Martin Tripp's claims against Tesla for libel and false light were thrown out because the judge found the gist of Tesla's/@elonmusk's statements were true:
"Tripp cannot show actual malice. Indeed, the Court finds he cannot even meet the lower bar of falsity."🔥🔥🔥
The judge also found Tripp potentially on the hook to pay Tesla for punitive damages because
"a rational trier of act could reasonably find Tripp acted in conscious disregard of Tesla’s rights."
2/
The judge found that deliberately leaking confidential information and trying to lure another employee to leak confidential information by promising payment of $50K wasn't kosher
(Should be no surprise to anyone but and their pet reporters.)
FERC's new order means that Tesla will be able to have networked Powerwalls, Powerpacks and solar products make money supplying a wide variety of grid services👇
And share the profits with customers in the form of discounted products or energy plans, or direct payments
➡️reduce the cost of home and commercial storage/solar systems
➡️reduce overall electricity costs
➡️reduce risk of blackouts and and allow utilities to utilize more solar and wind power by creating a more flexible and resilient grid
So as Tesla drives down the cost of batteries and ramps up capacity, in many cases the actual costs to customers will fall even faster because they will become a provider of services to the grid that subsidize the cost of the batteries, while adding to Tesla's bottom line
This is also an extremely important trend for the transition to sustainable transport
As capex/unit continues to plummet, total capital needed to transition autos (and trucks/buses) from fossil fuel to EV will be far less than most models predict
Oddly enough, the California New Car Dealers Assn headline says the Honda Civic was the "best seller" in Q1, but its data shows Model 3 sales were higher (18856 v. 18001) -- remarkable given the substantially higher price for the Model 3.
Compared to Q1 2019, Tesla:
Increased CA market share to 4.6% v. 4.0%
Increased CA sales by 9.3%, despite the pandemic hamstringing sales during the critical EOQ period
“Large SUVs consume about a quarter more energy than midsize cars, meaning the plans will most likely wipe out any gains in overall fuel efficiency or reduction in auto emissions that were targeted over the next six years, according to industry experts.”