Tesla: The Elon Escapade

Elon Musk needs no real introduction. If you haven’t heard of him specifically you’ve definitely heard of one of his companies. The most famous currently is Paypal which he co- founded. He received a couple 100 million dollars from eBay when it was sold, and he did what any “sane person” would do he spent it all or most of it he claims, on three main ventures Tesla which I will cover on this blog SpaceX and SolarCity. Each of the projects individually is gigantic never mind as a trifecta done simultaneously. It is incredible feat of innovation.

Tesla began its life in 2003 since then has managed to break into the car industry which traditionally has had massive barriers to entry. Tesla’s plan was well thought out. It breaks down into three major goals in the following order. Luxury Roadster, luxury Sedan and finally mass market vehicle. Firstly releasing a high end luxury sports car first seems like an odd thing to do. This puts Tesla in the eyes of the consumer as a premium brand not to mention the name of the firm hailing from one of the greatest innovators the world has ever known. So now it’s perceived as luxurious and innovative. Good Start. Tesla targeted a defined market segment, the luxury, high end, performance roadster. Design wise the roadster was basically a Lotus Elise that runs on electricity. See below

Some Stats:

Name: Tesla Roadster

Released: 2008

0-60mph: 3.8 seconds

Miles per Charge: 245

Cost: above $100,000

So here Tesla aren’t focusing on producing a car ready for mass production but producing a car in a niche that performs as good as its peers but runs on electricity. Tesla is learning the ropes of electrical automation, smoothing over a few teething issues (& there were like the infamous TopGear battery malfunction & subsequence lawsuit). Most importantly it produced. It brought a concept to the consumer and sold around 2500 cars until they stopped producing in January 2012 because it ran out of Lotus Elise gilders.

Tesla’s 2nd electric car:

Name: Model S

Released: 2013

0-60mph: 5.9 (for basic model)

Miles per Charge: 230

Cost: Basic Model Starts at $62,400

The Model S was created again with luxury and high quality in mind and is directly in competition with the BMW 5 series and similar offerings from Mercedes, Jaguar and Audi. Tesla is now branching out, not in as much of a niche category as it was with the Roadster. It is also good to note here that with the passing of time technology is improving batteries becoming more efficient, Super Charging centres becoming more prevalent.

When the New York Times reporter John Broder took his test drive of the Model S from Washington to Boston, he claimed to encounter all sorts of problems, battery failing early, it not recharging properly, poor advice from Tesla staff and its range calculation being calculated wrong by the on-board computer. This is when Elon Musk goes for the jugular he publishes the driver logs from the vehicle and then makes a huge statement he claims Broder “deliberately set out to sabotage the test in a blatant violation of journalist ethics.” Big words from a big ego.

In my opinion the whole thing got blown out of proportion, Border didn’t do everything by the book of Elon that is clear but for Musk to claim he was in blatant violation of journalistic ethics, is a bit much. The publicity generated especially after Musk coming out and being so aggressive can only favour Tesla especially when Musk’s twittersphere got behind him so vehemently.

Tesla and Fisker: The competition

Similarities

Both are high tech start-ups trying to produce an electric/hybrid car.

Both got government grants $465million for Tesla (which they’ll be repaying ahead of schedule)& $528 million only received $193million for Fisker due to complications.

Both have crafted stunningly beautiful vehicles. Don’t you agree ?

As a firm Fisker doesn’t have seem to have caught the public’s imagination like Tesla. One of the main factors for this is not having as charismatic leader as Musk.

Differences

Fisker has sold 1800 cars Tesla over 10,000.

Henry Fisker who is co founder left the firm this March.

Both Fisker & Tesla have sued each other with Fisker winning 1.1million.

A series of Misfiskunate events.

Fisker had to initiate a voluntary recall of his luxury vehicles after a second mysterious fire destroyed a Fisker Karma sedan in Texas. 240 had to be recalled due to a coolant leak. 600 were recalled because of a battery defect. Fiskers’ battery maker A123 Systems a well renowned firm went bankrupt. And then finally Hurricane Sandy destroys the entire European shipment of 300 cars.

Well at least the accelerator didn’t get stuck.

To the Mass Market Future

Tesla’s Blue Star is currently priced at $30,000 before any tax rebates which should lower the cost further in the US. Undoubtedly some of the technology from the Model S will be used in this toned down version of it. It’s scheduled to be released in 2016/2017. By then one would hope that the amount of Supercharger centres would have grown to support a car targeted at the mass market. On an interesting side note Musk’s SolarCity run the many of the Supercharger centres which will definitely help Tesla an unforeseeable amount going into the future. Imagine if Henry Ford started Ford and ExxonMobil at the same time and owned them both. However I feel the real innovation is the battery & its storage capabilities because potentially the majority future electric cars will use the Tesla battery. And that is only in cars whats to say this battery storage device cant be used in houses, businesses & beyond…..

Some References

Broder on Tesla

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/12/the-charges-are-flying-over-a-test-of-teslas-charging-network/?ref=johnmbroder

Elon Musks Blog on Broder

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/most-peculiar-test-drive

Fisker v Tesla

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/fisker-and-tesla-battle-to-avoid-becoming-the-next-delorean/

Review on Fisker’s Karma

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2012-fisker-karma-review

Review on Tesla’s Model S

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2013-tesla-model-s-reviews