In preparation for the impending initial public offering of Tesla Motors stock “on or about June 28,” Tesla has posted the required road show presentation accompanied by a prospectus to educate potential stock buyers about Tesla’s potential. In addition to bad mouthing the EV1, Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, lets some more concrete beans spill about Tesla’s future product plans.
You can watch the whole road show and read the prospectus here, but some of the more interesting tidbits to come out of it:
- Roadster development costs were about $125 million. According to Musk, this was comparable to GM’s EV1 development costs but then says that the EV1 was “not a great car.”
- The upcoming Model S will sell 20,000 units annually, targeting 1% market share of premium global market within 2 years.
- Tesla’s employee base comes from recruitments from such Silicon Valley heavyweights as Stanford, Oracle, NASA Ames, Intuit, Google, Apple, Intel, and Cisco.
- Musk calls the Roadster a “point solution” whereas the Model S is a “platform” which will be “readily extensible to a wide range of cars.” According to Musk the extended Model S family will eventually include a cabriolet, a minivan, and a crossover, and each of those cars will be “friggin badass.”
A “friggin badass” minivan? That’ll be the day.
Source: Retail Road Show via AutoblogGreen
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im still waiting for my electric 4×4…
im still waiting for my electric 4×4…
“◦Roadster development costs were about $125 million. According to Musk, this was comparable to GM’s EV1 development costs but then says that the EV1 was “not a great car.”
Yeah, but GM had to pay UAW wages, UAW benefits (mere mortals can only dream of the healthcare coverage and retirement they had back then…and still had prior to 2008) and even had to pay for idled UAW workers.
“◦Roadster development costs were about $125 million. According to Musk, this was comparable to GM’s EV1 development costs but then says that the EV1 was “not a great car.”
Yeah, but GM had to pay UAW wages, UAW benefits (mere mortals can only dream of the healthcare coverage and retirement they had back then…and still had prior to 2008) and even had to pay for idled UAW workers.
I’d have to disagree with Musk. At the time, the EV1 was pretty revolutionary, with the Ovonics NiMH Battery technology, the specialized low power air conditioning unit, the drive electronics, the compact motor, and the extremely well designed aerodynamics of the car.
Technology has advanced a lot in the intervening years, so naturally the newer (ER)EV models (Tesla, Volt, etc.) are better. I seems to me that it’s really an unfair comparison that Musk is making.
I’d have to disagree with Musk. At the time, the EV1 was pretty revolutionary, with the Ovonics NiMH Battery technology, the specialized low power air conditioning unit, the drive electronics, the compact motor, and the extremely well designed aerodynamics of the car.
Technology has advanced a lot in the intervening years, so naturally the newer (ER)EV models (Tesla, Volt, etc.) are better. I seems to me that it’s really an unfair comparison that Musk is making.