Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeyd
Tesla seem to be holding a pretty good hand, the tie up with Lotus and access to the finest chassis combinations available anywhere (VVA/APX for their Model S/ and the Evora platform for their 2012 911 turbo competitor. Tesla announces electric Evora?
The Mercedes link for the Smart EV looks really promising too.
There probably are other players but where are they?
Tesla seem to have a viable and conservative business model which will see them graduate from speciality niche products to eventual mass production - the major stumbling block to their progress appears to be cash flow closely followed by battery technology and according to some of the scientific articles I've been reading we are very close to several battery tech. breakthroughs.
The case for federal financial support of a strategic emerging industry is compelling too - throw money away with GM or invest in a bright future with Tesla? I personally think it would be unforgivable for the Federal Gov to let Tesla sink while propping up any part of GM.
my $.02
Apologies if this is wandering off the thread topic, divorces and lawsuits between business partners are ugly, I hope they sort it out without damaging Tesla. Tesla is bigger than any of the personalities involved. It would be a tragedy if this caused Tesla damage. |
There are a number of EV producers that range anywhere from fraudulent (zap) to marginally entrenched (toyota) and everywhere between. toyota may not have a pure EV but the prius has given them a tremendous amount of real world experience in producing *large* numbers of EV components as well as assembly of hybrid EV platforms.
Tesla has none of this: they are really more of a systems integrator in that they have someone make the battery, someone else make the drive train, have lotus make the car, and then put the parts together. they also havent been able to demonstrate scaling of production and economies of scale which are the two *most* important things to show if you are going to ever build the number of cars needed to truly move forward. right now tesla is basically like AC propulsion, an emerging company in an emerging market. Yes they have promise but no (real) experience.
I agree with you about the mercedes EV. if anyone can do EV big and right its mercedes and they are pursuing the alternative fuels segment in a pretty big way. The big difference of course is that tesla will *never* build anything for mercedes. As I have said before, mercedes is going to use tesla for their strategic partners and then gut the company when they finaly get the chance.
Finally, Ive said it before and ill say it again... if the govt wants to give tesla money then make them partner with whats left (salvageable) of GM. no building a new factory when gm has them sitting idle along with a labor pool that will work for less (and they also actually have experience in building large numbers of cars)