan LEAFôToday Nissan released its November US sales report, which reaffirmed decreasing LEAF sales, now down 60% over November 2014. The company delivered 1,054 LEAFs in the US in November versus 2,687 during the same period last year and 1,238 last month.

November brings the year-to-date total to 15,922 units, down from 27,098 during the same period in 2014.
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Tesla hopes to deliver more cars in 2016 than all previous years combined – between 83,200 to 93,600 cars

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Tesla recently reported its third quarter financial results and the company disclosed delivery guidance for 2016. Tesla expects to produce and deliver between 1,600 and 1,800 vehicles per week on average next year – meaning a yearly total of 83,200 to 93,600 units. If the company can achieve the higher end of its guidance, it would deliver more cars in a year than it did since the company was founded in 2003.

The automaker delivered 11,603 cars from July through September, which made the last quarter its best to date, but the company is aiming to significantly increase production this quarter in order to deliver between 17,000 to 19,000 units during the last three months of year.
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Tesla delivered 145 Model S’s in the Netherlands in October – sales are up 49% year to date

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The Netherlands continue to be an important market for Tesla. According to registration data, the company delivered 145 Model S’s last month, which represents a 437% increase versus the same period last year and brings the year-to-date growth to 49% or 12 more points than last month.
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Def Con 2015 will have a ‘How to Hack a Tesla Model S’ Presentation

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Listed among the Defcon 23 speakers is Marc Rogers Principle Security Researcher for CloudFlare and Kevin Mahaffey CTO of Lookout Inc who will give a presentation called ‘How to Hack a Tesla Model S’.

There have been various attempts to get into the Model S including the finding that there is an Ethernet IP network running through the car.  However the possibility of “Bricking a car that starts at $70,000 has kept the cost of entry high.

Tesla obviously will keep a close eye on this one.  Here’s the description:

The Tesla Model S is the most connected car in the world. It might surprise you to hear that it is also one of the most secure. In this talk we will walk you through the architecture of a Tesla Model S noting things that Tesla got right as well as identifying those that they got wrong. From this talk you will get an intimate understanding of how the many interconnected systems in a Tesla model S work and most importantly how they can be hacked. You will also get a good understanding of the data that this connected car collects and what Tesla does with this telemetry. We will also be releasing a tool that will enable Tesla Model S owners to view and analyse that telemetry in real time. Finally we will also be releasing several 0day vulnerabilities that will allow you to hack a Tesla Model S yourself – both locally and remotely. Note – only one of the 6 vulnerabilities we will discuss and release has been fixed. Disclaimer: With great access comes great responsibility – In other words we are not responsible for any Tesla Model S bricked by over enthusiastic attendees of this talk 🙂

DEF CON 23 takes place August 6-9 at Paris & Bally’s in Las Vegas, NV.

Image via Steve Martz