The Truth About Cars » Tesla Death Watch

Tesla Claims Profitability: Do We Believe Them?

Robert Farago — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 13:09:15 +0000

Yes, yes: I’m a Tesla naysayer. Have been right from the start when the media went ape shit for a car that hadn’t been built, repeating performance claims as if they were written on Moses’ stone tablets. (Which were eventually modified.) But I did take them off the “Tesla Birth Watch” when the car deliveries [...]

Tesla Model S: “90% there on the outside and about 40% there on the inside”

Edward Niedermeyer — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:53:37 +0000

And that’s just the prototype. The LA Times‘ Dan Neil (the automotive journalist’s automotive journalist) got an exclusive first up-close look at Tesla’s Model S and comes away with some healthy skepticism. What did he learn? “Tesla has already had to walk back a claim regarding the Model S’ recharge capacity. The car will not [...]

Tesla’s Model S Ponzi Scheme Rakes in $2.6M. At Least

Robert Farago — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:16:06 +0000

Now you may think that Tesla Motors, makers of the $109K+ lithium-ion powered Roadster, are acting in good faith re: taking deposits for their recently revealed Model S sedan. If so, GreenTech Media’s report that the Musk-scented company has secured 520 advance orders for the vehicle is a good thing: a sign of early adopters’ [...]

Tesla One Makes Race Series?

Robert Farago — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 11:34:30 +0000

The racing biz has been trying to go green for nearly a decade now, realizing that sheer horsepower and derring-do don’t conform to the temper of the times. The new mantra: race on Sunday, save the planet on Monday (after breakfast on my yacht). So the idea of a one-make Tesla Roadster race series makes [...]

Tesla Descends Into Witch Hunt Hell [Memo After the Jump]

Edward Niedermeyer — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:52:04 +0000

Looks like we may have retired the Tesla Deathwatch a bit prematurely. Valleywag reports that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has launched a Nixonian “plumber” offensive aimed at eliminating leaks from the Silicon Valley startup. And boy are the employees happy about it. The plumb-and-purge strategy was launched when Tesla engineer Peng Zhou told Valleywag that [...]

Siry Departed Tesla On Deposit Fraud Fears

Edward Niedermeyer — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:05:20 +0000

Gawker reports that Tesla spinmeister Daryl Siry left the Silicon Valley startup because CEO Elon Musk (above) was pushing to accept deposits on the Model S sedan. The Model S (a.k.a. WhiteStar) exists only as a prototype. Tesla has no factory or financing with which to build it. When Musk announced that the DOE would [...]

Tesla Birth Watch 41: “The Tesla Roadster is more about what it is than what it does”

Robert Farago — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:14:22 +0000

Christ symbolism optional, presumably.

Tesla Confirms DOE Loan Approval. Possibly.

Edward Niedermeyer — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:10:01 +0000

It can be so hard to tell when the firm’s CEO is so notoriously at odds with reality. So let’s just say that we’re entering Elon Musk’s world, grains of salt available upon request. In fact, the news comes from a Musk email that Jason Calcanis has posted verbatim to his blog (cross posted at [...]

Tesla’s Factory Plans On Hold

Edward Niedermeyer — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:25:02 +0000

Tesla has failed to secure the $100m it needed to continue with plans to build a headquarters on San Jose, CA’s Zanker Road, reports the San Jose Business Journal. Tesla had also planned to build a $250m manufacturing facility on the site, which would have assembled the firm’s development hell-bound White Star sedan. “We abandoned [...]

Tesla to Angry Customers: It’s All About Us

Robert Farago — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 12:48:05 +0000

Tesla Motors recently caused a kerfuffle amongst its earliest and most faithful supporters by raising the price of its Roadster. More precisely, the Silicon Valley automaker turned some of the car’s standard features into options, and then raised the prices on those (e.g. the fast charge power cord). Customers who’d provided Tesla with hefty deposits– [...]

$112,000 for the Power Cord; Tesla Roadster for Free

Robert Farago — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:09:58 +0000

Clarkson Pisses All Over the Tesla Roadster, Again

Robert Farago — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 03:23:11 +0000

Top Gear presenter and Times carmudgeon Jeremy Clarkson is not one to walk away form a fight. In fact, you could say he never met a fist he didn’t lunge his towards. After Tesla and the MSM knocked Clarkson for pretending that a Roadster ran out of juice in an episode of the shark jumping [...]

Tesla Motors Responds to Top Gear Review

Robert Farago — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 13:37:01 +0000

From egmcartech.com: “For the record: Thanks to The Stig’s impressive turn behind the wheel, the Tesla Roadster gets a higher ranking in Top Gear’s performance board than a Porsche 911 GT3. Jeremy Clarkson, a die-hard ‘petrol head’ with a clear bias against green cars generally, said that it must be ’snowing in hell’ because he [...]

Tesla Death Watch 41: Tesla Death Watch Ended

Robert Farago — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:32:44 +0000

TTAC’s Best and Brightest have spoken. TTAC has listened. You’ve asked for less negativity and more car passion non-death stuff (to use the technical term). So I’m cancelling the Tesla Death Watch. The Silicon Valley company has delivered its 100th Roadster– or so they say– and, well, how great is that? I still believe Tesla [...]

Tesla Death Watch 40: Or Should That Be Suicide Watch?

Robert Farago — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:09:05 +0000

Bloomberg reports that Tesla Motors’ self-appointed CEO Elon Musk is threatening to not build its [theoretical] $57,499 four-door electric vehicle at a $250m San Jose factory if Uncle Sugar doesn’t fork-over $350m from the soon-to-be-depleted (or not) U.S. Department of Energy $25b loan program. This must please CA officials no end, as they risked the [...]

Tesla Death Watch 39: Li-Ion Rules! Or, Well, You Know…

Robert Farago — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:56:18 +0000

Tesla’s hubris knows no bounds. Not only has the Silicon Valley manufacturer of $109k lithium-ion-powered carbon fiber sports cars applied for a $400m federal grant to sustain its oft-delayed and hugely unprofitable quest to “reinvent the automobile,” but they’ve also publicly declared that Detroit’s bailout-seeking beancounters should keep their NSFWing hands off Uncle Sam’s $25b [...]

Tesla Death Watch 38: Tesla Applies for $400m DOE Loan

Robert Farago — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:21:05 +0000

Whilst reporting that U.S. Treasure Secretary Henry “Hank” Paulson is telling the automakers “keep your hands off my $700b stack, Jack,” Fox News reveals that Ford, GM and Chrysler aren’t the only automakers looking to tap into the $25b Department of Energy “retooling” loan program. Tiny Tesla Motors has sent in its application for $400m [...]

Tesla Death Watch 37: Number 16 Delivered

Robert Farago — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:56:35 +0000

We’ve often wondered how many cars Tesla has actually delivered to paying customers. The company claims there are some 60 cars out there, somewhere. Well, thanks to Jason Calacanis’ patience over the last two years, we can now bring you this update: 16. Well, at least 16, as Jason has just taken delivery of Roadster [...]

Tesla Death Watch 36: Fisker Birth Watch?

Jonny Lieberman — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:29:41 +0000

Tesla Motors recently closed it’s Michigan research facility and fired about a quarter of its workforce. The Silicon Valley start-up might be totally broke and searching for Uncle Sam’s teat, too. Let me rephrase that– they may not have enough cash to remain viable AND they’re looking for a federal bailout/hand out. As you also [...]

Tesla Death Watch 35: Musk Outs Zhou

Robert Farago — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:25:24 +0000

Last week was something of a problem for Tesla Motors. After self-appointed CEO Elon Musk announced cutbacks (i.e. fired a bunch of people and closed their Detroit office), Valleywag (amongst others) reported that the Silicon Valley EV maker was down to its last $9m. For a carmaker, that’s like driving on fumes. Well, it turns [...]

Tesla Death Watch 34: Convertible and Carefree. Or is that Car-Free?

Edward Niedermeyer — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:20:21 +0000

Reuters reports that Tesla Motors has secured $40m in additional financing from existing investors. The electric sportscar firm had less than $10m in the bank as of a few days ago, but CEO Elon Musk is still convinced that Tesla has nothing to worry about. “Forty million is significantly more than we [...]

Tesla Death Watch 33: Hethel 1/5-i-mated

Robert Farago — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 14:31:57 +0000

Tesla’s heading down the home stretch here on Ye Olde Death Watch. Autocar reports that the Silicon Valley-based EV-maker says its cutting one fifth of its UK workforce. The number of Tesla employees laboring at Lotus’ Hethel factory, where the Tesla Roadster is born, has slipped from 50 to 40, or less. ““We deeply regret [...]

Tesla Death Watch 32: Cash Conflagration Kills Cars?

Jonny Lieberman — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:01:09 +0000

Oh noes! According to an unnamed source referred to by Valleywag as “the Tesla insider,” the Silicon Valley electric car maker only has $9m in the bank. And that’s it. Well OK– there’s a bit more. This “insider” (Gawker just loves insiders) is a friend of blogger Owen Thomas and a “longtime [...]

Tesla Death Watch 31: HuffPost Pronounces T.O.D.

Robert Farago — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 11:12:45 +0000

If you didn’t know better, you’d read Huffington Post writer (and HUMMER apologist) Matthew DeBord’s essay on Tesla’s travails as a post mortem. “But even though the downfall of Tesla seems like a disaster for boosters of all-electric vehicles, it should be a welcome development for the green-transportation movement. Tesla symbolized a science-fiction view of [...]

Tesla Death Watch 30: “Violent Understeer”

Robert Farago — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:01:00 +0000

The worm has turned. The unabashed adulation given the Tesla Roadster and its wide-eyed progenitors has turned into something altogether vitriolic. In other words, payback’s a bitch. Even before the first demo Tesla prototype hit the streets, TTAC called on the media to stop the love fest and wait and see if the company’s product [...]