Tesla appears to be leasing more of its vehicles. Could that be a risk to the stock? Not likely. In fact, the way used Tesla vehicles trade, leases look like a bad deal for car buyers, but a great deal for Tesla shareholders.

Tesla (ticker: TSLA) no longer discloses the number of vehicles leased anymore. But during the second quarter, leasing revenue grew 29% year over year while overall automotive sales fell 5%.

More leasing isnt necessarily a surprise. Roughly 30% of new cars in the U.S. are leased. Street estimates puts Tesla leasing as a percentage of vehicle sales at less than 20%.

A lease is, effectively, a decision to rent a car for a fixed monthly payment. At the end of the lease term the lesseeor the driverwill turn a vehicle back into the dealership with no more financial obligations remaining, assuming the lessee doesnt overdo it on mileage. That leaves the lessor with the risk of selling the used car. That is why residual valuesor used-car pricesare such a big deal for car buyers, leasing companies, and even auto makers.

More valuable used cars means less annual car depreciation and lower lease payments. Residual values are critical to avoiding losses for leasing companies. And auto makers derive pricing power based on strong used-car values.

If an auto maker is leasing more vehicles, it could mean that car buyers are doing better leasing a car versus buying a car outright. That situation can arise when used-car values assumed in leases are too high. That doesnt appear to be the case with the Tesla. Its used-car values hold up incredibly well. In fact, the residual values embedded in Teslas leases look too low.

That makes leasing a Tesla a lousy deal for car buyers. Its the leasing companyin some cases Tesla itselfwho benefits from Teslas high used-car values, because theyre the one who get to sell a more valuable asset when the initial lease is done.

Consider a midrange 2015 Model S. In the used car market, its priced at about 54% of its original retail price, according to industry data providers Kelly Blue Book and Autotrader. A higher-end Model S is priced at about 46% of its original selling price.

Autotrader and Kelly Blue Book are both owned by Cox Automotive and are have extensive, national databases of both wholesale and retail used car transactions.

Is half of original value after five years good? Its excellent. Cars, roughly speaking, lose up to about 50% to 60% of their value over the first five years of ownership according to data provided to Barrons by Edmunds. But over five years, the average large luxury carsimilar to a Model Sloses around 70% of its value. Tesla is doing better than average and much better than its competition.

For instance, a 2015 BMW 750i priced with options making it roughly equivalent to a 2015 Model S had only about 25% of its original value left. The BMW 750i seems to be doing a little worse than the category average and worse than its stiffest competition.

There are more examples of strong Tesla residual values.

Looking at sport-utility vehicles, a one-year-old 2019 Tesla Model X is valued at roughly 90% of its original retail price, according Kelly Blue Book. A 2019 Audi etron is valued at about 80%, depending on mileage. Barrons used the 2019 model year, which was the first model year of Audis electric SUV. The average gasoline-powered, luxury SUV loses between 20% and 30% of its value over its first year of ownership, according to Kelly Blue Book.

Then there is the Tesla Model 3. A 2017 used Model 3 can sell for up to 90% of its original value, according to Cox data provided to Barrons. Thats, frankly, incredible. There has been little depreciation over its first three years of driving. The average midsize luxury car loses half of its value over the same span, according to Cox.

There are a few possible reasons for strong residual value.

Reduced supply is one. The population of three-year-old Model 3s on the road is relatively limited. A brand new Model 3 can still take up to a month to deliver.

There are fuel and maintenance savings to consider as well. Teslas are cheaper to runat least based on gasoline costscompared with traditional, internal combustion vehicles.

Tesla also updates its vehicles with over-the-air software upgrades. Its a little like getting new features on your old iPhone when Apple (AAPL) rolls out an operating system update.

Its all of the above, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives tells Barrons when asked about Teslas used-vehicle prices.

Brand, was the one-word answer from Roth analyst Craig Irwin when Barrons asked him about Teslas residual value strength. Ives agrees with that observation too. The Tesla brand and resale value in secondary markets is another huge value [proposition] for a consumer, added the Wedbush analyst.

Ives answer highlights another issue. Residual value strength benefits vehicle owners. Any car buyer knows the total cost of vehicle ownership is ultimately tied to trade-in value.

But even high residual values could be a risk for Tesla stock if high used-car prices were embedded in current lease contracts. In that scenario, monthly lease rates would be low, stimulating demand for new Tesla vehicles. Then if residual values normalize, Teslas finance unit could be left with cars which have values below implicit guarantees. That isnt much of a risk for Tesla stock these days.

Tesla currently assumes normal vehicle depreciation in its leaseson the order of 50% over the first three years of vehicle existence. Thats consistent with industry peers even though actual residual values are holding up much better than that.

For drivers interested in buying a Tesla and willing to take a little more risk, the Barrons leasing analysis means they would do better to buy the car outright. Selling the car for a high price down the road lowers total cost of ownership.

There are very few negatives for Tesla, or any auto maker, from high residual values. Strong used car pricing is a competitive weapon. Tesla, for instance, could embed higher residual value assumptions in its leases, lowering payments and helping it sell more cars.

Tesla didnt respond to question about its leasing practices.

Tesla stock is up about 290% year to date, far better than comparable returns of the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average as well as returns of automotive peers.

Tesla shares are up 4.8% in midday trading Thursday, Shares are up 19% since the company announced a 5 for 1 stock split on August 11.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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Is Leasing a Tesla a Good Deal? What to Know. - Barron's

Tesla is hinting at working on a new car model made in China with new job openings in the country.

Earlier this year, CEO Elon Musk saidTesla will design an electric car in China for the global market.

In June, Tesla started taking design submissions from the public for the new car. It was the first indication that Tesla was moving forward with the new vehicle program following the CEOs comment back in January.

Now Tesla is posting some new job openings that have to do with car designing in China:

Heres the job listing post that Tesla shared on its official Weibo account in China this week:

All those jobs are related to designing a car locally, hinting at Tesla taking a bigger step toward building a new car program in China.

When first talking about the car, Tesla released this car drawing:

Based on Musks comments, the entire car would be designed and engineered in China, and produced locally, but it will be sold globally.

Earlier this year, Tesla started Model 3 production in China at Gigafactory Shanghai, but the vehicles are only meant to supply the local Chinese demand.

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Tesla hints at new car model made in China in new job openings - Electrek.co

This year, Tesla's image took a hit. The company fell behind on production targets, reports came out that it may be skipping safety tests and making mistakes on the production line, creating more waste. It didn't help that Elon Musk smoked weed on a podcast, attacked a diver rescuing the Thai soccer team, and got sued by the SEC. At the same time, a guy near Boston taught himself how to bring damaged Teslas back to life, and in doing so, he revealed a lot of the cars' flaws. Now the question is: will Tesla support him or stop him?

Produced by Dan Bobkoff and Amy Pedulla, with Anna Mazarakis and Sarah Wyman.

Read more:

Note: This transcript may contain errors.

DAN BOBKOFF: Linette Lopez is a senior correspondent at Business Insider and she started hearing rumblings about Tesla years ago, but at first she kind of dismissed them.

LINETTE LOPEZ: A lot of my Wall Street sources started getting involved in Tesla around 2014 and that is when they started talking about how the stock was overvalued. That story was never particularly interesting to me, because it seemed clear that the stock was overvalued and that the company never made money. But it didn't seem that any of the shareholders actually cared about that and so that to me was not a particularly interesting story until I was contacted by somebody within the company.

DB: It was spring. Linette was at home when she saw an email.

LL: I was contacted by a guy who worked on the manufacturing line at the gigafactory, which is Tesla's Nevada plant. It makes all the drive units and batteries. His name is Martin Tripp.

DB: He sounded credible, so she called him up.

LL: He basically told me that Tesla wasn't exactly living up to its brand. It was not making sexy cars that saved the world because its manufacturing process was so flawed.

DB: Martin tells Linette that Tesla's factories may not be as good at making things as many thought.

Then, Linette publishes her findings from internal documents showing the factories are generating huge amounts of waste because of flaws in the manufacturing process.

LL: For every car that it made, it would throw away about a third of a car.

DB: Her source alleges that a misprogrammed robot once punctured holes in hundreds of battery packs and then the company repaired them and put them back into cars. Tesla denies this.

Sources said the company kept shutting down the production line to fix problems. That all that scrap from mistakes was costing the company $150 million and hadn't been recycled. Tesla said that cost was an exaggeration. Looking at all this, it started to make sense to Linette why Tesla might be spending so much cash.

LL: Martin Trip's claims made sense to me, and of course they were backed up by internal documents, but they made sense because Tesla's balance sheet had always been out of control. It had always been spending too much money. In fact, the company had only turned a profit in two quarters over the course of its history. So this was kind of the missing piece of the puzzle of why Tesla was just burning so much cash.

DB: Linette continued writing stories about Tesla's manufacturing process. On July 2nd, Business Insider published one, again citing internal documents.

She reported that Elon had ordered Tesla to stop doing a critical brake test on Model 3s as they left the factory. The stock fell.

Two days later, she got a response, but not the kind you'd expect.

LL: I had like six missed calls and my Twitter was going insane and it was because Elon Musk was addressing my reporting, rather aggressively, on Twitter.

DB: Elon Musk Tesla's CEO called her reporting false. He accused her of paying her sources, and being paid by people who wanted to profit from a falling share price.

Then it got nastier and some might say childish.

LL: The weird part was when Musk started tweeting out screenshots from my Facebook page and he was totally trolling.

DB: Elon put up some of her posts from years ago attempting to show she had a close relationship to big investors betting against Tesla's stock. Elon called them "love letters" to sources.

It's a weird time to be Linette. The Elon tweet-storm led to TV interviews like this one on CNBC:

CNBC: I would prefer to talk about the reporting, and it's up to shareholders to decide whether or not the CEO of a $50 million company should spend his time yelling at reporters on Twitter.

DB: It's also a really a weird time to be Elon Musk. It's a weird time to be Tesla. For years, Tesla was held up as the future of transportation: sleek, curvy, efficient electric cars that would leave old car companies like GM and Ford in the dust.

NEWS: Tesla. [applause] The name alone triggers devout worship among some.

DB: And at the same time, Elon Musk was built up as this genius inventor kind of like Alexander Graham Bell, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs rolled into one.

NEWS: The South African-born businessman, engineer, inventor, real life Iron Man, and probably savior of the human race...

DB: Musk was introducing cheaper Teslas for the masses at the same time he was launching rockets into space.

SPACEX ARCHIVAL: SpaceX and Tesla. You would be hard pressed to find two companies that are more popular today. And yet, in the not too distant past, both companies were basically unknown, and were in fact simultaneously on the verge of bankruptcy.

DB: Touting new solar panels for roofs.

ARCHIVAL: The interesting thing is the houses you see around you are all solar houses.

DB: And dreaming of new forms of transportation like the Hyperloop, which would move people on pods through a tube that works kind of like an air hockey table. Tesla and Elon could do no wrong they embodied the future. Until this year.

NEWS: Tesla is defending its safety standards after one model felt short of the highest rating in a major crash test study.

DB: The Tesla narrative changed. And some of Elon's other projects stalled.

NEWS: Tesla's been accepting $1000 deposits for the roof tiles since May 2017, by at that point, the company wasn't even close to mass producing them...

LL: So from the beginning of Tesla's history, Elon has overpromised on production targets and timing and under-delivered. So the question has always been for how long can he do that and at this point it's still unclear on Wall Street.

DB: And after the dustup with Linette, Elon seemed to become more erratic.

He tweeted out that he planned to take Tesla private off the stock market. Then he smoked weed on a podcast.

PODCAST ARCHIVAL: "I mean it's legal, right?" "Totally legal."

DB: Then the Securities and Exchange Commission sued him over the tweet and charged him with fraud. He was forced to step down as chairman of the board though he's still CEO. The damage had been done.

LL: He has said in interviews in the past that he thinks that the internet is a video game where things don't matter and you can just say whatever you want to people and because he has an army he has a, it's ridiculous that he says things like that.

DB: So what happens when someone plays Elon at his own game?

From Business Insider and Stitcher, this is Household Name. The show about brands you know, and stories you don't. I'm Dan Bobkoff.

Today: Tesla.

In a sense, Elon Musk trolled Linette for reporting on the conditions of Tesla's factories and cars.

At the same time, there's a guy in Massachusetts who's trolling Tesla.

Rich Benoit knows the cars better than almost anyone. He taught himself how to take a wrecked Tesla and bring it back to pristine condition.

And along the way, he's discovered a lot of Tesla's issues.

Now the question is: will Elon do to him what he did to Linette?

Stay with us.

ACT I

DB: To help me tell these two stories we have with us Household Name producer Amy Pedulla.

AMY PEDULLA: Hey!

DB: OK, so, this has been quite a year for Elon Musk and Tesla.

AP: Yeah, what happened to Linette from her reporting is like this microcosm of what's going on more generally at the company. First of all, Tesla has a cult following that you know about, I know about, everyone knows about. Its drivers and fans are rabid, and part of that is the mystique of Elon Musk. Like, who knows the name of the CEO of Subaru? Do you?

DB: I do not.

AP: Exactly. Everyone knows Elon Musk. And people have very strong opinions. Here's Linette Lopez again:

LL: You know as a Tesla reporter, you're constantly being pulled in different directions. I think that a lot of people who are very supportive of the company think that I hate it or that I hate Elon Musk or that I want Tesla to fail and that's really not true.

AP: And Linette thinks Tesla has an amazing mission.

DB: What's the mission?

AP: So its goal is to "accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy." Sounds like a good thing for all of us. It does that through its electric cars and solar panels for homes.

LL: What I am paid to do is try to figure out whether the company is living up to that mission of making these sexy cars that save the world, and the cult of Musk crowd is always very skeptical of anyone who actually applies skepticism to the company and thinks that they must have some hidden, anti-Tesla agenda. In fact, I followed this guy on Twitter the other day and he's like a big, you know Musk supporter, I guess.

AP: So the guy immediately sends Linette a message on Twitter.

LL: And this person was like, 'wow I can't believe you followed, me you're on the other side.' They act like this is some kind of war like we're playing online Cowboys and Indians or something and that's just simply not the case. They tend to think that journalists hold these petty grudges or have some kind of dog in this fight, I don't have a dog in this fight, I haven't driven a car since the Bush administration

DB: So other cars have fans, you know there are websites for fandom of various brands, but Tesla seems like something else.

AP: Yeah, it's totally totally different. So people don't like it when people point out the company's problems. I'm just gonna take a step back for a sec:

Here are some of the things that have happened to Tesla recently.

Tesla struggled to get its new Model 3 to its customers. The Model 3 is supposed to be this cheaper Tesla more of a car for the masses than a plaything for the rich. But for a lot of the year, it couldn't make enough of them.

And the ones it did make had some problems. So for instance, one customer who got an early model said his bumper fell off in the rain 30 minutes after bringing it home for the first time.

DB: So are they still having these problems?

AP: So they're making a lot more Model 3's lately, and the bumpers seem to be staying on these cars, but recently the issue hasn't been the cars, it's Elon.

I reached out to Tesla directly for this story, and while I requested an interview with Musk, it was declined. The company also did not follow up to multiple follow ups for questioning.

DB: So, here are some things I know about Elon Musk, just from the ether. I know Elon wants to build a giant tube that will apparently whisk people from Los Angeles to San Francisco really quickly.

AP: Mhm, exactly.

DB: He says he wants to colonize Mars.

AP: Somebody has to do it.

DB: And he thinks that in the meantime, artificial intelligence is going to destroy us. And somehow he's running this car company, and he also has time to run a rocket company, SpaceX and then there's also Tesla, which has all those production problems you talked about and Elon apparently is sleeping in the factory on this bad couch because they are so behind on production.

AP: Yeah, he's a pretty busy guy. But there's another side of Elon that we've been starting to see this year which is just very very different. Like the time Elon's then girlfriend, the Canadian singer Grimes, invited rapper Azealia Banks over to Musk's house to collaborate on a new album.

DB: Just like the Ford CEO! (laughs)

AP: Yeah, exactly. While there, Banks posted Instagram stories, claiming that she had been waiting alone for Grimes for days in the Musk's house, alleging he was making freaked out phone calls to financiers, and that his money came from colonialism.

DB: What a mess, do we even know if any of this is true?

AP: No, we can't confirm a lot of this but look: even before all that went down, a month before,he inserted himself into that rescue of the Thai soccer team in a cave.

NEWS: A British diver who played a key role in the rescue effort of that Thai soccer team trapped in a dark cave for weeks is back in the headlines. He's considering legal action against Elon Musk over comments the billionaire made on Twitter.

DB: Right didn't he say he could solve it with a robot or something?

AP: Yeah, a small submarine. But then a diver saved the kids, and criticized Elon and Elon called the guy a "pedo" on Twitter.

DB: It seems like Elon has a nasty side.

AP: And the diver even sued Elon... and is asking for damages.But Tesla is worried about the reports. It recently asked employees to "renew their vows" to the company, in an effort to plug the leaks.

DB: And what happened to that guy who tipped off Linette about all the problems in the factory?

AP: Oh yeah listen, it did not end well for that guy.

LL: Tesla figured out who Martin Tripp was, and that he was leaking, and then he was fired and now he is being sued by Tesla. And the company accused him of writing code and hacking his way into Tesla's back end and sabotaging the company's manufacturing process. Tripp on the other hand said that he can't even code and that he was making 28 bucks an hour in the middle of the desert, so.

AP: I can see why Elon feared Tripp and feared Linette too.

LL: Once you start breaking stories on a company other sources approach you, and I started using their resources as well and once Martin was fired I wrote another story and that's when things really started getting interesting.

I wrote a story based on more internal documents that appeared to show that Elon Musk himself had ordered that Tesla stop doing a test that checked the breaks and alignment on Model 3s as they were leaving the factory. The test is called the brake and roll test.

And this was the week that Tesla had something to prove because it had promised Wall Street that it would make 5,000 model 3s within a week.

So my story was essential said, 'ok, these guys are willing to cut this, what everyone seems to be telling me in autoland is a really crucial part of the process' and that was shocking to anyone that worked in automative. And the day my story went out, the stock fell 7%.

DB: And then Elon had his meltdown and started posting Linette's Facebook pictures?

AP: Look, I would not find that fun, but at the end of the day it was good publicity for her reporting.

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12. A Wrench in Tesla - Business Insider - Business Insider

Several reports are coming out about Teslas sales going down in Europe, but the reports are misleadingly framing the situation simply as the competition taking over.

Its not that simple.

This week, Automotive News is out with a report claiming Tesla sales plunge in Europe even as EV market booms:

Sales of battery-powered cars in Europe rose 34% to 217,495 in the first half, according to data from JATO Dynamics market researchers. Teslas European sales were down 18% to 37,251 during the period.

The reports then breaks down several European markets where Teslas sales are crashing, while the competition is taking over from the California-based automaker who used to be the market leader for EVs in those markets.

Zero Hedge, a publication unapologetically anti-Tesla, was out with a similar report this week regarding Germany: Tesla Crushed in Germany by EVs From VW, Renault, & Hyundai Group:

It has been a very ugly year in Germany for auto sales, except for EVs. The overall new vehicle market in Germany has plunged by 30% in the first seven months of 2019 to 1.526 million units. But EV sales have skyrocketed by 65% over the first seven months, after having already skyrocketed by 88% in the same period in 2019,according to KBA, the German agency that handles nationwide new-vehicle registrations. Year-to-date, 61,105 EVs were sold, giving EVs a share of 4% of total new vehicle sales, up from less than 1% in 2018.

But Tesla got crushed. Its sales over the seven-month period fell from 6,816 in 2019 through July to 5,306 over the same period this year, and its share in the EV market plunged from 18.4% to 8.7%.

The report suggests that the competition is finally taking over Tesla in Europe.

The data is most likely accurate. Thats not the issue.

However, the explanation is not as simple as the competition getting the better of Tesla with new electric models hitting the market.

Teslas global deliveries have surprised last quarter amid the pandemic by being down only 5%, while the rest of the industry saw a 30%+ drop in deliveries.

The automaker didnt do as well in Europe, but thats because it barely had any supply for the market in Q2.

All of Teslas European vehicles come from its Fremont factory, which was shut down for over a month during the second quarter due to the pandemic, and the shutdown disproportionately affected the European supply of Tesla vehicles.

At Fremont factory, Tesla produces vehicles in batches for different markets, and those batches can last several weeks, The shutdown happened as Tesla was supposed to produce its batch of vehicles for the European markets.

This resulted in a very short supply of Tesla vehicles available for sale in Europe and only now in late July, and this month Tesla has started producing European vehicles again following the reopening of the factory in May.

Let me be clear, I am not blind to Teslas competition, especially in Europe.

Theres no doubt in my mind thats Tesla EV market share is going to slide in Europe this year and over the next few years as several other automakers bring new EVs to market on the continent to comply with local regulations.

However, its also clear to me that the drop we are seeing during the first half of the year is way disproportionate due to Teslas production cycle for the European market being affected by the factory shutdown.

Thats something that most of those reports are missing.

I believe we are going to see Tesla recover in September with strong sales in Europe once the next batch of vehicles makes it to the continent.

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Tesla sales are sliding in Europe, but its not only because of competition - Electrek.co

A bet on shares of Tesla Inc. has helped propel a fund managed by Nikko Asset Management Co. to the top position in Japan just a little over a year since its inception.

The $4.8-billion Global Prospective Fund has returned 84% over 12 months, the most among Japanese funds with at least $1 billion in assets, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Tesla -- the worlds most valuable automaker thats seen its stock more than triple in 2020 -- held the highest weighting of 8.4% as of end June. The funds net asset value has more than doubled from a March low.

Tesla is like the best of the best in an album of greatest hits, Tetsuya Sakiyama, deputy head of the asset management support department at Nikko Asset, said in an interview. Honestly, I didnt expect the fund to be as big as 500 billion yen in just a year.

Global Prospective Fund invests in 46 technology innovation firms

Source: Nikko Asset Management

The success of the fund speaks to the worldwide investor frenzy around companies focused on technological innovation, as the coronavirus pandemic hastens the global shift toward automation and digital services. The fund has also benefited from the huge interest that deep-pocketed retail investors have shown in owning foreign stocks.

Electric-car maker Teslas shares have rallied relentlessly on the back of improving operations, potential innovation in battery technology and speculation they will be added to the S&P 500 Index. The company posted a fourth-straight quarterly profit last month, and announced a 5-for-1 stock split this week.

READ: Tesla Growth Is Musks Goal After Profit Opens Path to S&P

Apart from Tesla, Nikko Assets fund invests in 45 other companies that it sees leading technological innovations over the next several years, including those in industries like genome editing, mobile payment, video streaming services and online education tools.

Mobile payments firm Square Inc. and genetic-information company Invitae Corp. were the funds next two biggest holdings -- each carrying a weight of over 7% -- according to its factsheet as of end-June.

Yet the standout performance doesnt mean the fund has been immune to the financial-market volatility triggered by the virus outbreak, especially at the start of 2020. With a portfolio comprising shares of a number of small-to-medium sized companies that are typically more vulnerable to price swings, the fund saw its NAV tumble 43% from its February high to hit a low of 7,233 yen in March. It was at 16,661 yen as of Aug. 13.

It is a risk factor that price drops could be exacerbated at times when equity markets are falling, Sakiyama said.

However, he doesnt see intermittent market routs denting the long-term growth trajectory for companies focused on innovation.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding markets and despite the fact the price is close to 16,000 yen, we are hardly seeing investors who want to sell, Sakiyama said in the July 31 interview. Local retail investors are opening their eyes to the high-growth potential of overseas stocks.

With assistance by Abhishek Vishnoi, and Ishika Mookerjee

(Updates prices throughout.)

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Continued here:

Tesla Bet Propels New Japan Fund to the Top With 84% Return - Bloomberg

Tesla is involved in the development of a smartwatch, according to a new FCC filling. The questions are, to what degree and why?

The automaker has been known to branch out of the electric vehicle business, but this is would be quite a new venture for Tesla.

Xplora Technologies, a Norway-based wearable company focusing on smartwatches for kids, has filed an application with the FCC for a new smartwatch and listed Tesla as being involved in the project.

In an application to keep aspects of the project confidential, the company listed Tesla Motors in the filling:

The XPLORA Technologies AS, the undersigned, hereby authorizes Mr. Wu Xuewen from Shenzhen BALUN Technology Co., Ltd., to act on the behalf of the XPLORA Technologies AS solely in matters relating to the application for an FCC equipment authorization for FCC ID: 2AVMJX5P including the signing of documents in connection with this Application. Necessary acts carried out by Shenzhen BALUN Technology Co., Ltd. in connection with the Application shall have the same effect as acts of the Tesla Motors, Inc.

The connection was first spotted by My Healthy Apple.

Heres the authorization letter in full:

What is unclear is why Tesla would be involved in such a project.

In particular, they are seeking FCC approval for the use of connectivity on their X5 Play/ X5 Play eSIM smartwatches that has been built to track the activities of kids and allow them to send voice messages and pre-defined text messages.

Its hard to believe that Tesla would get involved in smartwatches for kids, but there could be a few possible explanations.

First off, Tesla might have acquired Xplora Technologies explaining why it is mentioned in the filling.

It might have acquired the company for its employees, but then it would be strange for them to still apply for FCC approval, which would aim to launch the product in the US.

Therefore, its possible that Tesla is actually looking to use the Xplora smartwatch platform.

We have seen that third-party app developers have made Apple Watch apps to control Tesla vehicles using smartwatches.

With Tesla moving to using phones instead of key fobs for Model 3 and Model Y, its possible that Tesla is looking to offer a smartwatch as an optional key.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.

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Tesla is involved in the development of a smartwatch, but why? - Electrek.co

Rivian has asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Tesla, arguing that two of the three claims in the case fail to state sufficient allegations of trade-secret theft and poaching talent and instead was an attempt to malign its reputation and hurt its own recruiting efforts.

One remaining claim of breach of contract against four former Tesla employees was not included in this filing asking for demurrer or a dismissal because they do not relate directly to Rivian. Its still possible that lawyers representing those former employees will make a similar argument.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment. TechCrunch will update the article if the company responds.

In July, Tesla filed a lawsuit against Rivian and four former employers on claims of poaching talent and stealing trade secrets. Specifically, Tesla claimed that Rivian instructed a recently departed Tesla employee about the types of confidential information it needed.

Rivian said in its August 10 filing with the California Superior Court in Santa Clara that it has rigorous policies and procedures to make sure it does not obtain confidential information from other companies when on-boarding employees. Rivian said none of the alleged trade secrets in Teslas complaint have been located at Rivian or on any of its systems.

Rivians main argument is that Tesla failed to state facts sufficient to constitute cause of action. That legalese essentially means that the claims Tesla made arent sufficient to justify a right to sue. Rivian argues that Tesla is using speculation, not facts, for the basis of its lawsuit.

In particular, the Court should not credit as true speculation of the kind scattered throughout Teslas complaint, Rivian said in the filing.

Rivian didnt just dispute Teslas complaint, it pushed back harder with its own claims of impropriety.

Lawyers representing Rivian argued that Tesla didnt file the case to defend or protect legitimate intellectual property rights, but instead used in improper and malicious attempt to slow the companys momentum and attempt to damage its brand. The filing also claimed that Tesla used the lawsuit to scare its own employees from leaving the company.

Unfortunately, maligning Rivian was not Teslas only ulterior motive. Rather, it crafted its complaint to achieve second improper purpose namely to send threatening messages to its own employees: dont dare leave Tesla. Understanding that the strong public policy favoring employee mobility in California restricts the use of non-compete contracts, Teslas complaint seeks to punish four of its former employees for leaving Tesla and joining the Rivian team.

The response also questioned the timing of the lawsuit, which was filed soon after Rivian announced it had raised $2.5 billion in a round led by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc.

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Rivian fires back at Tesla in lawsuit, accuses automaker of attempting to malign its reputation - TechCrunch

The idea that automakers are racing to commercialize electric cars and that one or some of them will come out on top has always been flawed.

For starters, the auto industry is huge: More than a billion passenger vehicles are roaming the planet, with another 80 million or so joining them every year.No single victor could satisfy that level of demand.

This was obvious even in the early days of the auto industry, when scores of carmakers, engine-makers, and coachbuilders were competing to put Americans and Europeans behind the wheel. Yes, there were obvious winners and losers: Henry Ford captured a huge amount of market share early on with his Model T, then General Motors grew itself into a competitor and took the lead. But more than a century on, both are carrying on, more or less fine.That's not how races work.

In the 20th century, plenty of other famous names got in on the action. Vanished marques, such as Studebaker and Nash. Mid-century upstarts like Chrysler. The Europeans were always a factor: Mercedes, BMW, Fiat, Ferrari, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Rover, Vauxhall, Renault, Citron. Mighty Volkswagen. After World War II, a surge of Japanese nameplates rolled in: Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Mazda, Subaru.

The point is that on a planet populated by billions of people, a significant percentage of whom aspire to personal mobility, you need a lot of automakers to satisfy demand and to share the risks of trying to meet it.

That was the internal-combustion era, however. Which still makes up roughly 98% of the global market. Meanwhile, on the electrified front 2% of worldwide sales there's already a clear winner: Tesla.

A single statistic tells the story. Nissan's Leaf, an EV that arrived in 2010 before Tesla's Model S followed in 2012, had sold just over 400,000 units, all time. Tesla is now closing in on a million, for the five vehicles it has marketed since its founding (the original Roadster, Model S, Model X, Model 3, and Model Y).

Tesla has a near-monopoly of a tiny market, then. The race, such as it is, has ended, and Tesla can declare victory. But here's the thing: CEO Elon Musk knows the race is the wrong narrative, the one that doesn't matter. Here's why:

Excerpt from:

Winning the electric car race is just the beginning of Elon Musk's plan for Tesla - Business Insider - Business Insider

A stock split doesn't change a company's fundamentals in theory, but the move will attract retail investors who were otherwise limited to low-dollar stocks, CNBC's Jim Cramer said Wednesday on his "Mad Money" show.

New 'Cohort Of Investors': Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) CEO Tim Cook and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO Elon Musk got it right when they announced their respective stock splits, Cramer said.

The stock "price tag matters" with the young generation, and companies need the young demographic investor group to be counted as shareholders, the CNBC host said.

"We know what happens after the split," he said. "This new cohort of investors, the ones who love low-dollar amount stocks, will start buying and holding these best-of-breed names rather than the darned penny stocks."

Mega-cap companies are "ignoring" the small investor, and Cramer saiddoing so is a mistake. After all, retail investors are often "more stable shareholders" compared to hedge funds that are known for offering "no loyalty," he said.

10 Stocks To Split: Cramer's list of 10 stocks that should be split to attract a broader investor base includes:

E-commerce and retail giant Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).

Google and YouTube parent company Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL).

Casual fast food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (NYSE: CMG).

Streaming video company Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX).

Chip maker Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA).

Fast growing cloud play Adobe Inc (NASDAQ: ADBE).

Wholesaler Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST).

Home improvement retailer Home Depot Inc (NYSE: HD).

Social media giant Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB).

Tech giant and cloud company Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT).

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Musk Always Cared About 'The Little Guy' And Tesla Stock Split Shows That: WSJ's Higgins

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Cramer Says These 10 Stocks Need To Follow Tesla, Apple's Lead And Split - Benzinga

CEO of Tesla Motors Elon Musk reacts following the company's initial public offering at the NASDAQ market in New York June 29, 2010

Brendan McDermid | Reuters

Check out the companies making headlines after the bell:

Tesla The electric automaker jumped 7% in after hours trading after announcing a five-for-one stock split.Trading will begin on a stock split-adjusted basis onAugust 31, the company said.Theoretically, the move could mean more smaller investors could afford the stock, but nothing changes fundamentally about the security.

Eastman Kodak Shares of the camera company popped nearly 7% in after hours trading on Tuesday following its quarterly earnings. Kodak said although the Covid-19 crisis affected its second quarter volume sales, the company expects "improvement in bothsales volumes and working capital in Q3." Kodak's revenue was down in the second quarter from a year ago.

Super Micro Computer Shares of the computer company dipped 6% in after hours trading after issuing weak current quarter earnings guidance. Super Micro Computer expects to earn between 10 and 35 cents per share, which FactSet estimates were calling for earnings of 56 cents per share.

Viavi Solutions Shares of the IT services provider rose 2% after the closing bell on Tuesday following its better-than-expected quarterly earnings. The company reported non-GAAP earnings of 18 cents per share, while analysts polled by FactSet were expecting 13 cents per share. Revenue also topped estimates.

Vir Biotechnology Shares of the biotechnology company jumped nearly 3% in extended trading on Tuesday following its second quarter earnings report. The company reported a loss of 27 cents per share, compared to a loss of $3.64 per share a year ago.

Shutterstock Shares of Shutterstock rose slightly in extending trading on Tuesday following its 14.5% drop during the session. The stock fellafter announcing a $250 million public offering of stock after the bell on Monday. The filing said $200 million of the share were sold by founder Jon Oringer.

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Stocks making the biggest moves after hours: Tesla, Eastman Kodak, Shutterstock and more - CNBC

The automotive industry is knee deep in the vast transition to electric, but one place where gas is still going strong is out on the water. Seattle startup Zin Boats wants to start what you might call a sea change by showing, as Tesla did with cars, that an electric boat can be not just better for the planet, but better in almost every other way as well.

With a minimalist design like a silver bullet, built almost entirely from carbon fiber, the 20-foot Z2R is less than half the weight of comparable craft, letting it take off like a shot and handle easily, while also traveling a hundred miles on a charge and you can fill the tank for about five bucks in an hour or so.

Waiting for the other shoe to drop? Well, it aint cheap. But then, few boats are.

Piotr Zin, the companys namesake, has been designing racing sailboats for 20 years, while working in industrial design at BMW, GM and other major companies. Soon after settling down on a houseboat on Seattles Lake Union, he realized that the waterways he had enjoyed his whole life might not exist for the next generation.

(Disclosure: Zin actually moved in next door to my mother, and I happened to find out he was working on this while visiting her.)

The reason I started working on electric boats specifically is because I had a kid, and I had a come to Jesus moment, he told me. I realized: If were not going to do something personally about the quality of the water we live in, its not going to be here when my kid is my age.

Traditional gas-powered boats are very much a product of the distant past, like running a 70s-era car half underwater. Surprisingly, electric boats are equally old. Like electric cars, they enjoyed a brief vogue in the early 20th century. And likewise they were never considered viable for real boating until quite recently.

Image Credits: Zin Boats

Like most things, it comes down to physics: The power required to move a boat, versus the power to move a car, is absolutely enormous, Zin explained. Its like driving a car in first gear at full throttle all the time.

That level of draw limited electric boats to being the aquatic equivalent of golf carts in fact, carts and some of the more popular old-school electric boats share many components. If youve ridden in one, it was probably a Duffy, which has made models for puttering around lakes at 3-4 knots since the 60s. Perfectly pleasant, but not exactly thrilling.

Considering traditional boats fuel efficiency and the rising price of marine gas, going electric might save a boat owner thousands every year. (Maintenance is also practically non-existent; Zin advised hosing it down once in a while.)

But its also more than capable of going extremely fast.

The top speed is way over 30 knots, Zin noted. We tested this boat to 55, but decided not to sell that to people. Its just insane.

Having ridden in it myself, I can confirm that the Z2R really jumps off the line in a level-bottomed way that, compounded by its near silence, seems impossible. Just as Teslas consumer sedans compete with Lamborghinis in 0-60 times, the instantaneous response is almost frightening.

The boat was designed around the battery. The unique part of using an electric system is we can put the motor anywhere we want, Zin said. By sitting it flat on the bottom, the center of gravity is lowered and weight distribution evened out compared to most speedboats. You look at a lot of traditional boats builds, they kind of cram everything in the back. Then when you put the hammer down, you cant see anything for five seconds. In this boat, theres no bow rise it sits flat.

Image Credits: Zin Boats

Being so level means theres almost no risk of overturning it, or many of the other failure modes resulting from lopsided designs that misbehave at speed. Simplicity of operation and surprising performance seem to be a family characteristic of electric vehicles.

Boat building is a very traditional business. Most builders arent about innovation, theyre about this is how we do it. Zin said. But theres a huge advantage in being able to use these tools. The computing power that we have in video cards just in the last few years, mainly because of the gaming industry, has pushed whats possible further and further.

Previously, large computational fluid dynamics suites would have users submit their parameters and pick a few milestone speeds at X thousand dollars per data point 10 knots, 20 knots, etc. The way the water would react to the boat and vice versa would be calculated at those speeds and extrapolated for speeds in between. But with increases in computing power, thats no longer necessary, as Zin ended up proving to a commercial CFD software provider when he used a separate compute stack to calculate the waters behavior continuously at all speeds and in high definition.

Right now you can run the boat [in the simulation] at any speed you want and see the way the water will spray, including little droplets. And then you can tweak the shape of your hull to make sure those droplets dont hit the passengers, he said. Its not exactly the way most boat designers would do it. So utilizing high-end software that was not really being given its full potential was amazing.

Building practically everything out of carbon fiber (an ordeal of its own) puts the whole boat at around 1,750 pounds normally a 20-foot boat would be twice that or more. Thats crucial for making sure the boat can go long distances; range anxiety is if anything a bigger problem on the water than on the road. And of course it means its quick and easy to control.

Image Credits: Zin Boats

Yet the boat hardly screams speed. The large open cockpit is flat and spacious, with only a steering wheel, throttle and screens with friendly readouts for range, media controls GPS and so on. Theres no vibration or engine roar. No aesthetic choices like stripes or lines suggest its explosive performance. The wood veneer (to save weight and its tuned to the speakers to provide better sound) floor and cream leather upholstery make it feel more like a floating Mercedes.

Thats not an accident. Zins first customers are the type of people who can afford a boat that costs $250,000 or so. He compared it to Teslas Roadster: A showy vehicle aimed at the high end that will fund and prove out the demand for a more practical one an open-bow tender model Zin is already designing that will cost more like $175,000.

The target consumer is one who has money and an eco-conscious outlook either of their own or by necessity.

There are a lot of inquiries from Europe, where the environmental restrictions are stricter than in North America. But we also have a number of pristine lakes that are electric-only for the purpose of keeping them clean, Zin explained. So if you live on a lake in Montana thats electric-only, you have the option to go at five knots, and you cant even cross the lake because the boat is so slow or you can have a fully functional powerboat that you can water ski behind, the same speeds you get in a gas power boat, but its absolutely emissions free. I mean, this boat is as clean as it gets theres zero oil, zero gasoline, zero anything that will get into the water.

It really made me wonder why the whole industry didnt go electric years ago. And in fact there are a few competitors, but they tend to be even more niche or piecemeal jobs, mating an electric engine to an existing hull and saying its an electric boat that goes 50 knots. And it does for five or 10 minutes. Or there are custom boat builders who will create something quite nice for a Zin-type customer head on over to Monte Carlo and buy one at auction for a couple million bucks.

Image Credits: Zin Boats

Zin sees his boat as the first one to check every box and a few that werent there before. As fast as a powerboat but nearly silent; same range but a fraction of the price to get there; handles like a dream but requires practically no maintenance. Its as smart as the smartest car, limiting its speed based on the waterway, automatically adjusting itself to stay within range of a safe harbor or charger, over-the-air updates to the software anywhere in the world. I didnt even get a chance to ask about its self-driving capabilities.

As a first-time founder, a technical one at that, of a hardware company, Zin has his work cut out for him. Hes raised seed money to get the prototype and production model ready, but needs capital to start filling his existing orders faster. Like many other startups, he was just gearing up to go all out when the pandemic struck, shutting down production completely. But theyre just about ready to start manufacturing again.

Image Credits: Zin Boats

I realized that there isnt such a thing as a boat company any more, said Zin. Part of what we do is to build that shell that holds everything, and it happens to be moving through the water, which makes it a boat, but thats really where the boating part of it ends. Its really a technology hub, and my company is not just a boat company, it has to be a technology company.

He said that his investors understand that this isnt a one-off toy but the beginnings of an incredibly valuable IP that well, with Teslas success, the pitch writes itself.

We dont only have a plan like, just make one really fast boat, Zin concluded. We know what we want to do with this technology right now, we know what were going to do with this technology in 24 months, and 48 months; I wish I could show you some of this stuff. Its tough, and we need to survive this year, but this is just the start.

View original post here:

Zin Boats reinvents the electric speedboat in a bid to become the Tesla of the sea - TechCrunch

The driver of a Tesla in the United States claims the cars collision avoidance system saved him for a potentially dangerous crash.

This short dashcam video was posted on YouTube and quickly shared on social media. No mention is made about whether the near-miss involved a Model 3, a Model S, or a Model X.

Regardless of the specific Tesla model, the dashcam video shows the EV driving on a four-lane road and sitting in the right lane. As the driver approaches an intersection, a black pickup truck starts to make a left-hand turn. Out of nowhere, a silver sedan appears from in front of the pickup and turns to the left, directly into the path of the Tesla which, thankfully, brakes instantly and then aggressively swerves to the left, thus avoiding crashing into the sedan.

Watch Also: Nissan Sentra Slams Into A Tesla Model X Waiting At A Red Light

The uploader of the video, and owner of the Tesla, claims that his wife was driving and the near-miss happened at 55 mph (88 km/h). Not only does the EV appear to be driving slower than 55 mph, but were also skeptical it was the cars collision avoidance system that swerved so aggressively to the left. We also have a suspicion the owner may be hoping the video attracts quite a lot of views, hence why they added their Tesla referral code in the description.

There have been other videos from Tesla owners uploaded to YouTube in recent months allegedly showing the EVs collision avoidance systems swerving around objects in the road without any input from the driver. Some of these videos have gone viral, and while Tesla fans are a very enthusiastic bunch, many owners claim that Teslas simply cant avoid obstacles that way.

All that said, what do you think?

Read the original here:

Was It Teslas Collision Avoidance System That Prevented This Crash? - CarScoops

Taking a page from Tesla's playbook, Volkswagen (OTC:VLKA.Y) said that it plans to begin developing electric vehicle batteries -- including battery cells -- at its site in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The German auto giant said that it will soon break ground on a new high-voltage laboratory for its engineering center in Chattanooga. The laboratory, which is expected to be up and running in the second quarter of 2021, will be tasked with developing and testing electric vehicle cells and battery packs for several upcoming Volkswagen electric vehicles aimed at the U.S. market.

Volkswagen's new lab will develop and test batteries for the company's upcoming U.S.-built electric vehicles, including the production version of the I.D. Buzz show car. Image source: Volkswagen AG.

The new laboratory will include equipment needed to test prototype electric-vehicle battery packs under high pressures, at temperature extremes, and under simulated rough-road conditions, the company said.

"There are two ways that auto companies approach the development of electric vehicle batteries," said Wolfgang Maluche, Volkswagen's U.S. engineering chief. "A lot of them will farm out the development and testing of batteries to another company, and some will actually do the work of developing and testing in-house."

"We are doing the latter," Maluche said.

While Volkswagen will develop and test its own batteries in-house, it won't follow Tesla in manufacturing battery cells itself. The cells for U.S.-made VW electric vehicles will be manufactured by Korean battery specialist SK Innovation at a new factory in Commerce, Georgia.

Volkswagen said last year that it will invest $800 million to build a new electric vehicle, believed to be the production version of the I.D. Buzz show car, at the Chattanooga factory beginning in 2022.

Link:

Following Tesla's Playbook, Volkswagen Will Develop and Test Electric-Vehicle Batteries in the U.S. - Motley Fool