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UPDATE: Nissan Answers Tesla CEO's Allegations.

On the same day that we reported that electric-vehicle maker Tesla Motors posted a larger year-over-year second-quarter loss, company CEO Elon Musk told shareholders that the upcoming Nissan Leaf EV will contain problem-prone lithium-ion batteries.
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Right, the Leaf's battery pack.
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Tesla has been making a $109,000 all-electric Roadster, with a 240-mile range between plug-ins, for more than two years. Nissan's Leaf, with a 100-mile range, will go on sale in the U.S. later this year and sell for $32,780 before tax incentives.

In the wake of remarks by Nissan reps that the Japanese automaker claimed to have lowered production costs to $375 per kilowatt hour for the lithium batteries in its 2011 Leaf, Musk told shareholders that the Leaf's batteries are "more primitive" than Tesla's first prototype.

At the heart of the matter were the differences between the cooling systems used by the two automakers. The Leaf uses air cooling for its batteries, while the Roadster uses a superior liquid heating and cooling thermal management solution.

By opting for the cheaper air cooling, Musk said on Aug. 4, Nissan's battery temperatures will be "all over the place."  He said that they will undergo "huge degradation" at colder temperatures and "shut off" at warmer ones.

Nissan spokesman Tim Gallagher, in an interview with Green Car Advisor, chose a diplomatic response to Musk's strong allegations.

"Different folks have different views of market needs based on their own interpretation," he said. "But at the same time, the sophisticated simplicity of our battery operation and capability is far broader than some may portray and is based on many years and many hours of development by many experienced and talented people at Nissan."

Gallagher said that "in the end, the products will speak for themselves and we wish the best to all participants - whatever their path may be - in helping to bring zero-emissions vehicles to market."

It should be noted that the company supports the Leaf's battery pack with an 8-year, 100,000-mile warranty and has been working on lithium-ion battery technology for a long time. Tesla guarantees its Roadster battery pack for three years or 36,000 miles, whichever comes first.

Tesla is currently focusing on development of the Model S, a $56,500 all-electric sedan that will go on sale in the U.S. in 2012. Musk claims its batteries will be superior to those in the Roadster, containing 50 percent more density per module and abandoning the expensive all-cobalt electrode in favor of a nickel cobalt aluminum cathode.

The company has not revealed the per-kilowatt-hour cost it's seeking for the Model S battery.  ]In 2009 the industry average, according to a Deutsche Bank report, was $650/kWh. Current orders being placed for the 2011/2012 timeframe are averaging $450/kWh.

(Editor's Note: Auto writer Ronald Ahrens has been following the Progressive Automotive X-Prize fuel efficiency competition since it began and was on hand last month as the last few contenders from the 113 teams that began the grueling trial were winnowed down to a handful of finalists.  He filed this report for Green Car Advisor.)

By Ronald Ahrens, Contributor

Brooklyn, Mich. - For those of us accustomed to hearing big NASCAR machines thundering around the two-mile oval at Michigan International Speedway, it sure was hard to get used to the hush-hush of the Progressive Automotive X Prize performance finals event here.

Screenplay title: "Days of Whisper."

Except for a bit of patter from the E85-burning, 250cc single-cylinder engine of the Edison2 Team's four-seat Very Light Cars (right) and the chuffing and protestation of the few other internal combustion entries - all bu the Edison2 cars since eliminated - the only sounds to be heard from the track were tires humming over the asphalt and the occasional bleat of a vehicle's horn as the driver - perhaps out of boredom after cruising the oval at a top speed of no more than 70 mph (the maximum allowed by the speedway, for liability reasons) - tooted while crossing the finish line.

In other respects, though, the X Prize finals trial last month resembled any other race.

There was a fair amount of griping about the sanctioning body, the occasional implication that another entry had pushed the rules too far, and a good deal of bragging about how particular vehicles were achieving unheard of levels of performance - in this case fuel economy was the measurement - that would certainly change the world.

Blame Game

Something else familiar: the blaming and excuse making after losers fell out of the competition.

There's also been some grumbling about teams that are going into the last phase and are in competition for some of the competition's $10 million purse:  X-Tracer Team Switzerland's two E-Tracers (right) in the Alternative Tandem class exist at the very edge of the rulebook and have raised eyebrows form the start.
 
The contest, which will be decided after until dynamometer testing of the finalists ends later this month, is intended to promote development of production-capable automobiles that can deliver fuel efficiency of at least 100 miles per gallon - or the alternative-fuel equivalent of same.

The rules cover three and four-wheel vehicles, but the E-Tracers are enclosed two-wheelers. Their saving feature is training wheels that automatically deploy in Swiss-Army-knife fashion when low-speed wobbling begins.

Lack of New Product, Incentives on Other Vehicles Also Kept Lid on Hybrid Activity

Perhaps it's just that everyone is no waiting for cars like the Nisan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt to hit the market, perhaps the deals on other types of vehicles are just too good to pass up, or gas prices aren't hitting people in the pocketbook, or maybe it's just boredom with the present offerings - whatever the reason, auto shoppers are not warming to hybrids this summer.
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Prius is still the king.
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Sales of gas-electric cars and trucks in July were down 33.2 percent from a year earlier, with not a single model outdoing its year-earlier performance.

Toyota's Prius - helped by gradually increasing incentives - June's were the highest on record at an average of $2,599 per car - remains top of the heap, accounting for 59.6 percent of all July hybrid sales, and the combined Toyota and Lexus stable of seven hybrids accounted for 17,504 sales and 73.9 percent of the monthly tally.

Ford, on the combined strengths of its Fusion hybrid sedan and Escape hybrid crossover SUV, remained in second place with total sales of 2,896 hybrids. That's a position it has maintained for the past five months, while former No. 2 hybrid seller Honda, with 2,475 July sales, was a close third.

General Motors Corp., whose hybrid pickups and SUVs have never done particularly well - in part because of the stiff price premium the General charges for its dual mode hybrids - was a far-distant fourth. The 415 hybrid sales GM logged for the month were spread across seven models (one of them the discontinued Saturn Aura hybrid sedan) and accounted for less than 2 percent of the month's total.

Nissan, with only one hybrid - the Altima coupe - and that sold in just nine states, brought up the rear of the pack with 378 July sales.

The New York Times reported last week that General Motors had instituted a ban of dealer sales of the upcoming Chevy Volt to out-of-launch-market drivers.

In other words, unless you, Mr. Prospective Volt Buyer, live in the extended-range plug-in hybrid's six initial roll-out states or the District of Columbia, you'll just have to wait until they are sold in your home state for you to be able to buy or lease one of the extended-range plug-in hybrids. That's what the Times reported.

But the newspaper, which had cited a dealer, was wrong.

"The dealer was misinformed," Volt spokesperson Rob Peterson told GM-Volt.com. "We have not banned sales to residents outside of launch markets."

To be clear, the vehicles will be shipped to launch-market dealers only, Peterson said. But you could live outside the launch market and buy a Volt. Neither GM nor Chevy will snub you.

Sure, you might have to drive hundreds or thousands of miles to park your new Volt in your garage if you're unwilling to wait for the model to arrive in a dealership near you, but, hey, they don't call it an extended-range vehicle for nothing.

What's more, because GM is currently establishing a nationwide Volt servicing network, you won't have to drive to a launch state (or Washington, D.C.) to have it serviced. You're local Chevy dealer would be up to the task.

T'was only a week ago that reports began emerging that some Chevy dealers would be offering the Volt for as much as $20,000 over the manufacturer's suggested retail price due to what they anticipate will be initial high demand for the extended-range plug-in hybrid sedan.

So we were more than a little skeptical when we saw posts at mynissanleaf.com discussion forum identifying Nissan dealers that promise to offer the Leaf battery-electric vehicle below MSRP.

One dealer - Fontana Nissan, located in the Southern California city of Fontana, 50 miles east of Los Angeles - even offers to sell the plug-in car for $1,000 less than the MSRP when the model starts being delivered later this year.

We called Fontana Nissan and were told there was "absolutely no catch. It's basically whatever the MSRP is on the vehicle you choose, it's $1,000 off of that," salesman Danny Truong said in an interview.

"The truth is, Scott, that not every dealership is going to do that. Most dealerships will sell at MSRP or above or add accessories and sell it to you. We're not going to do any of that. Instead of selling at MSRP, we're going to sell below MSRP," he said.

Other dealers have offered to sell the vehicle for $500 below MSRP, so it isn't as if Fontana Nissan is way out in left field. So why, you might wonder, will they discount when numerous Chevy dealers will resort to price-gouging on their initial Volts?

The difference is that General Motors will be allocating how many Volts each dealer will receive. That, in turn, spurs Chevy dealers to try to get as much money as possible for every one of the few Volts they initially receive from GM.

Nissan's approach is entirely different. Customers will get their Leafs on a first-come, first-served basis without regard to how many Leafs are sent to a particular dealer. Clearly, Fontana Nissan and other Nissan dealers are hoping their below-MSRP prices will result in them being able to sell many Leafs, with a reasonable profit for each one sold.

There's just one little catch: Because the Leaf can only go 100 miles per charge, ordering one from Fontana if you live 500 miles away might not make sense - even with the $1,000 savings.

Scott Doggett, Contributing Editor

It may be slimy stuff, but its beautiful to some - enough so that South San Francisco-based Solazyme's tanks of fermenting algae attracted $52 million in private investment recently, money the company says it will use to help scale up production of the fuels and chemicals it can make from the stuff.

Solazyme, which has a research and development deal with Chevron Corp., last year got almost $22 million from the federal Energy Department to build an algae biofuels refinery in Pennsylvania, It also has a supply contract with the Defense Department and last month, delivered 1,500 gallons of algae-based jet fuel to the U.S. Navy.

It has hopes of producing as much as 100,000 gallons of biodiesel this year.

The company is one of several pursuing algal fuels, but instead of growing vast amounts of algae out in the sun and then squeezing the oil out of it, as its competitor do, Solazyme uses algae to covert the plant sugars in biomass such as switchgrass into fats and oils that can be further processed into biofuels and used for soap and other products.

Solazyme said that its latest financing round was led by Braemar Energy Ventures - an existing investor - and Morgan Stanley, a new backer.

Kyodo News reports that Honda Motor Co. has decided to sell its new hybrid car for around 1.59 million yen (about $18,600), which will be the lowest price for a gasoline-electric vehicle sold in Japan, according to company sources.

The Japanese publication said the price of Honda's new Fit compact car (pictured), to be released in October, will be some 300,000 yen ($3,492) lower than the 1.89 million yen ($20,960) price tag for the cheapest model of its Insight hybrid put on sale in February last year.

The move is expected to accelerate competition in the development and sale of environmentally friendly vehicles between Honda and Toyota Motor Corp., which is expected to release a new compact hybrid next year that will achieve 40 kilometers per liter (94 mpg U.S.) on gasoline and have a price tag of around 1.5 million yen ($17,460), Kyodo News reported.

The new Fit will feature a 1.3-liter engine and electric motor, with fuel economy of 30 kilometers per liter (70.6 mpg U.S.).

Analysts for IHS Automotive, in an email to Green Car Advisor, noted that this will be Honda's fourth hybrid offering in the Japanese market after its Civic, Insight and CR-Z models.

They also noted that the Fit hybrid will be priced almost 300,000 yen ($3,492) lower than the segment's top-selling Toyota Prius hybrid. However, the model will be almost 400,000 yen ($4,657) costlier than the existing Fit subcompact.

With the launch of the Fit hybrid, Honda intends to increase sales of its hybrid vehicle line-up in Japan following lackluster demand for its Insight hybrid in the country over the last several months. Honda sold only around 26,000 units of its Insight hybrid in Japan during January-July, almost one-tenth of the 204,882 units sold of the Prius hybrid  during the same period.

Scandinavian electric vehicle maker Think and its Swiss distribution partner, M-Way, have teamed-up with eco-tourism firm Alpmobil to offer visitors to its resorts totally carbon-neutral transportation for use on their vacation, the companies announced today in a statement.
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Think City EVs awaiting carbon-free driving in the Alps.
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A fleet of 60 Think City EVs has been made available in the Goms and Haslital region of the Swiss Alps, and will be available for hire through some 30 hotels, resorts and other touristic hot spots in the area.

Alpmobil will be marketing the service through its website and its resorts in the region, and the EVs will be available for hire at a special rate of some 45 euros ($60) per day for Alpmobil customers.  

EV charging is made accessible around the region thanks to more than 20 battery charging points that have been installed in the area - powered by renewable hydroelectric generated electricity derived from local mountain waters, reservoirs and dams.

The latest generation Think City is a purpose-built, all-electric car that can travel at highway speeds and cover 100 miles on a single charge with zero local emissions.

European production of the model continues in Finland at Valmet Automotive, which is also the assembler of the Boxster and Cayman models for Porsche AG. Customer deliveries are taking place across Europe in selected EV markets such as The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Austria and Switzerland.

Think has also recently announced plans to establish a U.S. production facility next year in Elkhart County, Indiana, and is working with Japanese partner Itochu on developing operations in Asia.

The United States is the country most likely to lead the emergence of electric cars as a means of mass transportation, according to an article in today's Financial Times, citing research by McKinsey, the global consultancy.

A new electric-vehicle index compiled by McKinsey puts the U.S. ahead of France, Germany and other western European countries that have up to now been in the vanguard of clean-vehicle technology. China is tied with Germany in third place.

The index is based on nine variables that are likely to influence investment in electric-vehicle production and consumer acceptance of the new technology. It will be updated quarterly.

Only a few thousand electric cars are presently on the roads. They are either expensive niche models, such as the Tesla Roadster, or prototypes designed to test consumer reaction, notably BMW's Mini-E.

But the numbers are likely to rise markedly after the end of this year with the launch of Nissan's all-electric Leaf and General Motors' Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in hybrid.

By Terril Yue Jones, Contributor

TOKYO - Tucked into a nondescript corner of central Tokyo's Toranomon business district is a conceptually simple but technology formidable experiment that could lead to a sweeping makeover of how taxis, and potentially other vehicles, function in sprawling, crowded cities.

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Blue-and-white electric taxi stands out on streets of Tokyo's fashionable Roppongi district. Special markings told customers they'd chosen a swappable battery cab.

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For the past three months a trio of electric-powered taxis have been ferrying customers around Japan's capital, then swinging by a battery-exchange station a few times a day to switch out depleted batteries before heading back out into Tokyo's concrete canyons.

The companies behind this experiment hope it will persuade drivers, customers, bean counters and environmentalists that the system works and can eliminate pollution from the 60,000 cabs that ply Tokyo's streets - more cabs than in New York, London and Paris combined - and from millions more in other cities around the world.  

Green Car Advisor wrote about the launch in April of this project and about our experience trying to catch one of the cabs at the taxi stand in the Roppongi Hills business and shopping plaza.

We visited the setup once again as the test period was winding down last month to check up on how the experiment has gone, what's been learned and what the future may hold.

Better Place's modular Tokyo battery exchange station is a prototype for stations to be built throughout Israel and Denmark - and, the company hopes, the first of many in Japan.

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International Interest

"Interest has been far greater than we anticipated, particularly outside Japan," said Kiyotaka Fujii, president of project organizer Better Place Asia Pacific Japan, the Asian branch of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Better Place, a provider of EV charging and battery replacement networks and related services.

By John O'Dell, Senior Editor

The electric company in Portland, Ore., announced this morning that it has opened North America's first public quick-charging station for electric vehicles.

The item  caught our eye not only because, hey, it's what we write about, but because we wrote a story back in May about the California city of Vacaville being home to the nation's first public quick charger.

Now we really don't care who was first - what matters is that these quick chargers are being installed.

They are capable of bringing a depleted EV battery back up to around 80 percent of capacity in under 30 minutes and will go a long way - once there are enough of them - to eliminating the range anxiety that threatens widespread adoption of battery-electric vehicles.

So just as we applauded Vacaville and Eaton, the company that installed the charger there, we applaud Portland General Electric and NEC, the Japanese electronics company that supplied the Oregon charger.

Who Was First?

But about that claim to the "first public" quick charger...

About 60 percent of prospective Chevrolet Volt buyers who'd contacted dealers were told that there would be a mark-up over the $41,000 MSRP of the extended-range plug-in hybrid vehicle, gm-volt.com reported today, citing its survey of about 1,300 people.

Of those who were told about a mark-up, more than a third were informed that it would be at least $10,000, according to the blog.

Additionally, Chevrolet parent General Motors is instituting a ban of dealer sales of the Volt to out-of-state drivers, the New York Times reported. The Volt's initial roll-out later this year will be limited to six states and Washington D.C.

Honda's Soltec solar-cell division today started selling two new solar-powered generators in Japan, as the unit, which started selling residential modules in 2007, looks to increase sales by offering a wider range of products.

Honda Soltec, which had already been selling 125-watt and 115-watt modules, added 130-watt and 120-watt versions to its inventory, the company said.

Honda Soltec has sold solar-powered generators to about 2,250 residential customers as well as larger clients such as Hanshin Koshien Stadium and some hospitals.

Nissan Motor Co. will work with the Japanese government at developing what it calls a "CO2-free island" by targeting residents of Yakushima Island for all-electric vehicles and encouraging them to use other forms of renewable energy.

Nissan and Kagoshima Prefecture signed a memorandum of understanding to work together on creating a low-carbon society on the island, where some trees may be more than 7,000 years old.

The prefecture will subsidies EV purchases on the island, while Nissan will study where best to install electric chargers and what kind of range the EVs get driving on the island's varied topography, Nissan said earlier today.

It's difficult for some of us not to come up with our own names for the car or its exterior paint or wonder if the vehicle should be offered with a resonator that sounds an awful lot like a whoopee cushion, but the folks at GENeco are serious about their fart-powered Volkswagen "Bio-Bug" Beetle.

As well they should be.

The U.K. sustainable-energy company located in Bristol, England, and owned by Wessex Water is proud of the alt-fuel vehicle they've created that runs on methane gas stirred up during the treatment process at sewage plants.

"Waste flushed down the toilets of just 70 homes in Bristol is enough to power the Bio-Bug for a year, based on an annual mileage of 10,000 miles," said a statement on the Wessex Water website. Well, you know what they say about Bristol residents.

Butt seriously, human-gas-powered automobiles aren't exactly new. There are some 11,500 vehicles tooting around Sweden on biomethane from sewage plants.

As for performance, GENeco says methane gas powers their 2.0-liter Beetle convertible to a gut-wrenching 114 miles an hour, which can be helpful when you've really got to go.

Fine, you say, but all I really want to know is how the Bio-Bug came to be.

"The choice of car was inspired by students who took part in a workshop," GENeco spokesman Mohammed Saddiq said in a statement. "They thought it would be appropriate that the poo-powered car should be the classic VW Beetle Bug because bugs naturally break down waste at sewage works to start the treatment process, which goes on to produce the energy."

The Bio-Bug is undergoing tests. GENeco said it plans to convert its fleet of vehicles if the Bio-Bug trial is successful.

Scott Doggett, Contributing Editor

Ener1 has announced that it has signed up two new customers for its lithium-ion automotive batteries: South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries and Toro, the Minnesota maker of lawn mowers.
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Right, nifty art from the Ener1 Website.
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Hyundai Heavy Industries will receive Li-ion battery packs for electric buses this year. The packs are similar configurations as packs currently in operation in California with AC Transit.

Ener1, which is headquartered in New York, will provide Toro with a complete turnkey solution to create a battery-powered mower using the hard carbon mixed oxide, 17.5 Ah cell developed for EV-maker THINK.

Ener1 CEO Charles Gassenheimer announced both new customers during the company's second-quarter earnings conference call Thursday.

Ener1 has now publicly announced two programs in the light-duty passenger vehicle market (THINK and Volvo) and three heavy duty programs, including Hyundai and AC Transit.

Ener1's net sales in the second quarter were $16.1 million, an increase of 113 percent over net sales of $7.5 million in the second quarter of 2009. Net sales were $27.0 million for the six months ended June 30, an increase of 72 percent over net sales of $15.7 million in the prior year six month period.

Net loss was $15.5 million in the second quarter of 2010 compared to $13.0 million in the 2009 second quarter. Net loss was $31.0 million for the six months ended June 30 compared to $20.3 million for the six months ended June 30, 2009.

U.S. policy-makers are hampering the ability of U.S. auto industry to compete globally by focusing on electric vehicles while "ignoring" other advanced vehicle technologies, the CEO of a top parts supplier says.

BorgWarner CEO Tim Manganello told the Center for Automotive Research's Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, MI, on Thursday that "the U.S. government is going a bit too far in trying to dictate the powertrain technologies of the future."

"It's difficult to compete globally when governments try to pick the winning technologies and the direction changes from administration to administration," he said, referring to the Obama administration's focus on EV development.

In contrast, the administration has shown relatively little interest in other technologies such as clean diesel, Manganello said.

He noted if diesels had a 33 percent market share, the U.S. could save 1.4 million barrels of oil a day, which is more than the U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia.

His comments came a week after President Obama praised electric-drive vehicles in a speech at a General Motors plant where workers are building the extended-range electric Chevrolet Volt.

At the same Traverse City event, BMW North American CEO Jim O'Donnell said the U.S. government is "being a bit unfair" to diesel as a technology choice.

And Hyundai executive John Krafcik said governments should "not mandate certain technology solutions. It almost never works."

Annual U.S. sales of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids could rise to as many as 100,000 in three to five years, according to the chief executive of battery maker Boston-Power.

The company already produces lithium-ion batteries for laptop computers, including Hewlett-Packard, and has a contract to supply batteries for an all-electric version of the Saab 9-3.

Christina Lampe-Onnerud told Automotive News (subscription required) she thinks EV sales in the U.S. will pick up once the cost of a battery pack falls to about $500 per kilowatt-hour. She hinted that suppliers will reach that price point soon (in truth, some suppliers have already crossed that price point).

"The market is taking off faster than the analysts realize," Lampe-Onnerud said in an interview. "I think the industry grossly underestimates demand."

Lampe-Onnerud said Boston-Power, which has a factory in Taiwan and will likely soon announce a second plant in China, has developed a battery that will last the life of the vehicle it powers.

If true, that would be a major selling point, since the battery pack alone accounts for about one-third of an EV's cost.

Independent tire tester TireRack.com today announced two industry firsts designed to help fuel-efficient motorists make smart tire choices.

Fuel-efficient tires - those with low-rolling resistance properties - are now identified on the TireRack.com website. And, a vehicle fuel economy component has been added to its tire testing regimen.

That said, when Green Car Advisor entered several car models, we found no fuel-economy component was available for them. In other words, we were not told that one set of tires would save us so many gallons of gas each year over another set for a particular car model, or anything like that.

We checked with TireRack.com and was told that, yes, the fuel-economy component - an example of which appears below - is only available with some models now. But going forward, we were told, fuel-economy results will be incorporated in all future tire testing done by the South Bend, Indiana, company.

The example that TireRack.com mentioned in a statement issued today: In recent tests the company determined that the impact of fuel savings for a BMW 3 Series driven 15,000 miles a year could be as much as 30 gallons using one set of tires over another set. With the average price of fuel at $2.75 a gallon, a consumer can save a total of $80 annually by outfitting the  mid-sized sedan with the most efficient of the tires tested.

The new features will help some shoppers identify tires designed to be eco-friendlier, as well as see how tire choices can influence vehicle fuel-consumption. But our experience with the website showed that fuel-savings information is not available for the vast majority of vehicle models on American roads today.

Scott Doggett, Contributing Editor

Ford Motor Co. announced today that 85 percent of its 2011 Explorer SUV, which will go on sale later this year, is recyclable.
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Click on graphic to enlarge.
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Ford said in a statement that it is minimizing waste by making Explorer's noise-dampening fender baffles, which fit between the vehicle's outer shell and its inner structure, from steel left over after stamping the door openings out of F-150 body sides.

The reuse allows Ford to reduce its use of virgin steel by an estimated 119 tons for one year of production. Using less virgin steel also reduces CO2 emissions by approximately 119 tons. That's about the same amount emitted by a mid-sized car driving the circumference of the Earth 14 times.

While 85 percent sounds impressive - and probably is impressive - the official average for vehicle recycling is 80 percent. So the new explorer is 5 percent better than average. Doesn't seem like much, but the final percentage of anything is usually harder to come by than the initial percentage.

The Explorer also uses 25 percent recycled fiber in its interior fabrics, including seat upholstery, bolster and carpeting. The automaker says its use of recycled fiber instead of virgin fiber results in an estimated 20 percent reduction in energy consumption, 17 percent waste elimination and 14 percent reduction in CO2 emissions for the Explorer's seating materials.

Motorcycle industry executive Michael Lock, most recently CEO of Ducati's North American operations, has been appointed global marketing and strategy director for electric vehicle maker Think.
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After building the Ducati performance motorcycle brand in North America, Michael Lock is switching to the task of marketing Think's more pedestrian EVs, beginning with the two-seat Think City, shown here in sporty yellow.
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Lock also has worked at Ducati in Europe, at Honda Motor Europe and at Triumph Motorcycles in the U.K. and the U.S.

He is credited with greatly improving Ducati's market share and customer satisfaction ratings in the U.S. and Canada during his 7-year tenure.

His departure last month reportedly took many in the motorcycle industry by surprise - Ducati would only say that he left to pursue other opportunities.

He will certainly have them - along with new challenges - at Think, which is about to launch its two-seat Think City electric car globally and also is working on several next-generation models and on global marketing of its proprietary electric-drive power management system.

Think said Lock will relocate to the company's headquarters in Oslo, Norway which ought to be a bit of a challenge as well to someone who's spent the last seven years in California.

Tesla Motors, maker of the lightning-quick all-electric Roadster (pictured), posted a larger year-over-year second-quarter loss on higher research and development costs as the EV maker races to launch a new model in 2012.

Tesla on Wednesday reported a Q2 net loss of $38.5 million, or $5.04 per share, compared to a loss of $10.8 million, or $1.56 per share, a year ago.

The Silicon Valley automaker's shares closed down more than 3 percent to $21.26 on the Nasdaq during regular trading and an additional 5 percent to $20.50 in after-hours trading.

That said, revenue was $28.4 million, up 5.4 percent from a year ago. Tesla  had 7.64 million common shares outstanding in the second quarter, compared with 6.96 million last year.

Tesla, which initially offered stock to the public in late June, does not expect to be profitable until it sells significant numbers of a planned Model S sedan that it expects to begin selling in 2012.

According to analysts at IHS Automotive, this is going to be the most difficult part of the Tesla IPO going forward: the quarterly reports for at least the next two years that show Tesla as not earning any money, and posting quarter after quarter of losses.

The Roadster model has been on sale for two years already, and only about 1,200 of the $109,000 (base price) vehicles have been sold. It will not be providing any massive revenue or profit influx, the analysts noted.

The company's next model, a $57,000 sedan, is still at least two years away, with the company claiming that everything is on track with its internal battery and powertrain development.

"This gives the Tesla plans an air of 'vaporware,' to steal a Silicon Valley term, despite the company's protestations to the contrary," an IHS analyst said. "The item that really may have saved Tesla however is its new partnership and investment from Toyota."

The two automakers have announced that a Tesla-developed RAV4 EV will be coming in 2012 as well.