Tesla CTO talks Bluestar, the affordable electric auto

Despite not making any lusty noises when tearing away from a stoplight, Tesla's eco-friendly supercar the Roadster still sets our hearts aflutter. Its price, however, makes our bank accounts sad, so we're happy to report the company is still working hard to develop an affordable option dubbed "Bluestar." Tesla CTO JB Straubel recently spoke about green transportation at MIT's Emerging Technologies Conference, elaborating on earlier plans to build a $20,000 - $30,000 family car that, he hopes, could some day result in hundreds of thousands of sales per year. Given the company thus far has shipped just 27 cars, a partnership with some major automotive player will almost certainly be required, and as SUV-dependent 'Merican manufacturers continue to suffer we think any of them would be wise to play along.

[kjb434 @ Sep 25th 2008 11:44AM]

The more Tesla talks the more I don't believe them. They come out and make some fanciful statements to generate from venture capital and then a few months later say, "oh well, we're not there yet"

[kai312 @ Sep 25th 2008 12:53PM]

Yeah I'd have to agree. It's either venture capital or just trying to posture themselves for a buyout.

[Chad @ Sep 25th 2008 2:49PM]

Partnership with a major auto manufacturer? Chrysler announced some cool EVs yesterday and Tesla's Michigan office is only about a mile from Chrysler HQ. Hmmm.

[dukemang @ Sep 25th 2008 6:00PM]

Just like the moller flying car. Been talking that up for more than 30 years.

[chris fredette @ Sep 25th 2008 12:54PM]

I mock people who think a 20k-30k electric car is possible with current tech and material pricing that isn't a total useless POS.

[Stavros @ Sep 25th 2008 1:18PM]

And I mock people who think it isn't.

[elbow @ Sep 25th 2008 2:39PM]

I think the Aptera will be worth watching; granted that in the near-term it's basically a 2-seater California commuter vehicle. If you're willing to live with that constraint, it's aero enough to keep the battery pack small (10kWh), while still keeping the range at 120 mi & the price under $30k. That small battery also means a quick, cheap ($1-2/night) recharge from standard 110V. The fact that it's classified as an enclosed 3-wheel motorcycle also means that under CA law, it can use the carpool lane w/ just one occupant w/o requiring an HOV sticker, yet not require a helmet or motorcycle license to operate.

My understanding of the Tesla Roadster is that it takes ~30 hours (!) to completely recharge its larger 53kWh battery pack from a 110V/15A circuit; the touted 8-hour recharge time requires a beefier 220V/40A circuit.

[Jake @ Sep 25th 2008 5:58PM]

I mock people who think we can go to the moon before this decade is out. 1969 is only a few years away. Seriously, the Soviets have such a massive lead, there's just no way American science and technology can compete.

[Artie Lange @ Sep 25th 2008 7:01PM]

I just mock people.

[Chris Taylor @ Sep 26th 2008 4:33AM]

You have no clue. ITS VERY feasible to build a 100mile range PURE battery electric TODAY for under $12,000 (thats the magic number more on that later)

Lets see. Controller. $1500 Motor $2000 Battery $4500 Thats $8,000 so far with $4000 to spare MORE than enough to build a frame for that car. I mean Kia can sell cars for under $10,000 why not? $4 grand after you REMOVE all the expensive parts (motor trans and everything attached to it) should be easy.

Now let me wow you even more. The $4500 for the battery? thats actually how much GM was charging for the NIMH batteries (the ones that are illegal to make because chevron refuses to license them) in there EV1. Thats the CONSUMER price $4500 and that was over 10 years ago.

The price for the motor and controller? well those prices are for COTTAGE INDUSTRY Niche Hobby market components. IE small run numbers EXPENSIVE parts and look how cheap they ALREADY ARE.

Just imagine how much the motor and controller would cost if it was mass produced if its already that cheap RIGHT NOW.

There is absolutely positively NO reason they can not build a 100mile range Battery Electric for UNDER $12,000 probably under $10,000 once production is up and going.

Your concept of how much an electric car costs is simply silly whatever it is. Electric cars are by there very nature CHEAP and SIMPLE.

NOW for that $12000 cars you get NO ammenities. Simple radio Power NOTHING AC and Heat. thats it.

but you know something for a car that will be FREE and cost me NOTHING to drive. I can live with that. You see at $12,000 or less the car is FREE for most americans.

How? What do you spend PER MONTH on gasoline right now? How much is the monthly payment on a $12,000 loan? For MOST americans a LOT less than the monthly cost of gasoline. IE the car will cost you absolutely NOTHING more than what you are already paying right now.

Your replacing the cost of gasoline with essentially NOTHING. 10 years ago users of the EV1 were paying about $1 per 100 miles driven (might be a tiny bit higher today maybe $1.50) Typical american drives 15,000 miles a year thats $150 on your electric bill PER FRELLING YEAR. Thats if you do NOTHING to supplement it you just PLUG it into your garage. $225 if you pay $1.50 per 100 miles.

I don't know about you but I spend that much in a month of driving.

Toss in $1600 for a grid tie in (you can buy one today for that price) and then if nano solar comes through a $1000 solar panel and you will not generate and sell back to the utility more watts than you will use charging the car. Now its 100% free to drive and 100% pollution free.

The fact is Electric cars ARE CHEAP and they know it. Combined with them being crazy "simple" virtually maintenance free and virtually everlasting for all intents and purposes and NOW you know why they are so god awful afraid of them. Also why they refuse to release anything EXCEPT a pure Battery Electric.

They have to maintain the image that a PURE ev just won't work long enough to scam you into buying hydrogen in 10 years.

Clue in folks. the NIMH battery patent expires around 2015. When that happens I hope to see big auto go "POOF" once people realize how badly they have been screwed.

[William @ Sep 25th 2008 1:05PM]

Well, its the only electric car sold in the USA. And don't tell about those overgrown golf carts you can also buy (Zenn comes to mind).
Give them some credit for that!

[Jason @ Sep 25th 2008 1:07PM]

Blue Horseshoe loves Bluestar

[Shinigami @ Sep 25th 2008 1:15PM]

Cheap electric car?! That would make my day!.. not.
How about a cheap plug-in hybrid with great looks and great interior? 15-20k please

[diulei @ Sep 25th 2008 1:17PM]

Well, let's hope the Chevy Volt and some Japanese automakers give Tesla a reason to hurry up their R&D.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Sep 25th 2008 1:19PM]

Maybe they've only shipped 27 cars, but shipping only began in March. I thought the next step was the Whitestar ~$50k sedan, followed by a cheaper car, the Bluestar?

Transmission woes aside, the Tesla Roadster seems to do what they say it does. I see them on the road around here all the time.

[Kasey @ Sep 25th 2008 2:12PM]

All the time, huh? With only 27 on the road, you must live in a very special place...

[Ryan @ Sep 25th 2008 2:15PM]

There are only 27 cars in the whole world and you see them "all the time"?

[jake @ Sep 25th 2008 2:24PM]

That and also the fact they were purposely going slow in the first 40 cars because they want to make sure all the kinks in production are worked out and they also just recently finished all the testing for their final transmission (which will replace the older ones in the initial production cars for free, so they want to go slower at first to minimize the transmissions they have to replace).

It's troubling how frequent the 27 car number is put out without this context (though the link given in the article explains it). They have already ramped to 10 cars per week on the production line and will soon increase that further.

[Ian @ Sep 26th 2008 2:32PM]

well i actually live in San Carlos (you know the place they started) and i actually see 1-2 a month. In my opinion thats some what frequent for only 27 of them out in the wild. so yes i could imagine that someone sees them fairly regularly.

[bangladeshiluv @ Sep 25th 2008 1:44PM]

tesla girls, tesla girls, im in luv with tesla girls

[happy_penguin @ Sep 25th 2008 4:18PM]

You're showing your age. :D

[Big Sam @ Sep 25th 2008 1:45PM]

I'm waiting for an electric car for those of us who don't have garages. A battery that I can take inside the house to charge overnight.

[guitarboy2019 @ Sep 25th 2008 2:14PM]

Dude, if you don't have a house with a garage you need not worry about buying a $100,000 electric car.

[rcappo @ Sep 25th 2008 2:47PM]

I'm putting something like 1,000 pounds of batteries in my electric truck. They will all wired in and mounted to not move. If you somehow could make them easily removable, it would still be 12 heavy batteries to carry at the end of the day.

That would get old after about a week.

Now, if there was a leap in battery technology (nuclear batteries that use radiation to generate electricity directly like the Los Alamos ones), then you may not need to plug it in or charge them, but the traffic nightmare of people taking any roadtrip they want because there is no additional cost anywhere might cause different problems.

[Voice of Reason @ Sep 25th 2008 2:54PM]

Realy Guitar Boy - so the guy in the 8mill 3 bedroom down the block from my job (upper east side, NYC), who does not have a garage cannot afford one either? Look up at all the tall buildings, Country Mouse. We call this the city.

[guitarboy @ Sep 25th 2008 3:15PM]

@ Voice of Reason - From where I sit in Beverly Hills, that $8 million 3 bedroom sounds pretty paltry. Country mouse, eh? Last I checked LA was the second most populous city in the country.

[smib @ Sep 25th 2008 2:06PM]

They've said all along that the models they hope to make are some time off. They don't pretend to have more money or manufacturing power than they actually do, unless you want to count the hullabaloo with the Roadster's transmission, but even that was pretty straightforward after the initial confusion was cleared up. They've been saying all along that they wanted to make the Roadster to show people that electric cars can be appealing in ways besides not using gasoline. Then, with the money made off of the Roadster sales along with more investment, they wanted to make a cheaper, more family oriented vehicle. It's a startup company showing real promise, give it a little time.

[Eric Law @ Sep 25th 2008 2:20PM]

white-color, blue-color metaphor for cars?

[Marc-O @ Sep 25th 2008 6:07PM]

Did you mean collar ?

[iofthestorm @ Sep 25th 2008 6:27PM]

I believe you meant white collar, blue collar, but sure. That does make sense, although honestly I think even for most white collar workers the Tesla cars are pretty unaffordable.

[mg3point @ Sep 25th 2008 2:55PM]

I would like to see the price brought down to a 15k range if they are really trying to make it affordable to the average family. I believe thats half the problem with the auto industry now. Most families make just enough to get by let alone buy a new car. With prices so high, many families simply can't afford it. So the cars sit on the lots while auto workers make more to have sitting around until they lose their job because there is no demand for the cars. Without a job the workers cant afford a new car and definately not a 30k dollar car. On the flip side i also understand cost and materials that go into the making of a car that help drive the cost up. I dont know a solution but i do feel that is the problem.

[schrosa @ Sep 25th 2008 3:07PM]

NOPE! I just saw Car #29 in my neighbor's garage. He swore it was #29.