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Tesla Motors Shaken Up, Laying Off
tjstork writes "Tesla Motors, the darling of technorati for its high performance electric car, may be about to go belly up. Venture capital is cut off, layoffs are under way, and construction plans are being stretched out. Elon Musk has ousted the CEO and taken the reins, blaming the global credit crunch."
Are we really going to freak out every time a company is having financial trouble? So many companies are effected that we'll just be flooded by them.
Tesla was building something amazing.
They weren't building something amazing. They were building an $110,000 electric go-kart. It wasn't going to be the big eco-friendly planet-saver that people made it out to be, because making each battery pack contaminated an area of China the size of the average suburban back garden. It wasn't innovative, because it was just a little light car with a big electric motor and a huge battery pack, all made from conventional parts. It wouldn't even be that practical as a sports car, because it didn't have the range to drive it anywhere fun to play with it.
It's an extremely expensive novelty. I'm not terribly surprised they're finding it hard right now. That doesn't mean I don't feel sympathetic towards them, but with things the way they are right now they might have been wiser to try and build a practical vehicle. Maybe if they took something like a small car-derived van and adapted that to run all day at town speeds on a battery pack, they'd have something that would sell. Or electric taxis, that would be brilliant.
Elon has outsted the CEO and taken the reigns, blaming the global credit crunch?
Could it be that people really don't WANT to drive an electric high performance car?
I mean, don't people understand? Nobody REALLY wants an electric car (underdeveloped technology, unproven, etc) when they can go get something from Toyota or Honda that gets excellent mileage, has a track record, isn't going to "go belly up"
because of insert_buzzword_here, etc., etc., etc.
The venture cap people that gave them the money in the first place should be tarred, feathered and shot from the lowest balcony in the first place.
I'm all for innovation, let's at least innovate where people are fucking interested, rather than try to blame a vaporware problem because your company had a product that was too expensive for the masses, was underdeveloped, undermarketed and basically, wasn't worthy of being produced.
Free market economy at it's finest. Unfortunately, the idiot at the company just
doesn't understand supply and demand.
Too many y2k / post y2k startups believe they are supposed to MAKE MONEY off venture cap. WRONG. Your supposed to damn near go broke, have a working 'device', and someone else believes in you enough. This bullshitting your way into millions has got to stop at some point.
--Toll_Free