Tesla Motors press release from Jan 23:
* Tesla Motors has received all regulatory approvals to import the first production Tesla Roadster (“P1”) for sale. This includes all necessary EPA and DOT approvals, including completion of all Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS.)
* P1 will arrive at Tesla Motors headquarters next week for delivery to customer Elon Musk, Chairman of Tesla Motors.
Series production of the Tesla Roadster is scheduled to begin March 17th, 2008.
* As communicated previously, early production units will be equipped with an interim transmission that meets durability requirements but limits acceleration to 5.7 seconds from 0 to 60 mph.
* Separately, Tesla Motors engineers have designed a permanent solution for mass production that supports the original specification of 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds.
* The planned solution has some very positive benefits for our customers. Instead of a complex 2-speed transmission design, Tesla will achieve the original performance goals with a simpler one-speed unit mated to a higher rated Power Electronics Module (PEM.) The existing motor will be modified to have advanced cooling capabilities to handle the additional power. The permanent transmission unit will be engineered to handle the higher torque of the powertrain.
* The planned solution reduces program risk, provides better efficiency, lower weight, equal or better range, better thermal performance and quicker quarter mile acceleration due to the elimination of the need to shift gears.
* The planned solution incorporates the latest developments of our powertrain team which has been continually improving on Tesla’s core technology.
* Early production will proceed at a limited rate and then ramp up to full production when the permanent powertrain solution is production ready later this year.
* The upgrade from the interim solution to the higher power, permanent solution will be provided to our customers free of charge when available later this year.

It’s been a lack of cars.

That’s a lot different than GM’s.

If they get the bugs out, they may very well be successful. There is a market there, and, at least in theory, their business plan seems sound. But if they can’t actually deliver any cars, then that’s quite a bit different. By any accounts, they are way behind where they should be in terms of delivery dates and the like.

Who is going to be repairing and servicing these things when the owners start having problems, your local electrician or will it have to be sent back to the factory?

You left out part of that equation, $280,000,000 minus $140,000,000 borrowed, minus continuing operational costs, minus warranty costs, minus huge bonuses for the new top management = -$50,000,000

Maybe a, if it never goes anywhere, a “Tesla Abortion Memorial” column?

If someone can make an electric car capable of 200 miles per charge and 0-60 in the 10 second range. A car that is comfortable and reliable, easily charged at home and has all the conveniences of a Honda Accord. It’ll sell.

I envy the battery company that provides the solution.

I’d still like to see something positive come out of all that effort, though — and not have it end as a SillyCon Valley joke. That said, a “cadence” of one car a week is a pretty slow beat, in music or industry.

Tesla, to all intents, is just a ramped up version of the mistake that’s taking GM down: build up-spec’d cars for non-existent markets, and pretend you have the rationale for an assembly line effort.

Then just watch everything go south.

To be specific: GM’s – and now Tesla’s – failing lies in imagining an ideal customer out there, and then building a car for this spectre. Trouble resulting when it proves economically unfeasibly to be supplying a vehicle to this non-existent customer base. (Performance SUV, anyone?)

2080 a year* US$100,000 = $208 million dollars a year on EVs?*

thats a helluva lot of money on the one niche car model.

*assuming no lowering of the price for the first year of production.

–chuck
http://chuck.goolsbee.org

Honestly, I think you’ve set a pretty low bar there. GM built several hundred EV-1’s, but the program still ended up in oblivion. Even Vector delivered a car to Andre Agassi, but that didn’t mean that it lived long and prospered thereafter.

If Tesla can’t deliver cars to at least most of those who have paid their deposits thus far, then I’d say that the series should continue. The issue isn’t whether they can cobble together a kit car or two, but whether they prove that they are able to operate a production line that can produce these things in some volume, and that they can produce it in volumes that are close to their original sales targets.

That’s assuming that Whitestar wasn’t already aborted. Besides, there’s always the Fisker Karma, not to mention a bunch of other projects such as the Aptera and the Nissan/Renault/NEC EV collaboration in Israel.

The survivability of Tesla will really be tested when competing cars enter that small high priced market.

Assuming they ever get to real production. Having enough cars to give jounalists a few rides won’t cut it.

You could always keep the Tesla Birth Watch series going as we wait for the Whitestar…

Excellent idea! Consider it done. The series, I mean.