Renewable Gossip

The Tesla Roadster will turn any driver into an electric car acolyte. The two-seat, soft-top sports car, adapted from certain components of the Lotus Elise, will do 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, besting cars that cost twice its $109,000 sticker price. The recently released Sport Model, at nearly $130,000, shaves another quarter-second or so from the 0 to 60 performance. The Roadster’s audacious acceleration comes from a 185-kilowatt (248-horsepower) electric motor powered by a 53-kilowatt-hour battery pack that provides 200 or so miles of range. The Tesla Roadster makes shifting gears, watching a tachometer, and listening to the note of a combustion engine seems tedious and old-fashioned.

Growing Pains in the Rear View Mirror

While Tesla’s path to production hasn’t been as smooth as the Roadster’s power delivery, the company seems to be past the worst of its growing pains. After the car was revealed in 2006 amidst a media love-fest, Tesla Motors hit a number of potholes: product delays, boardroom discord (which led to the ouster of its founder and subsequent lawsuits), a product recall, a dreadfully slow production rate, and tens of millions of dollars in operating losses. But the eccentric attention-seeking primary investor and CEO Elon Musk has proven that big dreams and force-of-will can eventually pay off.

Elon Musk, Tesla Motors CEO, and Thomas Weber of Mercedes-Benz, in the Tesla Roadster.

While the long-term future of Tesla is still undetermined, the company has scored a set of important recent wins, most notably the delivery of nearly 1,000 vehicles (as of late November 2009). In May 2009, Daimler gave a vote of confidence to Tesla when it took an equity stake of “nearly 10 percent” in the company. Dr. Thomas Weber, Mercedes chief of research and development, said, “As a young and dynamic company, Tesla stands for visionary power and pioneering spirit.” (Daimler will lean on Tesla to provide battery packs and charging electronics for the electric version of its Smart Car.) And in June, the US government gave its imprimatur to the company with a $465 million low-interest loan to produce the Tesla’s second vehicle, the Tesla Model S. The follow-up to the Roadster, the Model S is described by Tesla as “an all-electric family sedan that carries seven people and travels up to 300 miles per charge.” The target price for the Model S is about $50,000, after a federal tax credit.

By August 2009, the company announced that—seven years into its existence—it had reached profitability (even if temporarily). Rumors about an initial public offering were surfacing by November. If the rumors prove true, Tesla would become the first public offering from a US automaker since the Ford debuted its shares in 1956. A huge infusion of cash from the IPO would allow Tesla to get closer to competing with the big boys in the auto industry. The company is busy hiring veteran auto industry engineers and executives.

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