The Tesla S is a five-passenger sedan, projected to start at $50K.
Posted on 09/19/2010 9:42:02 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
When the NUMMI auto plant in Fremont shut down in April, many pronounced it dead -- a triple victim of the recession, sliding auto sales and General Motors' bankruptcy.
But NUMMI is about to be reborn. Electric-carmaker Tesla Motors, which stunned the world when it announced plans to purchase the plant in May, officially takes ownership Oct. 1.
Already, many Tesla employees call the plant the "Tesla Factory." Forty people regularly work out of a Tesla office that's been set up on the parking lot -- taking breaks under three red patio umbrellas similar to those at the company's Palo Alto headquarters. The various "shops," from body framing to paint, are being designed, and detailed diagrams and timelines paper the walls of hallways and conference rooms.
"I've been through a plant closure before, and it's heartbreaking," said Gilbert Passin, Tesla's vice president of manufacturing, as he strode through the cavernous auto plant in safety glasses and a red hard hat emblazoned with Tesla's logo. "To be able to give a second life to this facility and some of the people here -- it's thrilling for us to be in this position."
Tesla will use the Fremont factory to manufacture its Model S sedan. The all-electric car will seat five adults and have a battery range of up to 300 miles. So far, nearly 3,000 people have put down deposits to reserve the car. Tesla has promised the world that deliveries of the Model S will begin in 2012, an ambitious timeline that some say Tesla will be hard-pressed to meet.
"We know what we want to do. It's just a matter of getting it done," said Passin, who does not appear to be daunted by the work ahead of him...
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
“and who’s gonna take it over when Tesla’s finished?”
Exactly. Wake me up when Tesla actually starts pushing finished, roadworthy, salable cars out the door.
What bullshit. The NUMMI plant is huge and employed 4500 people, producing hundreds of cars a day. There’s no way that a small boutique manufacturer can utilize that amount of production capacity.
Tesla claims to now have thousands of employees and they haven’t sold a damn thing yet. They claim that when production actually starts in 2012 that they’ll have a thousand people on the floor producing 20,000 units a year.
Except for a few rich eccentrics, who is going to drop a 100k on a toy car?
“Speaking of gubbermint motors, how many billions has the gubbermint poured into this boondoggle?”
My exact thoughts. Let’s see how they do when the government money runs out.
The central government can order you to purchase insurance and tell you what kind and from whom. Why do we think they won’t do the same for automobiles?
They’re only saying that because they know the world will end in 2012, so it doesn’t matter anyway.
You’re right...I forgot about that and I saw the movie!
But I thought the Aztec calendar only showed a DeLorean not a Tesla...
Yes, it is a plug-in hybrid. It differs from the conventional hybrid because the gas motor only drives a generator and the generator drives the electric motor rather than have either the gas motor or the electric motor drive the wheels.
Why so much? Massive development costs on a car with (probably) very limited market appeal, and this gets you a car with acceptable range but only marginal performance.
The comparable Tesla model would the the Model S sedan which is projected to start at $50K (vs. $40K for the Volt), not considering federal tax incentives, which would apply to both.
But the performance of the Tesla sedan is much, much better than the Volt and its styling puts the Volt to shame.
The $100K Tesla roadster has exceptional performance, but minimal practicality. It’s an expensive richboy toy.
Either approach is interesting, but as it stands, I couldn’t see buying either.
Whatever else it is, the Tesla is an expensive sports car. They plan on building 20k/year and selling Ooo them for $100,000 each.
In 2009, GM sold just 14k Corvettes at ~$70,000 each. That includes alot of people upgrading from older styles.
How is Tesla going to develop the capital to design and tool up for upgraded models every few years?
I predict they will sell about 15k total over a few years and then fold up. I also predict quality problems due to UAW assembly.
Imagine if the UAW assembled your iPod.
Another aspect of this pure and unadulterated BS is that as we entered WW II this whole same industry retooled in a quarter from cars to tanks, airplanes and every other wartoy for the big boys basically overnight.
Just consider that for a minute or two compared to the dance their doin' today.
The Tesla S is a five-passenger sedan, projected to start at $50K.
Just another government motors, perhaps GM Jr. The production and sale of electric vehicles is heavily subsidized. GM, Tesla, battery development, and actual sales are haavily subsidized. The worst part of the subsidies is government control of the energy industry. The grid will collapse from the load of electric vehicles if the vehicles become large sellers.
"...and (2) to develop a manufacturing facility to produce battery packs, electric motors and other powertrain components that will power all-electric plug-in vehicles manufactured by Tesla and other original equipment manufacturers including Daimler and Toyota. "
TESLA is also a government-funded company
Let’s see now. Tesla paid $42,000,000 for a white elephant that has 5.5 million square feet of buildings, and essentially they’re gonna use one corner of one building to build their cars. They have orders for 3,000 cars, which will be priced “as low as” $50,000, even though Tesla’s startup money has come in the form of a $465 million “advanced technology loan” from the federal Department of Energy as part of the “stimulus” funding.
They’ve hired 30 of the former 4,700 employees, and are going to hire a “few more”, and CEO Elon Musk has said Tesla could have 2,000 employees within the next few years. (Notice the “could” and the “next few years” qualifiers.)
Does anyone else here besides myself see any problems with this situation? For example, assuming the best case scenario, we’ve got 2,000 jobs being federally subsidized at $233,000 per job. Or another way of looking at it, we’ve got the 3,000 cars subsidized at $155,000 per car. Naturally, they’ll be an additional direct $7,500 federal subsidy when a car is actually purchased, plus various state subsidies.
In the olden days before Obammunism, we would have called this a scam. Now what do we call it? Obammunism? Socialism? Fascism? Marxism? Or is it still just a plain ol’ ordinary scam financed with federal deficit spending?
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