Tesla Birth Watch 1: Tesla Threatens to Deliver Cars

by Robert Farago

December 22nd, 2007 1:34 PM

tesla birth watch 1 tesla threatens to deliver cars

You may recall that TTAC took Tesla to task over its range claims for their all-electric Roadster– which the company stoutly defended, then revised downwards from 250 miles to 200. We also warned that Tesla wasn't likely to meet their already once-postponed summer delivery date– which they didn't. And now the erstwhile automaker has announced that they'll start releasing cars to customers in October. Or November. Forbes reports that Tesla CEO and co-founder Martin Eberhard is adamant: "We will definitely ship in that time frame." Eberhard attributes the company's third delay to a "late change in the transmission vendor." No word yet on whether the Tesla Roadster has passed federal crash tests. And you'd kinda think the company would have a working press car by now, less than three months from its [alleged] launch. Rest assured that we'll be following this developing story as it develops. Or not.

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Pch101 on Aug 09, 2007
No big deal. Any young company working on a new technology in the spotlight is bound to have some hiccups and delays. I believe that Mr. Farago's underlying criticism is that this has too many shades of the Vector and a whole host of other electric car companies that never produced more than a lot of hype. In the IT world, they refer to these sorts of products as "vaporware." The history of car making is littered with boutique makers who bilked a lot of would-be buyers and investors out of cash for cars that were never produced. The Tesla may be real, but so far, it appears to be following an eerily similar pattern -- a lot of wonderful promises...but oops, another delay...and then another slight delay...and then another setback... A basic premise of good business is to underpromise but overdeliver. If this is legit, it would have been better to have a spring 2008 launch and bring it out three months early than it would be to have a date and continually push it back.

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Glenn Swanson on Aug 09, 2007

This morning, NPR broadcast an interview with Elon Musk, who has invested $37m in Telsa. He's also started a company (SpaceX) that builds rockets: "SpaceX has customers for 11 upcoming launches and a contract with NASA which is hoping that a startup like SpaceX will be able to one day take astronauts to the Space Station." Interesting guy, to say the least. NPR transcript: "Making a Mark with Rockets and Roadsters."

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Siry on Aug 09, 2007

oops - I meant "safety when shipping" not "safety when whipping" - freudian slip?

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AGR on Aug 09, 2007

This is the location of the Tesla Store in Menlo Park. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=%22300+El+Camino+94025%22&sll=9.102097,-58.710937&sspn=99.6111,158.203125&ie=UTF8&ll=37.453568,-122.175007&spn=0.011277,0.019312&z=15&om=0

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