Panasonic can speed up Tesla plant investment if needed
Japan's Panasonic Corp is ready to bring forward its investment in a Tesla battery plant it is helping establish if this is required to meet demand for the electric car maker's upcoming Model 3 sedan.
Panasonic plans to contribute $1.6 billion to Tesla's $5 billion "Gigafactory" in phases over the next few years. Production of the batteries is due to start later this year.
A faster ramp-up of the battery plant would be crucial as Tesla has said it would respond to brisk demand for the Model 3 by tooling up its factories to build 500,000 vehicles a year in 2018, two years earlier than planned.
Supplier executives and industry consultants have told Reuters that the acceleration in the plans to move up the launch of high-volume production of the Model 3 to 2018 would be difficult to achieve and potentially costly.
www.reuters.com/arti...SKCN0YB0LM

Elon Musk should be awarded an honorary degree from Trump University for his tendency to write off any negative story as a dishonest smear attempt regardless of the evidence.
Who can blame him, though. The strategy has certainly worked -- so far, at least -- for Donald Trump, who’s never missed an opportunity to dispute an indisputable fact.
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On Thursday, federal regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration revealed they are looking into potential suspension failures on the Model S. NHTSA also said it had warned Tesla about “troublesome” nondisclosure agreements that the automaker had gotten some customers to sign in exchange for free out-of-warranty repairs.
Early today, Musk and Tesla shot back in the only way they apparently know how -- with indignant denials and an attack on a writer they claim “fabricated” the story. It’s the same way they’ve responded in the past to negative reviews and frustrated customers.
Tesla said flatly: “There is no safety defect with the suspensions in either the Model S or Model X.” Well then. Case closed. Let’s move on to finding out when Musk will launch a rocket to Mars.
www.autonews.com/art...nner-trump