Tesla Model Y: Elon Musk teases unannounced ‘advanced manufacturing technology’ - Electrek

Tesla’s “launch of the Model Y program” in China was kind of disappointing, but CEO Elon Musk did make an interesting comment teasing unannounced ‘advanced manufacturing technologies’ for the electric SUV.

As we reported yesterday, Tesla was expected to launch the Model Y program in China at the made-in-China Model 3 delivery event with Elon Musk.

The program indeed launched at the event today, however, the automaker didn’t reveal much about the plan to build the Model Y at Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai.

They simply announced the start of the program with comments from Chinese officials and later one of them and Musk poured some champagne on a big ‘Y’ sculpture.

Tesla didn’t elaborate on the timeline to build the vehicle at Gigafactory 3 in China, but the CEO did make an interesting comment about new manufacturing technologies being introduced with the Model Y program.

Musk said:

“Model Y will also have some advanced manufacturing technology that we will reveal in the future. I think it will be exciting to show the kind of manufacturing technology associated with the Model Y and it will be exciting to learn about these technologies.”

On its Chinese website, Tesla lists an estimated starting price of the Model Y at 444,000 yuan (~$64,000 USD), which is significantly more expensive than in the US.

However, the automaker says that official pricing is going to be announced later.

At the event today, Musk also announced plans for Tesla to design an electric car in China for the global market.

Electrek’s Take

That’s particularly interesting in the context of Tesla’s original plans for Model Y.

For those who don’t remember, Elon originally wanted to build a new platform for the Model Y in order to make it easier to manufacture than the Model 3.

Later, the CEO said that his team convinced him to abandon the idea and use the same platform as Model 3 in order to bring the vehicle to production faster.

Tesla has since confirmed that Model Y and Model 3 share about 75% of their parts, but it sounds like the Model Y could still feature some important new manufacturing improvements despite being mostly based on Model 3.

Elon said that the new ‘advanced manufacturing technology’ is going to be revealed in the future, but we already might have a few ideas about what it could be.

In the past, Elon said that one of their biggest mistakes with their attempt at highly automating the production of the Model 3 was trying to automate tasks that humans are much better at than robots, like manipulating cables.

In order to facilitate the automation of manipulating cables, Tesla has been reducing the length of wiring harnesses in its vehicles.

Musk said that Model S has about 3 kilometers of wiring harnesses and Tesla brought it down to 1.5 kilometers in length for the Model 3.

But that’s just the beginning. Tesla has been working on a whole new wiring architecture for future vehicle platforms and they aim to bring it down to just 100 meters starting with the Model Y.

We reported on a patent filed by Tesla on the potentially revolutionary new wiring architecture to help robots build cars.

Also, Tesla has been working on a giant new machine to produce the Model Y frame in almost one piece.

It’s likely that those projects are part of the new manufacturing technologies to be introduced in the Model Y program.

It’s important to note that the new manufacturing improvements could likely also be introduced in the Model 3 program, which could result in a big efficiency improvement at Tesla.

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2020-01-07 12:29:00Z
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Japan prosecutors obtain arrest warrant for wife of Carlos Ghosn - CNBC

Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn and his wife Carole leave the office of his lawyer in Tokyo on April 3, 2019.

Kazuhiro Nogi | AFP | Getty Images

Japanese prosecutors have obtained an arrest warrant for the wife of fugitive ex-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn.

Her husband fled Japan in late December, using the bullet train and two private jets to travel to Lebanon. The former executive was first arrested in Japan in 2018 and charged with financial crimes while serving as the boss of Nissan.

He denied any wrongdoing in January 2019 and has also claimed that Japan's justice system is "rigged."

According to several media reports on Tuesday, investigators believe that n April last year his spouse Carole Ghosn may have made false statements about the case to a Tokyo court.

A spokeswoman for Carole Ghosn told Reuters that the issuance of a warrant was "pathetic," noting that Ms Ghosn had traveled to Japan last year to answer questions and had left without any charges at the time.

Carole Ghosn is an American passport holder and, unlike her husband, could potentially be made subject to an extradition request between Japan and the United States.

The spokesperson added that the timing of the warrant is designed to undermine a press conference by the former Nissan boss which is due this week.

"Last time Carlos Ghosn announced a press conference and got re-arrested. This time, the day before he is announced to speak out freely for the first time, they issued an arrest warrant for his wife Carole Ghosn," the spokesperson said.

Carlos Ghosn told Fox Business Monday that at his press conference Wednesday he will name names and provide documents that show his arrest was a fabricated coup designed to remove him from power.

Interpol — the international police alliance — has placed an arrest demand on Lebanon's internal security forces.

But pressuring Lebanon to hand over Ghosn could prove difficult for Japan. A Japanese government official reportedly said Tuesday that Tokyo is currently "assessing Lebanese law" to consider options.

Japan's Justice Minister Masako Mori said Monday that she will pursue a criminal prosecution of former Nissan boss Ghosn despite his dramatic escape from the country.

She said Ghosn's attempt to avoid trial was unlawful.

"It is clear that we don't have any records of the defendant departing Japan, hence we believe that he left Japan illegally," Mori said.

Now watch: CNBC interview with Carole Ghosn on her husband's trial before he fled Japan.

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2020-01-07 12:02:00Z
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I tasted Impossible Pork at CES 2020 - The Verge

You may have heard that Impossible Foods is expanding its fake meat options beyond burgers — it’s moving into pork. So I chowed down at Kumi, a Japanese restaurant in the Mandalay Bay casino in Las Vegas. I’m still chewing on how I feel, but it may not actually matter how perfectly Impossible Pork imitates the pig meat: it does provide a savory base of protein for a lot of foods that traditionally call for pork.

Impossible Food’s offerings might be fake meat but they’re real food. Impossible Pork isn’t really available for you to buy, though — pricing and availability hadn’t been announced during my taste test. However, you can definitely check out a different Impossible offering at one of 139 Burger Kings, starting January 13: the Impossible Croissan’wich, available at a limited time, will feature Impossible Sausage.

Food that’s an imitation of other food is kind of a trend. In addition to Impossible Foods, there’s Beyond Meat, which also makes a fake beef patty. You can pair your fake meat with fake wines, from Endless West and Replica Wine. Or, if milk is more your speed, there’s dairy-free “milk” from Perfect Day Foods and Ripple Foods. These companies are leaning hard on the promise of sustainability and health, trying to appear to environmentally conscious consumers as better alternatives for conventional meat, dairy, and wine.

During Impossible Foods’ event, I tried out some Impossible Pork Banh Mi, Impossible Pork Char Siu Buns, Impossible Pork Dan Dan Noodles, Impossible Pork Katsu, and Impossible Pork Sweet, Sour and Numbing Meatballs.

It was... fine? The fake meat was a little spongy; my favorites were the meatballs and the noodles. Look, I should be straight with you: I haven’t eaten pork in more than 20 years, so I don’t know if it actually tastes like pork. I had to tap in a meat-eater, our pal Becca Farsace, who said the texture was not quite right but the taste was basically accurate. One thing both Becca and I noticed: We weren’t sure whether it was Impossible Pork, or just the way it was prepared, but the food was salty. Both of us chugged water after our taste test.

The thing about Impossible Foods, much like Beyond Meat, is that — as a longtime vegetarian — I’m not their market. I’ve been happily abstaining from pork since 1996. Ditto beef, chicken, turkey and so on. I don’t want or need fake meat. This product seems like it’s aimed at people who are thinking about reducing their meat consumption, and are nervous about taking the plunge.

But it doesn’t really matter how I feel about it. The truth is that a lot of restaurants don’t put much thought into their vegetarian dishes. I don’t like the Beyond Burger or the Impossible Burger but I nonetheless have eaten them several times, because that’s the vegetarian option at the burger joint my friends want to go to. (As it happens, I love black bean burgers and falafel burgers and other things vegetarians have come up with over the years. Without a doubt, I prefer them to pretend beef.)

I’m probably going to wind up eating Impossible Pork for this reason — even if I never buy it for home cooking, some restaurant will serve it instead of coming up with a thoughtful vegetarian dish. And I’ll eat it, because fake meat is better than nothing.

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2020-01-07 12:00:00Z
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Why oil isn't soaring in response to Iran tensions - Fox Business

FOX Business’ Jeff Flock reports on the rising price of oil amid heightening tensions between the U.S. and Iran.

America has emerged as a force in the world energy markets and that means geopolitical risks are not what they used to be for commodities despite tensions with Iran bubbling up again.

Continue Reading Below

“If this had happened five years ago, I certainly think you have a very strong argument that oil prices could hit triple digits,” Patrick DeHann, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told FOX Business’ Stuart Varney. “But we’ve added the capacity of 7.5 million barrels a day versus where we were a decade ago so we’ve come a long way, and that’s perhaps given the White House new options to deal with the Middle East.”

Instead, West Texas Intermediate crude oil, the U.S. benchmark, gained almost 6 percent, hitting a three-month high of $64.72 per barrel after a U.S. airstrike killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani on Thursday. The attack led to Iran fully withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal and promising to avenge Solemani’s death. President Trump said any Iranian response would not go unpunished.

GOLD BEST PROTECTION AS US-IRAN TENSIONS HEAT UP: GOLDMAN SACHS

The U.S. was, for many years, the world’s largest net energy importer, making it susceptible to economic shocks when there were sudden price increases due to rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The fear was that Iran could disrupt maritime transit in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important oil choke point. About 21 million barrels, or 21 percent of the global supply, pass through the strait each day.

But all of that has changed over the past few years as the U.S. has turned into a net exporter of energy. While Iran is still a threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, the impact, especially on the United States, wouldn’t be as severe.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

US 'VERY PREPARED' FOR IRANIAN CYBERATTACKS: ENERGY SECRETARY

“The U.S. has become not only a very large producer, the largest, but it has become the swing producer and markets have priced that in,” Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at the Frankfurt-based Allianz Global Investors, with $623 billion in assets under management, told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo.

Last September, the markets saw evidence of just how much things have changed when Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, soared by 14 percent in a single day after half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production was temporarily taken offline by an Iranian drone strike. Prices quickly reversed to their pre-attack levels in about two weeks.

WHY MARKETS AREN'T IN CHAOS AMID ESCALATING TENSIONS WITH IRAN: EL-ERIAN  

“It is a stylized fact that oil price shocks tend to lead recessions,” wrote James Sweeney, chief economist at Credit Suisse, the Zurich-based investment bank. “Five of the past six recessions were preceded by a sharp increase in oil prices.”

However, he noted that structural changes in the U.S. economy, including the aforementioned American shale revolution, historically low levels of consumer spending on gasoline and a Federal Reserve focused on prolonging the economic expansion as opposed to fighting inflation as reasons why oil shocks aren’t the recession risk that they used to be.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ON FOX BUSINESS

Of course, this is good news for President Trump who wants to avoid a recession ahead of the 2020 election. Since World War I, sitting presidents are a perfect 11 for 11 in their reelection bids if the economy wasn’t in a recession in the 24 months ahead of the election.

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2020-01-07 11:34:26Z
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Japan Seeks to Arrest Carlos Ghosn’s Wife - Wall Street Journal

TOKYO—A Japanese court issued an arrest warrant for Carole Ghosn, wife of former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn, on suspicion of perjury.

In a statement Tuesday, Tokyo prosecutors said Mrs. Ghosn is suspected of lying in sworn testimony last April before the court handling her husband’s case. He is accused of financial crimes including funneling Nissan money to business partners in the Middle East for his personal benefit. Mr. Ghosn says he is innocent.

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2020-01-07 10:18:00Z
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Musk Pulls Off Dance Moves at Tesla's Shanghai Plant - Bloomberg Markets and Finance

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2020-01-07 09:30:24Z
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Elon Musk says will design a future Tesla car in China for global market - CNBC

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., speaks during a ceremony at the company's Gigafactory in Shanghai, China, on Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2020.

Qilai Shen | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company will design a future car in China for the global market.

The electric car company founder said Tesla would open a design and engineering center in the world's second-largest economy. He did not specify any timelines.

Tesla also confirmed that it would start work on a production program for its Model Y crossover vehicle in its Shanghai Gigafactory, the only production factory outside of the U.S. Production for its Model 3 — a sedan that was announced before the Model Y back in 2016 — only started in October in the Shanghai factory.

Musk made the announcements as he delivered the first Model 3 cars out of the Shanghai factory to the public.

"We intend to continue making a significant investment and increasing the investment in China, making the Model 3 and the Model Y and future models also in China," Musk told an audience in Shanghai.

"Something that would be super cool … So we're going to do it … is to try to create a China design and engineering center to actually design an original car in China for worldwide consumption. I think this will be very exciting," he added.

China is seen by analysts as a critical market for Tesla but it faces a number of challenges from cooling electric vehicle sales to increasing competition.

Still, the company has produced positive news with a profitable third quarter of 2019 and fourth-quarter vehicle delivery numbers that topped Wall Street estimates. Shares of the firm hit a record high of $454 last week.

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2020-01-07 09:13:00Z
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