If you want to surprise the Tesla owner in your life this holiday season with a gift they’ll love – or heck, treat yourself! – check out these beautiful accessories made by US and Canadian company Tesloid. The company’s founders are Tesla owners who design accessories and provide customer service they themselves want. Or, as they put it, “Teslas are premium cars and we deserve a premium experience to match that of the cars. So we took the matter into our own hands.”
Tesloid is offering Electrek readers a generous 25% discount off its irresistible accessories. Use the coupon code Electrek25 at checkout to get Tesloid’s biggest discount all year, and check out Tesloid’s top 5 gift ideas below.
Frunk luggage bags set for Model 3 and Model Y
These frunk bags for Tesla Model 3 or Y would make an awesome gift, and you get two bags to boot. (No pun intended, UK readers.) They’re super durable, so you can overstuff them for a weekend road trip or air travel alike, and they’ll still fit seamlessly into your frunk. They feature a laptop pocket, dual zippers, and a comfortable shoulder pad on the strap. To give an idea of what each bag would fit, it’s roomy enough to fit a MacBook Air, four shirts, shorts, a pair of jeans, big headphones, a toiletry bag, and a pair of men’s shoes.
Frunk cooler bag for Model 3 and Model Y
Give the gift of fun with this cooler bag, and Tesla drivers can ditch heavy, clunky coolers that waste valuable car space. The frunk cooler bag’s left side is thermally insulated for hot or cold food and drinks, and the right is a “pantry” side for everything else. There’s also a detachable icebag that has a waterproof base and water-resistant zippers. So you can grab a quick snack and a drink straight out of your frunk if you’re in a hurry, or hoist up the cooler bag by its handles and head to the park for a relaxing picnic. And imagine going to a tailgate party with this tidy setup!
Camping tent for Model Y
Give the gift of the great outdoors with Tesloid’s super versatile and convenient Tesla Model Y camping tent, which is custom tailored to fit the Model Y’s tail space. You can either set up a post around your Model Y, or after a day of exploring, simply dock the rear of your car right inside the tent.
The 100% waterproof tent features a 7-foot ceiling and nearly 50 square feet of indoor living place as well as 25 square feet of shaded porch. And that’s not even counting the sleeping area inside your Model Y – a bonus for folks who aren’t keen ground sleepers. (Tesloid makes a handy inflatable mattress that fits in the Model Y’s trunk.) The tent is user friendly: It comes in a compact carrying bag and springs open in less than 30 seconds, and you can fine-tune the setup in around 20 minutes.
Floor mats for Model 3, Model Y, and Model S
There are a lot of floor mats on the market for Teslas, but Tesloid’s offerings are a sure bet if you want quality, durability, and a precise fit. Model 3 and Model Y have two floor mat options: 3D extreme performance or 3D comfort performance. They cost the same, but here’s the difference: The extreme performance is made of tough TPE, and the comfort performance is made of durable material. If you’re hiking through mud or snow, or have toddlers, go with the extreme performance mats. For everyday wear and tear, comfort performance will suit your purpose. Model S drivers can opt for the extreme performance option only.
Other cool accessories
Tesloid also has a lot of other cool offerings for Model 3, Model Y, Model S, and Model X. The company makes a Model Y roof sunshade screen for $99.99 before the 25% discount that clips in easily. Tesloid’s Model 3 interior accessories include a console wrap for $49.99 before the discount in carbon fiber, matte black, white, and wood. And for Model X and Model S drivers, there are screen protectors and pedal covers.
You don’t want to miss this sale, as Tesloid won’t go this low again for quite a while. Plus, you’re assured of the best quality products, a smooth shipping process, and Tesloid even ships internationally – exactly what every holiday shopper needs. Remember to use the coupon code Electrek25 at checkout to get your 25% off. Happy holidays, fine Tesla people.
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Multi-million-dollar grants adding up to more than $46 million from the US Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) will help support electrification efforts at several American ports.
The Long Beach Container Terminal (LBCT) in Long Beach, California has received a $34.9 million grant from the FHWA to replace 155 on-site commercial trucks and buses with zero-emission vehicles (ZEV). The grant will fund both the purchase of new electric trucks and the necessary charging infrastructure to support them.
LBCT said the grant dollars will allow it to continue its multi-billion dollar investments in more sustainable logistical operations. “Our vehicle electrification project, coupled with previous investments, enables LBCT to achieve a unique status that is reframing the way the world views sustainable goods movement, enhancing community quality of life and climate change,” said Anthony Otto, CEO of LBCT.
“This investment is a huge win for clean air, electrification and the region,” said US House Rep. Robert Garcia. “These federal dollars will make our port cleaner, safer and help us meet our climate goals.”
Container ports used to be some of the dirtiest, most heavily polluted areas in the world. That was bad for everyone – but it was especially bad for the people who lived and worked near them. That’s why any positive change is good. Beyond just “positive change,” however, ports today seem to be leading the way when it comes to electric vehicle and hydrogen adoption.
How things change!
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German equipment manufacturer Kramer showed off a pair of zero-emission equipment options at the Paris Intermat show last week – the 5065e electric wheel loader and 1445e electric telehandler.
Kramer says the quiet operation of its new electric wheel loader and telehandler are ideal for noise-sensitive areas such as city centers, cemeteries and golf courses, hotels, and suburban parks and recreation areas, where it can operate without emitting harmful diesel particulate matter and other forms of air pollution.
Kramer-Werke GmbH is serious about promoting its new EVs in the French market. “That’s why Intermat is an important platform for us,” explains Christian Stryffeler, Kramer’s Managing Director. “We are also looking forward to showcasing our new generation of (electric) wheel loaders and telescopic wheel loaders here.”
Kramer 5065e wheel loader
The 5065e loader is powered a 37.5 kWh, 96V lithium-ion battery that’s good for up to four hours of continuous operation – which is a lot more than it sounds, considering idle time in an EV doesn’t drain batteries the way idling a diesel drains fuel. A 23 kW (30 hp) electric motor drives the electric wheel loader around the job site, while a 25 kW (approx. 35 hp) motor powers the machine’s 40 liters hydraulic system.
Kramer says the battery on its electric loader can be fully charged in just 5.1 hours using a “Type 2 Wallbox” (that’s an L2 charger to you and me). Max payload is 1750 kg, with a 2800 kg tipping load. Top speed is 20 km/h (approx. 12.5 mph).
Kramer 1445e telehandler
The 1445e telehandler uses a 96V battery architecture that’s similar to the one in the wheel loader, but in a smaller 18 kWh or 28 kWh pack. This enables a fleet manager to right-size their equipment’s batteries to provide four hours of run time in different types of work environments. And, also like the wheel loader, a 23 kW (30 hp) electric motor provides the drive while a 25 kW (approx. 35 hp) powers the hydraulics.
Level 2 charging comes standard on Kramer’s electric telehandler, enabling a full charge of the larger, 28 kWh battery in about five hours. Max payload is 1450 kg.
Electrek’s Take
It’s always good to see more manufacturers pushing out electric equipment options. It’s still the “wild west” out there, even more so than in automotive, and Kramer’s offerings seem to be a step behind in some ways (no DCFC capability) and ahead in others (96V where others are 48V), so it’s hard to know where they stand.
The robotics experts at ETH Zurich have developed an autonomous excavator that uses advanced AI to help it complete high-skill tasks without a human operator.
Dry stone wall construction typically involves huge amounts of operator labor. Doing it right requires not just hours of labor, but hours of skilled, experienced labor. At least, it used to. If the crew at ETH is successful, building stone retaining walls will soon become a “set it and forget it” task for robots to complete. Robots like their HEAP excavator.
HEAP (Hydraulic Excavator for an Autonomous Purpose) is a customized Menzi Muck M545 developed for autonomous operation that uses electrically-driven hydraulics to operate an advanced boom arm equipped with draw wire encoders, LiDAR, Leica iCON site-mapping, and a Rototilt “wrist” on the end that makes it look more like a high-precision robotic arm than a traditional heavy equipment asset.
ETH HEAP tech stack
Which makes sense. After all: the ETH guys are roboticists, not skilled heavy equipment operators. So, how does their robot do against skilled operators?
“We are currently outperformed by human excavator operators in placement speed,” ETH researchers wrote in Science Robotics. “Such operators, however, typically require string and paint references with which to register their construction and often a second or third person outside the machine to provide guidance and to insert small supporting stones, gravel, and soil by hand and shovel. In contrast, our process can build complex nonplanar global surface geometries without physical reference markers, does not require a skilled driver or small supporting stones, and provides a full digital twin of the built structure for better accountability and future reuse.”
Translation: the robot is slower, but it gets the job done.
You can watch the ETH HEAP put all its onboard tech to work building a 215 foot long, 20 foot high retaining wall all on its own in the video, below.
Autonomous excavator constructs dry stone wall
The completed project can be seen at Circularity Park in Oberglatt, Switzerland, and illustrates the potential for autonomous equipment to build with irregularly-shaped materials. And with skilled operators in short supply everywhere, the potential to free up operators so they can go where they’re really needed.
That said, the electrically driven hydraulics and high-precision Rototilt wrist on the end of the boom arm’s “claw” alone make this futuristic excavator worth some attention. As more and more manufacturers switch to full electric or even “just” electric drive, research into better solutions for existing hydraulic equipment and expertise could lead to big market wins.
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