Tesla swerves, will sell high-tech batteries to others

May 22, 2007 | Matt Marshall | Comments |

teslatwo1.jpgTesla Motors, the electric sports car start-up, has created a new division to sell its high-tech batteries, and that it has taken a $43 million order from a Norwegian car maker.

Chief executive Martin Eberhard has just blogged about the move.

The Norwegian electric car maker, Think (see image of the Think car, below), will buy the lithium-ion battery packs and will bring Tesla $3 million this year and $40 million in 2008, according to additional details in a Mercury News story to run tomorrow.

Tesla has developed a new division, the Tesla Energy Group, to develop and make battery packs for Tesla’s vehicles and the growing market for such high-end batteries elsewhere.

(Update: Turns out, Michael Kanellos first mentioned the strategy move back in January. The actual order amount is what is new.)

think.jpgTesla said Bernard Tse, a private investor, will head its Energy Group. Tse founded Wyse Technology, and is a former Tesla board member.

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Matt Marshall is editor and CEO of VentureBeat. Follow him on Twitter at @mmarshall, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • Enrique
    Is it posible to built a battery that re-charges itself as we drive our cars?
  • awesome - picks & shovels, picks & shovels
  • Wen
    Enrique sounds perfectly qualified to be a Silcon Valley Cleantech VC
  • ALLAN PETERSON
    PLEASE KEEP ME ADVISED I HAVE SOME APPPLICATIONS FOR AIRCRAFT
  • GM has been working with the University in Chile, and the technology from this research has centered in a battery plus "super-condensers" in a packaged form. So far the test had been fair. The problem is the the battery + supercodensers generate high temperature, and the unit requires complex heavy cooling attachment. I learned that this medium size pickup had reached 150 + miles per working test - Should go over 200 miles. Do you know of similar test being done in the USA ? If so let me know to contact them.