Any claimed range or specified maximum charging power must be treated with caution when wanting to know how fast you’ll really progress on longer journeys with one or more charging stops.

Tesla has officially introduced several new options for the delivery of its electric cars. The ‘contactless’ car delivery is naturally due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, but other options are more extensive in scope.

The UK fire protection contractor Sharpfibre has replaced their entire fleet with Tesla Model 3 vehicles. The ten battery-electric Teslas are now operating from Basildon, just outside London.

How many Model 3 can Tesla build in the Gigafactory 3 near Shanghai? A new report from China provides details of the planned increase in production at the factory as well as new models. In other Tesla news, we look at software updates.

GKN Automotive continues their tests on the 3-in-1 powertrains and has several prototypes underway in the Arctic Circle. New inverters and motors are being used in the test vehicles based on the Tesla Model 3 and Fiat Ducato.

The Tesla Model 3 is apparently almost sold out in Europe for this quarter. As of this week, Tesla has indicated that May will be the expected delivery date for the Model 3 in almost all European countries. The company previously forecast delivery in March.

Many ‘tear-downs’ have already shown that Tesla has a lead of years in electric drive and battery technology. Now the Japanese business paper Nikkei has also had the Tesla Model 3 dismantled.

The electric vehicle sales of the Chinese manufacturers BYD, BAIC BJEV and Nio declined sharply in January. The main reasons for this were the few business days in January due to the comparatively early New Year holidays and the outbreak of the coronavirus.

After Tesla recently announced an increase in the Model Y’s maximum range from 280 miles to 315 miles (507 km), the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now confirmed this.

With record sales of 367,000 passenger cars in 2019, Tesla has increased its deliveries by 50% and thus became by far the strongest selling electric car manufacturer in the past year, ahead of the Chinese manufacturer BYD with 219,000 new energy vehicles.

There have been some changes to the Tesla warranty terms. For Model S and Model X, an upper limit for mileage is introduced. However, a shift from usage time to mileage affects all Tesla drivers.

Tesla is continuously improving the chemistry of its supposedly “old “18650 battery cells, as Elon Musk explained during the latest earnings call. Tesla also says it expects the Model Y to go way further with a single charge than initially announced.

Berlin’s senators and state secretaries can now also select a Tesla as their company car. The Model 3 has been added to the list of available company cars. One state secretary has already opted for the Californian vehicle.

Tesla reports its Q4 2019 earnings and, they are better than Wallstreet expected; in fact, the revenue is at a record high with profits incoming. Plus, the electric carmaker says, Model Y production is underway ahead of schedule with deliveries expected to start “by the end of Q1 2020”.

The Swiss energy group Alpiq is now launching its electric mobility subscription service Juicar in Germany and Italy. Juicar has been on the market in Switzerland since August 2018. In Germany the subscription is now available nationwide in cooperation with the fleet operator Arval.

If “stop smoking” was among your list of new year’s resolution, here’s just the push to see it through. An Irish couple saved so much when they quit cigarettes they were able to plan to buy a new Tesla.

Two young men attempted to vandalize a charging Tesla in a parking garage. Not only did the attempt to forcibly remove the charging cable fail – Tesla’s ‘Sentry Mode’ recorded the incident and the video went viral on Youtube with over 700,000 hits within a few days.

Elon Musk made a short video to announce plans to let Tesla vehicles “talk” to pedestrians via external speakers. How exactly and when this will be implemented is not yet known, nor what the cars will possibly say.

The electric car rental company UFODrive is expanding into further cities. The Tesla Model 3 and Model S are now available for rent at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin and at three London locations.

In Germany, the Finance Committee of the Brandenburg State Parliament has approved the purchase agreement for the site of the planned Tesla factory in Grünheide.

BMW and Daimler’s ride-hailing operator Free Now (formerly MyTaxi) is expanding its ride-hailing fleet in Hamburg with an initial 60 Tesla vehicles. The ride-sharing service wants to boost its expansion into other cities in Germany.

Norway is widely considered a leading EV market, and sales in the Scandinavian nation are often used to test the waters for new electric vehicle technologies and market trends. The statistics are now out for December 2019, which has shown a significant decrease in BEV sales, while hybrids seem to have become more popular.

As part of the Model 3 delivery launch for regular customers in China, Tesla has now also officially launched the Model Y program. It is not yet clear when the Model Y will be produced in China, but Tesla has already announced prices and is accepting pre-orders.

In order to lower the price of the Tesla Model 3, the Austrian company Obrist Powertrain is converting the Californian BEV to hybrid drive – with a smaller battery (17.3 kWh) and a small petrol engine in the front. However, the hybrid Tesla Model 3 will then only be able to drive just under 100 […]

An official announcement in the  Brandenburg gazette marks the formal beginning of the approval procedure for the planned Tesla plant in Germany. The public notice states that Tesla intends to start up the plant in Grünheide, near Berlin, in July 2021.

Tesla delivered 112,000 electric cars in the 4th quarter of 2019, of which 92,550 were Model 3 and 19,450 were Model S and Model X. The Californians have thus reached the targeted 100,000 deliveries for the first time, and production has now also reached six figures.

Tesla has started deliveries of the first Model 3s produced in the Shanghai plant to customers. The first 15 vehicles were handed over to Tesla employees during a special event. According to a Reuters report, regular customers will also receive their vehicles from 7 January onwards.

Tesla must yet again cope with the departure of a manager. Bert Bruggeman was only appointed Vice-President of Production at Fremont plant one year ago and has now thrown in the towel. Given his unexpected departure, a successor has not yet been announced.

The German car industry has “decided” to recognise Tesla’s achievements. VW congratulated Tesla in a newspaper ad on its choice of Model 3 as “Swiss Car of the Year 2020” but promises that the competition will become stronger next year with the ID.3.

Tesla has founded a European public limited company called Tesla Manufacturing Brandenburg SE for the operations of its planned plant in Grünheide, Brandenburg. Meanwhile, in China, rumour has it that Tesla already produces 1,000 Model 3s per week at its plant in Shanghai.