Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, has said that the company will remove the patents decorating the walls of its Silicon Valley headquarters. It will not sue anyone who in good faith wants their electric car technology.

According to the Tesla blog, “Technology leadership is not defined by patents, which history has repeatedly shown to be small protection indeed against a determined competitor, but rather by the ability of a company to attract and motivate the world’s most talented engineers. We believe that applying the open source philosophy to our patents will strengthen rather than diminish Tesla’s position in this regard.”

Tesla Motors wants to clear the path for others who want to create a compelling electric car, and patents hinder that goal. The company initially garnered patents because it feared a competitor would copy its ideas and overwhelm the company financially, but that’s been far from the reality, according to Musk.

“We couldn’t have been more wrong. The unfortunate reality is the opposite: electric car programs (or programs for any vehicle that doesn’t burn hydrocarbons) at the major manufacturers are small to non-existent, constituting an average of far less than 1% of their total vehicle sales.”

Musk hopes that other companies will begin to fill the electric car space, though few have tried since he co-founded Tesla Motors a decade ago and became CEO in 2008. Since then, Tesla has unveiled an electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, a four door Model 5, and a larger Model X, which is scheduled to begin production in 2015. The company also sells its electric powertrain systems to Daimler for the Smart EV and to Mercedes and Toyota for the Rav4 EV.

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Image: Steve Jurvetson

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Rumor has it that the country’s most successful electric car company could be working with Google to introduce self-driving capabilities.

Nearly every auto manufacturer on the planet offers or is working on an electric car. For some, it’s only a tiny aspect of their fleet. For Tesla Motors, it’s everything. Dedicated only to the creation of sleek, high-performance plug-in cars, Tesla recently made headlines by announcing that it is on track to repay a $465m Department of Energy loan 9 years ahead of schedule. For car makers just struggling to break even on their EV dreams, the news was proof that Tesla is ahead of the game. Way ahead.

The success helps to explain another astounding announcement: Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, is talking with Google about adding driverless technology to his already awesome line of electric vehicles.

Google is the poster company for auto-piloted vehicles, a project that is already in testing on open roadways and has the entire auto industry buzzing. In an article describing the experience of riding in an auto-piloted car, Forbes’ Joann Muller writes, “The car we were riding in was a white Lexus RX450h outfitted with a $65,000 laser sensor on the roof, and other gear that included radar sensors in the front and rear bumpers, a high-def camera looking out from the windshield, and another looking inward at the passengers…On the instrument panel, a graphic depicted each of the cars around us as a white rectangle and tracked its movement relative to ours.”

Once you get over the initial shock and horror of allowing the car to merge onto the freeway at 65 mph without your help, the idea of riding in a self-piloted vehicle starts to sound cool. Eventually, you could take a road trip to catch up on some reading, safely send a text, or perhaps even sleep. The only imperfection would be that you’re still flinging pollution into the atmosphere. But that would change with an autonomous Tesla that runs on electricity.

“I like the word autopilot more than I like the word self-driving,” Musk said in an interview. “Self-driving sounds like it’s going to do something you don’t want it to do. Autopilot is a good thing to have in planes, and we should have it in cars.” As Engadget reports, “a hidden configuration page in current Tesla vehicles’ digital control panel reveals some additional features, including Blind Spot Detection, Adaptive Cruise and Lane Departure Warning. Though currently disabled, each could indicate plans to add automation features to the all-electric car.

The biggest hurdle, of course, is money. “The problem with Google’s current approach is that the sensor system is too expensive,” Musk said. “It’s better to have an optical system, basically cameras with software that is able to figure out what’s going on just by looking at things.”

If anyone can find a way to squeeze more tech into a car for less money, however, it’s Tesla. The company’s Model S sedan has a $69,900 base price, a far cry from The Roadster, the company’s first offering, which started at $109,000. The goal, according to Musk,  is to offer a model for about $30,000 within a few years.

Image: jurvetson and jurveston

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A collaboration between a Mississippi electric car company and a leading Chinese automotive manufacture will yield a five-passenger, all-electric sedan to be assembled in the United States.

Thinking about buying a new, more efficient car, but not so thrilled with the tiny options zipping around out there? GreenTech Automotive (GTA) feels your pain.

The company, based surprisingly in Horn Lake, Mississippi, specializes in tiny, all-electric vehicles known as the MyCar. Realizing that not everyone in America is ready for the confines of a glorified roller-skate, they recently partnered with a Chinese automaker to branch out into the land of the sedan.

Through a recently announced partnership with Shanghai’s JAC Motors, GreenTech will soon offer an all-electric vehicle featuring a 19kwh battery with the ability to drive more than 100 miles on a single charge, with a charge time of just 6-8 hours. The sedan will feature JAC’s award-winning Rejoice vehicle platform with GTA’s advanced electric powertrain and battery management system, delivering zero-emissions travel at a size and price America can live with.

This announcement is good news for drivers, the environment, and perhaps most importantly, the local economy. GTA will assemble the vehicles in its Mississippi facility for distribution in North America exclusively beginning in late 2013.

“The MyCar, which offers consumers a fun, affordable driving experience, is already seeing strong response, achieving distribution agreements for the sale of more than 30,000 units over the next three years. The JAC-GTA partnership allows us to expand our product line-up with a sedan and allows us to offer the GTA technology with great amenities and room for five passengers while adhering to our philosophy of being price competitive,” said Marianne McInerney, Executive VP of sales and marketing, for GTA.

After a pilot assembly of 2,000 vehicles, GTA plans to establish another assembly facility for the sedan and expects to create 200 additional jobs in the United States. Since most of us have depended on Asia and Europe to supply our vehicles for the better part of the last century, this is a refreshing twist. Once again America will be making something that’s desperately needed here at home.

Image: Greentech Automotive

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On the subject of e-cars: We’ve had back to back to back news, so I thought it good to let the topic bake for a bit while we wait for the public reception of the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, and others.

But”¦

This is way too cool to pass up. Just in from the Great Green North: an e-car made of pot! (Well, hemp, but you know the drill. Hemp, pot, same diff when it comes to headlines!)

Says CBC News (and, of course, 420 Magazine), the car, which will be made into a prototype this month by Calgary-based Motive Industries, is called the Kestrel and is doubling down on the green factor. Its body will be comprised of “impact-resistant composite material” made from mats of hemp – which, by the way, will be locally harvested in Vegreville, Alberta. (Gotta love the homegrown.) The car will be a compact designed for four dudes/dudettes, including the driver, and will top out at just over 55 mph. Its range will vary from 25 miles to 100 miles, depending on the type of battery.

The Kestrel is part of Project Eve, a Canadian non-profit collaboration aimed at increasing that country’s production of electric vehicles and components. And guess who’s gonna be helping out with the pot car? College kids! Students at polytechnic schools in Alberta, Quebec and Toronto will help roll these babies out the door and into the hands of parktakers sometime next year when the first twenty are due to be dealt.

Using hemp to build a car is “not an original idea,” says Motive Industries President Nathan Armstrong. Henry Ford, in fact, experimented with the not-so-evil weed in 1941 when he created a hemp-bodied car. The vehicle – pictured below – was fueled on the stuff, too. CarDomain has a video of the indestructo-prototype.

Today, however, with a renewed emphasis on reducing weight while not giving up on strength, hemp makes sense. It doesn’t take a lot of energy to make (sunshine, soil and a little love, bra) and isn’t as fancy pants as fibreglass and carbon-fiber-based racecar material, which requires all kinds of heat and chemical wizardry to produce.

“As a structural material, hemp is about the best,” says Armstrong. The CBC notes: “It [hemp] has about twice the strength of other plant fibres. It doesn’t require much water or pesticide use, and grows well in Canada, providing a high yield per hectare.”

“Plus,” says Armstrong, showing some true patriot love, “it’s illegal to grow it in the U.S., so it actually gives Canada a bit of a market advantage!”

Yeah, well, I live in Northern Cali, man. You wanna talk advantage?

Images: dwhartwig and Hugo90

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Momentum seems to be mounting toward what may be a sea change in the automobile market – and hopefully the beginning of a fundamental downshift in what we do to the air every time we hit the road. In just the last two weeks, we told you about the Nissan Leaf selling out pre-orders, the Mercedes and BMW jumping into the e-market in the not-too-distant future, new electric highways and other infrastructure plans, and how the announcement of an eight-year/100,000-mile warranty on the Chevy Volt is making this whole e-car business finally begin to seem real. Adding to this, yesterday’s latest show-us-the-money puzzle piece in the emerging picture: the 2011 Chevy Volt will start at $41,000.

The Volt is an electric vehicle that can drive 40 miles on batteries before a gasoline engine kicks in to extend its range another 300 miles. The $41K price tag, announced by GM yesterday at the Plug-In 2010 conference in San Jose, CA, includes a $720 destination fee. A $7,500 federal tax credit brings the net purchase price down to $33,500.

As reported by CNET, GM hopes to sell 10,000 cars in the first year and 30,000 more in 2012. The base model will have a number of features, including Bluetooth connectivity, a navigation screen, and five years of GM’s OnStar service. Four premium options are also available, including leather seats and steering wheel, rear camera and parking sensors, polished wheels, and one of three premium paints. If you want to throw down big, the fully loaded Volt will set you back $44,600, or $37,100 after the tax credit. (Some states may also offer credits on top of the Federal deal. California will rebate $5,000 for the Nissan’s all-electric Leaf, but that won’t apply to the Volt.)

The Leaf, by the way, is also due out this year and has an anticipated MSRP of $33,000. While the list price of the Bolt is higher, GM also unveiled a three-year $350-a-month lease, with a $2,500 down payment. Says GreenCarReports, “That’s only a dollar higher than the lease for the 2011 Nissan Leaf electric car, despite the Volt’s much higher purchase price.” GM says it’s doing this based on its strong belief in the car’s residual value.

The first Volts will arrive at Chevrolet dealers in November, first in California, followed by the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut area, then Washington, D.C., followed by Michigan, and finally Texas.

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I enjoyed going to annual auto shows when I was a kid, checking out the concept cars, getting that special “glimpse of the future.” But there was always this hollow undercurrent as I’d realize just how far away the future really was. It went something like, “Awesome – but it’ll never see the light of day. It’s just too crazy, sexy, cool to ever become real.” I had that same feeling when I saw the first electric car prototypes, my cynicism compounded by the knowledge that Big Oil and the Big Three would be dragging their feet Big Time. I wondered: “What’s it going to take to put Detroit’s back against the wall on this stuff?”

So there was something special about reading late last week that GM had released details on the warranty for the Chevy Volt, its electric-vehicle entry that’s due out in November. Indeed, in recent months there have been ongoing and accelerating signs that the next (first real?) phase of the electric-car era is about to become reality. Right here at EcoSalon, in fact, we’ve written about the Volt’s progress toward hitting the road, Nissan selling out pre-orders for the Leaf, and other car makers jumping into the electric game with both feet.

But this warranty news hits a particular nerve, striking me as something especially real – the sales details/fine print behind these things somehow gives the sense that all systems are go; they’re guaranteed now, ok to buy, ok to drive, ok to use like you would any other product. Maybe it’s that I’m “Old School Detroit,” but where I come from, warranties are a big deal, and this one means that a mass-produced electric GM vehicle is no longer an experiment. (Though, of course, it remains to be seen how the public will take to the $35,000ish car, which still faces some challenges on the electric highways, byways and general infrastructure front.)

The details of the warranty sound an awful lot like warranties for “regular” cars. In fact, they’re a little better: the Volt’s LG Chem lithium-manganese battery will be guaranteed for up to eight years or 100,000 miles, and is transferable to future owners. As reported in the New York Times: “The warranty will cover all 161 battery components – as well as other electric-drive components – and the battery’s liquid thermal management system, which heats or cools the battery while charging in a variety of weather conditions.”

The rest of the warranty looks like this: 100,000 mile/five-year transferable Engine Limited Warranty (for the Range Extender); 100,000 mile/five-year 24/7 Roadside Assistance Program; 100,000 mile/five-year 24/7 Courtesy Transportation Program; 36,000 mile/three-year no-deductible bumper-to-bumper transferable warranty; and 100,000 mile/six-year corrosion protection.

Nissan has yet to announce its coverage plans for the Leaf but, says Autoblog, the automaker is now reaching out to prospective customers (including some of those who made deposits to reserve the right to purchase the all-electric vehicle) to find out what they’re looking for in such a warranty.

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With their impending releases later this year – and what we really hope is an honest-to-goodness demand for electric cars – the Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt have been front-and-center news in recent months. In fact, just last week we were telling you about the Nissan entry selling out during its initial run based on pre-orders for a December roll out. Perhaps, finally, there’s something in the air that has brought us to that elusive tipping point where the auto industry’s best techsters are zeroing in on delivering zero-emission vehicles. Indeed, players continue to jump into this e-mix, and for those of you who dig Deutsche engineering, it can now be said: The Germans are coming. And they’re throwing down hard.

Last week, the BMW Group finally came clean(er) on its Megacity Vehicle, an electric four-seater expected to go on the market in 2013. Designed for urban comings and goings, the MCV will have an electric motor generating 100 kW, as well as a small combustion engine that’s basically a range extender. What’s radical here is that the MCV will be “the world’s first volume-produced vehicle with a passenger cell made from carbon.”

The design is based on something BMW calls its LifeDrive concept, which consists of two separated, independent modules that allow for a new lightweight design that will offset the extra 250+ kilograms (that’s more than 550 lbs.!) of weight usually carried by electric vehicles.

Meanwhile, as BMW thinks city, Mercedes-Benz is thinking highway – or rather raceway. Its 2013 SLS E-CELL prototype gets to 62 mph in a breathless four seconds and has a top speed of 155. Truly a zero-emission “super car,” the gullwing has an output of 392 kW and, says Autoblog, features four electric motors that “top out at a screaming 12,000 rpm” and “combine to apply 526 horsepower and 649 pound-feet of torque to the wheels.” Even the name of the paint is hot. Get this: fluorescent lumilectric magno. While Audi’s powerful planned E-tron car may beat Mercedes to the market, according to The New York Times, the Tesla Roadster currently remains the only high-performance electric car on the market.

Both automakers are talking the talk, which is important as neither is known for past good emission deeds and since consumers seem increasingly interested in rewarding companies who are playing nice with the environment. “We take social responsibility very seriously, says Ola Källenius, chairman of the board of Mercedes-AMG GmbH. “It is our goal to continually reduce the fuel consumption and emissions of new models in the coming years, while at the same time enhancing the core brand value of performance.” A BMW rep chimes into the NYT with, “The departure from fossil fuels is an irreversible trend.” One can only hope.

Image: eMercedesBenz

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I liked reading this quote in the New York Times from Nissan’s chief executive, Carlos Ghosn: “We wanted to do a zero-emission vehicle. I don’t want gasoline in the car, period.” Apparently, neither do a lot of you – Nissan announced last week that it has received 19,000 orders for its 100-percent-electric car, the Leaf, that it will start selling in the United States and Japan at the end of the year. That translates into no new orders, or SOLD OUT.

As Tonic mentioned on EcoSalon last Friday, the Nissan Leaf is scheduled to enter the market around the same time as the Volt, General Motors’ electric entry. But, unlike the Volt, the Leaf has no gasoline engine in it at all. This means it’s limited to a 100-mile range on a single charge. Evidently, this isn’t a problem for at least 19,000 drivers out there who put their money down to reserve one of these potential game changers.

Speaking at a gathering at the Detroit Economic Club, Ghosn said Leaf sales will be limited to certain areas in the United States where infrastructure already exists or is being created to support electric vehicles. (Hello, California!) This way the consumer won’t end up in “a situation where he buys the car and he doesn’t know how to charge it.”

Before you get too fired up about the Leaf, there are some obstacles to keep in mind, says AutoblogGreen’s Sam Abuelsamid. “So far, the orders are comprised of refundable $99 deposits, so it will be interesting to see how sales and orders hold up once people begin getting calls from dealers,” he writes, also noting 2008’s Smart ForTwo, “which also received thousands of orders before deliveries began – and we all know how well that turned out. While the Leaf will undoubtedly be a much more pleasant and practical car to drive than the Smart, it remains to be seen how customers will react once they get used to the real world electric range.”

After initially building the car in Japan, Nissan plans to assemble the Leaf and other electric models at a new plant in Smyrna, Tennessee starting in 2012. The automaker’s goal is to sell a minimum of 500,000 electric cars a year beginning in 2013.

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