By Robert Farago
May 16, 2008 -
Not for same reasons you do. You want a battery-powered Tesla Roadster because it’s a way cool car boasting bleeding edge technology. Or maybe you just like sexy sports cars. Or perhaps you’re looking for massive eco-auto props. As a free marketeer, I’m good with any of these motivations. As a Porsche Boxster S owner, I’m not bothered (I’ve already found my dream date). But as the publisher of this website, I want a Tesla Roadster BAD. I want to reveal the truth about the EV– whatever that may be.
The Tesla Birth Watch was born a fit of journalistic pique. It galled me to see my colleagues repeating the aspiring electric car company’s claims for their Roadster’s range, recharge time, safety and performance as fact. This before they'd turned a single wheel in anger. It made these media outlets– including mainstream publications that should have known better (I’m looking at you Forbes)– not-so-silent partners in the company’s PR and fund-raising efforts. The words “unproven” and “claimed” were conspicuous by their absence.
What’s more, Tesla’s Devil-make-care insistence that their unproven lithium-ion battery technology would deliver the claimed results (see how that works?) struck me as the worst kind of corporate arrogance– especially for a start-up. If BMW announces that their new twin-turbo 3.0-liter six will deliver 300 horsepower, accelerate the 335i from zero to sixty in 5.4 seconds and deliver 17/26 mpg, I have every reason to believe them. If a newbie named Tesla says their high tech Roadster will go from zero to sixty in under four seconds, travel 250 miles between charges and recharge in three hours, I say show me the money.
So I started the Tesla Birth Watch. If you go back and read the various installments, you’ll soon find the common thread: delays, disambiguation and disappearing claims. Transmission problems have forced the company to deep-six its sub-four second zero to sixty time. The 250-mile range is now 211 miles in “EPA Combined”- despite the fact that the EPA doesn’t have an electric vehicle mpg protocol. And no one– I repeat no one– has tested the Roadster’s batteries’ recharge time.
When Frank said we should pronounce T.O.B. (Time of Birth) on the Tesla Roadster and end the series– as the manufacturer claimed to have delivered a vehicle to a paying customer– I wanted proof. Given Tesla’s credibility (or complete lack thereof), the fact that this customer wants to remain anonymous doesn’t pass the smell test.
And if there is any wiggle room in our definition of “customer delivery of a production car,” I’m confident Tesla’s using it. For example, Tesla says it will retrofit the Roadster with a new transmission just as soon as they figure-out how to build one. Would we call a Ford Flex a proper production vehicle if it had to have a post-sale tranny swap? I don’t think so. As TTAC commentator PCH101 points out, “Even Vector delivered one vehicle. Technically, they’re still in business. It remains one of our oldest and best known vaporware companies.”
But you don’t hire a world-class Managing Editor, and then tell him he’s full of shit (at least not often). So I’ve deferred to Frank in this case. But I insisted we start the Tesla Death Watch. Think of it this way…
Tesla says they’ll deliver 400 cars by next March. Let’s assume they make, build and sell twice that and then some: 1000 cars per year, or 20 cars a week (pausing to note that Audi plans to sell 1k similarly-priced R8’s stateside in the car’s first year.) Let’s also assume they clear $20k per $100k car. So that’s $20m in ostensible net profit. Is there anyone reading this who thinks Tesla hasn’t already burned through $20m?
Now we know Tesla’s raised a lot more money than that, but that’s not the point. At some point, they’ll need to, you know, take in more money than they spend. At the same time, the Roadster runs the very real risk of catching “everyone who wants one’s got one” disease. It’s no wonder the company’s beginning to shift focus onto the WhiteStar EV– or partial EV– sedan. They need something to sell. To investors.
In truth, Tesla Motors is no more likely to produce and sell a viable, profitable, competitive, mass-market electric-powered sedan than General Motors. Given Tesla’s history of over-promising and under- (as in not) delivering on the Roadster, I reckon they don’t have a hope in Hell of achieving this goal. But that won’t stop them from raising tens of millions of dollars for their cushy offices and healthy salaries, and making a killing with an IPO. Nor will it stop us from telling the truth about Tesla, test car or no.
[Once again, we call on Tesla to provide a Roadster for third-party evaluation.]
Subscribe to Newsletter56 Responses to “ I Want My Tesla Roadster! ”
Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 » Show All Reverse Order
Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 » Show All Reverse Order
Leave a Reply 
Back to Top
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Digg
del.icio.us
Blinklist
Furl
Netscape
Google
NewsVine
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Technorati
YahooMyWeb
Windows Live
POWERED
May 16th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
RF, If i were a rich man, I’d use my rich guy skills (money) to get you a roadster. In my sick sense of humor though, I’d get you a pink one.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
ZCline:
As I’m a red-green color blind social liberal who’s raised four Barbie-loving girls, I’ve got no problem with pink. Thanks for the kind thoughts.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Given the price, interior space, and stiff (aka “sporty”) ride, I can almost guarantee you that every [future] Tesla owner will have multiple vehicles.
Charge time: 20 seconds flat! 10 seconds to plug it in at night and 10 seconds to unplug it before your drive off in the morning. If you forget to plug in, then just take one of your multiple other vehicles instead.
Range: Rich people rarely drive themselves 200 miles in a single day. Given the interior space and stiff ride, these same people will probably want to take a huge SUV for such a trip anyway. The range might be an issue for a racetrack, though.
I’m more intrigued that they haven’t resolved the transmission problem. That to me means you can’t call it fully birthed yet. How fast does it accelerate with the 1-speed anyway? Would it be humbled in a straight line by a $27k Mustang? How about a Lotus Elise?
May 16th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I insisted we start the Tesla Death Watch.
I prefer “Tesla Afterbirth”
May 16th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Sunnyvale: How fast does it accelerate with the 1-speed anyway?
They’ve increased the voltage draw, so even with the one-speed transmission, they’re quoting 0-60 in 3.9 seconds.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Paul Niedermeyer:
They’ve increased the voltage draw, so even with the one-speed transmission, they’re quoting 0-60 in 3.9 seconds.
I assume that would eat into range, BIG style…
SunnyvaleCA :
Range: Rich people rarely drive themselves 200 miles in a single day. Given the interior space and stiff ride, these same people will probably want to take a huge SUV for such a trip anyway. The range might be an issue for a racetrack, though.
It’s not the facts that bother me (much), it’s the constant misrepresentation of the facts. The entirely theoretical not-to-say completely misleading 211 EPA range is on their website.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
“And no one– I repeat no one– has tested the Roadster’s batteries’ recharge time.”
Again with the charge time. I don’t see what the big deal is. I’ve said this before, but I guess it’s worth repeating here:
The charge time is just a simple math problem. The battery pack holds about 53 kWh of energy. So if all you’ve got is a wall outlet, say 120 Volts at 15 Amps (which gives 1.8k Watts), it will take about 30 hours to fully charge the pack from a state of depletion. To get a full charge in 3.5 hours, Tesla’s home charging unit would have to provide about 15kW of power. At 240 Volts, that’s less than 70 Amps, which is perfectly reasonable for a unit that’s professionally installed by an electrician. Of course if you’re using the car for your daily commute of say 50 miles, you’d rarely be charging from empty.
I’d be skeptical of companies that claim 5 or 10 minute charge times. The equipment (cables, electrical isolation, safety interlocks, feed from the power plant, etc) you’d need to safely carry electrical energy at that rate is impractical in a home setting.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
doug:
The charge time is just a simple math problem. The battery pack holds about 53 kWh of energy. So if all you’ve got is a wall outlet, say 120 Volts at 15 Amps (which gives 1.8k Watts), it will take about 30 hours to fully charge the pack from a state of depletion. To get a full charge in 3.5 hours, Tesla’s home charging unit would have to provide about 15kW of power. At 240 Volts, that’s less than 70 Amps, which is perfectly reasonable for a unit that’s professionally installed by an electrician. Of course if you’re using the car for your daily commute of say 50 miles, you’d rarely be charging from empty.
Prove it. If not you, them.
May 16th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
RF,
Having watched a LOT of aviation companies go through the exact same process as Tesla, and then having them fail, I share your pain.
I lost sales to these scammers. Both because people were watching and waiting, or they gave the idiots their money, or they refused to put down a deposit on one of our new designs despite the fact that we had a solid track record.
What’s amazing is that some of us can seemingly see through the delays and ofuscations, and some cannot. I made a bad call on one of my competitors who actually did make it to market, but their plane is still having problems. OTOH, I made the right call on over a dozen players in only a few years. Why do people want to bet so much money on such long odds for something that really isn’t all that revolutionary?
May 16th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
RF: I assume that would eat into range, BIG style…
No more than with the two speed. It takes x amount of current to accomplish, either way. They just found an electronic way around the initial perceived benefits of a two-speed tranny. They should have done this in the first place. Certainly, fast driving runs down the range.