Tuesday 4th November 2008

Troubled Tesla Gets $40m Financial Boost

Electric carmaker gets money to build more cars

---

The milk float had come a long way

Investors have committed $40million to help troubled Tesla Motors ride out its current financial difficulties. The money will be used to accelerate manufacturing of the Tesla Roadster and to expand the electric powertrain supply business.

‘Forty million is significantly more than we need,’ said Elon Musk, Tesla Chairman, CEO and Product Architect. ‘However, the board, investors and I felt it was important to have significant cash reserves.’

Tesla has now delivered more than 50 Roadsters to customers and says it is currently in regular production at a rate of ten cars per week, rising to thirty cars per week early next year. More than 1,200 people have placed a deposit for the Roadster, on sale now in the United States and Europe.

Meanwhile, one customer in America is clearly happy with his purchase, having posted a 12.7 second quarter-mile at a local drag strip. This means his new Roadster, which is running the latest v1.5 version of the powertrain, is hitting 60mph in around four seconds. The car reached a terminal velocity of 105mph at California's Infineon Raceway.

See the readout below…

[matmoxon]

I wonder if it would have had a similar boost if it was powered by a V8?

Matt

[jeremyc]

Completely off topic, but if anyone is in San Francisco and fancies a great petrolhead night out then I recommend going along to the Wednesday Night Drags event at Infineon Raceway (where this timing strip is from - see, it's not so OT ).

It's very much a run-what-ya-brung type evening, with everything from pick up trucks to trick racers running in a bracket competition - even the local cops (in their cruisers) take on the high school kids in their own class.

For the $15 or so entry it's a very informal event, with opportunities to get right up close to the cars and chat to competitors.

Edited by jeremyc on Tuesday 4th November 12:46

[bencollins]

nerd question: how many kJ used in comparison to a v8 achieveing the same time? Guessing alot less, meaning fast driving in the future does not mean heavy consumption and releases the mental shackles.

[davemcc43]

bencollins said:

nerd question: how many kJ used in comparison to a v8 achieveing the same time? Guessing alot less, meaning fast driving in the future does not mean heavy consumption and releases the mental shackles.

I don't know how comparatively how many kJ would be used in a Tesla-vs-V8 drag race but an internal combustion petrol engine is only about 30% efficient at full load. This drops to roughly 10% for 'normal' driving (Efficiency here is obviously about extracting as much energy from the fuel as possible, not achieving the best mpg figure) so I'd say that the kJ usage (at the drag strip) of the V8 would be between double and triple that of the Tesla.

Overall energy comparisons depends on how you produce your electricity and/or where you get your oil from, but that's really rather more complicated to summerise....

DAVE

[chickensoup]

$40 000 000 bail out, 50 cars delivered
Makes price tag seem cheap

[dublet]

matmoxon said:

I wonder if it would have had a similar boost if it was powered by a V8?

Matt

Of course not, it's getting the boost as it's not using fossil fuels.

[matmoxon]

dublet said:

matmoxon said:

I wonder if it would have had a similar boost if it was powered by a V8?

Matt

Of course not, it's getting the boost as it's not using fossil fuels.

My point exactly if it were my business going down the sr and I were building V8 sports cars, I would receive nothing and my business would go under, as it isn't good to be seen helping such things as they murder Polar Bears apparently.

Though even through my own hatred of lentilists I can see the point in saving Tesla as this technology will eventually filter down into every day cars at an affordable price.

Matt

Edited by matmoxon on Tuesday 4th November 13:50

[BertBert]

matmoxon said:

I wonder if it would have had a similar boost if it was powered by a V8?
Matt

and

chickensoup said:

$40 000 000 bail out, 50 cars delivered
Makes price tag seem cheap

It's absolutely *not* about making cars, it's about making a company worth a lot to a future buyer who wants electric drivetrain technology. So you wouldn't get 40mil to make v8 technology and the cars are pure marketing.

There is a very short window to get the technology good enough for a buyer. There needs to be swift technology progress and a lot of hype and then cue a buyer.

Bert

[Bernie_78]

The irony that this thread has barely reached double figures and involves one of the biggest changes to the industry and yet Mr Clarkson makes a brash comment about truckers and it hits a 100+ responses in the same time.

[Turbobanana]

Did someone just put $40,000,000 in the meter?

[dublet]

matmoxon said:

dublet said:

matmoxon said:

I wonder if it would have had a similar boost if it was powered by a V8?

Of course not, it's getting the boost as it's not using fossil fuels.

My point exactly if it were my business going down the sr and I were building V8 sports cars, I would receive nothing and my business would go under, as it isn't good to be seen helping such things as they murder Polar Bears apparently.

Well, maybe you shouldn't have started a company building Yet Another Petrol Powered V8 sports car ( last one in PH news). However, if you started a company building a hydrogen powered V8 sports car, you could apply for a few grants.

I like electric motors, not because they're particularly environmentally friendly (nasty batteries), but because they're very fast, and actually make cars much simpler. It's a major paradigm shift that the car industry needs in order to shed itself of the inefficient behemoth that is the internal combustion engine.

[XitUp]

dublet said:

Well, maybe you shouldn't have started a company building Yet Another Petrol Powered V8 sports car ( last one in PH news). However, if you started a company building a hydrogen powered V8 sports car, you could apply for a few grants.

Sadly.

[DucatiGary]

and no mention of this ?

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/11/03/tesla_mode...

[GaryDVO]

Good news for lotus to carry on making them.

Here are some pics from the 60th event at the Lotus Hethel factory

Lotus production line Tesla forth one.


One being finished before wheels:


This one is being prepped:


This one having Geo check:


And this one all done:


On the day I saw loads of Tesla on the production line, unable to see any of the power plants though.

[nav p]

drop the price..and you will sell more!

[HeavySoul]

What happened to all money that was intially backing the firm from selling Paypal or whatever it was the co-owner used to own - I thought they had back up of $billions?

Glad they are keeping it flowing either way as they sound like a great, focussed company with a decent vision.

The car looks superb - it would do considering what it's based on - am looking forward to seeing what they wrap their technology with next.

[matmoxon]

XitUp said:

dublet said:

Well, maybe you shouldn't have started a company building Yet Another Petrol Powered V8 sports car ( last one in PH news). However, if you started a company building a hydrogen powered V8 sports car, you could apply for a few grants.

Sadly.

I haven't started such a company it was a hypothetical comment.

Matt

[big_rob_sydney]

I dont know if anyone has read about EEStore?

5 minutes to charge, 500 miles range, $9US ( or 45cents per gallon equivalent). Ceramic batteries that store 10 times the power, in 1/10th the battery size. Apparently its the next big thing, and has been invested in by heavyweight companies like Lockheed Martin.

More here:

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:EEStore

[mike_1985]

Looks good as long as it would work . I personally think we are 5-8 years away from such technology .
But think what it could mean

We could all run an electric cars to work shopping and so on and then have a v8 car for the weekend . Petrol prices would drop with demand and we would all invest in silly spinnig things for our roofs to get free electric to run the house and the car

I am one for dreaming

[GaryDVO]

The price for the Europe is €80 I think. At £30k that would generate more sales. Then again the first 2 production runs I believe are all booked and paid for.

The issue is with setting up the production plant in the US for the non Roadster cars.

The major downside to the car is when it needs a new set of Batteries; I did read a while ago that the power pack is the equivalent of 6000 laptop batteries. How much is that going to cost?

Even so £30k for the car, a windmill and solar panels on the roof at home to charge it up might just work.