Tesla's Elon Musk promises sub-$30k all-electric car in less than four years
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted June 30th 2008 3:09PM
posted June 30th 2008 3:09PM
[Image courtesy of Edmunds]
posted June 30th 2008 3:09PM
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Chris.
"I assume a bunch of these would be straining the current system."
To answer that question, yes and no. Yes if everyone charged their cars from 1pm till 6pm, during peak demand. No if they charged their cars from 9pm till 5am, when there is plenty of excess generation.
Most standard electrical generation plants (barring hydro) operate near their upper capacity both day and night since they aren't easily throttled. That's the reason why at night, many electrical plants send their excess electricity to pump water uphill into reservoirs, so hydro can use the H20 during the day. At night, overall consumption levels drop to a fraction of their daytime usage. Demand billing in CA for example will charge ~$0.18 during peak hours, but closer to $.03 for overnight rates.
The short-lived Toyota Rav 4 EV included a built-in timer to dictate when to start charging from the grid. Most owners set them to run past 10pm. I assume Tesla would do the same for this car.
the US airforce is paying him to send payloads into space now. he just got a contract with them and NASA, dont you worry...he'll do things right.
Where do I go to pre-order?
Telsa, way to go! Now all you need to do is get bought by apple. Since everyone knows Stevie boy is the leader of technology in laptops, maybe he would want to do the same with cars!
Can't you iDIOTS stop trolling posts touting how Apple is the answer to life?
If Stevie boy built a car, he would most likely leave out essential options like air conditioning so that he could come back a year later and sell you a new one the next year.
You know how they have solar chargers for cell phones, mp3, and other portable devices. Anyone think they will be companies brining something out like that for electric cars, and plug in hybrids?
I think it would be a neat styling accent, but for everyday use, solar cells on the roof and hood would just be for show.
Though, I suppose if you left your car at the airport for a week, you might come back to find it noticeably charged back up.
I dunno, it be nice to have your car charging while driving, when at the market or a day party.
"Granted, a $60,000 car is affordable..."
Is Engadget looking for more reporters/writers? I guess I'm in the wrong field of work.
seriously,
I need to get on the engadget payroll.
LOL, just imagine pluging it in at a hotel....
"Ahhh, Sir?"
"Yes"
"You use a shit load of electricity last night"
"ohh, thats just to charge my car"
"I see"
"Now I need to charge my private jet, ill be back"
I have to say it again. Nikola Tesla was a genius. Too bad he was such a bad businessman.
Too bad for you he was also a time traveler. Once he reads your post and sees your comment about his business acumen, he will kill you 2 years ago.
Apparently the guys over at Tesla red my comments in the last post about the $60k Sedan. Now a $30k electric Tesla car is really affordable for the general public. I hope more manufacturers start making such announcements.
Everyone should unbunch their panties for a minute and just ponder the fact that Tesla hasn't actually released their FIRST product.
Sure sure, Elon Musk obfuscates this fact in interviews. He says "we are actually building these vehicles" when, in fact, Tesla has delivered only 3 Tesla roadsters over the last 6 months, all of which went to top level executives at the company (including Musk). He also says "We have 1000 customers" when Tesla only really has 1000 pre-orders for the Tesla.
This is a company that has expertly navigated the waters of modern PR, but they have let their ship date slip numerous times, changed the vehicle specs numerous times and fired much of the original Tesla team. They throw out a lot of talk and bravado, but the fact is that they have yet to actually ship a product they announced well over a year ago.
Until the Tesla roadster ships, "White Star" and a sub $30k electric vehicle are all just pie in the sky talk. Like Musk and company are pumping up the PR machine so they can go back to Sand Hill Road with the hat out looking for some more VC funding. I wouldn't put much stock in Tesla's current PR blitz coming a reality any time soon.
As far as production of the Roadster the last I heard is that it's moving along fine. #15 was already on the line as of June 19th. http://earth2tech.com/2008/06/19/tesla-update-former-ceos-crashed-car-ipo-plans-roadster-s/
Delivery obviously takes a longer time since the glider has to be shipped from England. So the statement that they are building these vehicles is fully true, it's not like they have stopped everything in production. I don't see how stopping production will benefit them, that just sounds like a conspiracy theory, like some people saying they are just starting this company to build cars for themselves and that they will shut it down afterwards. Wouldn't they make more money actually selling the cars, since probably almost all of the 1000 customers are pre-orders (I think you can call them "customers" if they pre-ordered, what else do you call them). On the issue of Musk himself and the firing of the orginal team, that's a different issue, as I think you should know.
On one point I agree, both the Model S and the $30k car are just promises, so there's no need to be too excited.
Let's just hope they can get a transmission to actually work.
Last I read about the $100k (Lotus) Tesla, it was destroying transmissions like you wouldn't believe.
Maybe you should read something more recent about the transmission.
Maybe you should read something more recent about the transmission.
Wow.. not sure what happened, thats the first time I've ever made an accidental double post. Oops.
Aptera? Anyone heard of this? On Sale in California now for less than $30K. All electric car. Yay Tesla, yay GM, yay Toyota. You guys are at least 3 years behind. w00t.
The Aptera is not for sale yet, and it's a joke car. This car is less likely to fulfill the needs of a Camry owner than even a Tesla Roadster is.
Why do you say it's a joke car. I'm not trying to be belligerent here, I am genuinely ignorant as to your info. Did they already scrap the design? Last I heard they were shipping at the end of the year.
As much as I applaud Tesla for trying to change some of the fundamental paradigms of the auto industry, there are other possibilities that are closer to realization (not just the Volt). My favorite: the Volvo ReCharge. By reinventing the entire concept of an engine, this vehicle - which recently was expanded to a 10 car test fleet - could take auto industry by storm, and along with Tesla's and GM's efforts, encourage green transportation. I'd like to hear some news about said vehicle.
Time for some truth!`
Chrysler will be out of the picture in 12 months.
Ford is hopeless with management worst than GM's if that is possible
GM, the Volt is constantly getting shorter in range, can't run the AC and get the 30 miles and the price goes up. GM has not had a leader since ED cole. They are a joke.
Tesla only has to worry about Toyota and Nissan and Maybe and I do mean maybe Honda.
I have never seen so much ego and arrogance since I gave a talk to Henry Ford II in the Glass House on Airbags, His brillant comment "I never want to heard about those damn things ever again."
they will crush him like preston tucker
I expect my sub-$20k flying car in no less then 7 years. and I expect my fart powered plane in no less then 8 years.
@chris fredette
its called technology and it progresses.
For a company that ships one car a month, Tesla sure is good at press releases. My suggestion to Elon is to shut up for a while and get some cars on the road. With 100s of people lined up for cars at 100k/per, why does Tesla even *need* press releases. Maybe I've gotten too jaded, but I've been reading electric car company press releases for 5 years. SHOW ME THE WHEELS! When will I see an Engadget post about a car you can actually get.
how can we make this car even greener? get them to use waste CO2 (R744) to power their MAC (Mobile Air Conditioning).
That way they reduce their 'real emissions' even further with this eco-friendly alternative.
Check out http://www.R744.com for more info about companies working with this technology around the world.
Duh, where is the electricity going to come from? The Democrats have thwarted electrical plants just like have oil exploration.
We're headed for a disaster. We need to drill now and build some nuke and coal electrical plants. The money that we are all spending now is like a huge tax that we should have spent years ago to increase our OWN production. Instead, this "tax" is going to dictators. Thanks, Democrats.
My wish list just goes on increasing.. :|
PS3, HDTV, and now this...
I need money.
More importantly, will it be a sedan?
With all this new electric cars coming with their limited range, it sould be really coll to see lots of stopped cars on the side of the road totally depleted, and then ? it comes a toe truck with a new battery ? or a flash charge
If Musk makes any more wild assed promises, someone please put a bullet in his thick skull. Talk about an unreliable, incompetent company. What happened to the first sedan they promised? Then they promised a copy of the Chevy Volt serial hybrid. Then they sued Fisker, claiming that Tesla was, more or less, totally incompetent at even hiring auto
designer. Now they are being sued by Fisker , they are years behind in their delivery of a pretty simple sports car, yet are now announcing another example of what only the most gullible would claim not to be pure vaporware. Why doesn't this company simply fold up ther tents and admit that they are nothing more than amateur automakers who have to hire outside to do EVERYTHING, from designing their cars to telling them how to meet Federal regulations?
A $30K Tesla is the utmost in utter nonsense. I notice he said
4 years, which is long after most estimates of when Tesla will have to declare Chapter 11.
The battery pack for their existing vehicle weighs almost that much, it used commercially mass produced cells (8671 of them!!!) which are actually rising in price, not dropping, and they have no connection with any third geenration li ion technology, being stuck with 1st generation crap, yet are claiming a car whose total cost is less than the cost of its battery pack. Tesla is getting to be a humorous subject for the electric propulsion crowd these days. It's run exactly the way you would expect a car company would be, if the execs came from disciplines far removed from automaking. It seems to be operated with a gullible Hollywood public in mind, who have more money than brains, or talent.
A $60,000 car is affordable? Damn, I need to start doing more blogging.
This has always been Tesla's aim. It says so on the Tesla Motors website. The plan is to generate revenue with the Roadster and reinvest that in the WhiteStar to be out by 2010. It's going to be similar to a BMW 5-series and cost 60k. The profits from the WhiteStar will be reinvested in the BlueStar, the 30k version planned for 2012.
As far as the Roadster not being available... I've seen on on the highway around here. I live in Chicago. It's badass.
60k is not much for a car these days. At least where I live.
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