Archive for the 'Company' Category

Coming to your neighborhood: Tesla Mobile Service Rangers make house calls Published on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 in Company, On the road.

We are happy to announce that the Tesla Ranger mobile service team is taking the auto service experience to a new level. Our Rangers now make “house calls” anywhere in the United States or Canada, and we will soon roll out the program in all markets where we sell cars. We charge a buck a mile — $1 per roundtrip mile from the nearest Tesla service center, with a minimum charge of $100.

Le Roadster Tesla sous les sunlights de la Côte d’Azur Published on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 in Company.

Suite à l’annonce de la commission de Bruxelles de faciliter l’homologation pour l’Union Européenne des voitures produites en petite série en 2009, nous avons donc décidé d’accélérer la commercialisation de notre Roadster sur le Vieux Continent.

Pour se faire et vu la concordance de temps, nous avons donc choisi comme terrain de présentation de notre sportive d’un nouveau genre le Festival de Cannes et le Grand Prix de Formule 1 de Monaco.

Malgré le peu de temps de préparation de ces évènements et notamment au regard des médias et clients potentiels, nous avons pu utiliser au maximum le délai imparti.

Sur notre dizaine de jours sur la Côte d’Azur en France, nous avons réalisé environ 45 essais clientèles, qui nous ont permis des premiers retours sur notre façon d’aborder l’Europe. Notre équipe étoffée était composée de 4 collaborateurs américains, un collaborateur anglais et un français (votre serviteur). Nous pouvions ainsi comparer nos expériences sur la typologie de nos clients potentiels et leurs attentes quant à la marque Tesla.

La première conclusion partielle est probablement qu’il faudra déployer des efforts importants pour faire connaître notre Roadster en Europe, qui est encore trop méconnu comparativement aux Etats-Unis. De ce fait beaucoup d’essais démarraient sur des réticences et de l’incrédulité de nos clients potentiels face à une voiture sportive toute électrique. Mais de ce fait leur impact n’en était que plus grand, ces clients pour la plupart découvrant que la voiture fonctionnait réellement, était belle (il y a eu une relative unanimité sur cela) et surtout diablement efficace et rapide.

Il reste que le chemin à parcourir est très important en Europe.

Autre point intéressant, de par la présence de médias spécialisés, de clubs et organismes œuvrant dans le domaine des voitures sportives et exclusives, nous avons eu de très nombreux retours de fans de supercar à moteur à combustion et aux performances hors du commun. Et la majorité de ces passionnés a été séduite par le Roadster Tesla, qui donne notamment des sensations de vitesse étourdissantes.

Remercions d’ailleurs à ce titre les clubs très exclusifs et exceptionnels que sont People Organisation et Emblem qui nous ont mis à disposition toutes leurs compétences et savoir-faire pour nous épauler à faire connaître notre voiture aux passionnés de voitures extrêmes, parmi les plus radicaux d’Europe.

On ne s’arrêtera qu’un instant sur les nombreuses personnalités s’étant déclarées intéressées par le Roadster, celles-ci souhaitant garder l’anonymat pour l’instant…

Nos prochaines étapes européennes passerons par la Suisse, les pays Nordiques, L’Angleterre, L’Allemagne, la péninsule ibérique, le Benelux, l’Italie, l’Europe de l’Est…

Rappelons enfin, car la question nous a été posée des dizaines de fois, que le Roadster est en vente dès aujourd’hui dans tous les pays de l’Union Européenne, la réservation se faisant en ligne et moyennant le versement d’un acompte important, nous permettant de continuer le développement de notre société, et les livraisons démarrant en Avril 2009.

A bientôt sur le Blog…

Le Roadster sur La Croisette à Cannes

Le Roadster Tesla a Monaco,
quelques heures avant le Grand Prix

Le Roadster sur La Croisette à Cannes

Le Roadster sur la Cote d’Azur

Tesla Store Los Angeles Published on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 in Company.

Last week we opened our first ever Tesla Store in Los Angeles on Santa Monica Blvd.

The Tesla Roadster is a revolutionary car and our Tesla Stores will be no less revolutionary as an automotive retail experience.

Store Front

What’s so different? Well, pretty much everything, but here’s the main idea. We want to create welcoming spaces, where our guests feel comfortable and in their element. And we want to create a sense of unity about the whole operation where there’s no wall of separation between the showroom and service.

One of the very first things you’ll notice about our new store is that the service area is side-by-side with the showroom and connected to it in a very open way. Service actually has the bigger window onto Santa Monica Blvd. Electric cars are cleaner around the shop. Less oil, no fumes. We knew our service area would be a showpiece, so we figured: why not put it out front where everyone can see? Plus, it just fits with our feeling that more public transparency is a good thing.

Showroom

Service Area

The same is true in a way with the showroom experience. In the traditional car-buying world, the object of the seller is control.

Control of information and control of you, from the minute you get on the lot until you finally pull yourself free. As a manufacturer, our approach will be radically different. We feel it’s our job to build products that you fall in love with. So when you come to the Tesla Store we want to be completely transparent and be as accommodating as possible.We like to think it’s our job to get out of the way and let the car do the talking, then help out wherever we can. In that kind of environment, you have the space to decide for yourself if this is the right car for you.

Look for our next store to open at Stanford in the San Francisco Bay Area this summer.

European Vacation (Not) Published on Monday, May 5th, 2008 in Company, On the road.

As I fly back from Brussels and think about the last 9 days in Europe I am very encouraged by what we learned. One of the advantages of a startup operation is the ability to change direction and make decisions very quickly to adjust to the opportunities and risks that present themselves. The flip side of that is that you often need to lead with your chin and accept the fact that you aren’t always entering the battle with your plans all in place. You become a master of rapid prototyping.

I start with a general observation about Tesla customers. Our new customers in the EU are every bit as dynamic and engaging as those who we have come to know in the US. It is not an exaggeration to say that one of the most extraordinary aspects of this company is the people who have signed up to reserve a Roadster. Those people, with wide ranging backgrounds, interests and motivations, share a vision and passion with Tesla’s employees to be part of something extraordinary and meaningful.

Many of the people who I have been interacting with, in person, on this blog or by email, have been following Tesla with a passion for several years, and this is something which I should have anticipated better when we communicated our entry into the European market.

European Pricing

When I announced the special, limited edition 2009 Euro-spec Roadster, I had not yet announced US pricing for the 2009 Tesla Roadster, which had increased to a $109,000 base price. I also communicated the price of the “signature edition” euro Roadster as a fully loaded offering, which compares to the fully loaded price of the 2009 Tesla Roadster of $120,200. This caused many people to compare the 99,000 Euro price of the limited edition car to the commonly quoted $98,000 price for the US version, with predictable results.

Where sometimes people talk about apples and oranges comparisons, this situation is a bit of an apples to oranges to pears to watermelons comparison. For starters, the car we are currently offering is a special, limited edition series of only 250 across the entire EU (Plus Switzerland and Norway) and it is priced at a premium to reflect that. That being said, a proper comparison should be made to the fully loaded 2009 price of $120,200 in the US (excluding taxes), not the $98,000 base price of the 2008 Roadster.

An important thing for our customers, both US and European, to keep in mind is that much of the cost of the Roadster is paid in Euros and Pounds. For that reason, as the dollar has weakened against the Euro (and other European currencies), we adjusted pricing accordingly. Not surprisingly, European carmakers are doing the same: in the April 30 edition of the Wall Street Journal Europe it is reported that BMW has made the decision to divert volume from the United States to other markets because their gross margins are under pressure due to the weak dollar and a Euro based cost structure. A final note on European pricing strategy relates to service centers and infrastructure. In the early going, we will be relatively “sub-scale” in Europe, with a higher cost of service and marketing infrastructure relative to sales. This is also reflected in our pricing.

While I thought it was important to address pricing, it really comes down to this:

The first 250 EU customers will receive a specially badged car that will no doubt be a collector’s item in the future. They will also be able to be the first Europeans to drive this amazing, rule-breaking, extraordinary car. Beyond that, we plan to offer other customizations for the car that will make it unique, but that will be a topic for future discussion.

The Top Marques Monaco Show

I’ll start by thanking Kory Tarpenning, the cousin of Tesla co-founder Marc Tarpenning, for turning us on to this show. Thanks also to Marc for putting us in touch. The show was a fantastic opportunity for us. Kory, who lives in Monaco, was an excellent host (especially to Diarmuid and Zak, who went out for a night on the town with Kory, and looked the worse for the wear from it the next day.) We had extraordinary interest at the Tesla booth from people from all over Europe, some of whom had flown in just to see the Tesla in person. After the first day, we pulled VP12 from the floor and kept it outside so that we could offer test drives to potential customers. I’m very glad we did that, because the experience of driving a high performance electric car up the mountains of Monaco or around the Monaco Grand Prix course is extraordinary. VIN F004, a car that is reserved by someone close to Tesla, stayed on the show floor for people to look at. Some notable visitors to our booth were former F1 champion Damon Hill, Prince Albert of Monaco and Bono. All of them knew a fair bit about Tesla and showed a great interest in the car.

We ended the show with a much better understanding of how we should approach Europe and what we need to do differently. For starters, we will be revamping our website and offering country and/or language specific content. We will be updating portions of the website that are outdated along the way.

We also ended the show with a good number of new European customers and hopefully an even larger number of future customers or brand ambassadors (some of whom comment on this blog).

An Update on Production

Since I inevitably get these questions, I should offer the update that VIN F003 has been delivered to its owner. VIN F002, which is reserved by co-founder Martin Eberhard, is soon to be shipped to the states. It had to stick around for a while because our quality team replaced the roof panel to improve the fit and seal and since the custom paint job involves the roof we couldn’t send it over and then send the roof later.

I don’t plan to offer car by car updates to the public but rather plan to communicate periodic milestones. The early stage of production is slow paced by design so that we can ensure quality and deal with any process problems before we ramp up to a higher rate. This has been and continues to be the plan. The production rate will slowly increase over the summer but then accelerate in the fall.

Furthermore, we are performing a higher than usual amount of post-production testing on these first cars. If we find anything we don’t like, we re-work it until it is right. The process is designed to have most of the kinks worked out by the time we ramp up to higher rates of production but comprehensive quality checks of every car will always be part of the plan.

Some Final Random Musings

I don’t envy Europeans who work for California based companies – just as the work day is winding down everybody is just getting going in California and the emails start flying.

The cost of food in Monaco is sky high, although I don’t believe it has anything to do with bio-fuels. As a result, we ate a lot of pizza.

I think the Cote D’Azur is a fabulous place for Tesla Roadsters.

Aside from standing at the booth, the most exercise I have had in months is transferring flights at the Frankfurt Airport.

For the first time in my life, crying babies in airports didn’t irritate me, they just made me miss my baby girl more.

Tesla in Monaco Published on Monday, April 28th, 2008 in Company, On the road.

As part of our European sales launch, Tesla Motors participated as an exhibitor at Top Marques Monaco April 24th - 27th where we met many of our first EU customers and many potential future customers. We have a blog in the works, but meanwhile we wanted to give you a glimpse of some photos.

Tesla Motors Exhibit at Top Marque

Bono in the Tesla Roadster

P4 on the Tesla stand at Top Marques

P4 and a general shot of the exhibition hall

P4 and VP12

Ex world champion F1 driver Damon Hill

The Tesla stand

VP12 outside the Fairmont Hotel
being charged overnight

VP12 beside a car popular in
Monaco - the Bentley Convertible

P4 on the stand
on its own

P4 on the Tesla stand

Darryl Siry being interviewed for
German television

Prince Albert II of Monaco visiting the Tesla stand

VP12 waiting to be driven in the pit area

Tesla Launches European Sales Published on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 in Company.

Last Wednesday the Financial Times ran a piece indicating that Tesla was now formally setting its sights on Europe. This is the first of what will be an increasing effort on our part to build the Tesla brand on the European continent with the anticipation of delivering cars to customers starting in the middle of 2009.

The idea that Tesla would expand internationally is nothing new – that has been our intention all along. There are many reasons why Europe is a very attractive market, outlined below. The thing that is new here is the timing of our expansion plans. Read more…

Mythbusters Part 2: The Tesla Roadster is not a Converted Lotus Elise Published on Monday, March 3rd, 2008 in Company.

One of the more common misconceptions about the Tesla Roadster is that it is an electrified Lotus Elise. This has been an interesting problem to deal with because the Tesla is vastly different from an Elise and it is important that people are aware of this. In fact, we recently counted how many parts the two cars shared and the total number was under 7% by parts count. If you were to analyze it by parts value, the number would be even smaller.

So you could say that the Tesla is similar to a Lotus Elise, except it has a totally different drivetrain , body panels, aluminum tub, rear sub-frame, brakes, ABS system, HVAC and rear suspension. The Tesla also neglects to carry over the gas tank, emissions equipment and exhaust. If you were to try to convert an Elise to a Tesla and started throwing away parts that aren’t carried over what you would basically be left with a windshield, dashboard (complete with airbags!), front wishbones and a removable soft top.

For comparison, Lamborghini cars share upwards of ten percent of their parts content with Audi cars. I can only guess what the number is between Ford cars and their high end Aston Martin and Jaguar brands.

At the same time, the Elise is a great car in its own right for what it was built to do. Several engineering breakthroughs that Lotus first implemented in the Elise, in particular the use of aluminum extrusions in the chassis that are bonded (as opposed to welded), have since been adopted by several carmakers and brands, including Aston Martin and Jaguar (note: I am not aware of any formal relationship between Lotus and those two automakers.) It was the fact that this approach yields a lightweight, rigid chassis and that the up-front tooling costs of extrusions are significantly cheaper than stampings that led Tesla to connect with Lotus about adopting a similar approach for the Roadster.

Early in Tesla’s history, after the company had focused on developing core battery technology, the time came to think about how to approach building a fully integrated EV car. As a startup, there were potential advantages to identifying an existing platform that had already been tested for US safety regulations and which could donate most non-EV parts. As with most things, however, the devil is in the details.

For starters, placing a 1,000 pound battery in the midsection of the car changes everything about the behavior of the structures that were originally engineered for the ICE powered Elise. In order to accommodate the added weight of the battery pack, the aluminum tub chassis had to be redesigned to a Tesla specification, increasing strength and using the battery pack as a stressed member to increase rigidity. Since we had decided to redesign the chassis, we also chose to redesign the side rails so that they would sit a few inches lower than those in the Elise, greatly improving ingress and egress. The chassis is produced for Tesla and does not start its life as an Elise chassis.

To accommodate the battery pack, motor and transmission, Tesla designed a new rear subframe. In order to handle the increased weight in the rear, new rear wishbones were designed. An added effect of the new rear subframe and suspension was a wheelbase about 2 inches longer than the Elise. The added weight, longer wheelbase, and desire for a different type of driving feel for our customer required a redesign of the suspension to achieve our ride and handling goals.

A challenging area of development for an EV that is not always obvious to the average person is the 12V accessories (fans, headlights, AC, heaters, etc.) All of these things have evolved over the last 100 years to run off the internal combustion engine. In an EV where there is no ICE and the main battery is running at about 400 volts, sourcing, designing and integrating these systems is no small feat. GM recently told of unforeseen problems they ran into in the development of the Volt related to 12V accessories that they say has driven the likely cost of the car up $5K to $35,000. Pretty much every car on the market uses a heat exchanger to transfer heat from engine coolant to generate cabin heat. That’s why the car has to warm up before it blows hot air. Every car on the market uses a belt driven compressor for the air conditioning. Every gas car also uses a belt driven alternator to generate 12V DC to run all of the other accessories. None of these things apply for the Tesla Roadster or any other EV, so they need to be designed specially for the car. I also left out power brakes, which normally rely on the vacuum from an ICE to generate boost (on an EV you need an electrically driven vacuum pump.)

All along, Tesla was developing its own signature styling for the Roadster. Once completed, every single panel on the Roadster was unique. The only exterior parts that are carryover are the rear-view mirrors, which Tesla carried over to avoid expensive development and safety testing costs. The headlights and taillights were designed to be unique to Tesla as well because they are so important to the character of the car.

As for materials: body panels (except for the bumpers) are made entirely of carbon fiber to minimize weight. By way of comparison, the next cheapest car that uses carbon fiber for body panels is the Mercedes McLaren SLR, which will set you back a cool $500,000.

So what remains as carryover from Lotus? The most noticeable pieces are the windshield and the dashboard, including the steering wheel. The fact that these pieces are so visible to the driver, passenger or gawker might partially explain the reason why people sometimes think the cars are closer cousins than they are. The reason we carried over these parts of the car was to avoid the onerous development and safety costs associated with passenger safety and airbag testing of a new design. Lotus had already successfully designed and tested the interior passenger compartment with the Elise and carrying it over made financial sense.

That concludes part 2 of the Mythbusters series. I’d love to hear your thoughts on other myths to address in future installments.

Mythbusters Part 1: Airbags? We got ‘em! Published on Friday, February 29th, 2008 in Company.

Let me cut to the chase and then rewind for the plot: contrary to some erroneous reports, the Tesla Roadster does indeed have driver and passenger airbags.

Rewind: a while back I was talking with the web team about a desire to have a special blog created alongside these that would be reserved for us being able to comment on news items or articles that were inaccurate or misleading. Read more…

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