Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Manufacturing/Plants, Tesla Motors
More on Tesla financing and production plans
More information has come out about Tesla Motors' plans for financing their future expansion. We already knew from statements by Chairman Elon Musk that the company was planning to go after an initial public offering within the next year or so. The Financial Times is now reporting that the company plans to raise a total of $250 million over the next two years to fund the final development of the WhiteStar and establish a manufacturing plant to turn out 10-20,000 of the electric sedans.
Why so much money? Tesla had been considering entering into a partnership with another company for the production of WhiteStar. According to Tesla's Darryl Siry, "we looked very hard at a partnership with an OEM but it didn't make sense at the end of the day." The complexities of such a partnership would slow down the project and Tesla wants to keep control of more of their intellectual property. Once WhiteStar is underway, Tesla will be revisiting the idea of a partnership of some kind to produce a third, higher-volume model. That lower-cost car is targeted to sell at the rate of up to 100,000 annually.
Of the $250 million, about one third to one half is expected to be borrowed with the rest coming from the IPO. Tesla has applied for a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy to help raise the cash. The current plan is still to build the WhiteStar assembly plant in Albuquerque NM, but that may also change. A shift to the East Bay area, closer to the company's San Carlos CA headquarters is still a possibility.
As for the here and now, series production of the Roadster is still set to begin at Lotus' Hethel UK factory on March 17. The first car off the line that day (production unit #2) will be delivered to now departed company founder Martin Eberhard soon afterward.
[Sources: Financial Times, Tesla Motors]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
why not the LS2LS7? 4:14PM (2/18/2008)
There's no room in the East Bay, unless you count Tracy as the East Bay (which you might).
Hell, most of Stockton is on fire sale right now, might be a good time to locate a plant there.
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Tony Belding 5:46PM (2/18/2008)
"Why so much money?" $250 million is chicken feed in the car business. GM routinely spends eight times that much getting a new platform into production. My question would be: can they really produce the White Star for so little?
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Curt 7:24AM (2/19/2008)
Tesla should make a deal with the City of Mountain View and the US government to convert part of Moffett Field into a car production facility.
I think there might still be rail lines in Moffett so finished vehicles can be transported.
Plenty of Google folks will be at Moffett too.
Tesla and Google personnel can bounce new ideas off of each other.
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