Timken 2658 Automatic Transmission Front Seal on 2040-parts.com

Tesla opens its patents for everyone to share EV knowledge

By Michael Karkafiris Motor Industry 13 June 2014 10:43 Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and one of the most talked-about personalities in the automotive industry, announced today that his company has opened all of its patents to make way for the competition to catch up and promote electric mobility for a wider audience. Open-sourcing your patents is a rather unusual strategy in the automotive world but Musk says that ‘Tesla Motors was created to accelerate the advent of sustainable transport. If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal.

Hyundai i40 / Sonata launches

The new Sonata / i40 has launched in Korea The Sonata – which will be the Hyundai i40 in Europe – is yet another very convincing new model from the Koreans. Gone is the very boring old Sonata and in comes the very European style i40. It is a somewhat derivative design – from the  ’Coupe Saloon’ school of design – but that’s a positive for a budget car maker like Hyundai.

Infographic: How much clay do Ford’s design studios use each year?

Ford has offered an insight into its clay modeling processes with a series of videos and an infographic that charts the process involved in turning a designer's sketch into a full-size model. The infographic uses data taken from all of Ford's global design studios in 2012 to give an idea of how much clay is used in a year, plus how much paint and di-noc film is used to cover each model. Ford has also released a video that gives a behind-the-scenes look at the firm's clay modeling studio in Merkenich, Germany, including interviews with members of the modeling team.