October 13th, 2020 by Zachary Shahan
It’s time for another biweekly top 20 here on CleanTechnica. The following are the 20 stories published on CleanTechnica in the past two weeks that got the most eyeballs. Before that list of top stories, however, let’s run through exclusive content we published in the past two weeks.
We published several exclusive sales reports and non-exclusive sales reports with original charts and analysis in recent weeks. Those sales reports covered Norway (82% plugin vehicle/PEV market share), Sweden (34.4% PEV market share), the Netherlands (27% PEV market share, and 16% market share for pure electric vehicles, bringing EVs to the early majority), France (10.6% PEV market share), and the UK (10.5% PEV market share). The sales reports also included Tesla’s record 3rd quarter results, with my long-term quarterly sales charts part of the analysis. And then, yesterday, I published a report on 3rd quarter US auto sales, including a look at the first three quarters of 2020. I compared the 2020 results to the same periods of time in 2019 and highlighted Tesla’s abnormal performance in that regard.
We also published a thorough review of Electrify America fast charging stations in the US Southeast.
After gleaning information from Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Megapack pricing (a jaw-dropping ~$200/kWh for the core battery tech and ~$300/kWh all-in cost), I published an analysis of Tesla Powerwall, Powerpack, and Megapack pricing.
Chanan Bos went through a deep-dive analysis of Tesla’s future based on Battery Day announcements. I highly recommend giving it a read, as do many of the people who pushed it to the #1 position among most-read articles of the past two weeks.
Chanan also contributed a thorough piece on Tesla’s potentially revolutionary new battery cell-to-car solution, which eliminates the use of battery packs and builds the batteries into the structural components of the car. Out of several transformational innovations presented at Tesla Battery Day, this was perhaps the most exciting and surprising one for many of us.
Speaking of long-term analysis of Tesla and expectations for its future, Johnna Crider interviewed Ross Gerber of Gerber Kawasaki about his unique experiences and insights exploring Tesla for several years. Gerber Kawasaki was far ahead of the broader stock market in terms of investing deeply in Tesla. (Full disclosure: I’m a long-term investor in Tesla/TSLA.)
Scott Cooney presented a comprehensive home energy efficiency 101 report for us, including how to save tons of energy and thousands of dollars by paying slightly more attention to your refrigerator, lights, plumbing, and more.
Another huge deep dive we published that I think is requisite reading in the United States is Mike Barnard’s thorough analysis of Obama/Biden climate policies, Trump/Pence climate policies, and the Biden/Harris climate plan. I also used that analysis to highlight some clear lies Mike Pence pushed out during the US vice presidential debate.
Alex Voigt wrote about the Holocaust, guilt, free will, and climate action in a deeply psychological and I think helpful op-ed.
Joe Wachunas contributed an interview with Oriana Magnera, an Energy and Climate Policy Coordinator for a community-based organization called Verde in Portland, Oregon. They conversed about equity in the context of the “electrify everything” movement.
On the solar front, I published reports on the top solar states as a percentage of electricity generation, the top US solar states per capita, and comparisons of the top US solar states per capita in 2020 versus 2012.
A reader provided us with a personal report on what it would cost to upgrade his 2013 Nissan LEAF battery to one with decent range. Located in Florida, the LEAF owner found it was bloody expensive and not worth it, even though you can get a new battery much more cheaply in Japan.
Lastly, prompted by a couple of tweets from Elon Musk, I wrote up my idea of 17 different startups hiding under the Tesla name. Take a look and see if you can think of any others.
Now, on to the 20 most popular CleanTechnica stories of the past two weeks:
- Tesla’s Future Is Not What We Thought
- Tesla Tire Costs 10× Battery Cost, & My Plan To Deflate Tire Costs 90%
- Electric Cars Cost Less To Own — Consumer Reports Agrees With Us
- Tesla’s New Structural Battery Pack — It’s Not Cell-to-Pack, It’s Cell-to-Body
- Save $39,000 to $114,000 Driving the Tesla Model Y, the World’s Best Crossover
- NASA, SpaceX to Launch First Commercial Crew Rotation Mission to International Space Station
- Discover The Little-Known Metal Many Experts Now Believe Could Be The Solution To Renewable Energy’s Biggest Challenges
- New Tesla Model 3 Cars Spotted With Chrome Delete & New Center Console
- Tesla Megapack, Powerpack, & Powerwall Battery Storage Prices Per kWh — Exclusive
- Tesla “Full Self Driving” Will Include Pothole Avoidance, Vector-Space Bird’s Eye View … & What Else?
- Rocky Mountain Institute Study Shows Renewables Are Kicking Natural Gas To The Curb
- Tesla Autopilot Updates & Notes from Elon Musk
- The Best Places For Solar Power If You Want To Clean The US Grid
- 27% Plugin Vehicle Share in the Netherlands! (& Tesla Model 3 Sneaks Into #1)
- Tesla’s New Homemade Batteries Are In Test Cars On The Road Today
- Leading Steel Maker In US Pivots To Renewable Energy, Ditches Coal
- In Japan, I Could Get A Refurbished 24 kWh Nissan Leaf Battery For $2,400, But In US, It’s $10,000
- What’s Hot Right Now On Tesla’s Black Market?
- China’s Largest Solar-Plus-Storage Project Goes Online
- Tesla Owners Are Helping Cats At Kettleman City Supercharger
For even more, see the previous top 20 and CleanTechnica-exclusive roundup: “Michigan’s Anti-EV Bill, Why Tesla Solar Is So Cheap, Low EV Maintenance Costs — CleanTechnica Top 20.”
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About the Author
Zachary Shahan is tryin’ to help society help itself one word at a time. He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director, chief editor, and CEO. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, Canada, and Curaçao.
Zach has long-term investments in NIO [NIO], Tesla [TSLA], and Xpeng [XPEV]. But he does not offer (explicitly or implicitly) investment advice of any sort.