As its initial vehicle, the Roadster has been gradually rolled out into a growing number of international markets; investor confidence in Tesla Motors has steadily increased.

With deliveries of its second car, the Model S luxury sedan set to begin this summer and plans on the horizon for introducing further vehicles, such as the Model X people mover, revenues for the Silicon Valley company are expected to triple this year, with Tesla on target to make a profit in 2013.

Not surprisingly this has done wonders for Tesla stock, which has seen value jump from $17 to over $32 a share since the company first went public in 2010. Growing confidence in the electric vehicle market hasn’t hurt either.

For Abu Dhabi National Energy, one of the original shareholders in Tesla, this represents a good opportunity to sell its 7.3 million shares in the automaker.

Just how good? Try a total profit of $113 million. Some might find it odd that a largely state-owned oil exploration and energy company might want to buy shares in a maker of EVs in the first place, but the investment was actually a transfer from the Abu Dhabi Electric and Water Authority.

As a result, the Tesla stock purchase was never deemed a core asset by the Energy concern, so the sale doesn’t come as much of a surprise for many analysts. Now that it’s made a tidy little sum from the stock sale, Abu Dhabi National Energy plans to use the funds to pursue opportunities more in line with it’s core business; namely expansion in oil and gas operations in the Middle East and North Africa regions.

That said, despite the sale, the government of Abu Dhabi still retains a sizeable indirect interest in Tesla. German automaker Daimler AG maintains a stake in the EV company and according to Arab News, the emirate of Abu Dhabi is currently Daimler’s largest single shareholder.

Arab News via Autoblog Green

The post Abu Dhabi National Energy Sells Stake in Tesla Motors appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Elon Musk (Photo: jdlasica)

James Bond was able to mix business with pleasure, but the marital problems of Tesla Motors’ chief executive officer may very well challenge the emerging company. Elon Musk’s divorce trial could put into question his control of the company, possibly having to surrender significant shares to his wife, a fantasy novelist.

The trial involves a contest over a 2000 postnuptial agreement, which if set aside would place Musk’s stakes in Tesla, SolarCity and Space Exploration Technologies at risk. The problem, however, lies in a condition in the most recent S-1 filing of a $465 million loan from the Department of Energy that states that the loan would default to the DOE “in the event Mr. Musk and certain of his affiliates fail to own, at any time prior to one year after we complete the project relating to the Model S, at least 65 percent of the capital stock held by Mr. Musk and such affiliates as of the date of the DOE Loan Facility.”

A shift in power could also result in boardroom maneuvering, according to Owen Thomas, potentially resulting in strategic changes. Even with the $465 million loan and without a disruption to its leadership, Tesla Motors would be fighting against the odds to deliver its Model S electric sedan by late 2011, as planned.

Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes, in a VentureBeat interview, said the company does not “expect the case to have an impact on the S-1 filing.” The next hearings are set for May 5-May 7.

The post Tesla IPO Threatened by CEO's Divorce Trial appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Growing Pains in the Rear View Mirror

While Tesla’s path to production hasn’t been as smooth as the Roadster’s power delivery, the company seems to be past the worst of its growing pains. After the car was revealed in 2006 amidst a media love-fest, Tesla Motors hit a number of potholes: product delays, boardroom discord (which led to the ouster of its founder and subsequent lawsuits), a product recall, a dreadfully slow production rate, and tens of millions of dollars in operating losses. But the eccentric attention-seeking primary investor and CEO Elon Musk has proven that big dreams and force-of-will can eventually pay off.

While the long-term future of Tesla is still undetermined, the company has scored a set of important recent wins, most notably the delivery of nearly 1,000 vehicles (as of late November 2009). In May 2009, Daimler gave a vote of confidence to Tesla when it took an equity stake of “nearly 10 percent” in the company. Dr. Thomas Weber, Mercedes chief of research and development, said, “As a young and dynamic company, Tesla stands for visionary power and pioneering spirit.” (Daimler will lean on Tesla to provide battery packs and charging electronics for the electric version of its Smart Car.) And in June, the US government gave its imprimatur to the company with a $465 million low-interest loan to produce the Tesla’s second vehicle, the Tesla Model S. The follow-up to the Roadster, the Model S is described by Tesla as “an all-electric family sedan that carries seven people and travels up to 300 miles per charge.” The target price for the Model S is about $50,000, after a federal tax credit.

By August 2009, the company announced that—seven years into its existence—it had reached profitability (even if temporarily). Rumors about an initial public offering were surfacing by November. If the rumors prove true, Tesla would become the first public offering from a US automaker since the Ford debuted its shares in 1956. A huge infusion of cash from the IPO would allow Tesla to get closer to competing with the big boys in the auto industry. The company is busy hiring veteran auto industry engineers and executives.

Perhaps most importantly, the company is successfully delivering its 2010 Roadster at a rate of about 100 units per month. The histrionics of its early days seem to be in the past, and the company is growing from a rebellious youth—repeatedly claiming that Silicon Valley always knows better than Detroit—to a young (still spirited) company willing to borrow from the best of West Coast and Mid-West corporate traditions, whatever it takes to deliver ground-breaking electric cars.

2010 Roadster, All About Speed

In fall 2009, Tesla began delivering the 2010 Roadster, an upgrade from the 2008 model. The 2010 Roadster replaced a stick with buttons for park, reverse, neutral and drive. The change created a narrower center console, providing much needed additional legroom. The dashboard display is enhanced; the seats are more comfortable; and there’s a glove compartment. There’s also more powerful heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system.

The enhanced creature comforts are welcomed, but the Roadster’s acceleration—especially from the Sport Model—is what continues to earn rave reviews from media.

Some Caveats

Once reviewers recover from the adrenaline rush, they do find a few gripes—mostly offshoots from the vehicle’s high power and low profile. The Wall Street Journal complained about handling. “The steering wheel fights you in an arm-wrestling match around every turn, and understeer (the car’s tendency to travel toward the outside of a curve) becomes rampant with too much power, which is all too easy to summon…Few cars demand so much of four limbs.” CNet.com echoed the sentiment: “As the car lacks power steering, get ready to build some arm muscle cranking the wheel around.”

ConsumerGuideAuto complained about cramped quarters. “At 5’9” and 145 pounds, I’m not a big guy, but while I quickly mastered stepping over the tall, wide door sill and falling into the low-set seat with something approaching grace, getting out required bending and folding like a human origami project.” The reviewer concluded, “This is not a car for linebackers.”

Driving range continues to be a concern. According to EPA numbers, the Tesla Roadster goes 244 miles on a full charge. With careful driving, that number can be met and raised. In fact, in October a driver in South Australia’s Global Green Challenge set a new Tesla distance record of 313 miles on a charge—but he achieved the number by babying the batteries with an average speed of around 35 miles per hour. The Wall Street Journal’s Clifford Atiyeh had a different experience: “I never got close to Tesla’s claimed 244-mile range in which the car can drive without a recharge. Had I driven like a maniacal hypermiler and avoided highways, which drain the battery much faster than back roads, I might have hit 200 miles.”

These are nitpicks. Mr. Atiyeh concedes, “Regardless [of the driving range], this car has helped foster the EV renaissance, and shown that speed and green can coexist in a vehicle.”

Sales and Service

In November, Tesla Motors opened a regional sales and service center in Monaco, bringing the number of its European showrooms to three. The other two locations are London and Munich. In addition to it European stores, Tesla has “galleries” in Menlo Park, California, Los Angeles, New York, Colorado and Washington. Financing is now available through Bank of America. (Incentives help lower the six-figure price tag. There’s a $7,500 federal tax credits—and New Jersey, Arizona and Washington waive sales and use taxes on electric vehicles.)

Tesla is also innovating with service, by offering “house calls” so customers can enjoy service at their home or office. Professional technicians—or “Tesla Rangers”—travel to customers’ homes and perform annual inspections, firmware upgrades and other services. House calls cost customers $1 per roundtrip mile from the nearest Tesla service center, with a minimum charge of $100.

It’s important to note that electric cars require less routine maintenance. The Roadster doesn’t have spark plugs, pistons, hoses, belts or clutches to replace. It doesn’t need regular oil changes or exhaust system work. Tesla recommends a standard service and diagnostic inspection once a year or every 12,000 miles. The owner’s manual does recommend changing the antifreeze serving the battery pack’s cooling system—once every five to seven years.

Model S in Sight

With production and sales of the Tesla Roadster on an even keel, Tesla Motors will continue to slowly increase production numbers, until it reaches its goal of 1,600 units per year. Mission accomplished. But the company’s larger ambition is to work down the cost of its expensive electric drivetrain, so that more affordable—but no less beautiful—zero-emission vehicles can be offered to mainstream buyers. After all, a pair of sport cars selling for $109,000 and $128,500 will only have so many takers.

The lion’s share of Tesla’s $465 million loan from the US government will be applied to building a plant to produce the Model S—the company’s first vehicle built from the ground up by Tesla. The prototype is gorgeous, and is loaded with high-tech goodies.

With the company on more solid footing, perhaps Tesla can avoid the pitfall of committing to an overly ambitious production schedule for the Model S, as it did for the Roadster. But it may already be too late. Tesla is promising to begin production in 2011, and ramp up to 20,000 units per year by 2013. That’s a leap of about 20-fold compared to today’s Roadster production. That sounds like a very ambitious target—but Tesla has already proven that dreaming big, and not being afraid to make mistakes, can produce remarkable results.

The post 2010 Tesla Roadster appeared first on HybridCars.com.

.figure.inlineRight.width-300px { display: none }

Critics argue that Tesla’s request to use taxpayer money to help a company making cars for wealthy patrons is elitist and wrong.

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk is drawing fire over his request for a $350 million loan from the federal government. Although the company receives widespread support for its leadership role in the burgeoning electric car industry, a growing number of observers believe that any funds given to Tesla, regardless of how the money would be used, are unwarranted. The Tesla Roadster sells for $109,000, but the company hopes to build a more affordable plug-in vehicle.

The backlash began with Randall Stross’s opinion piece in the New York Times, in which he wrote that Tesla’s “all-electric technology remains woefully immature and don’t-even-ask expensive.” Stross characterizes the Tesla Roadster and the company as elitist. He writes that many of the first vehicles “have gone to [Silicon] Valley’s billionaires and centimillionaires who are Tesla investors as well as early customers.”

Arnold Schwarzenneger is one of the first owners of a Tesla Roadster. He said, “It’s so nice when you sit in this sexy car and you drive from zero to 60 in 3.9 seconds, which is faster than a turbo Porsche. And no engine sound or greenhouse gas emissions.” Schwarzenneger chastised Detroit for not building electric cars. He said, “Arnold to Detroit: Get off your butt!”

Web Insiders Exchange Angry Arguments

At least one of those wealthy first customers, Jason Calacanis, the founder of Weblogs, Inc., came to Tesla’s defense in his blog, accusing Stross of demonstrating a “kill the wealthy ethos.” In the blog post (which was republished on Huffington Post), Calacanis wrote: “Tesla isn’t about rich Silicon Valley guys in sports cars: it’s about extracting ourselves from the environment-killing, human-rights violating, terrorist-supporting regimes in the Middle East. The only reason we deal with countries that suppress women and homosexuals and give money to terrorists who kill based on a religion is because we are dependent on their oil.”

CenterNetworks.com, an information resource about Web 2.0 and social media, later disclosed that Jason Calacanis’s new company Mahalo received funding from Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, and that Mr. Calacanis’s brother-in-law Ryan Scott is an investor in Tesla.

Another argument espoused by Tesla critics is that Tesla is unlike the Detroit Big Three, because it has an insufficient track record. The critics believe that $350 million is a lot of money to give a company that has delivered only approximately 100 vehicles. These critics, expressing opinions on the blogosphere, argue that Tesla needs to continue pursuing private investment capital, not taxpayer dollars. If it can’t survive by building itself up through private investment, the argument goes, it doesn’t deserve to survive.

Tesla’s Elon Musk has said that without the federal loan, the company will not be able to proceed with its next generation of all-electric cars, starting with the plug-in Model S sedan. (Loan funds would be applied to development of the Model S, not the Tesla Roadster.) However Allen Stern, CenterNetworks editor, questions the affordability of the Model S—a vehicle with a target price of approximately $60,000. He writes, “I haven’t seen anything from Tesla that speaks to the average American family.” Stern argues that “instead of dropping hundreds of millions into Tesla,” the country should invest in public transportation, efficient air travel, and university-level battery research programs. “Take the millions and billions of dollars and create better transit systems in cities across this country. There’s so much that can be done with transit to create real environmental and human savings.”

The post Tesla Bailout Request Spurs Class-Warfare Backlash appeared first on HybridCars.com.

.figure.inlineRight.width-300px { display: none }

We’re probably showing our age when we remember Fernwood 2 Night, the 1977 mock talk-show spinoff of classic 1970s comedy series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. But it wasn’t until we found one of the old clips that we realized: Good lord, the show’s writers anticipated the Tesla Roadster battery by at least 30 years!

The clip (which runs 3:40) has host Barth Gimble (Martin Mull) and his fractious sidekick Jerry Hubbard (Fred Willard) welcoming Fernwood’s local gas station owner Virgil Simms (played by a very young Jim Varney, of the “Ernest” movies). Virgil has invented an electric car, which seems to be based on an orange Volkswagen Fastback from 1971-73.

Once the battery is revealed—actually “about 4,000” of them, seemingly D-cells—we couldn’t help but think of the Tesla battery pack, with its 6,871 lithium ion cells. Guess those battery engineers must have been watching late-night reruns again…

The proto-Tesla, circa 1977.

(Our thanks to car fan Rick Feibusch of Venice, California, for the link.)

The post Take THAT, Tesla fans! appeared first on HybridCars.com.

.figure.inlineRight.width-300px { display: none }

/>

Elon Musk

Last week, Tesla Motors acknowledged that it is losing money, struggling financially, laying off employees, and closing its Detroit-area office. At this point, fewer than 50 vehicles have been delivered to customers—and those were delayed by nearly a year after a series of key technical problems. It’s unknown how long it will take for the company to deliver the $109,000 Roadster to 600 customers with confirmed orders.

Could the Tesla dream—the creation of an electric car company in the mold of a Silicon Valley start-up—be falling apart? Elon Musk, the company’s primary financial backer and now its CEO—Tesla’s fourth chief executive in three years—says he is unwilling to let that happen. No matter the cost.

Musk has already invested more than $55 million of his fortune into the company, according to a recent 60 Minutes interview in which he confessed that Tesla has spent twice its initial projected costs. And apparently, Musk is ready to invest more, if necessary. In a recent blog post on the Tesla website, he wrote: “We are not far from being cash flow positive, but, even if that threshold ends up being further than expected, I will do whatever is needed to ensure that Tesla has more than sufficient capital to get there.” Musk was the co-founder of PayPal, and has an estimated fortune of more than $300 million.

width="383" height="350" />
width="224" height="174" />
width="224" height="174" />

The Tesla Roadster

The personal cost goes beyond money. Word on the street is that Musk is working at a feverish pitch to deliver on the company’s ambitious goals. Last year’s profile of Musk in Inc. magazine portrayed him as a man on the edge—downing a daily dose of eight cans of Diet Coke and several large cups of coffee.

Musk’s life was recently further complicated by the announcement that he and his wife are filing for divorce. They have five sons under the age of 6. (By the way, Musk is also the CEO of SpaceX, an aerospace company that by 2011 plans to haul astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Musk’s business plan for SpaceX includes helping to colonize Mars.)

Apparently, Musk wants his employees to share his relentless drive to achieve the most difficult—some might say impossible—dreams. In his first corporate blog as CEO, he writes:

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.

Electric Car Special Force Commandos

The Special Force Tesla commandos will have an exacting commander at the helm. Insiders say he is involved in nearly every decision the company makes, down to the smallest details of design. This microscopic level of management is what led to the ouster of the company’s founder and former CEO Martin Eberhard. Musk and Eberhard clashed over small details, financial management, and the overall design philosophy for the Roadster—with Eberhard pushing to minimize engineering and high-cost setbacks, and Musk trying to build a sports car that could outperform its gas-guzzling competitors regardless of cost. Eberhard was willing to roll out the first production vehicles with a slower single-speed transmission and upgrade later to a faster 2-speed system that could deliver zero-to-60 acceleration times below four seconds. Musk insisted, at the time, on speed—but due to engineering setbacks, the company had to fall back to the single-speed transmission for its first customers. (Subsequently, Tesla upgraded to a faster single-speed gearbox with improved motor control electronics.)

Elon Musk in Jan. 2007 interview with Wired Science.

Perhaps the biggest setback announced last week is the delay of the company’s Model S—Tesla’s more modestly-priced $60,000 all-electric sedan. The plan all along was to start with the luxury sports car as a stepping-stone toward the mainstream. The delay pushes production of the Model S to 2011, at the earliest.

Setbacks and criticism are nothing new for Tesla and Musk. From Tesla’s earliest days, critics questioned the Roadster’s core energy strategy—powering a new ground-up vehicle via 6,831 laptop batteries all wired together. Naysayers said the battery system was simply not practical, and could possibly short-circuit or catch fire. Undaunted, the company pushed forward with its big dreams. In that regard, little has changed. There’s no indication that Elon Musk has lowered his long-term expectations for the company in the slightest. Despite last week’s news, he continues to accelerate faster than an all-electric sports car or a fiery space rocket.

The post Driving Tesla Near The Edge, Or Over? appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Tesla Motors told Hybridcars.com that it feels the close proximity of its manufacturing plant to engineers at its headquarters in San Carlos is a big plus for the company. The spokesman added that no site for the factory has been selected, but that it will likely be close to one of the bridges over the San Francisco Bay.

Tesla’s second car, called Model S, will be a five-passenger sedan that they plan to introduce in 2010 at a retail price of $60,000. That’s slightly higher than the initial target price the company announced when it first began talking about the model, as happened with its roadster. Model S will use technology from Tesla’s first model, a $109,000 roadster that just began deliveries earlier this year. The roadster is assembled in a Lotus factory in England, and uses a modified Lotus Elise chassis, augmented by Tesla’s proprietary electric motor and lithium-ion battery pack.

Tesla will need to ramp up its manufacturing proficiency as it moves on to this higher volume model. Followers of Tesla will remember that the roadster was delayed several times and has seen its initial deliveries trickle out rather slowly. In addition to production setbacks, the company has battled quality issues with some of its components—most notably its transmission, which it is in the process of redesigning. Tesla hopes to start putting the new transmissions—and some other upgrades—into roadsters before the end of this year’s production.

The post Tesla Comes Home appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Tesla’s headline-grabbing all-electric Roadster, which has garnered orders and investments from the likes of the Governator and the Google guys, has inspired a rush of companies trying to capitalize on what they believe is a burgeoning electric vehicle market. Undaunted by Tesla’s difficulties in delivering on early promises or problems faced by the last wave of electric car projects, these companies—mostly with design and engineering experience only—are charging forward with a “if they can build a car, why not us” attitude. For some reason, nearly all these companies claim that 2010 is the year they will hit the market.

• Fisker Coachbuild in Southern California is already on the charts with its swoopy plug-in, the Karma. If and when it comes to market, it will be a low-volume vehicle produced by a consortium of auto industry veterans, backed by millions of dollars of venture capital funding. Expected in late 2009.
• Pininfarina, a design studio in Europe with a long track record of supplying vehicle designs to major carmakers is dedicating an assembly line to producing EVs in collaboration with the Bollore Group, a French conglomerate producing batteries for the new vehicle. With €150 million invested, they plan to have it on the market in, you guessed it, 2010.
• Gordon Murray Design has jumped into the fray, offering an electric vehicle or plug-in hybrid using lightweight thermoplastic composites, a skill learned from the company’s work with racecars and high-end sports cars. They also have backing from venture capitalists—but will focus on selling designs to others willing to take on the bigger task of producing the vehicle.
• Other companies in Europe talking about producing their own grid-connected green machines are Loremo of Germany and Mindset of Switzerland. Both companies claim they will have hybrids on the market in the next couple of years.

2010 or Bust

While announcements from these small companies keep bloggers busy, the big boys—major auto companies and Tier 1 suppliers—are making plug-in vehicle plans of their own. For example, Magna International—a top-tier supplier with a track record of actually producing vehicles for sale around the world—is jumping into the fray with its own brand of plug-in hybrid.

Magna set aside $30 million of its own money to develop systems for the vehicle, which it plans to launch by 2010. Magna has the engineering expertise to develop the components to make a plug-in hybrid work, and has hybrid components for the new car already in the field for testing. This also gives them the leverage of either selling the completed car or some of its components to major brands on their customer list, such as BMW and Jeep.

Meanwhile, the heavyweights are making their own plans: General Motors with the Chevrolet Volt and Saturn Vue Plug-in; Toyota with a plug-in version of the Prius; and Ford with a plug-in Explorer. They have all expressed intentions to enter this portion of the marketplace and do not plan to hand over sales to upstarts. Right behind these players, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Subaru, and Norway’s Th!nk are in various stages of development and testing on a new generation of small electric cars.

The larger companies have a number significant advantages: big R&D departments, and well-established sales infrastructures and marketing arms geared toward moving product.

Finally, a caveat: The underlying battery technology in nearly every one of these endeavors—lithium ion chemistry in various combinations—has still not yet been proven in large-scale vehicle production. Consumers looking to buy their first all-electric car are advised to be wary of extreme marketing claims in this still-developing segment—especially any company promising a date-certain for introducing an electron-powered dream car.

The post The Electric Car Gold Rush of 2010 appeared first on HybridCars.com.

Because electric drive by itself grants a relatively limited cruising range on a single charge, the gasoline engine will extend the amount of miles the car can be driven. “It is more than research. We intend to have it as part of the offering,” said Tesla CEO Ze’ev Drori. “The Whitestar can be all-electric or it can be an REEV.”

The gas-electric powertrain will increase the appeal of the car to those who want a green automobile, but have concerns about range. The Whitestar REEV is expected to travel up to 400 miles before needing to recharge, as opposed to the all-electric version’s 150 miles. Historically, driving range has been one of the main points of criticism of electric cars.

Driving distance is determined by the size and performance of the battery pack. As a result, cost is a major factor. The all-electric Tesla Roadster carries a hefty price tag of $98,000. By contrast, the Whitestar is expected to have a sticker in the $50,000 to $70,000 range. The gas-electric version will be a little less expensive than the all-electric model. Tesla has not released a target date for release of the Whitestar.

The post Tesla Will Go Hybrid appeared first on HybridCars.com.

The all-electric Roadster is powered by lithium-ion batteries that are expected to carry the vehicle approximately 200 miles on a single charge. Based on the two-seater Lotus Elise sports car, the Tesla Roadster is the poster-child for a new sportier generation of green motoring. “The Tesla Roadster is one of the most advanced fully electric vehicles available,” NHTSA said in its decision. “We believe that the public interest is served by encouraging the development of fuel-efficient and alternative-fueled vehicles.”

Breathing easier from the decision, Tesla can now head more confidently toward its March 17 target date for the start of production. The Tesla Roadster sells for $98,000.

The post Airbag Waiver Keeps Tesla Roadster Alive appeared first on HybridCars.com.