Tesla will have a "very meaningful announcement about a step change in supercharger technology coming later this year," Musk said. That was the angle the company originally had intended to give to The New York Times, he said, then added, "Who knows? Maybe we will ultimately do it with them."
Expanding into Europe and China
Tesla plans to start marketing its cars more in Asia and Europe, Musk said. Currently, it has focused mostly on North America.
A media preview event in Europe last October was "received very, very well," said George Blankenship, Tesla's vice president of sales and ownership experience. "The interesting thing about Europe is we're getting a nice response in reservations, and we don't even have any display cars there yet."
About 25 percent of car reservations are outside North America, he said. Tesla plans to open its first store in China this spring.
New reservations for Teslas hit a new record in the fourth quarter, "driven by holiday traffic to our stores, multiple Car-of-the-Year awards, the start of European marketing, and visibility of customer cars on the road and related word-of-mouth enthusiasm," the company said in a statement.
Tesla added more than 6,000 new reservations from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31, 2012. During the quarter, the company also announced a U.S. price increase for new reservations made after the end of the year. The Model S base price now is $59,900, up from $57,400.
There also were cancellations, however, as the company asked a large number of reservation holders to convert to firm, nonrefundable orders. Net reservations at year's end were more than 15,000, up from about 13,000 in the previous three months.
Company workers put in long hours to meet demand late last year, he said. The average work week in December was 68 hours, Musk said. It has not fallen to 50 hours per week, he added.
The wait time for the cars is about five months, Musk said. But for some, it's even longer. The company has a new red car coming out and it is in high demand, he explained.
"It is an awesome red," Musk said. "We've got a lot of interest in that."
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500
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12 Comments
Add Comment68 hours? They need to hire more people so they don't have to pay all that overtime!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, I can kind of see why Tesla would be a little cautious about selling cars in Europe. After the pre-scripted hit-job that Top Gear ran on the Tesla Roadster, they wouldn't want all their top-notch product development and marketing to be sullied again.
Maybe the Chinese can buy up Tesla just like they bought A123 Systems (America's highly subsidized attempt at getting into the high tech battery game).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFire up the losses!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBy that I mean money and air quality.
Almost forgot, fire up the coal, too!
Sault, it's not that easy to get quaified workers fast especially when you've already hired a lot of the ones available.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMusk is doing it right not increasing production until things are sorted out. Remeber he is selling a luxury car andhas to keep quality up and also to keep warranty costs down.
He's met almost every milestone which in itself is amazing and just anounced they'll be profitable this quarter and build, sell 20k EV's next yr as experience grows.
I think he might be the only sucessful car start-up in the US in 5? decades and I think he'll make a fortune as he's saying making a 25% margin late next yr.
My guess is that the Chinese are buying the companies to acquire the underlying technology, not to make electric cars.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSault
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood products sell and bad products are avoided by consumers. If electric cars were good today, we would all be buying them.
The delusion continues. BMWs are good cars, but not everybody buys them. Priuses (Prii? Prius?...like the plural of moose?) are good cars, but not everybody buys them. The Model S is a good car, but their ENTIRE production run for 2013 is already sold out...and they START at $50k. Not everybody can afford that price point. In addition, EVs are not a good fit for people that do a lot of long-distance driving right now. Maybe when there are more superchargers available along the highways, EVERYBODY will be buying them. Finally, you don't see a lot of EVs sitting on dealer lots for extended periods of time. The car companies can't even make enough of them for EVERYBODY to have one. So really, your statement doesn't make sense on several levels.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou have a !LOT! to learn about marketing. People buy garbage items or services all the time. Frequently the superior product fails but the "good enough" lower quality alternative takes over. People even buy stuff that they know has a high likelihood of killing them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTesla is a great product. But needs savvy marketing and mass media hype. How many people know Tesla is quicker than the 660 hp Mercedes SL65? Or that it can beat the iconic Lamborghini Countach in a quarter-mile drag race? It is also quicker than some models of Ferrari, Porsche, Corvette and Viper.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCongratulations, but TESLA, needs to develop the OCCCE (oxyhydrogen closed cycle combustion engine) with fuel tank to 200 bar, and regenerative braking by electrolysis.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis too, has no emissions, and the same concept can be considered for fuel cell use.
With enough clean energy on the grid, as Oceanogenic Power from Panama, we can electrolyze oxyhydrogen, enough, at home or in the office.
Of course. Car industry economics are based based on Millions of Units sold. Not dozens.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe'll mourn when they finally run out of Musk Money.
I'd buy a tesla if I had the money... and were shorter, (I heard Arnold Schwartzenegger bought one to help skyn... boasting silicon valley economy, and then discretely tried to give it back because he didn't fit inside it, I am tall, so that might be also a problem)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thison the other hand, "el cheapo" electric cars like those from china are ok for short distances, but aren't fun to drive...