Without proper care batteries can wither and die like a delicate tulip roasting in the bright sun from an unseasonably warm spring day — a fact made exponentially worse when the battery in your $60k vehicle no longer functions properly.

With that in mind, Tesla just unveiled an impressive new warranty for the Model S battery pack. With the notable exception of a vehicle accident or a curious owner opening the battery pack, under this new plan, Tesla will replace the battery pack for any reason including user error and improper maintenance.

Best of all, users do not have to worry about servicing the vehicle on a regular basis. Annual checkups are now completely optional, meaning the warranty will still be valid if the owner never takes the vehicle in for service.

Tesla states in a blog post today that the company took great pains in developing a proper battery and therefore if something goes wrong, it’s on them, not the owner.

If needed, the battery will be replaced with a factory reconditioned unit with an energy capacity equal to or better than the original pack before the failure occurred.

Sounds like a fair deal for the pricey Model S.

Better yet, Tesla also announced a service loaner program in which if an owner’s Model S needs to go in for service, the company will deliver a fully decked out Model S as a loaner until the original is repaired. Take a shine to the fancy loaner? No worries, Tesla will let you keep the loaner and pay a price that is lower by 1% per month of age and $1 per mile. As Tesla notes in the announcement, this practice will ensure the loaner fleet is constantly refreshed with new vehicles rather than becoming the equivalent of a rental car fleet.

If nothing else, Tesla and its billionaire founder are becoming very good at playing the media game. This announcement comes just weeks after the company rolled out a new payment plan (complete with a very shady marketing plan) to make the Model S more affordable. And let’s not forget Musk just not-so-quietly put up $50k of his own cash to speed up construction on LA’s 405 freeway. Why pay for press when you can get it for free?

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Today, Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors announced a plan to allow consumers to finance its Model S Electric cars, thanks to a partnership with Wells Fargo and US Bank.

The company says that this is a new kind of financing product that “combines the surety and comfort of ownership with all the advantages of a traditional lease.” So while this isn’t a straight-up lease, this is a hybrid that is as close to owning one of these cars as you’re going to get without paying cash for it.

The “true net out of pocket cost” for a Model S with this deal is less than $500. After three years you’ll be able to turn the car in for cash or equivalent trade-in.

Here’s how it works, it’s not as complicated as it sounds, but it is pretty genius math and marketing:

1. US Bank and Wells Fargo have agreed to provide 10 percent down financing for purchase of a Model S (on approved credit).
2. The 10 percent down payment is covered or more than covered by US Federal and state tax credits ranging from $7,500 to $15,000. New Jersey, Washington and DC also have no sales tax for electric vehicles. These advantages are not available when leasing.
3. When considering the savings from using electricity instead of gasoline, depreciation benefits and other factors, the true net out of pocket cost to own a mid-range Model S drops to less than $500 per month.
4. After 36 months, you have the right, but not the obligation, to sell your Model S to Tesla for the same residual value percentage as the iconic Mercedes S Class, one of the finest premium sedans in the world, made by Daimler (also a Tesla partner and investor).
5. Not only is Tesla guaranteeing that resale value, but Tesla CEO Elon Musk is personally standing behind that guarantee to give customers absolute peace of mind about the value of the asset they are purchasing.

If you want to keep the car after three years, you simply continue making payments for another two years. The advantage to this approach is that you’re never locked in like a lease and that consumers are “building equity” in their vehicle, Musk explained during the conference call today.

Tesla has updated its website and offers more details on the program, along with a pricing calculator based on where you live:

The announcement came along with a video featuring Musk, providing a personal guarantee on the Tesla Model S, which he says is “the world’s best car”:

Also during the call, Musk was asked what his net worth was, which is tied to what the founder means when he says he’s “putting my money where my mouth is.” If Tesla cannot pay a customer the residual value for a Model S, Musk will do so personally. While he didn’t give an exact number, he said that reports by Forbes, which list his net worth at $2.7 billion, “weren’t far off.”

Before you go and order one, take a look at our Model S test drive from last year:

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

This year’s Crunchies saw Instagram founder Kevin Systrom take top honors for the “Founder of the Year” category, which is likely a safe pick considering what his company accomplished in 2013. He managed to grow his service’s user base and engagement to stunning levels, crossing 50 million users in May thanks to the addition of an Android client.

That growth likely led to the huge price tag paid for Instagram by Facebook when it came calling to purchase the mobile photo sharing service later on in the year. Facebook paid $1 billion for Instagram when it purchased Systrom’s startup in April, which is a crazy amount of money, but likely worth it for Facebook which is seeking to build up its mobile reputation.

Systrom won out over runner-up Elon Musk, a very different type of entrepreneur and the founder of Tesla Motors, but his 2012 wasn’t just a series of unending highs. He took some heat for selling out from lovers of the service immediately following the Facebook sale, and came under fire when the network announced changes to its terms of service. Systrom made the right move, however, repealing the changes and addressing user concerns directly in a blog post with his name attached to the admission of Instagram’s wrong turn.

Another major accomplishment for Systrom and the company he created was perhaps best summed up by Crunchies host John Oliver on stage:

We should feel very grateful for having Instagram in our lives, because without Instagram we would not have ‘Rich Kids of Instagram’ in our lives, which is just a fantastic example of why the rest of the world still hates America.

Other nominees in this category included Nathan Blecharczyk, Brian Chesky, and Joe Gebbia from Airbnb; Kevin and Julia Hartz and Renaud Visage from Eventbrite; and Nir Zuk from Palo Alto Networks.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Editor’s note: Bill Lee is the CEO and co-founder of Twist, an investor in companies such as SpaceX, Tesla Motors, and Yammer, and board member of Big Fish Games. Follow him on his blog and on Twitter @westcoastbill.

As an early investor and founder with more than 15 years experience, I constantly field questions about the existence of an angel/Series A crunch. Rather than join this debate, I tell investors and founders that it’s more important to focus on the next big thing and think beyond current trends, even in a tough financing/startup environment.

I look for ideas that haven’t been able to come to fruition, or a market that’s been underserved. I’m drawn to concepts that are habitual and pervasive, but still lack an efficiency that could not have been solved or elegantly addressed until now. So that’s why I will be spending a lot of time this year thinking about, well, time – the one thing we all wish we had more of.

“When” Vs. “Where”: The Transition From Location To Time

Even now, we’re in the midst of a fundamental shift away from “where” technology to “when.” While companies like Foursquare pioneered the location-based industry, consumers will now seek the tools that not only tell them where someone is, but when they will arrive or how it will save them time. Things like Apple’s Find My Friends and Google Latitude do serve a purpose, but location is only part of the value. That crucial “when” is the missing element.

My infatuation with Uber reveals this. It’s nice knowing where your town car is, but seeing its ETA is so much more valuable. Similarly, I see so many opportunities for adding “when” to a slew of consumer apps and services next year and beyond. I imagine a day when I know that my yoga instructor (whom I found via Zaarly) has left and is going to arrive at my apartment. When I order from GrubHub or Seamless, I’ll know when that pastrami sandwich is going to show up at my door. Let’s face it — do you really care where your food is? Or, do you really just want to know when it’s going to arrive?

The implications of time will not just affect our personal lives. In the U.S. alone, businesses lose $90 billion annually due to people running late for corporate events and meetings. Just think of the time employees can save when they know that their co-workers are going to be late for meetings — let alone what they could be doing with those precious new-found hours of productivity.

The Most Precious Commodity

But think bigger. Companies like SolarCity can use time-based services to better serve their customers and manage their workforce. Consumers get happy not having to block out a four-hour window waiting for some technician to show up while managers make better efficiencies of inventory and workforce. Advances in mobile and geo-fencing technologies will soon make the “wait for the cable guy” a thing of the happy past.

As we enter 2013, entrepreneurs should be maniacal about targeting pain points that improve our lives. Time is perhaps our most precious commodity and those that make it a fundamental aspect of their business will win – and win big.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Tesla Motors, the electric car company headed up by PayPal founder and all-around tech industry badass Elon Musk, today began shipments of the Model S, the electricity-powered sedan it first unveiled back in 2009. Above we’ve embedded a livestream of the event, being held right now in Fremont, California.

“There are a lot of people who said this day would never come,” Tesla executive George Blankenship said while kicking off the press event in Fremont this afternoon. “But at Tesla we don’t even think about them… we think about the people who made sure that we are here today.” According to Blankenship, chief among those people are the 2300 owners worldwide of the Tesla Roadster, the first electric car the company debuted a couple years back. “Everything they taught us is in the Model S.”

When Elon Musk took the stage at the event, he said that the Model S is mean to “break a spell” in the car industry. “The world has been under this illusion that an electric car can’t be as good as a gasoline car… the Model S is about breaking that illusion,” Musk said. “It’s about showing that an electric car can really be the best car in the world.”

According to Tesla, the response to the Model S, which has pricing beginning at $49,900, has been solid: The company has more than than 10,000 reservations placed for the car (it costs $5,000 to make a reservation for the standard Model S, and $40,000 to reserve a Model S Signature), and it plans to produce and deliver 20,000 vehicles per year beginning in 2013.

The specs on the vehicle are pretty impressive — zero to 60 in less than six seconds with instant torque (that’s a big perk of electric vehicles), an electric vehicle range of 265 miles (purportedly a new record for the industry), all designed and built in California. Its dashboard has a 17-inch touchscreen connected to 3G, which Tesla says puts “streaming radio, web browsing and navigation at the driver’s fingertips.” Not too shabby. It’s also a much more practical car than Tesla’s slick Roadster two-seater, as the Model S seats five adults and two children.

TechCrunch had its first hands-on look at the Model S this past fall — you can check out the full run-down of that right here.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Tesla Motors’ family is growing. The company just unveiled its first crossover, the Model X. Like the Roadster and Model S, the Model X is a purely electric vehicle, built on the same platform as the Model S. Tesla says pricing will be similar to that of the Model S, making the base model around $50k after tax credits. But, if all the available options are checked including the largest battery pack and performance drivetrain, the price could close in on $90k. But who cares about the price when the vehicle packs gullwing-like doors — Tesla calls them Falcon Wings, but you can call them awesome.

The Model X is built on the same skateboard platform as the Model S. This shared design allows the for the relatively affordable price. The CUV will come in both rear- and four-wheel-drive flavors with the 4-wheel drive model packing independent electric motors at each axle. Since the larger Model X will use the battery system as the Model S, Tesla says the range on the 40-, 60- and 85-kWh battery packs will be about 10% less.

If the Falcon Wings didn’t convince you the Model X was from the future, just look at the center console. Like the Model S, the Model X employes a massive touchscreen for the infotainment display and climate controls.

Space is abundant in the Model X. Since there isn’t a traditional engine, the Model X has a front and rear storage space. Elan Musk bragged at the unveiling that there’s enough room in the front storage compartment as the Audi Q7 has in the rear.

Tesla is now taking reservations for the Model X. But you’re going to be waiting a while. Tesla doesn’t expect production to begin until 2014.

Click to view slideshow.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Founded back in 2007 by former PayPal, eBay, Luminex and Tesla Motors execs, MaxPoint Interactive this morning announced that it has secured its second round of funding to the tune of $8 million, led by Madrona Venture Group.

Trinity Ventures, which led MaxPoint’s initial financing round of $3 million in 2010, also participated.

MaxPoint offers advertisers proprietary targeting technology that allows its clients to “pinpoint” prospects up to neighborhood level, in a bid to increase in-store sales for brands across a variety of sectors.

The company’s system, which it says is already in use by consumer packaged goods brands, retailers, pharma companies and financial service organizations, is said to employ two unique technologies to drive in-store purchases for national and local brands.

By combining multiple data sets to form what it refers to as “Customized Neighborhood Profiles”, MaxPoint says it is able to identify the best potential customer for any brand – those that are both interested and capable of purchasing the product.

To accomplish this, MaxPoint draws from point-of-sale data from more than 65,000 retail stores nationwide, demographics, psychographics and other publicly available data sources – pretty much everything apart from personally identifiable information, in other words.

Subsequently, the company uses its so-called Digital Zip technology to find the best neighborhoods across the U.S. for the product or service in question, based on the characteristics of the people who live there.

The company says it recently moved its sales office in New York City to a larger location in Manhattan and also expanded its sales team.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Serial tech entrepreneur and investor, Elon Musk, and SolarCity— providers of solar power system and energy efficiency design, financing, installation and related services— donated a solar power generating system to the Hurricane Katrina- and BP Oil Spill-effected community of Coden, Alabama the company announced today.

The system consists of solar panel arrays attached to a battery back-up system that will allow the South Bay Communities Alliance (SBCA) Hurricane Response Center to produce its own power, reduce its cost of operations and maintain power in the event of an outage. The system, newly up and running, will produce an estimated 33,500 kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, which should offset close to 100 percent of the center’s electricity use.

The SBCA center was formed by Bayou communities in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina left families there without power, food, clothing, water and protection from the heat.

Paul Nelson, the SBCA’s executive director reported that President Obama’s administration recommended his grass-roots group as a worthy recipient of the project to Elon Musk who (through the Musk Foundation) provided the funds, and SolarCity.

The Coden area is rebuilding from two disasters, today. More than 300 families were still suffering from storm-related home damage and losses when the BP oil spill occurred earlier this year, destroying the area’s natural resources and jobs.

A representative speaking on behalf of SolarCity and company chairman Elon Musk, who is also the chief executive of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, said this project— and others they hope to pursue in 2011— would help people reduce their “dependence on the finite power sources that pollute our air and water and complicate our geopolitics.”

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

The 102-year-old car company General Motors (GM) is set to go public on Thursday after a government-forced bankruptcy and bailout in November 2008. The bailout cost taxpayers about $50 billion. Analysts estimate the stock price would need to hit $53 dollars before the government can recoup its investment. GM plans to sell about half-a-billion shares for $33 each in its IPO. The company’s overall valuation stands at $20.1 billion to $23.1 billion.

In a press statement late Wednesday, The U.S. Treasury Department revealed that it sold 358.5 million shares of GM, raising $11.8 billion, and hanging onto a 37% stake of the company. With underwriters chomping at the bit to buy more GM shares to cover over-allotments, the Treasury could reduce its stake to 33.3% and sell 412 million more GM shares raising a total of $13.6 billion.

The L.A. Times reports that the GM IPO would set a new record:

A $23.1 billion total would surpass not only the record set by the Agricultural Bank of China but also easily break the $19.7 billion record for a U.S. company, set by Visa Inc. in March 2008. However, Visa’s deal was all common stock, leaving it as the largest by that measure.

In other company news, GM unveiled its 2011 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible at the Los Angeles auto show today. Earlier in the week its new, electric vehicle (EV) the 2011 Chevy Volt won the title of car of the year from two trade magazines, Motor Trend, and Automobile magazine.

The Volt is not a pure EV because it has a 1.4 liter gasoline engine-and-generator that produces power and gives mechanical assistance to the motor that drives the car. The gas engine assists the vehicle in situations where a driver has gone more than 40 miles, and is operating at highway speeds around 70 miles per hour company representatives have told several media outlets. That said, the Volt still qualifies for government tax credits provided to EV-buyers, and primarily runs on electricity.

GM reported its 2010 third quarter earnings last week including a net income of $2 billion, and revenue of $34.1 billion. By comparison, Tesla Motors, a Nasdaq-traded company that makes truly all-electric vehicles saw $31.2 million in revenue, but a net loss for the third quarter of 2010 thanks to hefty research and development costs according to its earning reports. Shares in Tesla Motors traded just under $30 ahead of the GM public offering.

2011 Chevy Volt Image courtesy of (c) GM Corp.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Investors just love to give money to Elon Musk. The billionaire behind electric car manufacturer Tesla Motors, which has raised more than $800 million to date, just raised another $50 million for his other swing-for-the-fences company, SpaceX. According to an SEC filing, SpaceX raised $50.2 million on October 28. Jay Yarrow at Silicon Alley Insider first reported the funding, which came from existing investors. (Musk, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, and the Founders Fund are the biggest investors).

This latest funding brings the total capital put into SpaceX to $200 million, which is a lot for a startup, but really not that much for building a rocket company. Many billions have been wasted on efforts to get to space more cheaply than currently possible. And it’s only a quarter of the capital investors have put into Musk’s electric car venture.

With NASA looking for an alternative to the aging Space Shuttle, maybe investors think that SpaceX has a shot at some of that business, especially supplying the International Space Station and future missions. There is no proven business model in space other than government contracts and low-earth-orbit satellite launches. Going after new markets in space is definitely a long-term play, and my guess is that it is going to take many more infusions of capital to get to where Musk wants to go.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch