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1. Tesla to Build the "Model S" Electric Sedan Back in California
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2. Andy Grove: Plug-In Vehicle Movement Like Early PC-Hobbyists
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3. Green Plastics Startup Novomer Launches First Product
Tesla to Build the "Model S" Electric Sedan Back in California
Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups
It’s official: Tesla Motors has named its electric sedan (codename WhiteStar) the “Model S” and the company says it has decided to bring the manufacturing of its vehicle back to California. We just got out of a press conference at Tesla Motors headquarters in San Carlos, Calif, where California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, California Treasurer Bill Lockyer, Tesla Chairman Elon Musk and Tesla CEO Ze'ev Drori made the announcement and did a photo opp tour of the Tesla factory for a room full of media. (See our photos below).
So that nixes Tesla’s former plans to build its sedan in a factory in New Mexico — New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson must be having a bad day. Gov. Schwarzenegger, on the other hand, was straight-up gleeful over the steal, and said that when Tesla had previously decided to manufacture in New Mexico it “drove me absolutely insane. My administration does not like to lose.” And of course he had to slip those Schwarzenegger lines in there, saying he’s happy that Tesla “will be back to California.”
But perhaps the biggest issue is that California decided to offer Tesla some key incentives that are more competitive than the ones New Mexico was offering. These include: a newly approved program that exempts green car builders from paying sales tax and use tax on the purchase of manufacturing equipment, and a grant program for training employees. Tom Dresslar, a spokesman for the state treasurer told the San Francisco Chronicle that the equipment incentives could save Tesla as much as $9 million. 
At the press conference Musk and Drori emphasized that Tesla is a company that always intended to make electric vehicles low-cost and mainstream. Unlike its first vehicle, the luxury $100,000 Roadster, the Model S sedan is projected to cost $60,000. Musk said if the company could have produced a low-cost car first, they would have done that.
Musk also said Tesla has a project in the works to to deliver an electric vehicle for under $30,000 “a lot sooner than everyone thinks.” When pressed for how long that would take, he said: “4 years at the most.”
So why make the official name for the codenamed WhiteStar so incredibly dull? — WhiteStar was actually pretty fun. They chose a modest name on purpose. Tesla’s VP marketing and business development Darryl Siry told us that the point is to make Tesla the main brand, and not to dilute the brand with additional marketing terms. Guess they didn’t like our naming attempts. (From left to right: Schwarzenegger, unknown, Lockyer, Drori, Steve Westly, and Musk)
Andy Grove: Plug-In Vehicle Movement Like Early PC-Hobbyists
Katie Fehrenbacher - Energy
Former Intel Chairman Andy Grove says the grassroots plug-in hybrid vehicle movement is like the 1970s-era Northern California Homebrew Computer Clubs that paved the way for the personal computer. The way the early PC-hobbyists kick-started the personal computing movement, plug-in conversion shops will similarly be able to proliferate the electric vehicle technology, Grove told the AP in an interview this weekend.
It’s reassuring to think electric vehicles could follow the same type of grassroots disruptive path. And who better to see the similarities than the old infotech leaders, who all seem to be coming back around to pick their favorite green technologies. (Read our 25 Who Ditched Infotech for Cleantech).
At the age of 71, Grove has become an electric-vehicle advocate, often speaking, writing and teaching on the subject; he penned a recent article on electric vehicles for an issue of The American, is featured in the New York Times today, and will teach a class at Stanford next fall on how to make electric vehicles work.
It’s clear that the former chip executive is taking electric transportation very seriously; he told the AP it “is urgent,” and “everything else is secondary”:
The drumbeat of the electrical transportation is accelerating like nothing I’ve ever seen in my life.
While we applaud Grove’s enthusiasms, we’re not sure his plan of attack is the best method. Grove says the United States should consider ways to convert the 80 million bad-mileage vehicles on U.S. roads to electric/gas hybrids, and tells the New York Times that “converting those should be our first priority." We’d love that to happen, but the idea sounds unreasonably expensive, and there is currently no infrastructure in place to deliver it. Guess that’s where those plug-in hobbyists come in — to deliver a cheap, disruptive method.
Green Plastics Startup Novomer Launches First Product
Katie Fehrenbacher - Startups
NB-180 is a class of products called sacrificial binders, which are used to hold two pieces of metal together in high precision manufacturing of products like electronics, fuel cells, nanomaterials and solar panels. In the manufacturing process the binder is burned away and the carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere.
So the greener aspect of the binder is that it’s made of recycled carbon dioxide, and Novomer says it also burns away cleaner than other binders. Novomer’s Product Manager Fox Holt estimates that the size of the high-precision sacrificial binder market is about 300,000 pounds per year.
The Ithaca, N.Y.-based startup uses a catalyst-based process to create its plastics and other materials out of carbon dioxide; the technology was developed by Professor Geoffrey Coates and his research group at Cornell University. The startup is among a wave of companies looking to make chemicals and plastics from greener materials than traditional petroleum-based substances. Novomer is looking to build partnerships with companies that produce CO2, such as concrete manufacturers.
Venture capitalists are interested in the possibility. Back in November Novomer said it had raised $6.6 million in a Series A round led by Physic Ventures and Flagship Ventures.
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