*By Michael Teich*
Tesla's Model 3 Performance vehicle is bad news for the company's haters, said Wall Street Journal auto columnist Dan Neil.
"Tesla runs their company in a different way, and it drives people crazy. But you can't argue with the results," Neil told Cheddar in an interview Friday.
Earlier this year, CEO Elon Musk announced the high-performance Model 3 Performance vehicle on Twitter. According to Musk, the dual-motor, all-wheel drive car "will beat anything in its class on the track." Neil was the first person to test drive it, and he was thoroughly impressed.
"This thing is magnificent, a little rainbow-farting space ship," he said in his review. "They have a schedule of innovation ahead of them."
Sans additions, the base price of the Tesla Model 3 Performance is $64,000, but it may sell for $78,000 with certain upgrades. The car is advertised with a 0 to 60 mph acceleration time of 3.5 seconds.
Whether reviews of the souped-up version will make up for recent struggles at Tesla remains to be seen. Many Wall Street analysts have grown skeptical of the company's capacity to meet expectations for even the regular version of the Model 3, which is supposed to cost as little as $35,000, though that configuration isn't available yet. And CEO Elon Musk's latest [blunders](https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/17/technology/elon-musk-twitter-investors/index.html) on Twitter aren't helping. Even if Tesla overcomes the hurdles of production, investment bank Needham says consumers are losing patience: the analyst estimates that about one in every four Model 3 orders is canceled, about twice the rate of late year's reports.
For the full segment, [click here.](https://cheddar.com/videos/behind-the-wheel-of-the-tesla-model-3-performance-vehicle)
As the world of crypto evolves, the need from investors for some type of stability within crypto is also growing. Enter stablecoins. Stablecoins serve as a crypto-equivalent which hold their value, and allow investors to quickly move their profits across currencies. Patrick McConlogue, CEO of Overline and former Citadel Investment Group engineer, explains what to expect ahead of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee’s stablecoin hearing, as regulatory tensions between the crypto market and the government continue to hover in limbo.
Carlo and Baker cover the latest data showing the Omicron wave has likely started, Pfizer's Covid pill, Jan. 6 and a box office rescue attempt courtesy of Spider-Man.
As 2021 is approaching its end, the meme stock mania that surrounded companies like Gamestop and AMC this year doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Stocks for both companies plunged to their lowest levels in months on Monday, but on Tuesday, traders seemed to come to the rescue, as the stocks for both companies saw rebounds. Great Hill Capital Chariman Thomas Hayes joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Upward Farms is an indoor vertical farming company on a mission to heal our broken food system and reconnect consumers with organic locally-grown food. The Brooklyn-based company uses its controlled environment farms to grow organic leafy greens, which are sold at whole foods markets in New York City. Upward Farms co-founder and CEO Jason Green joined Cheddar Climate to discuss.
One of the biggest hurdles when it comes to widespread electric vehicle adoption is consumer hesitation about their ability to keep their EV charged if they take a longer trip outside of their locality. Now, electric companies nationwide are teaming up as part of a coalition to build out a network of EV charging stations spanning major U.S. travel corridors. Kellen Schefter, director of electric transportation at the Edison Electric Institute, joins Cheddar Climate to discuss the coalition's plans, how drivers can compare fueling up with gas to recharging an EV on a long trip, how the charging network will be funded, and more.
The NBA's Golden State Warriors announced a partnership with crypto exchange FTX. It will become the official crypto trading platform for the franchise as well as home to a number of NFTs it plans to drop. Brandon Schneider, president and chief operating officer of the team, joined Cheddar's Kristen Scholer to provide some background on the deal and talked about how digital assets are transforming the world of sports. "We as a society, not just in sports, are kind of at the beginning of the beginning with crypto and NFTs specifically, so we're really excited to partner with FTX to see where we can take this together," he said.
