Monday, August 13, 2007
Has the Tesla any future ?
Eberhard and co-founder Marc Tarpenning launched Tesla in 2003 with the idea of making a high-performance electric vehicle and then branching out to more affordable cars later on. Since then, Tesla has secured $105 million in funding, with PayPal founder and space industrialist Elon Musk leading the way and venture capital firms joining in recent funding rounds. Eberhard said that if they just limited production to the Roadster, Tesla would be making a profit in 2008.
But the next car will be the White Star, a five-passenger sedan with a price point of $50,000 to $65,000, to be manufactured in New Mexico. "We are in the very early stages of it," said Eberhard, noting that he "would not place any bets" on a target of a 2010 model year.
That same year, General Motors Corp is supposed to launch the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in electric vehicle with a small combustion "range extender" engine and a relatively low price. Eberhard said he is skeptical of GM's second attempt for an electric car will come to fruition, at least at that price point, mostly because of battery challenges.
Now Tesla has replaced Martin Eberhard, its chief executive officer, with Michael Marks, an investor. No reason has been given AFAIK.
There had been a Californian law to help reduce smog. GM thus developed the EM1, a rather basic vehicle. Then 'someone' had the smog law changed. Then GM demanded the leased vehicles be returned. Almost all of them were crushed. The car companies blamed the technology and lack of interest. Critics said they wanted to kill it off to protect profits from petrol.
IMO: If one reads the great book "My Days with General Motors" by Alfred P. Sloan, in particularly the section on the 'copper-cooled' car, one can certainly see management ghosts from the past. Will the GM car (and the Tesla) again head for the junkpile ? Global warming is a horrendous prospect and the end of the world looms, seriously. Nonetheless, the large companies may see big profits in rising oil prices. So will the Chevrolet push the Tesla out of the market and then fold up ? It sounds typical of US big business. But USA is not alone in the world, certainly not in autos .
But the next car will be the White Star, a five-passenger sedan with a price point of $50,000 to $65,000, to be manufactured in New Mexico. "We are in the very early stages of it," said Eberhard, noting that he "would not place any bets" on a target of a 2010 model year.
That same year, General Motors Corp is supposed to launch the Chevrolet Volt, a plug-in electric vehicle with a small combustion "range extender" engine and a relatively low price. Eberhard said he is skeptical of GM's second attempt for an electric car will come to fruition, at least at that price point, mostly because of battery challenges.
Now Tesla has replaced Martin Eberhard, its chief executive officer, with Michael Marks, an investor. No reason has been given AFAIK.
There had been a Californian law to help reduce smog. GM thus developed the EM1, a rather basic vehicle. Then 'someone' had the smog law changed. Then GM demanded the leased vehicles be returned. Almost all of them were crushed. The car companies blamed the technology and lack of interest. Critics said they wanted to kill it off to protect profits from petrol.
IMO: If one reads the great book "My Days with General Motors" by Alfred P. Sloan, in particularly the section on the 'copper-cooled' car, one can certainly see management ghosts from the past. Will the GM car (and the Tesla) again head for the junkpile ? Global warming is a horrendous prospect and the end of the world looms, seriously. Nonetheless, the large companies may see big profits in rising oil prices. So will the Chevrolet push the Tesla out of the market and then fold up ? It sounds typical of US big business. But USA is not alone in the world, certainly not in autos .
# posted by uv : 9:48 AM
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