As many of you know, the electric vehicle market is about to heat up. With many changes done in the aftermarket to regular gas guzzlers, the electric market has largely been unattended to by the traditional tuners. Of course minus the RUF electric Porsche and a few others.
The Tesla Roadster below got a bunch of Brabus goodies that are mostly cosmetic. Wheel and tire package and interior/exterior styling. So if you want funky lights and some great sill plates for your Tesla, hit up Brabus.
Seems like not having any money is a sickness that is spreading like the plague in the auto industry. According to insiders Tesla Motors has approximately $9 million left in it’s coffers.
$9 million might be a significant sum to private individuals, but it does not even equal 1% of of the annual advertising spending of General Motors.
Elon Musk, one of the founding members of PayPal has invested heavily in the company and is currently the acting CEO. Tesla Motors has entered the automotive industry seemingly overnight, by buying prebuilt Lotus base vehicles and outfitting them with electrical systems for power.
Tesla seems to have about 1200 deposits for it’s Roadster model with down payments ranging between $4,000 and $60,000.
According to some, as many as 100-200 have been paid in full, which is quite staggering, because the cars cost upwards of $100,000 a piece.
Up to date $150 million has been invested into Tesla Motors by various investors. It would be a shame if the company would go belly up now. A few are guessing that Musk might be willing to flip Tesla to a major car manufacturer to earn a nice return on his investment. Others are saying that another round of financing is in order.
What do you think?
Tesla Motors recently announced that they are building a $250 million factory in Silicon Valley. This comes amidst announcements that their Model S sedan will cost roughly $60,000 with an annual production output of 15,000 units by the end of 2011.
Tesla, most widely known for it’s green car based on a Lotus, has been getting a lot of positive publicity lately for it’s efforts in building electric vehicles. Endorsed by Governor Arnold Schwarzengger, who happens to own one along with several famous personalities, the new upcoming model is sure to be a hit.
Tesla has just recently rolled out it’s powerplant 1.5, which promises more power, a different transmission to improve both range and speed.
Tesla Motors is a couple of months away from locking up $100 million in private equity financing, as well as $150 million in government funding provided by the U.S. Department of Energy. On top of all this, the state has also offered Tesla significant tax breaks in order to help the company get off the ground. So Tesla has absolutely no reason, why it should not be a serious contender in the full electric game. The company has plenty of money, plenty of talent, recruited from Chrysler and other prestigous automotive related companies and plenty of demand for it’s products.
Other carmakers such as GM with its Chevy Volt and Toyota, will be competing against Tesla, however Tesla seems to have a head start on the game, as it’s already selling it’s Roadster, whereas the competition is still years away.
