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Tesla's Elon Musk on the (video) record
In an interview with MNN, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is candid about his company's finances, the competition, the Model S and its prospects for the future.
Thu, Nov 04 2010 at 11:30 AM
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FAST COMPANY: CEO Elon Musk of Tesla Motors. (Photo: Jim Motavalli)
PALO ALTO, Calif. — “You can’t drive a press release,” Elon Musk told me in a wide-ranging video discussion in his California office. He was referencing the competition, which has mostly talked about the electric cars they were preparing for the market. But all that’s changing, as Fisker (Tesla’s nemesis), Wheego, Coda, Smart and others prepare electric vehicles for the market late this year or early next.
There was a lot going on at Tesla headquarters, including a Wired photo shoot and a chance for the first-ever drive in the company’s electric-conversion A-Class Mercedes. Here's the first section of what turned out to be a 25-minute talk I had with him:
Musk’s Tesla was way ahead of the pack with its ultra-fast $109,000 Roadster, announced in 2007, and now after selling 1,300 of those and going public with an IPO, the company is racing to get the Model S sedan to market in 2012.
This interview will be in several parts, and this is the first. In this section, Musk talks mostly about the company’s finances. With the combination of its $465 million Department of Energy loan and $250 million raised through the IPO, Musk says he has more than sufficient capital to get the Model S into production.
The company has now acquired the ex-GM and Toyota NUMMI factory to produce the Model S, and has built partnerships with Daimler and Toyota. Tesla's newest investor is longtime battery partner Panasonic, which said Wednesday that it is investing $30 million in the company. Buy a Smart electric drive, and you’re in tune with Tesla, too.
I’ll let Musk do the talking. Stay tuned for Part Two.
MNN homepage photo credit: ZUMA Press
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the model S isn't an entirley new platform.. Its a diffrent shell around the same technology used to power the roadster. Which is why in this interview Elon compairs direct investment into S over indirect investment which he admits is far greater. The interesting part is that the indirect invesements (powertrain mass porduction, assembly plant, etc.) are all leading to that sweet 20%+ profit margin!
It is precisely because they are a new company that they do not have the massive overheads, low morale and general inefficiencies of a large established company.
They have no friends at Shell or Texaco that they need to keep happy, nor bizarre chains of dealerships and mechanics waiting to fiddle with their product and take a cut.
stocks up, they keep getting into partnerships with big well established companies, huge DoE grant. Unless the Model S is a crap on wheels, they could very well break the Big Three and make it the Big Four.
great post, looking forward to the rest of the interview. 50% more than needed to make model S. The stock is up 11.57% right now, and seems priced about right for the current moment, but once mass production of Model S beings they enter into a whole new market for electric vehicles at the 50k price point and will completely dominate. No competition there; Volt and Leaf and Coda and Think are 35-40k after rebates, and Karma is 80k+. This company is going to make biiiig dollars.
I enjoy you asking well informed questions and following up with the responses. I'm looking forward to the rest of the interview.
It's interesting that the Model S is only a $500 Mil program in Musk's mind, with most "industry experts" claiming a typical cost of a new platform for a well established car company registering in the $800 Mil - $1 Tril range. I wonder how Tesla, a brand new company, can possibly do it for cheaper.