Michael Kanellos
All-Electric Cars for Under $30K in Four Years, Says Tesla Founder June 30, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Tesla Motors chairman Elon Musk is serious about getting beyond sports cars.
At a press conference with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tesla co-founder and chairman Elon Musk said the company has an ongoing program to produce an all-electric car that will cost under $30,000. It probably take “four years at most” to get such a car out, he said.
“This is not about addressing a sports car shortage,” he said.
Tesla has talked about doing moderately-priced cars since the beginning, but the company now is getting firmer on their plans, which in turns means they are serious.
Getting out an electric car out for less than $30,000, though, won’t be easy. Batteries still cost quite a bit and battery technology doesn’t improve as fast as semiconductor technology. You get about a six percent improvement in performance every year. With chips, it’s closer to 60 percent. Electric car companies also need component suppliers to start ramping up parts for them.
Additionally, Tesla has had to face delays before. The company today announced that it would come out with a $60,000 sedan in late 2010. (It will be built in California, thanks to about $10 million in incentives. That’s why Arnold was there.). Still, the sedan, once called White Star and now called Model S, was originally due to come out in late 2009. It was delayed because of delays to the Tesla Roadster, which started dribbling out of the factory this year. As a result, the Model S will come out at about the same time as the Chevy Volt, which will use a little gas and cost $30,000. (Tesla will also do a gas-electric car like the Volt.)
But, on the optimistic side, a few years ago electric cars were novelties. They are clearly moving into the mainstream now thanks in large part to Tesla. And companies like Nissan with a lot more expertise in buildings cars in large volumes are bent on coming out with electric cars.
Go back to the front page >>
Elon Musk is NOT a founder of Tesla. He is an investor who holds a 36% stake in the company and who likes to bask in the glow of hard work by other people to make Tesla a success. Please correct your headline.
Somebody needs to help our California governor understand that charging electric cars will substantially result in burning more coal in power plants, wherever they might be located. That could be ok, if the electric cars were also very efficient so that only a very small amount of additional coal would be burned. Under this condition, the reduction the amount of petroleum burned could be more than offset.
Progress hoped for in renewable energy is a separate issue until fossil fuel power plants are mostly displaced by such renewable energy sources.
If it is a sound decision to put solar cells on your roof, then that is a good thing for the environment. Ok, maybe I have to give you aid through extra charges on my electric bill to do that. Then when the opportunity to buy a Tesla comes along, think about whether to buy that or a Prius as a separate decision.
Actually, people have looked at the state of the grid and the coal output and electric cars and plug ins can be accomodated by existing grid–you could convert over half of the existing base of cars and sill work with today’s infrastructure–and emissions will still be lower.
With plug in hybrids, only in coal heavy places like ohio do the total emissions of plugins nearly equal cars. And of course all electric have even lower emissions.
So, in final analysis, boosting electrics and plug ins will reduce emissions even without changes to existing infrastructure.
For more, there is a study by PNNL on it.
BG Automotive Group has a car that will travel 80-100 miles per charge for $15,995.
Finally a car that most Americans can afford.
Did you know that 80% of all drivers, drive less than 50 miles per day? This new car will cost an equivalent of $0.20-0.25 cents/gallon (depending on electricity rates in your area).
http://www.BGelectricCars.com
info@BGelectricCars.com
BeGreen
[...] We dug out our deerstalker and magnifying glass and soon found a set of footsteps in the form of comments with links back to a simple one page website promoting an ambitious-sounding program. According to [...]
[...] We dug out our deerstalker and magnifying glass and soon found a set of footsteps in the form of comments with links back to a simple one page website promoting an ambitious-sounding program. According to [...]
[...] We dug out our deerstalker and magnifying glass and soon found a set of footsteps in the form of comments with links back to a simple one page website promoting an ambitious-sounding program. According to [...]
America needs to stay FOCUSED, AWARE and EDUCATED.
History reminds us that every time oil prices peak and the North American market/consumers start to discuss alternative energy sources, the oil exporting countries start to trim down their prices. History also tells us that the oil exporting nations have been very successful in the past and in fact, we have lost our enthusiasm and dropped many of our alternative energy initiatives after oil prices are reduced.
WE need to stay focused this time.
1) Al Gore and his energy initiative is on course.
2) T. Boone Pickens and his wind power initiative is on course.
3) BG Automotive Group’s mass production electric vehicle program is on
course.
4) Richard Branson from the UK is on course.
5) The Gas Reduction Act of 2008 might not be the most environmentally sound
solution, but yet it shows that Congress has finally realized that we have an
energy crisis (again), and a real threat to our national security.
The continued dependence on foreign oil is a threat to our long term democratic values. We must become an energy independent nation, and with this, some sacrifices will have to be made by the American consumer.
Be aware!!
We are exporting approximately USD $700 Billion dollars per year of U.S. currency. The majority of this money is being transferred to the Trillion dollar “sovereign wealth funds”. This is USD $700 Billion not being spent on America’s educational system, health care and security.
The “sovereign wealth funds” are directly buying major interests (large blocks of stock) in U.S. companies, including most of the major banks. Also, billions of dollars of “sovereign wealth fund” money is being invested in our hedge funds, private equity firms, and the investment banking industry. A few of these firms are directly and indirectly investing large sums of money into our “gas combustion” automobile industry. Do we want our auto industry in the direct or indirect control of the firms that are supplying us oil? This is an interesting topic for an investigative reporter.
There are automotive consulting companies in Michigan (heart of our auto industry), lobbying States and our Federal Government, NOT to subsidize the Electric Vehicle industry. The latter seems to be contradictory to what the American public would like to see from our automobile industry. After the billions (excess of $20 billion) the automotive companies have lost in the past 6 months producing gas combustion vehicles, you would think they too would change course. Changing course is not adding 2-4 miles per gallon w/Hybrids. Drastic measures in our auto industry must take place and NOW!
Do not let the temporary reduction in oil prices push us off course….AGAIN.
Read, Read, Read- Stay on top of the issues. Let’s not be fooled again.
STAY FOCUSED, AWARE and EDUCATED!