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Tesla To Produce 'a Few Million' Electric Cars a Year By 2025
HughPickens.com writes: Reuters reports that Elon Musk, speaking at an industry conference in Detroit, said Tesla may not be profitable until 2020 but that Tesla plans to boost production of electric cars to "at least a few million a year" by 2025. Musk told attendees at the Automotive News World Congress that "we could make money now if we weren't investing" in new technology and vehicles such as the Model 3 and expanded retail networks.
Musk does not see the Chevrolet Bolt as a potential competitor to the Model 3. "It's not going to affect us if someone builds a few hundred thousand vehicles," said Musk. "I'd be pleased to see other manufacturers make electric cars." On another topic, Musk said he was open to partnerships with retailers to sell Tesla vehicles, but not until after the company no longer has production bottlenecks. "Before considering taking on franchised dealers, we also have to establish (more of) our own stores," said Musk adding that "we will consider" franchising "if we find the right partner." Musk did not elaborate, but said Tesla "is not actively seeking any partnerships" with other manufacturers "because our focus is so heavily on improving our production" in Fremont. Last year, Tesla delivered about 33,000 Model S sedans and said the current wait for delivery is one to four months. Tesla has already presold every Model S that it plans to build in 2015. "If you ordered a car today, you wouldn't get it until 2016."
Musk does not see the Chevrolet Bolt as a potential competitor to the Model 3. "It's not going to affect us if someone builds a few hundred thousand vehicles," said Musk. "I'd be pleased to see other manufacturers make electric cars." On another topic, Musk said he was open to partnerships with retailers to sell Tesla vehicles, but not until after the company no longer has production bottlenecks. "Before considering taking on franchised dealers, we also have to establish (more of) our own stores," said Musk adding that "we will consider" franchising "if we find the right partner." Musk did not elaborate, but said Tesla "is not actively seeking any partnerships" with other manufacturers "because our focus is so heavily on improving our production" in Fremont. Last year, Tesla delivered about 33,000 Model S sedans and said the current wait for delivery is one to four months. Tesla has already presold every Model S that it plans to build in 2015. "If you ordered a car today, you wouldn't get it until 2016."
We were hoping we found a giant killer, a veritable David against Goliath, a David on our side. Now you eh, tu! Elon? Don't. Break their back. Bring national direct auto buying directly from the manufacturer to the nation that deserves it. It is long past time, we let the free markets to be free.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
It's a typo. The wait for a model S is 1-4 months. The model X is sold out for 2015.
It should read that the Model X (SUV.. not yet available) presales have been exceeded for 2015 and future purchases wont be fulfilled until 2016. The Model S (Sedan) is the model with the 1-4 month wait time.
Chewie does not get a medal. Come on, George. Can a Wookie get a medal?
If these cars are so wildly popular that they're selling out and there is a long waiting list, perhaps we should end the $10,000 subsidy which was intended to encourage purchase of these vehicles.
Seems they would sell fine without the subsidy.
What does Elon know that we don't know in regards to oil prices? He ain't selling that many cars if oil stays under $50 a barrel, the demand just won't be there.
While I agree that the preponderance of USA car-buyers are in fact that stupid, i.e. basing their purchase choice on an incredibly volatile price index, I would argue that the intersection of said morons with the set of people who have seriously considered an electric are is vanishingly small.
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
I have tremendous admiration for Elon Musk and Tesla, but ramping up production to that of a top five or even top ten automobile manufacturer is almost unrealistically ambitious. Building up the supply chain for the materials, hiring and training workers, setting up factories, etc... these are things that take years to do even under ideal circumstances. The fact that they're having difficultly with numbers and quality at such a small batch just makes it more complex.
I've also talked with a few industrial engineers that specialize in this type of manufacturing, and at least based on the videos released, the way his assembly lines are setup right now are not going to scale up well. For him to meet his production goals, he's going to have to completely redo the way he does fabrication and final assembly. Should also be pointed out too that the NUMMI plant they're operating out of produced at its peak 6,000 vehicles a week: a healthy number, but an order of magnitude lower than his goals. He will have to expand, probably build more factories, and that will take time. Again, these are just the issues of the factory, it doesn't even go into the other issues.
EV's are an afterthought for every manufacturer except Telsa. At best, they're tinker toys to help get their average MPG to a rate that makes Uncle Sam happy. 100% of Tesla's sales are EV's. Less than 1% of GM's are EV's. I just still don't see anyone taking EV's seriously except Tesla. They want an EV presence "just in case."
GM has a crap Volt and a concept car Bolt which wont even be selling for another two years.... GM is not a competitor to Tesla - Teslas competitors are BMW, Audi, Lexus and Tesla is destroying them
It's a $7500 tax credit. Same for all electrics, including the Leaf. It's only good for the first 200,000 cars sold (unless it gets renewed).
GM has billions invested in engine block casting and engine assembly plants. That's why they want an engine in the car somewhere, even if it's not really needed (e.g., the Volt). The Bolt will be problematic for them if it catches on..a lot of write-downs would be coming.
Comparing Telsa with Delorean is not valid.
The company failed because the high expectations and desires of the founder John DeLorean did not match the realities of the level of manufacturing technology and market demand of the late 70's and early 80's. The car was also an under performing over priced piece of junk. The only unique aspect of the car was the gull wing doors and stainless steel skin, everything else was a technological compromise that resulted in lack luster car.
Tesla actually makes decent vehicles.
Also, 'current wait' is 4 months, yet if you ordered one today you wouldn't get it to 2016? That's a 12 month wait.
That has to do with the flux capacitors. If you order one today, they'll get around to making yours in 2016. Then they set the date back to when you ordered it and drive it 88MPH up the railroad tracks. Then it just has to wait 4 months for them to finish up the paperwork, and its yours.
Chevy just introduced a concept car called the Bolt. http://cleantechnica.com/2015/...
The charger is built into the Tesla. What you need is a $600 cable and adapters--they also come with the car. You really just need a 220V/50A outlet. Tesla sells a high power adapter that uses a 100A circuit, but that is just an option, not a requirement.
Tesla sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 15k (probably a bit less) cars in the US in 2014. BMW sold 340k, Audi sold 180k, and Mercedes sold 360k. Tesla slightly outsold Maserati, and came in behind Jaguar.
Get out of the gasoline mindset. I commute to work 5 days a week, 30 miles each way. I park my car in my garage every night. I fill up my tank about once every 8 days. It takes about 5-7 minutes each time.
With an electric car with a 200 mile range, I would still drive my car 60 miles a day, but I would no longer be stopping at a gas station every eight days. I would be plugging in every night. The only time I would ever need a charging station is when I need to drive more than 100 miles away from my house. I do this MAYBE once a month. So, already my demand at a 'fueling' station is 1/4 of what it was.
Add to this the difference in costs build a fueling station. A public level 2 charging station can be installed for as little as $5000. Level 3 would currently cost about $50,000. A charging station can be anywhere, and can be built in days. Charging station supply will be able to increase very easily as demand does. You can even put one in a school parking lot. The electrical infrastructure to deliver 'fuel' to just about any corner of the continent is already in place. Basically, you charge your car wherever you park it. A gas station is a destination.
The sunk cost fallacy. So what if they spent money on it if it sucks now? You can never recover sunk costs you can only invest current capital in the best market. Move on.
Ironically GM came up with the Tesla style design after the EV1 and wanted it to have modular bodies so you could switch from coupe to van on the same frame/battery/engine platform. Unfortunately they stuck their head up their ass instead,
Burning oil in a high efficiency turbine and sending it over wire is more efficient (50-60%) that putting it in a car (15%).
It's very likely that the people with money to buy a Tesla make too much to qualify for the tax credit.
Everyone qualifies for the BEV tax credit. There is no income qualification other than that you've had to pay enough tax to be able to use the tax credit. So it's possible that you make too *little* to use the tax credit; not too much. I actually had to manufacture tax spend to make sure that I could use it. I paid my property taxes earlier than I would have so that it would be in the right tax year.
In other words you bought a car that no one has review and is not even shipping yet.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
The GP suffers from the misconception that not taxing people is the same as giving them money.
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not entirely sure about the universe - Einstein