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Transportation

Elon Musk Promises 100,000 Electric Cars Per Year 122

Dave Knott sends this news from the CBC: Tesla stock was up five per cent on Friday morning after CEO Elon Musk said the electric-car company would deliver 100,000 vehicles next year. Its earnings report released Thursday shows Tesla continues to operate at a loss as it spends on engineering and setting up an assembly line for its Model X SUV, which is scheduled to go into production early next year. But investors were cheered by the news that the company would deliver 100,000 vehicles next year, up from 22,000 in 2013 and a projected 35,000 this year. Tesla reported a loss of $61.9 million in its second quarter, compared with a loss of $30.5 million in the same quarter a year ago. Revenue nearly doubled to $769.3 million, missing Wall Street's forecast of $801.9 million, but expenses were also up as Tesla prepares some ambitious projects, spending $93 million in the quarter on research and development alone. While the Model X is in development, the longer-term plan is for a cheaper, mass-market car, the Model 3, to be launched in 2017. The biggest investment Tesla will make is in its large lithium-ion production plant, to be built at an as-yet-unnamed U.S. location in a $5-billion partnership with Panasonic.
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Elon Musk Promises 100,000 Electric Cars Per Year

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  • Headline is wrong. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 01, 2014 @04:22PM (#47584449)

    He said that by the end of 2015 they would be producing cars at a rate > 100,000 cars/yr (2000 cars/wk). They will enter 2015 producing cars at slightly more than 50,000 cars/yr (1000 cars/wk). The actual number of cars (Model S & Model X) made in 2015 will be between 50,000 and 100,000. Elon went on to say it would be greater than 60,000. Elon speaks very precisely. It is not confusing.

    • Somebody mod this guy up. He's right. It's a critical distinction.

      • Agreed, the number I heard on CNBC was Tesla saying they would deliver 60K while the production rate would reach 100K* at the end of the year.

        * Slightly below 100K, since the number quoted was 1,900 per week, which for the 52 weeks comes to 98.8K. This presumes no down time (weeks) or other unexpected production delays / stoppage due to unexpected causes.

        • It really is amazing that with only 2 models, that they will be producing roughly 50K instances each year of high-end $80-90k vehicles. And that is with less than 1/5 of the world actually having the ability to buy these.
          Compare that to say porsche. Last year, they sold 165K cars. 2 of these are similar to what Tesla has/will have: the Cayennes, which is similar to Model X and their panamera which is similar to Model S.
          While the Cayennes has grown each year to just under 20K unit, the Panermera grew eac
    • by tnk1 ( 899206 ) on Friday August 01, 2014 @04:40PM (#47584607)

      The headline is fine, the summary is wrong. If you want to be precise.

      He is stating there will be a rate of 100,000 cars per year. That is what the headline said and what he said. Neither the headline, nor Musk said it would be 100,000 cars for 2015.

      The summary, however, did put the line in that says: CEO Elon Musk said the electric-car company would deliver 100,000 vehicles next year.
      That is what is incorrect.

      Although a production rate of 100,000 cars per year will eventually create an actual 100,000 cars in a year, it will only do so once the rate reaches that level and sustains or exceeds that rate for an entire year. In this case, the last of the 100,000 cars actually produced in a single year at that rate would be finished sometime in 2016.

  • ...and none of the affordability. Go Elon go!

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Musk is a brilliant engineer and if he really wanted more people to experience this technology. He would have sold it to a auto maker or licensed its technology to several. Not only to reduce price to consumers and in turn offer more affordable cars. But also he would have reached people in lower income brackets who could benefit more from a all electric vehicle. Instead he builds cars that are outstanding but not affordable for the majority. Your barely staying alive by selling carbon credits
    and you snub y

    • The other auto makers already have this technology and are doing practically nothing with it. Elon thought the biggest risk to his company was other companies joining the race and pushing Tesla out of business. The opposite has happened, none of the big auto companies is really interested.

      The problem is that, right now, electric cars are incredibly expensive to develop and produce. Lots of new technology is needed to make them efficient enough to have a practical range, and batteries are very expensive. The

    • by haruchai ( 17472 )

      Oh, for fuck's sake. Go read the "Tesla Master Plan, just between you & me" that Elon posted on the Tesla forums EIGHT FUCKING YEARS ago TODAY.

      http://www.teslamotors.com/blo... [teslamotors.com]

      He's only a few years & 1 model behind schedule; not bad for the 1st real auto startup in America in decades.

  • by guruevi ( 827432 ) on Friday August 01, 2014 @10:41PM (#47586937)

    That is basically breaking even especially given the backers and what they're investing in. I'm surprised the losses weren't larger.

  • Electric is SOooooo 2012!

    I was looking at a Tesla or another electric and the Toyota said they'll ship Hydrogen Fuel Cell next year. So, I will drive my car another year.

    I have a Prius now and am driving into the ground. Tesla was the next intelligent step... While waiting for fuel cell. But now fuel cell seems to be here, so why would I buy that?
    • I was looking at a Tesla or another electric and the Toyota said they'll ship Hydrogen Fuel Cell next year. So, I will drive my car another year.

      Interestingly, Toyota has been claiming that they would deliver a Fuel Cell car within x years (x being highly variable) for about twenty years now. Ditto Honda.

      Tesla was the next intelligent step... While waiting for fuel cell. But now fuel cell seems to be here, so why would I buy that?

      Because automotive fuel cells are a completely unproven technology, and only people with too much money buy the new tech. They can afford to eat it if it fails.

Love may laugh at locksmiths, but he has a profound respect for money bags. -- Sidney Paternoster, "The Folly of the Wise"

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