Category Archives: Tesla Motors

News about Tesla Motors automobile manufacturer. News about Tesla Motors recalls, technical service bulletins (TSB), and problems regarding Tesla Motors vehicles.

Tesla Recalls Roadster

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Tesla has announced that it will be recalling all Roadster 2.0 vehicles built between July 2009-June 2010 as well as all Roadster 2.5 models built between July 2010-September 2010. This comes after a complaint from a customer who reported a fire behind the right front corner of the vehicle. The problem is being blamed on a low voltage auxiliary cable chafing against a panel causing a short. This issue is limited to the 12V low voltage auxiliary cable and does not involve the main battery pack or main power system.

In the recall, Tesla technicians will check the routing of the cable and install a protective sleeve to prevent further chaffing. Tesla has started notifying customers via email and has initiated a mailing campaign. The repair will be done at the customers’ homes or offices and will take approximately one hour.

Toyota Rav4 EV Debuts At The LA Auto Show

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It is no secret that Toyota and Tesla have joined forces to develop an all electric Rav4 that they hope will shake up the electric vehicle market. Tesla has already delivered a working RAV4 EV to Toyota earlier this summer and will debut it to the public at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

The vehicle is likely to be one of the stars of the Auto Show, which traditionally hosts “green” vehicle debuts. GM’s Chevy Volt and Nissans Leaf will also be there, but Toyota’s Rav4 hopes to attract the consumer who wants an electric vehicle, but wants something bigger than a compact car.

Tesla Motors IPO Loses Fuel

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When Tesla Motors was first introduced as a public stock offering, the demand was so high that the size of the IPO was raised to 13.3 million shares up form the planned 11.1 million, and the price was set higher than the originally planned $14-$16. The stock did really well the first two days hitting a high of $30.42 only two days after it was offered.

But, investors hunger for Tesla faded fast as the IPO fell back quickly below its offering price. Whether it was the lack of long term investors, or the fact that the company will spend a lot more cash before their Model S will be mass produced in 2012, it is expected that the stock will go down even further before it stabilizes.

David Menlow, head of IPOfinancial.com in Millburn, N.J., said he believed that Musk had the “right formula” for an electric-car company in the long run. Interested investors should be patient, Menlow advised: “Let the momentum play itself out.”

Toyota’s Electric RAV 4

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The joint venture between Toyota and Tesla Motors, will have us seeing an electric version of Toyota’s RAV4 on the roads as early as 2012. Toyota has made a limited number of electric RAV4’s in the past, but have never commercialized the vehicle. The few RAV 4 EV’s that have been running for the past ten years in fleets and in private hands has been considered a terrific workhorse for those driving it. In this new venture, Toyota gets to re-energize their once innovative small crossover vehicle, and Tesla can show that their style of battery and energy management can support large-scale usage.

Tesla is best known for their first and only electric car, the Roadster, which was introduced in 2008, but hopes to expand their market with their Model S sedan which it plans to start selling in 2012. With the e-RAV4 they hope to expand the market even further for electric vehicles by giving ‘soccer moms’ and small business owners a vehicle they can use on a daily basis.

Tesla Motors Goes Public

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The hype around Tesla Motors has certainly paid off. As Tesla went public, their stock prices have done better than originally planned. Under the ticker symbol TSLA, the Silicon Valley company’s stock opened at $17 (going up as high as $19), above the anticipated range of $14 to $16.

The company hoped to raise up to $178 million by selling 11.1 million shares, but has done better than anticipated by raising over $220 million in funding by selling 13.3 million shares. Including investments from Daimler and Toyota, and receiving a $465 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to build a factory, Tesla is on its way to becoming a leader in electric cars.

Tesla is best known for their first and only electric car, the $109,000 Roadster, which was introduced in 2008. Selling only about 1,100 of the cars worldwide to the rich and famous. With the IPO proceeds, the company will fund production of the company’s new vehicle, the Model S sedan, which is expected to sell for about $57,000. A federal tax credit of $7,500 for electric cars would cut the price to just under $50,000. The commercial launch is planned for 2012.

Tesla Motors Publicly Offered

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Tesla Motors Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif. based company, is scheduled to make a public offering to trade at the end of the month in hopes of raising as much as $178 million. The electric car maker, best known for its one and only all electric Roadster model, plans to sell 11.1 million shares at about $15 per share.

At the end of last month the company announced a $50 million investment from Toyota Motor Corp., and that they would be moving into the automobile plant recently closed by Toyota.

Tesla said it lost $25.5 million in the first quarter of 2010, compared to a quarterly loss of $16.0 million a year earlier. For all of 2009, it lost $55.7 million less than the loss in 2008. While electric automobiles are seen as an emerging technology, they are considered an early-stage industry that could take a decade to become more established, making the Tesla offering riskier.

Good News For The Auto Industry In California

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An automobile plant recently close by Toyota in California will be opening up their doors again for Tesla Motors Corp. Backed by a $50 million investment by Toyota, Tesla will start making electric cars within the year, at the same plant that was shared by a Toyota/GM venture. “By working together with a venture business such as Tesla, Toyota would like to learn from the challenging spirit, quick decision-making and flexibility that Tesla has. Decades ago, Toyota was also born as a venture business,” Toyoda said in a statement.

Restarting the factory is a major achievement for California’s economic development and a rare victory for a state that many business leaders say has become uncompetitive because of more regulations and higher labor costs than other states.

But not everyone is happy. The move is a disappointment for Downey officials who had been in talks with the automaker, hoping the company would set up shop in a closed facility that had once been used to manufacture the space shuttle.

Toyota’s investment in Tesla is particularly important because the electric vehicle company will be competing against better capitalized and larger traditional manufacturers. When an established manufacturer decides to partner with newcomers it will considerably increase the probability of success by giving them manufacturing know-how and access to a distribution network

Cars That Run on Sunshine

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The electric car has been around for a long time. In the late 1930’s Robert Anderson (A Scottish inventor) built the first crude electric carriage. Over the years the car has been improved to a point where it could be a practical mode of transportation for many people. One of the main reasons we don’t see many on the roads is because charging a large number of electric cars will require huge upgrades to the nation’s infrastructure

SolarCity and Tesla Motors hope to change the amount of electric cars on the road by installing solar-powered car charging stations in Rabobank locations along California Route 101. These quick charging “gas stations” delivers up to 70 amps (240 volts) of electricity which would charge a Telsa Roadster in about 3.5 hours. SolarCity has also installed over 100 in home-charging stations throughout the state.

The Beautiful Earth Group, a solar and wind farms company started last year, has paired up with BMW and the mini, to build solar charging stations in the Red Hook, Brooklyn area. These stations are truly “green”. Built out of recycled shipping containers the station can provide enough energy to charge the Mini E in three hours. Lex Heslin, chief executive of Beautiful Earth, claims two firsts: He got the keys to the first electric version of the Mini Cooper in New York and his company is operating the city’s first solar E.V. charging station.

Silicon Valley based company, Coulomb Technologies, have been building charging stations around the world since 2007. Their recent partnership with Envision Solar has allowed them to integrate their ChargePoint technology into a “solar grove” at Dell headquarters in Round Rock, Tex. This system provided 131,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, and doubles as shade for 56 parking spaces.

With the environmental issues we face today, solar charging could become big business. Ideally, solar charging stations will be connected to the grid so they can feed electricity back when the power is not needed for car-charging. When the sun isn’t shining, cars can be charged on grid power.