Mint.com put together this awesome flow chart explaining our post-bailout auto world. Click on the image for a bigger, higher resolution image. [Via Jalopnik]

Tesla announced two new hires today, one in sales and one in communications. The company also has 150 other job openings — mostly in engineering.

Just five days after Congress approved the Tarp, Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson was telling a journalist working on a profile of him that the government would use the money allocated by Congress to purchase or insure troubled assets to directly invest in bank equity.

We’ll easily have have enough lithium for two million electric cars by 2015, according to a new analysis from the Gerson Lehrman Group (via AutoblogGreen).

Marc Tarpenning, the lesser known co-founder of Tesla–he has yet to sue Elon Musk–was talking about what it takes to start a car company at IBM’s Almaden Institute 2009 in San Jose.

Chinese battery/car company BYD is preparing for an American invasion in 2010, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.

Martin Eberhard, the co-founder of Tesla has dropped his lawsuit–which alleges breach of contract and slander–against Tesla , and its CEO, Elon Musk, the San Jose Business Journal is reporting.

Here’s a cool segment on the Fisker Karma. A good starting point for anyone curious about this car or plug-in hybrids in general. Via: Tesla Motor Club

Will wonders never cease in cleantech communication? GM announced today that the EPA has given the GM Volt a MPG rating on the city cycle of 230 miles. Sounds great, right? The problem is that anytime you try to get to “miles per gallon” using vehicles that don’t necessary use […]

General Motor’s announcement that its Volt plug-in hybrid will get city fuel economy rating of 230 miles per gallon may leave some people scratching their heads. Here’s how they arrive at the number.

The hits just keep on coming for Tesla. First it’s a big investment from Daimler, then it’s a loan from the DOE, and today, it says it earned a profit.

In the wake of Barack Obama’s $2.4 billion stimulus dump on electric vehicle technology yesterday, the Wall Street Journal wonders why there wasn’t more money aimed at charging infrastructure.

The President announced today $2.4 billion in stimulus spending on advanced battery technology spread across 48 different projects. The money, which is a grant (a.k.a., gift) will go to a variety of battery makers, tech companies, automakers and Universities.

Estranged Tesla “co-founder” Martin Eberhard won a small victory in court, when a judge ruled that his libal lawsuit against the company could move forward.

Coda Automotive has raised a Series B round worth $24 million, with ex-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson participating in the round.

One of our first thoughts when we saw the Model S was, “How do you open the doors?” since the handles are flush with the car. Now we know.

There’s a multitude of angles to attack Tesla from. Which makes it so annoying that Cody Willard opted for this lazy, pointless attack.

Raul Atkinson, a software engineer, wanted an electric car, but couldn’t find one on the market that was affordable or good looking. So did what any reasonable person would do, he built his own.

It looks like we might be past the bottom in cleantech venture investment.

Tesla legally fired back at estranged co-founder Martin Eberhard, filing a motion in California to get Eberhard’s lawsuit thrown out.

As if there wasn’t already enough to worry about, another fight has broken out over who deserves the credit for Tesla.

Martin Eberhard and Elon Musk are engaged in a cat fight to the death over who is the TRUE founder of Tesla.

It’s not every day that the CEO of a car company takes you for a ride. Especially if it’s through the move-it-or-lose-it traffic of midtown Manhattan. In the rain. But Kevin Czinger seemed to enjoy it.

We now know how much money each car company will receive to work on fuel efficient cars.

The Department of Energy is prepared to award Tesla a loan, which it will announce in Michigan tomorrow, sources tell the Detroit Free Press. Ford and Nissan will also be approved for loans.

Elon Musk says Tesla will be profitable by next month after slashing the costs of Roadster.

In a lengthy rebuke on Tesla’s website, Elon Musk writes that estranged Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard is a liar.

Tesla’s Roadster is an undeniably cool looking car, but it might be better to browse rather than buy.

Start → The government is about to approve a cash for clunkers bill that offers a $4,500 rebate for switching into a fuel efficient car. So which gas-sipper are you going to buy?

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a simple solution to one of the big problems hurting Detroit:

Speaking at the Wired Live conference in New York today, Elon Musk told the crowd that we should all be paying $10 at the pump for a gallon of gas.

The lawsuit against Tesla Motors and its CEO, Elon Musk, by Martin Eberhard makes for an entertaining read, but it essentially amounts to Silicon Valley equivalent of a McDonald’s coffee lawsuit.

Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard is suing Elon Musk and Tesla Motors for a slew of reasons including allegations of libel, slander, and a breach of contract.

Tesla’s Roadster is the only highway capable electric vehicle commercially available. Yet, J.D. Power and Associates Mike Omotoso, a powertrain analyst tells Earth2Tech, “There is a strong possibility of an EV glut” in the next 10 years.

OnCars.com managed a baby coup for itself, getting the chief designer of the Model S, Franz von Holzhausen, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk to sit down an explain why they love the sedan.

Coda Automotive has one year to nail its stated goal of producing an electric sedan for the masses. If it stumbles, it could get trampled by an onslaught of more popular brands entering the electric market.

No single technology will triumph in the pursuit of a “greener” auto industry. Instead, the future will include a mix of cars powered by electricity, hydrogen fuel cells and biofuels, according to the world’s biggest car makers.

Elon Musk hasn’t even come out with the Model S, but he’s already got big plans to use it as the base for the next Roadster.

(This review originally appeared on Green Car Reports, we’ve reprinted a portion with their permission.)

Kleiner Perkins partner Trae Vassallo said the legendary VC firm is investing in another electric car company, one that is at “the other end of the spectrum” from high end electrics like Fisker and Tesla.

Tesla is recalling 345 of its Roadsters, made between March 2008 and April 22, 2009 due to an issue with the rear hub.

There’s no reason to think that pishers like Tesla and Fisker are going to be better at making electric cars than GM. At least not in GM’s opinion, anyway.

Chrysler is in deep trouble, what with its bankruptcy, and bondholder battles.

Yet another electric car is getting its Ps and Qs in line to debut for the public. On June 3rd, Miles EV, will unveil its highway capable electric sedan.

Last week Volkswagen told Autoexpress that it will unveil an electric car “that people could actually buy at a reasonable price” this September. Yesterday it may have revealed part of its plan for getting there.

Hot on the heels of Open Table (OPEN) and SolarWinds going public (SWI) Steve Westly, cleantech investor and managing partner of The Westly Group, predicts the next three IPOs in cleantech for Earth2Tech.

Even after the dust has settled on the Daimler-Tesla deal, we’re struggling to figure out why either side made the deal.

Dave Letterman tried holding Bob Lutz’s feet to the coals last night on his show, asking why GM doesn’t have an electric car available for the consumer. Lutz’s response: We will have a plug-in hybrid in two years.

If Elon Musk managed to nab a $550 million valuation for his capital-intensive, chronically plagued car company from Daimler, it’s a truly impressive feat.

Daimler was very careful not to specify how much it paid for its 10% of Tesla, only saying that it was “double-digit millions.” Luckily for those of us interested in the specifics, Elon Musk is not quite as careful.

With Daimler’s 10% stake in Tesla for “double digit millions,” it means that Tesla is valued at less than a billion dollars–and probably closer to $100 million.

Daimler AG has taken a 10% equity stake in Tesla Motors for a “double digit million dollar sum.”

Daimler (DAI) plans on announcing “a new strategic cooperation to make electro mobility a reality,” tomorrow morning.

China’s ambitious alternative energy goals could cost $190 billion accoding to their National Energy Bureau chief Liang Zhipeng, who spoke at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum in Beijing.

Below is a fishy video that’s making the rounds, where someone that might be an investor in Tesla says, “We’ve got a big announcement..that’s going to make people believers that the sedan’s going to be produced.” The announcement is supposed to come today or tomorrow and will be some sort […]

Here’s a video from early April of Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, explaining why he isn’t doing plug-in hybrids (via Gas 2.0.) He hedges in a weak preamble saying he’s not trashing the Chevy Volt, and he hopes it’s successful. Then he proceeds to trash it.

GM (GM) Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, the leading evangelist for the plug-in hybrid Chevy Volt, took to the company’s blog to rip David Letterman for insulting the car on his show last Wednesday (see here).

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk was on Dave Letterman’s show last night to talk electric cars and show the Model S to the broader non car-geek/tech world. Sadly, Musk doesn’t call anyone a douche bag in this interview. But Letterman basically calls the American auto industry douche bags, saying “The auto […]

Tucked at the bottom of GM’s (GM) restructuring announcement is this nugget on their famed plug-in hybrid:

Elon Musk writes that his company is trying to cheapen up the electric auto in a blog post for the Guardian today, but admits it won’t happen without early support from the wealthy.

Last week at the New York Auto Show we asked Henrik Fisker why we should put a deposit down on his car rather than his rival Tesla’s Model S, or Roadster. His answer, the infrastructure doesn’t exist to support a long drive in an all electric car.

General Motors (GM) invited CNN’s Peter Valdes-Dapena to drive a “mule” powered by the Chevy Volt’s hybrid gas-electric engine and power train (the body of the car was actually a Chevy Cruze.  The Volt body hasn’t been built yet).  Here’s what he thought:

Jaguar is going to join the electric car party now that it’s secured a £307 million ($450 million) loan from the European Investment Bank, reports Autocar.

If you’re looking for a way to lose 15 minutes and you’re Tesla crazed, you’re in luck.

TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington got a quick spin in the Tesla Model S, along with fellow TechCrunch reporters Sarah Lacy and Leena Rao. The car isn’t street legal as it lacks backseat safety belts and air bags, so they only got to zip around Tesla’s parking lot.

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The Department of Energy says it plans on handing out billions in loans to financially viable companies developing fuel efficient cars in the next month.

In flush times, the funding of a company is not necessarily indicative of the potential success of that company (witness the last dot-com boom.) One of interesting effects of a severe downturn in capital markets is that market forces have a tendency to mercilessly cull the herd. The money that […]

Here’s another way to cut back on costs for the Chevy Volt–get rid of unecessary parts. The Volt has a range extender built into it, which means that when the battery craps out, a gas engine kicks in to keep the car running.

Bloomberg News confirmed that the government intends to keep GM’s electric car, the Volt, in production, even though the auto task force ripped it in their report.

Greentech Media was lucky enough to take Nissan’s electric prototype for a spin. Their verdict: The drive was “quite good.”

China tells the New York Times that it’s going to produce a half million electric and hybrid autos by the end of 2011. If you choose to believe that, then it sounds like bad news for the U.S. However, picking at the meat of the news, it really doesn’t look […]

Tesla announced in a press release today that it received 520 reservations for its $57,400 sedan the Model S in the first week of the sedan’s existence.

What’s left of the American car industry is already hopelessly behind the curve when it comes to hybrid and electric cars.  And if China has anything to say about it, that’s right where we’ll stay.

Just as A.I.G. sold insurance derivatives at prices that did not reflect the real costs and the real risks of massive defaults (for which we the taxpayers ended up paying the difference), oil companies, coal companies and electric utilities today are selling energy products at prices that do not reflect […]

On Sunday we picked up on a leaked Car and Driver magazine interview with Telsa CEO, Elon Musk. In it he says, “a bit of news that hasn’t come out yet [is] General Electric is investing in Tesla.”

UPDATE: It looks like GE hasn’t invested in the Tesla, after all.

Images Via Jason Calacanis’ Blog:

Tesla will show off its relatively affordable Model S today for the first time, and from a sneak peek, it looks almost as sleek as the company’s flagship Roadster.

While the decisions of Tesla’s management have been questionable, there is no doubt that their car is a solid product. In anticipation of the Model S being unveiled this week, the Associated Press took a whirl through New York in a Roadster. The reviewer is absolutely smitten with the car:

Whoops! In January, Tesla told customers that it would be producing 30 Roadsters a week by spring. Well, spring is right around the corner and the company isn’t going to be able to make good on that promise, Earth2Tech reports.

Much has been written about the potential impact of Big 3 bankruptcies on the hundreds of suppliers that sell parts and assemblies to them. Part of the logic of the auto bailout was that if any one of the Big 3 were to fail, it would bankrupt some of the […]

While Obama hasn’t yet given automakers bailout money to ail their woeful financial prospects, he did help them out in the stimulus by allocating billions for highways, roads and bridges. Yesterday, $26 billion was released to states for transportation infrastructure projects.

Tesla Motors announced it is opening its first retail location for the year in Chicago at 1053 W. Grand Ave., near the Kennedy Expressway in the River West neighbourhood. Seven additional retail locations are planned for the year, in Manhattan, Miami, Seattle, Washington, London and Munich.

The Green Car Advisor picks up on something that most other people missed from Tesla’s newsletter earlier this week. Tesla is offering its customers the chance to pay $12,000 now for a battery pack seven years from today.

Tesla, the fumbling but beloved electric car company, put its plans to build a factory in San Jose on hold according to the San Jose Business Journal.

Good news for pricey electric car makers like Tesla: A new study by consultants Bain & Co. finds that the wealthy are interested in picking up electric cars as secondary vehicles. They don’t mind paying a premium, even nowadays, as it lets them drive around in a status symbol.

Electric car maker Tesla has only sold 150 of its $100,000 Roadsters, and is struggling to meet customer demand. But it now has a sideline business: selling batteries to Diamler AG for its tiny Smart car.

Electric car start-up Tesla is stealing a page from the major automakers. No, it’s not getting a bailout, though it could use one. Rather it’s releasing a moderately upgraded version of its Roadster and slapping a 20% premium on it.