# Tesla Motors hitting hard times



## gmijackso (Sep 30, 2008)

There is a story about Tesla motors having some hard times. They're apparently putting some projects on hold, and closing the Michigan plant, and laying off some.

Here is a link to the full story I saw.
http://www.mercurynews.com/cars/ci_10727401


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## david85 (Nov 12, 2007)

Thanks for posting. Sad news though....

I'm not going to write off testa just yet, if they can survive this crunch than nothing can stop them once these hard times pass.


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## ElectriCar (Jun 15, 2008)

Tesla is the brainchild of the inventor of Paypal. I doubt he's hurting very much. However he did say he's invested about 50 Mil in it, double what he anticipated. He'll weather it I suspect.


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## EVMAN (Jul 26, 2007)

The way I've been seeing it... Tesla has had 2 $30million cash infusions. Plus the initial monies that all put in. Tesla has all the "first 100" cars sold for OVER a year! . Yet, Tesla can't deliver. Promises of 1000's of vehicles per year. Yeh, sure. Aptera is sounding just like this. Remember Corbin Motors?? Decent product. Many customers. Corbin could not deliver either. Corbin got involved in "future products". JUST like Tesla has been doing. Tesla can't deliver. Building a producion facility in San Jose? One of the MOST expensive places on the planet(?) Why? U cant just keep throwing money at something and hope it will succeed. It's just like the WallStreet Bailout. Throw more money at it. Don't monitor where it all goes. Gee...wonder what will happen next? IMHO, when a CEO or a president says "everything is fine", it's time to look for the door. So, If U have a deposit on a Tesla, better get it back before the company goes chapter 11.


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## 280z1975 (Oct 2, 2008)

I haven't been following Tesla article for article, but enough to think there is a decent amount of cash in there for them to have a final product, but it will be delayed even beyond their current time line ...

One of the best articles I read on Tesla was this one:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/07/technology/copeland_tesla.fortune/index.htm

It didn't focus on the "hype" Tesla was pitching and took a good in-depth, objective look at how the company was running. I understand where Musk's idea of wanting it to be "cool", but at the expense of time (and customer satisfaction). Who really thinks the standard Elise was a crap car to start with? Not me ... I think they also wasted a lot of money on the gear box system which they wanted so it would go 120mph ...

With all the hype Tesla has put out there they better no fail. It will be yet another reason for the big car companies to go "See, it's not possible" ... it's possible and hundreds of us on this site are proof that some DIY'ers in our garages can do what large auto companies said wasn't possible.

If someone out there from Tesla reads this, please do the following:

1) Get the Tesla Roadster out there ASAP, make it work, make it be fun, make it reliable, but make it happen. 

2) Abandon the idea of the $60,000 EV ... There isn't a market for this car. Who are you going to sell it to? The same people who bought your Roadster? 

This last one is the big one 3) Team up with an automaker. Pick a small, 4 door, sporty car that everyone loves (Susuki Swift, VW Golf, etc) have a special EV run of the car. This way you by-pass the design, testing, proving time constraints and bring a car to market in less than a year. Make the car as aero as possiable and then have it with different energy cappacites available (just like you can get the base 1.9L engine to the sporty 2.8L version with cars) to give the customer's differnt range (and price ranges). Do the same with one of the small-cross-over SUV (did I just say a bad word? ) to bring a car that can carry things to market. 

4) Product an (extended range trailer) option for the cars which has place for storage for longer trips. It's been done and proven to work (http://www.madkatz.com/acpropulsion/longRanger.html) which will give everyone the ablity to go on longer trips, charge on the road and make thier EV thier only car.

Now that my morning rant is done, my coffee is gone, it's time to stop ...


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

This may be some belt tightening the company needs. Another take on the current changes:
http://www.saxton.org/tom_saxton/2008/10/tesla-motors-economy.html
A reasonable philosophy from Elon:


> One of the steps I will be taking is raising the performance bar at Tesla to a very high level, which will result in a modest reduction in near term headcount. To be clear, this doesn’t mean that the people that depart Tesla for this reason wouldn’t be considered good performers at most companies – almost all would. However, I believe Tesla must adhere more closely to a special forces philosophy at this stage of its life if we aspire to become one of the great car companies of the 21st century.


http://www.teslamotors.com/blog2/?p=65


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

ElectriCar said:


> Tesla is the brainchild of the inventor of Paypal.


Not exactly. He bought into Tesla, it was founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.


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## JRP3 (Mar 7, 2008)

280z1975 said:


> 4) Product an (extended range trailer) option for the cars which has place for storage for longer trips. It's been done and proven to work (http://www.madkatz.com/acpropulsion/longRanger.html) which will give everyone the ablity to go on longer trips, charge on the road and make thier EV thier only car.


A range extender trailer is an expensive addition that will rarely be used by most people. You're better off just renting an ICE for occasional long trips if an EV is your only vehicle. Or just keep an inexpensive ICE vehicle around as a second car. If you regularly have to drive more than 100 miles a day, an EV isn't a great option for you. That's not the case for most people.


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## 280z1975 (Oct 2, 2008)

JRP3 said:


> A range extender trailer is an expensive addition that will rarely be used by most people. You're better off just renting an ICE for occasional long trips if an EV is your only vehicle. Or just keep an inexpensive ICE vehicle around as a second car. If you regularly have to drive more than 100 miles a day, an EV isn't a great option for you. That's not the case for most people.


Of all the things I think Tesla should do, the range extender is the last in the line. But I do believe it has it's place for some people (just as a $100,000 EV sports car is "an expensive addition that will rarely be used by most people") . The range extender to me would be a way for people to have that "If I need to I can" feeling that stops a lot of people from buying or even thinking about an EV. It wouldn't have it's place for most people, but I think it would have a place (maybe as an aftermarket item rather than a factory OEM).

I still hope Tesla get's it right, as they are the poster boy for EV's right now. They go down and it's going to be a huge kill to the EV image. 

-Gregg-


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## TX_Dj (Jul 25, 2008)

My opinion... and it's nothing more than that... they took on more staff than they could use, and/or since it's the "detroit" folks that seem to be getting the brunt, they hired ex-big-3 folks who thought they could sit and drink coffee and eat donuts and read the newspaper all day... and the boys in silicon valley don't jive with that mentality...


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## david85 (Nov 12, 2007)

Funny thing is the news bot didn't pick up this story. Thanks again to gmijackso for posting it for the rest of us.


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## gmijackso (Sep 30, 2008)

No problem, I was surprised as well and figured it was definitely of interest. All credit being due, I actually saw it on slashdot. Which makes it even more surprising that the bots didn't find it.


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## Weird Harold (Oct 4, 2008)

Is there just no EV news, or is the newsbot broke?


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## david85 (Nov 12, 2007)

Weird Harold said:


> Is there just no EV news, or is the newsbot broke?


Now that you mention it, the last newsbot story was 10 days ago. Maybe the settings were changed because before the stories would come in faster than I could keep up with.


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## order99 (Sep 8, 2008)

Well, Zenn still has its NEVs, the SAM and the City-El are becoming more in demand in Europe, while Zap has a new plant being constructed in Kentucky, the Aptera isn't dead and Electric bike/scooter sales are on the rise...and Myers Motors is still moving NMGs (formerly the Corben Sparrow line) as fast as he can.

Not that bad so far. Could be worse. And don't forget the influx of would-be DIYs who want to investigate creating thier own Aftermarket EVs-it's happening on every EV site i've skimmed! We may be a fringe movement but we're growing...still, it would be nice to just purchase a decent highway-capable EV off the shelf, complete with Service Contract and warrantee, wouldn't it?

Getting there, whether Big Oil likes it or not...it's inevetable.


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