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Tesla Motors is making waves, and the company is looking to have a big year during 2013. They already have over 20 stores in North America, with more than 30 located overseas. 13 of them were opened up in 2012 alone, but the company plans to open up even more this year. Tesla confirmed at the North American International Auto Show this week that they plan on opening 25 stores in 2013.

Vice president of sales for Tesla, George Blankenship, confirmed plans for 25 new retail locations opening throughout 2013, with half of them opening up outside the US. One of those stores will include the company’s first location in China, which is due to open sometime in the spring, so just a few months from now.

The company also stated that they’re still committed to blanketing the US with Supercharger charging stations for Tesla vehicles. Only eight of them are fully operational now, and most of them are on the west coast, but Tesla plans to also cover the east cost in the coming years. They also plan to eventually open up charging stations in the middle of the US, as well, which will allow Tesla owners to drive across the US without using a drop of gas or spending any money, since using the chargers will be free for Tesla vehicle owners.

Tesla announced back in November that they expect its Supercharger network to cover the entire United States by the end of 2013. We’re not sure exactly how many charging stations they plan to have opened in order to consider it the “entire United States”, but we’re guessing it means you’ll be able to drive anywhere without running out of juice.

[via Engadget]

Tesla to open 25 new stores in 2013 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

Continue reading The Daily Roundup for 01.14.2013

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Custom PC-building company AVADirect has been in the business for awhile, and we’ve checked out some of their solutions in the past, but today they have announced what they call a “one-of-a-kind Supermicro rack-mountable system” that allows a quad-SLI NVIDIA graphics setup alongside additional expansion cards for the first time ever.

The company says that this solution allows users to have best of both worlds when it comes to graphics and expansion cards, since the tower can fit up to four graphics cards while still making room for additional cards for other purposes. AVADirect says that most other similar solutions don’t offer the same flexibility.

The motherboard featured in the default configuration (Super X9DRG-QF) offers four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots, two PCI-Express 3.0 x8 slots, and one PCI-Express 2.0 x4 slots. So essentially, you could pop in four graphics cards and still have three slots left over for expansion cards like a RAID controller or a network card.

AVADirect says that this kind of flexibility “truly shines and stands out from other configurations” that are offered by competitors. The system also supports Intel Xeon E5 processors and up to 512GB of ECC-registered memory or 192GB of ECC un-buffered memory. On top of all this, there’s eight 3.5-inch hot-swap bays, and a massive 1620-watt redundant power supply to run the show. Of course, it won’t be cheap. AVADirect’s recommended build costs over $2,600.

AVADirect releases “one-of-a-kind” quad-SLI rack tower system is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Tesla has given the heads up that a price increase is in the works for the popular Model S, which was recently name Car of the Year by Motor Trend. The increase hasn’t been put into effect yet, however, with the company saying that it is coming “in the near future.” Reserve before the change happens to nab the car at its current price.

Tesla Motors was quick to list some important points about the upcoming change in its enthusiasts forum, however. First things first, the price hike will not be applied to anybody who already has a reservation that was made before the effective price change date. This means if you nab a reservation now, you’ll be able to get the Model S at the lower price point.

In addition to the price change will be some options package changes as well. According to the official forum post, this means that some equipment that is presently considered a standard option may become a component in an optional package after the change. Like the price change, this will not apply to those who already have a reservation, or make one before the effective price change date.

Those who are hanging in limbo with a deferred reservation will receive an email letting them know when the price change goes into effective. They’ll be able to avoid the increase and keep their current option package by finalizing their reservation and placing their order “within a fair, predefined timeframe.” There’s no word on when the effective price change date is, however, nor is there any information on how long deferred reservation holders will have to finalize their configurations before getting stuck with the new price.

[via Engadget]

Tesla Model S price increase inbound is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Tesla is planning an electric truck potentially built on the same “skateboard” platform as the Model S, with founder Elon Musk also revealing self-driving car ambitions. The outspoken CEO confirmed the truck on Tesla’s roadmap in the aftermath of the Model S winning 2013 Car of the Year, telling Motor Trend that it “could really be a big improvement in truck technology” though not specifying how, beyond being more environmentally-friendly, that would be the case.

“We have this idea for an electric truck that could really be a big improvement in truck technology” Musk said.  ”I’m really excited about bringing out a whole series of cars that address a wide range of consumer interests and needs.”

One obvious possibility is the amount of torque Tesla’s electric powerplants can deliver, considerably in excess of what gas engines are associated with. In fact, 100-percent of torque is available from the outset, with no ramping up to maximum power. That could pay dividends for the sort of tough driving conditions trucks are often associated with.

As for autonomous vehicles, Musk has ambitious hopes for who Tesla might one day partner with. “I do think it will be interesting to do self-driving cars, perhaps working in conjunction with Google, who’s quite close to us in Silicon Valley” he suggested. “Larry Page and Sergey Brin are longtime friends of mine, so it would be great to work with them, maybe to do self-driving.”

Already on the Tesla roadmap is a new crossover SUV and a replacement to the original Roadster, both expected to arrive sometime around 2016. The crossover will challenge BMW’s X3, while the new sports model will deliver “supercar performance, but not supercar pricing” according to Musk.

Tesla CEO: Electric trucks and self-driving cars on the roadmap is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.