100 years ago my great grandparents were also angel investors – in Infrastructure, Media and Bee tech They invested in media, ag / cleantech, and infrastructure. Lest you think angel investing is new or VCs are smart – it really hasn’t changed much in a century. In the 1920s my great grandparents were active angel investors […]
by Neal Dikeman, chief blogger, Cleantech Blog Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) has been the electric vehicle darling since almost the day it launched. I’d argue there are some really neat aspects to its product and strategy, but it is far from a resounding market leader in EVs. The Range and Battery Scale Advantage There are a couple of […]
Analysis of 2014 financial results and valuation of Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA)
For my birthday, I told my wife I want LED light bulbs. I know, right? You’re thinking how cool is that! If you’re thinking anything else, just keep it to yourself. A bit of history. I like light. I hate waiting for CFLs to warm up. We need floodlight style for recessed lighting, and A […]
I get this every time I discuss EVs. Something along the lines of oh, you shouldn’t be including PHEVs in with EVs, they don’t count, or are not real EVs, just a stopgap etc. I tend to think PHEVs may be better product. At least for now. And I follow the GM’s Chevy Volt vs […]
I do like the Model S. I think Tesla is doing terrific things to the car industry, direct to consumer, aggressive EV range, great looking car. My friends who have one love it. The company is proving it has legs. But, as to the recent market run-up, not to be catty, but are you SERIOUS? […]
For a project we are working on, we have been analyzing EV and HEV historical sales performance. The numbers are striking. In the US Hybrids took until their 6th year to achieve 100,000+/year in unit sales and 1% in market share of new vehicles sold. Electrics and Plugins are currently on pace to do that […]
Kior, one of the farthest along cellulosic biofuels producers shipped its first drop in cellulosic biofuels from its pilot plant, but was way below its prior production targets. And Biofuels Digest reports it is now considering a smaller scale expansion of its pilot before launching its long announced commercial plant in Natchez. This sounds like […]
Bill Ford is talking about innovation today at the Ford Trends conference. He started with two quotes that struck me: Henry Ford – “If I’d asked my customers originally what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse. ” Bill Ford – “The car industry back then was the ultimate disruptive industry.” Ford says […]
Last night I was at a dinner with Ford CEO Alan Mulally at the Ford Trends conference in Detroit. After taking a couple of questions on electric cars, emissions, and mileage standards, Mulally touted the C-max platform with the words: “I want to tell you a funny story”. The punch line of which is as […]
Wow. This has been a really interesting few months in cleantech. First Solar announced a $0.99 cent/Wp target within 4 years for installed with trackers utility scale in its investor deck. That equates to around $4-5 henry hub gas price in a new combined cycle gas plant. The scary thing is that best utility scale […]
I had a chance to wander around the Offshore Technology Conference this week and chat about some of the technologies on display. OTC is still heavily a mechanical engineer’s conference. Despite the high tech nature of the industry, in large part vendors are not yet leading customers, and steel still rules the day in technology. […]
Simple Thoughts on Aggie Muster Written on Muster’s Eve April 20th 2013 the year of the birth of my daughter Softly call the Muster, gently call the Roll. Another year is passing, time will take her toll. My family is remembered, as I’ll be remembered too. Remember me my brethren; I am remembering you. Softly […]
Energy storage is still the rage in cleantech. But after the collapse of A123 and Beacon, and the spectacular failure on the Fisker Karma in its Consumer Reports tests, fire in Hawaii with Xtreme Power’s lead acid grid storage system and with NGK’s sodium sulphur system, and now battery problems grounding the Boeing Dreamliners, investors […]
I am selling my little Honda in California, since I moved to Texas two years ago, I left a car in San Francisco to drive when I’m here. So I’d been looking into getting car share. Absolutely loving the concept, been trying to figure out if it is a better deal for me than renting […]
Great article today on a study suggesting that traffic congestion is created by the marginal driver, and more interesting, from the marginal driver from specific and predictable locations. Maybe 1% of commuters leaving from specific neighborhoods have a big increase on traffic congestion and commute time for everyone. The link to the study is here. We dealt […]
I drafted this memo in early 2003 for a venture capitalist friend of mine, well before the bubble in cleantech. In light of the back and forth on the recent Solar City IPO, I thought it was worth revisiting. Some of the points were pretty prescient, calling out many of the challenges cleantech investors and […]
Are electric cars a Niche? Or just coming into their own? I’ve been asked that question twice now in the last week in various forms, so thought I’d blog my answer. Electric Drive Transportation Association has the total number of US sales at just under 400,000 this year, or 3.3% market share including hybrids. Hybrids they […]
It’s been a busy, ummm interesting year. We’ve tracked profits to founders and investors of $14 Billion in major global IPOs on US exchanges and $9 Billion in major global M&A exits from venture backed cleantech companies in the last 7-10 years. Money is being made. A lot of money. But wow, not where you’d […]
I’ve personally written hundreds of articles over the years. I selected a few I thought were pretty timeless or prescient, and worth rereading: What is Cleantech? Always a good starting point: or try, The Seminal List of Cleantech Definitions The “Rules” in Cleantech Investing – Rereading this one after the cleantech exits study we […]