November 8th, 2020 by Zachary Shahan
The most popular articles on CleanTechnica last month are listed below. The top story of the month was about electric conversions! And no, it’s not 2010. After that, it’s Tesla, Tesla, Tesla, Tesla, Tesla. Before getting to those, though, let’s have a quick stroll through CleanTechnica exclusives from the past month.
Brad Rouse published a superb two-part analysis of how to reach 100% carbon free, 100% electric by 2050. See part one here.
One of our best series in recent memory, Maarten Vinkhuyzen published a three-part analysis of plugin hybrids and the EU regulations that enable them. (See part one, part two, and part three.) Maarten also wrote about major Dutch leasing company LeasePlan recommending that its clients in the Netherlands not buy plugin hybrids.
Maarten also wrote a great analysis of Chinese electric vehicles starting to enter European and North American markets. This is a matter we’ll surely come back to routinely.
Alex Voigt wrote a thorough deep dive into Tesla Autopilot’s challenges in Germany.
Jesper Berggreen updated us on his ongoing quest for net zero (financially) — quite interesting and meticulously tracked.
I also launched a Tesla Throwback Thursday series.
Regarding the vibrant discussion about Tesla reportedly deciding it doesn’t need a PR team, Chanan Bos offered an innovative and I think quite compelling case for what Tesla could do on the PR side.
A certain member of the Twitter Tesla community has electric dreams beyond Tesla — he wants to convert a 1982 Lada Niva into an electric vehicle.
We published several exclusive sales reports and non-exclusive sales reports with original charts and analysis regarding September. 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), Germany (16% PEV market share), Portugal (14% PEV market share), the UK (10.5% PEV market share), and the European Union (12% PEV market share) — as well as why 2021 should be even much better. 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.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Jacek Fior dove into the unusual EV charging approach ChargePolska is taking in Poland — inspired by Californian innovator Volta Charging.
Delving into vehicle-to-grid tech and its potential use with electric school buses, Joe Wachunas interviewed Marc Trahand of Nuvve.
We also published interviews with some of the first beta testers of Tesla’s new Full Self-Driving firmware.
We published a long, two-part interview with Anna Ziolecki and Brent Doberstein of the University of Waterloo regarding disaster risk reduction and managed retreat.
Meanwhile, I wrote an article explaining that, although Tesla software updates are often compared to the kind of software updates you get on an Apple device, they are vastly different.
Scott Cooney provided an analysis of how to charge and how much it costs to charge a Tesla Model 3 (or any other electric vehicle).
Vijay Govindan published reviews of the Jeda Wireless Pad V3 and Jeda USB Hub for use in the Tesla Model 3.
Vijay also wrote a financial analysis of Tesla’s Q3 numbers that critics/bears seemed to be missing.
I conducted an interview with Roger Atkins, founder of Electric Vehicles Outlook, about the future of electric vehicles, wireless EV charging, and EV supply chains.
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.
Just prior to the 3rd quarter Tesla conference call, Chanan published our one-of-a-kind analysis of Tesla analysts.
Maarten Vinkhuyzen published his take on the localized, mass-market electric vehicles that Tesla should gradually roll out.
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.)
Paul Fosse published a useful, detailed, nuanced rooftop solar power buying guide.
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 month:
- Transition One Will Convert Your Old Gasmobile To Electric Power In About 4 Hours
- Tesla’s Future Is Not What We Thought
- Tesla’s New Structural Battery Pack — It’s Not Cell-to-Pack, It’s Cell-to-Body
- How Much Does It Cost To Charge An EV With A Plug From Your House?
- Save $39,000 to $114,000 Driving the Tesla Model Y, the World’s Best Crossover
- Energy At Largest Air Force Base in US “Suddenly” Drops 35%
- Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta Testers Share Their Thoughts With Me
- 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
- Teardown Finds Tesla Is 6 Years (At Least) Ahead Of The Competition
- Tesla Autopilot Updates & Notes from Elon Musk
- New Tesla Model 3 Cars Spotted With Chrome Delete & New Center Console
- Up Close With The New 2021 Ford F-150 Hybrid Pickup
- Tesla Megapack, Powerpack, & Powerwall Battery Storage Prices Per kWh — Exclusive
- China Is Breeding A Herd Of Purebred Trojan Horses To Conquer The Western BEV Market
- Battery Fires May Slow The EV Revolution
- Trapping Light Inside Solar Cells Can Boost Solar Panel Output By 125%
- 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
- Carmakers Betray Their Customers With Outdated Plugin Hybrids
Any thoughts?
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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.