Tesla closes R&D center

[Jim Prower]

Tesla closes R&D center, cuts jobs, citing economic environment.

The AP (10/16) reports that "Tesla Motors Inc. said Wednesday that it will scale back the development of its all-electric Model S sedan until its Department of Energy loan guarantee becomes effective, citing the tough economic environment." The decision "is expected to push back production of the vehicle, set to be unveiled early next year, by about six months to mid-2011, Elon Musk, the electric carmaker's chairman and product architect, said in his company blog."

Tesla also said "that it plans to close a research and development center in Rochester Hills," according the Detroit Free Press (10/15, Snavely). Musk indicated that Tesla "is taking action so it can become cash-flow positive within six to nine months," and said that "there will also be some headcount reduction due to consolidation of operations." Musk announced that "he will take over the CEO role and current CEO Ze'ev Drori will stay as vice chairman."

California's Mercury News (10/16, Nauman, Carey), the San Jose Business Journal (10/16), the Los Angeles Times's (10/15, Bensinger) Up to Speed blog, the New York Times's (10/15, Miller) Bits blog, and the Christian Science Monitor (10/15) Bright Green blog covered the story.

Sources
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D93R64182.htm
http://www.freep.com/article/20081015/BUSINESS01/81015107/1014
http://www.mercurynews.com/cars/ci_10727401
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/10/13/daily56.html
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/uptospeed/2008/10/telsa-musk-ev.html
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/tesla-motors-zaps-another-ceo-and-lays-off-staff/?hp
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/10/15/tesla-smarting-from-credit-crunch/

Not gonna say anything: current politics, particularly regarding Environmentalism, has me in a bad mood.

 

[harrytuttle]

Good. I hope it folds like a house of damp playing cards. Electric cars and chemical batteries are not the answer. Period. Anyone who tells you otherwise is hiding a toxic wasteland behind their backs. Just ask Toyota.

The answer is very obvious, like some huge pink elephant on your foot, but since moving that elephant requires real changes in thought, that elephant is going to be quite happy pretending it's invisible for a long time.

 

[Tornado]

That was fast.

Anyone else think it would just be hilarious if, now that Tesla looks about to fail, the probably-never-going-to-be-built Chrysler Europa thingy ended up being a success after Chrysler spent $38 developing it?

 

[Robin]

Didnt think much of Tesla anyway, no big loss in my eyes because only snooty rich people who couldnt really care less about the environment would buy them. Things like the Volt are far more viable.

Robin

 

[Omnis]

Good. I hope it folds like a house of damp playing cards. Electric cars and chemical batteries are not the answer. Period. Anyone who tells you otherwise is hiding a toxic wasteland behind their backs. Just ask Toyota.

The answer is very obvious, like some huge pink elephant on your foot, but since moving that elephant requires real changes in thought, that elephant is going to be quite happy pretending it's invisible for a long time.

Yeah, elephants don't even use any gasoline.

 

[buickgnx88]

Though they do produce plenty of gas.

 

[niky]

Not an amazing turn of events... it's not a good environment to sell hypercars right now... I fear Tesla may not be the last house of cards to fold.

Tesla was interesting... but depressingly, represented about the most you could expect from electric supercars beyond the vaporware some other guys are trying to hawk.

 

[homeforsummer]

Good. I hope it folds like a house of damp playing cards. Electric cars and chemical batteries are not the answer. Period. Anyone who tells you otherwise is hiding a toxic wasteland behind their backs. Just ask Toyota.

Yeah, it's fantastic news that jobs will be lost and further development of potential environmental technologies is put on hold.

Oh no wait, no it isn't.

You may think that electric cars aren't the answer, but personally I do. And I'm not just referring to electric sports cars, as honestly they're the last bastion of the true motor car and I'd rather like them to stay powered by fossil fuels, and petrol to be specific (I consider myself quite eco conscious, but even I draw the line for now at electric and diesel sports cars).

But the R&D that Tesla has stopped was for a family car. Given that the majority of vehicles on the road are designed to hold small groups of people (i.e. families) and the majority will be parked at places overnight that charging would be possible (i.e. houses) then electric family cars are a very real direction that's open for exploration.

All these electric sports cars, diesel supercars (Audi R8 concept etc), hybrid hot hatches (Honda CRZ concept) etc that companies are developing are all well and good but they're also kind of pointless as they're being applied into niches that don't sell in huge numbers like standard family cars do.

I'm not a fan of the Prius, but at least it's new technology being applied to a useable family car, and not some irrelevant sports car.

People seem to forget that in reality, electric technology isn't that far into it's lifespan, and certainly not compared to the petrol vehicles we're all used to. They're already getting better as far as range and performance go, and given another ten or fifteen years (or maybe less) I'd expect range and performance to increase even more, and be applied to a relevant passenger vehicle.

 

[Eric.]

Yeah, it's fantastic news that jobs will be lost and further development of potential environmental technologies is put on hold.

Oh no wait, no it isn't.

You may think that electric cars aren't the answer, but personally I do. And I'm not just referring to electric sports cars, as honestly they're the last bastion of the true motor car and I'd rather like them to stay powered by fossil fuels, and petrol to be specific (I consider myself quite eco conscious, but even I draw the line for now at electric and diesel sports cars).

But the R&D that Tesla has stopped was for a family car. Given that the majority of vehicles on the road are designed to hold small groups of people (i.e. families) and the majority will be parked at places overnight that charging would be possible (i.e. houses) then electric family cars are a very real direction that's open for exploration.

All these electric sports cars, diesel supercars (Audi R8 concept etc), hybrid hot hatches (Honda CRZ concept) etc that companies are developing are all well and good but they're also kind of pointless as they're being applied into niches that don't sell in huge numbers like standard family cars do.

I'm not a fan of the Prius, but at least it's new technology being applied to a useable family car, and not some irrelevant sports car.

People seem to forget that in reality, electric technology isn't that far into it's lifespan, and certainly not compared to the petrol vehicles we're all used to. They're already getting better as far as range and performance go, and given another ten or fifteen years (or maybe less) I'd expect range and performance to increase even more, and be applied to a relevant passenger vehicle.

May I redirect you to Copper Cliff, Ontario on behalf of harrytuttle?

Have a good look at the wasteland that NASA has tested lunar rovers on thanks to the plant that produces the nickel for Prius batteries, then let me know if we should build a few more in every state.

 

[niky]

And who says that all future batteries will be NiMH?

Newer batteries are produced under better environmental controls, and are fully recyclable.

NiMH won't be in our future. All the dreaming and research is focusing on developing more realistic battery packs for the future. My bet is on ultra-capacitors... but so far, all we've seen from the small boys is application of existing technology (Tesla) or pure vaporware. The interest and money generated by the Tesla project should have helped raise money for a realistic four-door family car, but apparently... there wasn't enough.

I would have absolutely no problem with the Roadster going down the tubes... it's nothing the T-Zero or Venturi Fetish didn't do loooong before it... and the T-Zero was faster (though not as pretty) while the Venturi Fetish was even more bespoke (though much more expensive) than the Lotus... errh... Tesla Roadster. But the fact that Tesla was promising to re-invest those profits in more mass-market models was promising.

But who were they kidding? It takes a big amount of money from a major manufacturer to produce a halfway realistic electric car... or at least a dedicated top-notch engineering team. Too bad.

 

[harrytuttle]

May I redirect you to Copper Cliff, Ontario on behalf of harrytuttle?

Thanks, I was looking for that. Not hard enough, apparently, but honestly looking.

And who says that all future batteries will be NiMH?

Newer batteries are produced under better environmental controls, and are fully recyclable.

These same batteries are still using the wrong elements. It still requires strip mining, still creates undesirable waste in manufacturing, and the process of recycling is just as bad.

It will take ground-breaking thought to re-invent the battery using sustainable and human-friendly source materials. What they are, I don't know, but apparently no one else does either. Until then, NiMH and everything else are simply not the right answer.

How no one else gets this is beyond me, especially on this board, what with all the walking encyclopedias posting daily. The answer is so obvious you can taste it.

 

[exigeracer]

What they are, I don't know, but apparently no one else does either.

I bet those people at the R&D facility had a better clue than you.

But now they have no jobs.

 

[niky]

RE: Wrong Element... that's why we have lithium-ion... and, hopefully, in the near future, ultra-capacitors that will last much longer than any battery while being able to charge and discharge at a much higher rate.

 

[harrytuttle]

I bet those people at the R&D facility had a better clue than you.

Are you kidding? If they did, where was it? If someone else did, where are the white papers? While I may not be a chemical engineer, I do have some understanding of where this research is heading, and none of it improves on the current situation of poor materials usage. In fact, the holy grail of batteries (in the modern context) is to actually create ones that are efficient, lightweight, reasonably compact, and use readily abundant and readily recyclable materials. So far, we kinda just got..efficiency. The rest just spell impending doom for mass production in a vehicle intended for personal transportation.