GOOD

Elon Musk as Iron Man, Sure, but a James Bond Villain?

Elon Musk has earned some unusual comparisons.

Elon Musk, the man behind PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX—so that's money, sweet cars, and space; basically a premise for a great music video—has earned some unusual comparisons. Everybody's heard that "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau considers Musk the inspiration for his version of Tony Stark, the billionaire industrialist who dons a futuristic flying suit and battles evil as Iron Man.

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Which Cities Are Most Ready for Electric Vehicles? You May Be Surprised

Dallas and Memphis are better equipped than San Francisco and Seattle, according to EV software maker Xatori.


According to Xatori, makers of electric-vehicle-related software, Dallas is the second-most EV-ready city in the United States. Now, they're using the incidence of charging stations as their metric, and as Armen Petrosian, Xatori's chief technical officer, told me, that's not necessarily a great indicator of where the actual electric vehicles are, but it is a pretty interesting statistic.

Here are the rankings, based on data stored in PlugShare, the company's EV-focused social network, public charging locations, and 2012 U.S. Census data. These are the number of public charging locations per 100,000 residents.

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GOODCo Finalists: Two Companies, Two Roads to the All-Electric Car

Tesla Motors and CODA Automotive are taking different routes to gas-free auto transportation.


Challenging large, entrenched companies isn’t easy for a small firm. Doing it with unproven technology is another level of complication, but both of our GOOD Company finalists today are doing just that: Building all-electric cars to compete with the biggest automobile companies out there. But each firm has a different approach to all-electric autos. Which one makes the most sense?

Tesla Motors

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Tesla and Toyota Team Up on Elecric RAV4


You have probably heard of Tesla Motors, but odds are you don't own their $100,000 high-performance all-electric sports car. It has a niche market. Tesla has been criticized, in fact, for creating an electric car that's basically a novelty for the rich. But back in May, we heard promising news: Tesla was striking up a partnership with Toyota, maker of more practical and affordable cars.

Now we know what they have planned. Today, the two companies announced that they will team up to update the Toyota RAV4 EV. The new version, expected to hit the market in 2012, will have a Toyota body and a Tesla electric powertrain. If the RAV4 collaboration goes well, we're likely to see more joint models. Toyesla? Tesota?

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