Filed under: EV/Plug-in, Tesla Motors, AutoblogGreen Exclusive
So, where is Martin Eberhard's Tesla Roadster anyway? Here's the story so far
For the last couple of months there has been an ongoing discussion on various sites (including our own) about the status of Martin Eberhard's Tesla Roadster. For those just now tuning in to this little saga, Eberhard was the co-Founder of Tesla Motors, and was supposed to get production car #2 but at least three other cars have now been delivered ahead of his car. Since we last discussed the topic several weeks ago, things have been pretty quiet on this front, but we now have some new information.
During a recent call with Tesla Marketing VP Darryl Siry, I asked about the status of Eberhard's car, given that at least two and perhaps three other cars have now been delivered. It turns out that the car is here in the U.S. and was due to be delivered to Eberhard several weeks ago. Unfortunately, on the appointed day while a technician was doing a final checkout drive to make sure everything was working properly, there was an accident and the
According to Siry, Eberhard was informed immediately and given the option of having a new car built or have it repaired. Eberhard opted for the repairs and parts were rushed over and the rebuild has reportedly been given top priority.
When contacted for comment, Eberhard told ABG "It is true that my car was damaged while being driven by a technician. It is news to me that this happened on the day the car was to be delivered." Beyond that Eberhard told ABG that he is not yet ready to discuss the matter publicly, for undisclosed reasons. In time, he will comment further.
Siry told us that the car should finally be ready for delivery again in the next couple of weeks. It appears that there is nothing nefarious going on with the latest delay in delivering Eberhard's Roadster, but rather an extremely unfortunate accident. Nonetheless, there has clearly been much going on behind the scenes that the public and press are not privy too. Even if Martin Eberhard's departure from Tesla did not occur on the best terms, it certainly would have been a show of good faith by the current management to stay true to the spirit of the original purchase agreement. There is more to come on this story soon.
[Sources: Darryl Siry, Martin Eberhard]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Doug 8:26PM (6/18/2008)
Ouch... in an accident. What does that do for the resale value? Any sense how extensive the damage was? Hopefully they just need to replace the rear clamshell, but that's got to be a pain with his custom paint.
I suppose this could just be Murphy's law, but what a ridiculous set of circumstances. Given how Martin has been treated so far, a suspicious person might call this "accident" intentional.
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Yanquetino 8:32PM (6/18/2008)
Sheeeesh! After all this... Murphy steps in with his blasted law. It strains credulity. What are the odds of something like this happening to the ousted founder's car?
And there are still some pieces to this puzzle missing. For example, in the previous post about the 4th delivery, "Insider" claimed that the accident was due to "poor brakes," yet Siry stated that "the back end of the car sustained significant damage." I would think that the FRONT end would be more at risk with a brake problem. The only scenario that occurs to me would be if the brakes locked up entirely, the Roadster skidded to an abrupt halt, and the next car in line rear-ended it.
Too bad Martin can't clarify matters!
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Joseph 8:56PM (6/18/2008)
"at least three other cars have now been delivered ahead of his car"
Three? We know that P1/Vin1 went to Musk. P3/Vin2* is supposed to go to Eberhard. P2/Vin3* went to an investor. P4/Vin4 has been delivered to some person in Chicago.
That makes TWO, not three, cars that have been delviered ahead of Eberhard. Musk's car doesn't count as ahead of Eberhad because his car was supposed to be first, before Eberhard.
* = it cannot be clearly determined which car is and isn't P2 or P3 based on the info. available.
You can read paragraphs 8 and 9 here to understand why it's not clear:
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/05/12/tesla-saga-continues-when-is-production-car-2-not/
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stevejust 10:24PM (6/18/2008)
I never went through a divorce as a kid. In fact, my parents are still married. But... I can't help but follow this business with Tesla, and the dispute between Tesla and Fisker and wonder... is this how kids feel when their parents start fighting?
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vfx 10:53PM (6/18/2008)
What happened to the company's transparency?
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Oh yeah, They fired it.
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Chris H. 11:45PM (6/18/2008)
I wonder how many more "unfortunate accidents" that there are going to be with Martin's car before they finally deliver it to him?
At this point I have decided that I will never buy a car from Tesla Motors as long as Elon Musk is involved with the company. This behaviour is just beyond the pale...
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OhmExcited 11:54PM (6/18/2008)
This drama is a bit like watching the first episode of Survivor.
In our then Disney consciousness, you think it's comforting to know the Evil Character never quite wins, that somebody always discombobulates him, or else it wouldn't be on TV (“You fools! The prisoners are escaping!”). Because good will prevail.
Then Richard Hatch ends up winning, afterall. That's Reality.
But it was only a matter of time before Karma caught up (Google is your friend).
This story is only getting started. So, stay tuned for scenes from our next episode.
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meme 2:49AM (6/19/2008)
Oh, for God's sake, cut with the conspiracy theories already. We get it. Musk is the devil, and he slipped a note to the technician to wreck Martin's car out of spite, right?
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BlackbirdHighway 4:33AM (6/19/2008)
This is really unfortunate, but to suggest that Tesla does not want this issue to be over and done with more than anybody is just plain crazy.
They know that Martin is a popular guy with a following, many of whom are Tesla customers, and that they will continue to get a black eye until this car is delivered.
I remember a story of a new Dodge Viper that was about to be picked up the customer. The dealer had someone drive it 1/4 mile up the street to fill up the gas tank. Yep, he crashed it and totaled it.
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EV-1 9:33AM (6/19/2008)
'Teslaism' . . . . a variety of fetichism . . .
( Is there no cure ? )
( Getting a tad bored of all the harping on about that expensive icon )
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kentavos 10:22AM (6/19/2008)
Man, poor Darryl. He sounds more and more like Ari Fleischer every day. At what point did his job go from herald to spin doctor and damage controller?
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Yanquetino 10:28AM (6/19/2008)
There are a lot of unanswered questions about this accident:
- Where did the wreck occur? On a city street? The freeway? A test track?
- Was a police report filed? Was another car involved? If so, is the other driver's insurance covering the damage? Who was cited?
- Was the accident bad enough that the airbags deployed? Were there any injuries? Was the technician the sole occupant?
- Was the damage limited to only body panels? Nothing under the skin? I remember that in the crash tests from behind, the transmission of the Roadster was snapped in two.
- How is it that the rear end suffered damage if "poor brakes" caused the problem? Was the technician backing up at high speed?
- What exactly happened with the brakes? Loss of brake fluid? Faulty discs? Or did the regen braking fail to kick in, and the brakes alone were insufficient to stop the vehicle?
- Is there a defect in this aspect of the Roadster's design? Have the other three vehicles manufactured to date been checked for the same problem? Has the Lotus factory been informed?
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1985 Gripen 10:45AM (6/19/2008)
Instead of getting caught-up in the soap opera, what I'd really like to know is why only four cars have been delivered so far. There's a waiting list of hundreds of people, yet the only people who have received their cars are executives at Tesla. That's not a car company, that's a bunch of cronies making themselves cars...
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retro77 3:38PM (6/19/2008)
Thats a load of crap. They wrecked it just to lower the value of the car.
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Chris H. 3:52PM (6/19/2008)
Yanq,
I think that you have a very good point, there are a lot of unanswered questions. The facile explanation proffered by TM simply invites skepticism.
About a month, or so, ago, Martin's wife, Carolyn predicted that "Tesla hadn't finished with Martin yet" (I've had trouble locating the exact site/thread/comment#, help would be appreciated... ), and it's starting to look like she was right.
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Chris H. 3:55PM (6/19/2008)
Yanq,
I think that you have a very good point, there are a lot of unanswered questions. The facile explanation proffered by TM simply invites skepticism.
About a month, or so, ago, Martin's wife, Carolyn predicted that "Tesla hadn't finished with Martin yet" (I've had trouble locating the exact site/thread/comment#, help would be appreciated... ), and it's starting to look like she was right.
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OhmExcited 4:36PM (6/19/2008)
Chris H. -- yes, she did. Note date and eerily prescient remark.
http://teslamotorsclub.com/news-articles-events/1127-seems-martins-car-finished-now-2.html
05-06-2008, 03:04 PM #17 (permalink)
X-CEOsWife
Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by vfx
Come on Carolyn, he is awful busy with the Siry Show.
How foolish of me to miss the obvious! And I assumed that he was on the phone making sure Martin's car got loaded on the next available plane without a scratch.
I have a few other conspiracy theories of what else Tesla has up their sleeves, but Martin will not post them for fear that I would give them some other ideas. I predict that Tesla is not done with him yet.
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Chris H. 6:45PM (6/19/2008)
Thanks Ohm...
BTW, resistance is futile... :-)
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OhmExcited 7:27PM (6/19/2008)
No soup for you, Chris!
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Chris H. 8:59PM (6/19/2008)
So, apparently, Martin was told that the accident occurred at:
"11:00 am June 3, Southbound on US 101 in San Jose. So I am told."
This makes me wonder how it could have been a "brakes" issue, unless, of course, the car was traveling in reverse "southbound on US 101" when "the back end of the car sustained significant damage."
And now, just to smooth things over and make things right, Tesla Motors has banned Martin from the Owners Forum on the Tesla site. This is turning into the "Mother of All Marketing Clusterf*#%s". I'm beginning to think that they have Michael Scott running the Marketing Dept. in San Carlos, not DS.
Anyway, another dark day in TM history...
All the best,
Chris H.
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