The Tesla Motors executive team and a gaggle of reporters and celebrities were out en masse yesterday to witness the grand opening of the company’s flagship store in Los Angeles. Close to 9 months in the making, the store was the culmination of several years of hard work — at times fraught with delays and production troubles — for the San Carlos, Calif., company.
The mood at the event was certainly upbeat: All the executives I had the chance to chat up expressed confidence in Tesla’s plans moving forward — which, in addition to their next model, the WhiteStar sedan, could include a $250 million IPO within the next year. CTO JB Straubel told me they were on track to build 2,000 cars in the coming year, ramping up their production from 1 a week now to 20 a week over the next 6 months.
He blamed current production issues on the firm’s complex supply chain and distribution channels, which, as he explained, require hundreds of parts to be flown in from companies around the world. Though he was glib on the topic of the Whitestar, he did divulge that they were shooting for a late 2010 date to launch production and that his engineering teams were hard at work developing the powertrain and creating a static mockup.
Because the WhiteStar will be targeting a lower-end market than the Roadster, Tesla plans on eventually increasing its production volume to 10 - 20,000 vehicles a year. The company hopes to raise its profile and gain a wider share of the high-end vehicle market by focusing on optimizing customer experience. It was clear from the store’s chic, highly stylized layout that Tesla intends its service calls to be as easy and fun as possible.
Straubel and Malcolm Powell, the vice president for vehicle integration, conceded some of their critics’ arguments, explaining that the Roadster’s battery pack and transmission had given them more trouble than expected — causing them to delay production and switch out the original 2-speed version for a 1-speed one. Despite some lingering concerns in the investment community about Tesla’s scaling up plans, the team was confident and eager to move ahead with its plans to scale up production and open their next store, in Menlo Park, by June.
The Tesla store’s sleek decor
Tesla’s Roadster engineering prototype.
This was Tesla’s sixth built electric car engineering prototype
One of Tesla’s first production Roadsters
The electric car’s sleek interior
The Roadster engineering prototype’s interior
The electric car’s guts
Tags: co:Tesla-Motors10 Comments
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Phillip Kast said:
More power to them, but how are they on track to produce 2,000 cars this year?
If they produce 20 cars/wk for the next 6mos, that’s about 520 cars. They would have to have one heck of a December to hit 2,000…
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Fabian Schonholz said:
It is a sweet car!!
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Travis said:
Did anyone see the Tesla in Iron Man? It was in Johna Starks garage when he was building the suit. I thought that was cool!
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Reed Lincoln said:
OK, the battery has to be recharged after 225 miles, Cool, but how much does it cost in energy to recharge it, or how does it compare to a car that gets 35 miles per gallon @ $4.00 per gallon? While we’re at it, after a 100,000 miles of battery life, how much does it cost to pop in a new 1,000 pound baby? Can’t afford it anyway, just curious.
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Tyler said:
35 mpg @ $4.00 per gallon = $0.11 per mile
From the Tesla Motors website:
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Electrical Cost to Charge the BatteriesWith your electrical company’s incentive pricing factored in, it will cost you roughly 1 cent per mile to drive the Tesla Roadster.** But the incentives don’t stop there. Depending on where you live, other bonuses may include:
* Single-occupancy access to all carpool lanes
* Income tax credit (awaiting new legislation)
* A luxury car that’s fully exempt from the luxury car tax
* Free parking at charging stations at LAX
* No parking meter fees in an increasing number of major metropolitan areas -
Corey said:
The deal breaks down to be, if you assume you’re driving a 30mpg sedan, at gas being $3.5 a gallon, after 100,000 miles you’ve spent about $12,000 dollars on fuel. (Plus related costs.) For the Tesla you would have spent about $2000 on electricity, it doesn’t break down that cleanly, because batteries don’t just “die” they wear out. After 100000 miles you’ll probably be getting about 1/2 the range (If thats how they estimate the useful life.), if that’s good enough you can keep on using them for longer. Either way, in the time it takes to drive 100,000 miles, you better hope that the replacement battery pack is about 10k to come out even. You can sway this either way by getting to technical, as electrics are cheaper to maintain in other ways etc…
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John said:
I wonder if they have plans for roll out roll in battery packs instead of a 3 1/2 hr wait and does the performance decrease as the batteries run down?
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Andrew said:
Once the price is down to $10K, I’ll be able to get one. Most cars, especially new ones, that come out first are always at the high price mark. But give it awhile, and it will widdle down in price.
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Andy said:
The Telsa won’t need oil changes and tune ups. That would save money. The Telsa won’t be around for long though. The oil industry will kill the Telsa car asap.
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Stefaan said:
And apparently someone already was able to pick one up, these pictures were taken on the street in Santa Monica:
http://blingwheels.blogspot.com/2008/05/first-tesla-spotted-in-santa-monica.html
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