Texas

Tesla has been on a tear lately, and it looks like CEO Elon Musk is trying to think of new ways to spend some money. Tonight he dropped a hint that, in addition to current gigafactory projects in China and Germany, Tesla is considering one in Texas.

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A new look at a burgeoning solar boom in Texas reveals an unlikely source behind much of the demand — oil and gas companies.

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[We’re back!] Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

Today in the return of EGEB, a new report shows corporations bought a record amount of clean energy in 2018. In Texas, corporations and cities alike are looking to add more wind turbines before a federal tax credit is phased out. Meanwhile, officials and residents in Vermont are looking to take action following a 2018 report that showed emissions actually increased in spite of the state’s efforts. Expand
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Tesla has been leading direct sales battles this year on several fronts in Utah, Connecticut, Indiana, and several other states.

They lost the battle in the Lone Star State this week after bills to allow direct sales by automakers died in Texas state House and Senate. Expand
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During a convention held in Dallas last week, Texas state GOP delegates endorsed new Tesla-backed language in the party platform to allow direct sales of vehicles in the state. About 90 percent of the more than 8,000 delegates supported the new proposal.

This new support is likely to be a big help for Tesla’s next effort to push new legislation in order to sell its cars through company-owned stores in Texas – something the company has been trying to do since 2013.

Tesla had a booth at the convention and discussed its situation in the state with thousands of delegates.

Under the current state’s laws governing car sales, as an automaker, Tesla cannot sell its vehicles to consumers and is required to go through third-party dealerships – something the company refused to do as per its business model. Expand
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This weekend, Texas A&M University will be hosting SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition’s “Design Weekend”. Over 1,000 students and engineers forming 124 teams are competing for a chance to build their own Hyperloop pod prototypes and race them at SpaceX’s upcoming test track. Expand
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When Google originally showcased the newer low-speed “cute-mobile” self-driving car, it mentioned a goal of having about 100 of them on the road for testing within a couple years. Now, as the company is bringing its low-speed electric prototypes to Austin a year later, Sarah Hunter, head of policy for Google [X], has revealed that the company is expanding production of the cars (via The Guardian). Hunter says that Google is now producing at least a “few hundred” and hints at a potential future of mass-production… Expand
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Even though Tesla Motors sold just over 3,000 cars in Texas since it introduced its all-electric sedan in 2012, the lone star state still maintains its ban on the direct sale method of the Silicon Valley carmaker. Yesterday on Bloomberg Radio, Texas Governor Greg Abbott reiterated his preference for the statu quo on the ban of direct car sales. Expand
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From today’s Shareholder Report(PDF):

In June, we broke ground just outside Reno, Nevada on a site that could potentially be the location for the Gigafactory. Consistent with our strategy to identify and break ground on multiple sites, we continue to evaluate other locations in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas. The final site for the first Gigafactory will be determined in the next few months, once we have full visibility and agreement on the relevant incentives and processes for enabling the Gigafactory to be fully operational to meet the timing for Model 3. We see these concurrent efforts as prudent. This vehicle will be
our third-generation product and will substantially broaden the addressable market for Tesla, helping to accelerate the transition towards sustainable transportation. Any potentially duplicative investments are minor compared to the revenue that could be lost if the launch of Model 3 were affected by any delays at our primary Gigafactory site.

Conference call will be at 5:30 here. Stock is down in after hours on unit shipment numbers.