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Tesla's $48,000-Per-Car Mistake

 
1,189 views Jan 22, 2009

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If you've followed the Tesla Motors story from the beginning, you know that there have been trials and tribulations along the way. How many speeds would the transmission have? When would the cars be delivered? How fast would they actually be? Today, Tesla Chairman, Elon Musk gave some insight as to the extent of those tribulations, in an email to Tesla customers.

Musk admitted that the electric car company grossly underestimated production costs for the Tesla Roadster when it originally set prices at $92,000. Whereas the company believed production costs would be about $65,000 per vehicle, they turned out to be almost $140,000. Oops. That explains the house cleaning Musk performed of the company's management team in 2008.

Tesla has since reduced production costs with different manufacturing approaches and suppliers, but each vehicle still costs between $90,000 and $100,000 to make. Who will pay for the err of Tesla's ways? You guessed it! The customers!

Tesla is still offering to deliver roadsters for the original $92,000 price to customers who have already placed $50,000 deposits. There's only one catch. The $92,000 vehicles will not include the originally promised turbine-blade wheels or the high speed charging cord. Each of these 'options' will cost an additional $3,000. If you refuse to pay the extra dough, the car will ship with a standard 100-volt cord that would take 37 hours to fully recharge a drained battery.

If you can afford a car that costs $92,000 you can probably afford a car that costs $98,000, but that's beside the point. Imagine the backlash if Tesla were a mainstream automaker, like they say they want to be someday. Would Congress be turning the screws to them like they did the Detroit Three last year? If Tesla needs the $350 million in federal loans they're going to ask for to work on their future Model S sedan, they ought to come with a plan to prevent their inexperience in the auto industry from boondoggling their future customers.

Source: Edmunds, Image: Tesla

 





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Comments (7)

  1. By kelly Posted: 1/22/2009 5:41pm PST

    Not good. Isn't the 1000's of AA Li-on battery technology from the 2003 tzero? Now it's $48k higher?
    Sad that it's appearently the best the West can do and is in the BMW e-mini, EV Smart car, .. after five years.
     
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  2. By  Rob Posted: 1/22/2009 11:20pm PST

    Not good at all. I give these startup electric car companies a lot of credit. They're trying to do something that the big boys have been unable to do. But every time a story like this breaks, they lose some credibility.
     
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  3. By  Bradly Feltchall Posted: 1/23/2009 1:02pm PST

    I don't think I would say they loose credibility at least not long term. The model-T wasn't a mass market car at first. It takes time and money to get it right and make it mass producable. If they had help, more financial backing, they would probably be able to gather the resources and people needed to make that happen.
     
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  4. By  Rob Posted: 1/24/2009 12:09am PST

    I agree with most of what you said, Bradley. And you may be right about them not losing credibility in the longterm. The problem here is that there may or may not be a "longterm." Keep in mind, a couple of years ago, some automakers swore off of electric cars entirely. Nissan thought fuel cells would be the way to go. Hell, Honda still thinks fuel cells are the way to go. Electric vehicles are a hot topic now and a very important one, but the companies making them have an additional responsibility to make them practical and viable to sustain this movement. A $48,000-per-car mistake is a hard pill to swallow under those circumstances.
     
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  5. By Noel Park Posted: 1/24/2009 3:26pm PST

    Not a problem for me. I wasn't going to buy one anyway.
    Not to repeat the obvious, but someone has to come up with an affordable, freeway capable, electric vehicle for consumers to make any serious difference in the environmental/oil dependency world.
     
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  6. By Ken Posted: 2/1/2009 11:41am PST

    "Ken"

    Well, that is one way you could "spin" it, but I have seen and driven a Tesla Roaster now... Where is that 2009 or was it 2010 or now it is a 2011 Volt? They are making the cars now that you are not...they are selling the cars now that you keep pushing back. It is very easy to point out the mistakes of those that go first... but you are not talking about the EV1 are you.
     
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  7. By seriously Posted: 2/9/2009 10:44pm PST

    "yeah, congress was real mean to poor big auto"

    "Imagine the backlash if Tesla were a mainstream automaker, like they say they want to be someday. Would Congress be turning the screws to them like they did the Detroit Three last year?"
    Turning the screws? You mean, like, say, giving them $20 billion in taxpayer money? Ow, that hurts!
     
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