Tesla Founder Loses His Temper(ature)

Cammy Corrigan
by Cammy Corrigan

Recently, Nissan claimed that their Leaf will have a battery production cost of $375/kWh. A what? Anyway, this was:

  1. Surprising as battery costs for an electric cars were forecast to be between $400 – $700/kWh.
  2. Meaningless, as long as people thing in lease rate /month and MPG (and conveniently forget it.

But Tesla’s founding father didn’t like that at all.

Dailytech.com reports that Elon Musk bitch slapped Nissan and their Leaf. In a call to analysts and investors he branded Nissan’s Leaf’s supporting systems more primitive that Tesla’s first prototype. Cat fight! He highlights that the Leaf uses air cooling for its battery while Tesla uses a liquid heating/cooling thermal system. This will put the Leaf’s battery temperature, as Musk puts it, “all over the place”. And as we all know, fluctuation in temperature isn’t good for a battery. Even GM stated that the Volt could suffer from similar problems. Tesla’s temperature system involves each battery module being equipped with liquid which can cool or heat the battery module, depending on the climate outside, to ensure battery stability.

Unfortunately, what Mr Musk didn’t mention was that the Tesla sells for a hell of a lot more than the Nissan Leaf. A lower price means a less sophisticated system. A bit like Ferrari criticizing Suzuki for their driving dynamics. Two brands in completely different price brackets. But, I understand Elon Musk’s agitation. Tesla lost $38.5m in the last financial quarter and its stock is trading less than the initial IPO price (stock price at time of writing is $19.6899). Maybe Toyota could lend it a few dollars? I mean, Nissan is the opponent here.


Cammy Corrigan
Cammy Corrigan

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  • Jkross22 Jkross22 on Aug 10, 2010

    Musk sees the pr the Leaf is getting and wants the limelight back. Can't blame him as it's his company, but he comes off as a prima donna rather than a scrappy business person.

  • Holydonut Holydonut on Aug 10, 2010

    Not sure how you go about saying that $19.69 is trading below the initial IPO price. TSLA opened trading / launched at $17, and people actually thought this was "high" at the time. I know the public had a shot at in the $17's when it launched since I put in a limit order of $17.5 and bought it without doing anything fancy.

  • Mythicalprogrammer Mythicalprogrammer on Aug 11, 2010

    "# Meaningless, as long as people thing in lease rate /month and MPG (and conveniently forget it." Thing => think (?) That sentence derailed my train of thought as I was reading. That Musk is a smart man... but he needs to learn how to remove his foot from his mouth.

  • Fred Talmadge Fred Talmadge on Aug 11, 2010

    Mr Musk's protest sound of desperation. Is Tesla's future doomed, sooner than expected?

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