Posted on 05 August 2010
Since having just gone public, Tesla has just released its first quarterly report and it’s not exactly a major windfall. While
Tesla Motors did earn $28.4 million it still lost $38.5 million making this the second such income deficit this year.
As most people know, however, this early hit is entirely to be expected and doesn’t really factor into how one might expect Tesla to fair in the future. Any company with such intensive research and development and manufacturing processes is sure to take a while before turning a profit, especially one that just purchased a $42 million factory to produce its upcoming electric car the Model S. It’s likely that we’ll continue to see quarterly reports of loss for the next year or more.
Clearly investors aren’t phased by this report as the Tesla Motors (TSLA) stock prices hadn’t moved with this announcement and remain slightly below the opening price.
Posted on 09 July 2010
Toyota president Akio Toyoda recently let it slip that Toyota is currently creating an electric car that uses a Tesla battery pack. The interesting tidbit came out while he was answering inquiries regarding the Tesla and Toyota relationship.
While Toyota currently has a joint venture with Panasonic who is building their larger car batteries, Toyoda indicated that they are definitely interested in seeing what they can do with the Tesla 18650-format cells that are generally the type of battery found in laptops. By way of example, the Tesla Roadster battery pack uses 6,831 of these cells to power the electric sports car.
The likelihood of seeing Toyota cars using Tesla battery packs will all depend on how well they perform in these prototype tests which will look at the their ability to function past large scale accumulated mileage and extreme weather conditions.
Posted on 28 June 2010
It’s looking like investor interest in Tesla Motors might be stronger than originally expected as the number of shares to be made publicly available tomorrow was increased by 20% to 13.3 million.
Tesla maintains that it expects shares to sell for around $14 – $16 which could raise up to $200 million on its IPO. This will go along way to making sure that the Tesla Model S electric car (pictured above) sees the marketplace. The finalized Tesla stock prices should be announced tonight with the IPO hitting the ground Tuesday morning at 9:20AM EST.
The Tesla Motors stock will trade as TSLA on the NASDAQ. Will you be buying Tesla stock? Let us know in the comments section.
Posted on 09 June 2010
A previous report we brought you on how Tesla was teaming up with Toyota to build electric cars in California now needs to be slightly clarified. This recent update is based on a recent IPO statement from Tesla that states that although the two companies announced their intention to cooperate on Tesla Model S electric car development, they have not made any formal agreements to do so and may never at all.
While it still remains true that Tesla and Toyota will be sharing space at the NUMMI factory as well as some strategies, it definitely brings potential investors a dose of reality as Tesla prepares to be publically traded on the Nasdaq.
Posted on 20 May 2010
Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger held a joint press conference today in which they announced that Toyota would be teaming up with Tesla to produce the Model S electric car in California.
Tesla Model S production will take place in the recently closed NUMMI factory in Fremont. Toyota, the previous owner of the factory, will invest $50 million for a private placement of Tesla common stock and will a production system and possibly some of Toyota’s suppliers.
Schwarzenegger, for his part, offered a sales tax abatement to Tesla for all capital equipment expenditures in retooling the factory. Tesla estimates put the value of the abatement at approximately $20 million over the course of three years or so.
Tesla stated that the Model S production will likely see the return of about 1,000 of the former Toyota factory employees as they look to produce about 20,000 Model S electric cars per year. Tesla also hinted at the possibility of increasing production to a point of requiring 10,000 workers.
Posted on 12 May 2010
As you may have noticed, the Tesla Roadster made an appearance in the first Iron Man movie. The association has continued, deepened slightly even. In Iron Man 2 Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk makes a cameo appearance as himself.
This isn’t the first time Musk has been involved in a Hollywood film as he was a producer on Thank You for Smoking in 2005 and as well as new film coming out this year called Dumbstruck.
But what is most interesting of all is the impact Musk had on the Iron Man script, simply by being who he is. When Iron Man Director Jon Favreau confided in lead actor Robert Downey Jr. that he had no idea how to make the main character, genius billionaire Tony Stark, real. Downey told him, “We need to sit down with Elon Musk.”
Posted on 02 February 2010
The electric car that put Tesla on the map and gave the electric car movement a shot in the arm when it needed it, is getting the plug pulled on it barely after it was plugged-in, so to speak.
As Tesla Motors goes public for the first time, a disturbing bit of info has come out in its Initial Public Offering (IPO). The Tesla Roadster will cease to be produced in 2011 for the simple reason that Tesla won’t have anywhere to build the high-end electric sports car.
“We do not plan to sell our current generation Tesla Roadster after 2011 due to planned tooling changes at a supplier for the Tesla Roadster,” the company write in its IPO.
Since the Tesla Roadster is built by Lotus, they are probably talking about the factory in Hethel, England getting changes that will prevent production there.
The Tesla Roadster is slated to see production again, but it won’t be until 2013 at the earliest. And since we all know how these things go, that’s probably a very generous estimate.
The Tesla Model S will be launched in 2012, but that still leaves two years without any cars going out and it’s based on the assumption that everything goes as planned and production deadlines are met perfectly.
Let’s put it this way, if I were in the market for a $100,000 electric car with a 244 mile range and can go from 0-60 mph in under 4 seconds , I’d probably pick one up sooner than later.
Posted on 29 September 2009
In the last two years the number of potential vehicle purchasers who are considering making their next vehicle an electric car, has doubled. It seems that supply and demand will be keeping pace too as the number of electric car options available to buyers is gaining serious momentum over the next year or two.
The few electric vehicle manufactories currently out there, like Tesla Motors, will have to make room as the EV market broadens with the likes of the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf (pictured above).
While doubling does sound impressive, it should be noted that those considering buying an electric vehicle in 2007 amounted to all of 2%, which has now risen to 5%. So 5% of the US market looking for a car is considering an EV. It’s not exactly a green revolution, but it’s a start.
Hopefully as prices continue to drop, range is extended, and companies like Better Place are able to establish an EV charging infrastructure, we might double that number again in a couple years.
Posted on 19 August 2009
It was over half a year ago that Tesla announced an amped up version of the Tesla Roadster would be made available in the Tesla Roadster Sport.
Since then we hadn’t heard much of the Sport and we had seen even less. In fact, the new images that have just been released, mark the first official pictures of the high-powered electric vehicle to be made available to the drooling public.
The Tesla Roadster Sport (pictured above finally), boasts a hand-wound stator that helps eliminate resistance while increasing peak torque, as well as a set of ultra high performance Yokohama tires. The Sport also boasts a few other little Lotus-inspired components which can be tailored to the purchasers choice.
The Tesla Roadster Sport costs a little more than its standard counterpart with a base price of $128,500.
Posted on 18 August 2009
Last year Tesla Motors announced that they would be moving their head offices from San Carlos, CA to San Jose. Then the economic meltdown happened and dried up all the funding required to make the move.
Now, with the aid of low-cost loans from the DOE, they are prepared with a new plan to move Palo Alto. The new Tesla Motors offices will occupy the three-building complex in the Stanford Research Park that was previously occupied by Hewlett-Packard.
The buildings will be renovate to accommodate the Tesla’s research and engineering staff, head offices, as well as the new powertrain manufacturing facility.
Tesla is likely hoping to tap into the same mix of talent and money that has helped make so many wildly successful companies come out of Silicon Valley. Will it lead to a Tesla Model S (pictured above) with a 500-mile range, near-instant charging, for a retail cost of $19,000? Well, maybe that’s asking for too much, but we can dream.