Tesla goes into production!

Tesla Motors has gone into regular production of the Roadster today! Production will start out slow and gradually increase to 100 per month, according to their plan. It's not the only EV in regular production today (there's the Zap Xebra, the Zenn, and others) but it's definitely the best.

The entire first year's run is already sold. We're not talking "waiting list" here. We're talking people who paid 50% in advance, and will pay the other 50% when their car is ready to be built. There are no dealers. You buy direct from Tesla and they deliver your car to you.

They are now taking $5,000 deposits to be on the pre-list for 2009. My guess is that if you get on this list you should have your car in 18 months or so. But you'll have to give them another $45,000 once they announce the opening of the actual waiting list for 2009, and the balance once your turn comes for your car to be built.

The deposit is fully refundable, without interest, at any time before your car goes to production.

A year ago they told me that at some point the people who've paid the $50,000 deposit would be invited to drive the car, and if you were not satisfied you could still get a refund. So maybe, just maybe, when the 2009 waiting list is actually opened, if you gave them $50,000 they might let you test-drive one.

Maybe in a few years supply will catch up to demand enough that you could get one without waiting more than a month or so. But right now, there are so many people willing to fork over $50,000 and then wait a year or two, that Roadsters are going to be hard to come by.

And with no dealers, there's no way to jump the line, as some early Prius buyers did, when unscrupulous dealers offered their cars, no waiting, to the highest bidder, and were getting $5,000 over MSRP for Priuses to be driven away immediately.

But maybe there'll be an early Tesla buyer or two willing to part with their car for $200,000 or $300,000. I bet there are people who will offer a quarter of a million to get one now, and maybe there's an early buyer who'll take that. Maybe there are people who put down their $50,000 a year ago with the intention of turning around and selling their $100,000 car for $250,000.

Anyway, production has begun.

I'm envious of the people who got on the list early.

 

When I visited them they had not yet decided on the warranty period, and I have not been able to find it on their site. I guess they figure if you can afford $98,000 for the car ($106,000 outside their service area) then you're not concerned about such niceties as a warranty.

Note, however, that the extra $8,000 for buyers outside the service area pays for delivery of your car to your location as well as paying for a service rep to visit you if needed, and transportation of your car back to Tesla for service if that should be needed.

From their FAQ:

 

It's an electric transmission that can be shifted while driving and does not use a clutch pedal. They described it to me as being similar to the electric transaxle on a big truck. As Pat points out, it had to be both light and strong. "Screwed up" may be a strong term. Extensive testing convinced them it was not strong enough.

Now for my opinion, which many EV enthusiasts share: They never should have put a two-speed transmission in it in the first place. It's just one more thing to break down.

Their response: Their target buyer is not an EV enthusiast, he/she is a sports car enthusiast, and the two-speed transmission allows them to maximize top speed without sacrificing low-end acceleration.

To be fair, this is a new start-up company, designing a sports car from scratch. The surprise is not that they had trouble with the transmission. The surprise is that they could do what they did in as short a time as they did, and produce such an amazing car while being the first of its kind: a mass-production all-electric sports car that can out-perform conventional cars that cost twice as much!

I want one.

 

Damn you, Evan! Why did you tell me to watch that video? Now I want one more than ever!!! Switching to single-speed fixes the one flaw in their original design concept. :Cry:

 

Two motors and a PSD solves a very different problem. But I agree that a clutch is always a bad idea.

The reason they can't do it is that they did it ten years ago. Or... Errmmm...