Tesla Motors Getting Some Cash

SI Insider:

Valley darling Tesla Motors, which makes the Roadster, a $109,000 electric sports car, needs a little more cash. The CEO Elon Musk confirmed with Reuters that the company has $9 million cash on hand and that they're going to get $20 million in the coming weeks from their existing investors. Reuters:

When Tesla failed to secure a $100-million investment round earlier this month, Musk cut 24 percent of the company's work force and delayed development work on a battery-powered electric sedan, known internally as the "Model S."

He also took the CEO post from Tesla's former chief executive, Ze'ev Drori.

Read the whole story: SI Insider

Comments

[Earl]

Reinventing the wheel will cost a lot more than $20 million. But I wish them luck. The real thing that needs to be reinvented is our socioeconomic system of car ownership and fueling. We must discard the current paradigm if we are to succeed in moving to electric vehicles. Instead of owning the battery like we own a car, the battery should be more like a propane tank - use it and recharge it OR use it and swap it. That way, we could go on road trips, swapping spent batteries for recharged ones along the way, or for local driving, recharge it at home overnight. From what I understand, Tesla is still using the paradigm of permanently installed batteries which enslaves the owner to a circumference around a charging station, and multiple hours to charge. They would be smart to design swappable batteries and start setting up charging/swapping stations along interstate highways with the $20 million. They can start with Los Angeles to San Diego and build from there. Better yet, make it Boston to DC.

[research]

I respectfully, disagree. You would never know what dangerous piece of junk battery you were getting. High current battery connections are bolted together. Swappable battery contacts would be a fire hazard. Plus, you would have to ship batteries around to level out the batteries per station. Bad news if no batteries available.

The new batteries can be recharged in 5-20 minutes.

Add a small generator for long trips: a plug in Hybrid.

[DirkNLExpat]

I prefer the Bugatti Veyron for a cool Millions euros.

top speed 250 mph.

[research]

GOOD!

They are under priced for the performance.

[ferrarimanf355]

No clutch pedal, no defining engine noise... what's the point? I'd rather buy a pair of Lotus Elises, the car this is based on, and have some real driving fun...

[BlackbirdHighway]

I'm having a little trouble understanding this concept. How exactly is Tesla stopping you from buying a pair of Elises? If that's what you want, go ahead and "quit yer' bitchin"! No one is stopping you!

[davidwayneosedach]

Who exactly is going to buy these $100,000.00 sportscars?

[ajm8127]

They are only obscenely expensive because of the technology involved, like everything electronic that comes out on the cutting edge. The thing accelerates faster than a 911! The hope is that by building these cars, much will be learned from the process, and materials will become more readily availible, making it easier to get a viable family oriented electric car to market. Remember that 300 million John McCain wanted to award for a better battery? He should throw Tesla motors some money.

Oh, and they already have a long waiting list because they cannot produce the cars fast enough. You have to reserve one:

http://www.teslamotors.com/buy/resyourcar.php

So to answer your question, a lot of people.

[NeoStar9]

I would think that creating a sports car with the technology might be even more complicated since you have to make the technology even smaller compared with making a family sized car or van.

[Nikola Tesla]

They are ALL sold already.

[8IZENUF]

Sold, to people who think they are helping the planet. Look where your electricity comes from. We need to invest in better resources before we build consumer items that suck up more energy. We definitely need something different than oil consuming gas guzzlers that you can see polluting the air. Unfortunately how we get most of our electricity also pollutes and poisons; it is not as noticeable at first.

[wadenelson1]

Instead of throwing $25B at Detroit the government should be doing everything in its power to help Tesla.

[Semaj51]

Why??? How many can afford a small 2-seat $100K+ car?

[demandfortruth]

dude, that's why the govt gets involved...to help subsidize the costs. great idea wadenelson.

[Nikola Tesla]

$60K Sedan in 2010.

[tops]

Exactly what I was thinking. You took the comment right out of my mouth. The government probably wouldn't even need to give them $25B. 1B dollars would probably be enough. You could give it to them with the requirement that they build a affordable family car.

[ProgressiveInAZ]

Relax, the article doesn't say that the gov't is funding this - it says they are getting the money from their investors.

[8IZENUF]

Until cleaner sources for generating electricity are put into place, people should not be buying into the electric car. This car is neither affordable or economic and it's not good for our planet at this time. Please watch or rent, Sundance films', Eco documentary: Burning the Future: Coal in America.

West Virginia provides coal to produce electricity for half the nation. Ironically, while preserving jobs, coal mining disfigures mountainsides, destroys plant and animal species and spreads toxic groundwater. Yet so effective is the coal industry's public relations campaign promoting "clean coal" that these long-term environmental disasters remain largely unreported. In response, documentary filmmaker David Novack provides an impassioned, harsh exposé of big coal. "As upsetting as it is informative" - New York Times.

Southern Utah is also sustained by coal jobs. We need a safer, cleaner method of extracting coal, or better yet, we need to invest in solar and wind technologies to produce electricity.

[BlackbirdHighway]

Relax, I have solar panels on my roof. 50% of the rest of my electricity comes from nuclear power. Yes, we need to get rid of coal entirely, but that's no reason to not have electric cars.

There aren't any panels you can put on your roof that turn sunshine into gasoline!