The Model S, the all-electric sedan from Tesla Motors, is still on track, but some models will be more costly than others.
The company has said that it will begin delivering Model S cars to customers in the middle of 2012. In all, 5,000 cars will come off the line in 2012. That's a little light. Back in October, Tesla said it would produce 7,000 in the maiden year of production. (That's a Model S prototype in the photo taken at the opening of the Fremont, California Tesla plant last year.)
The first 1,000 cars will be a signature version of the Model S that will come with a supersized battery pack that will take the car 300 miles on a single charge -- farther than the two-seater Tesla Roadster.
Tesla will then follow up with versions of the Model S that get 230 miles and 160 miles, respectively, per charge. Consumers will pay for that extra battery capacity.
- Basic Model S - 160-mile range car selling for around $57,400 (as expected) before federal and state tax incentives.
- Model S Long Range - 230-mile range car selling for around $10,000 more or $67,400 before federal and state tax incentives.
- Model S Extra-Long Range - 300-mile range car selling for an extra $20,000 more of the basic Model S price or $77,400
Other companies -- Fisker Automotive, Audi, Mercedes Benz and Nissan, to name a few -- are coming out with upscale plug-ins and all-electrics, too. General Motors has said it will come out with new cars based on the Volt platform, so expect lots of competition out there in this segment of the car industry. Electric cars at this point are a better value in the premium segment than in the economy segment. Still, Tesla has established quite a bit of brand equity in its short life and a large number of customers, including Weird Al Yankovic, have already plunked deposits down on these cars, so they will sell.
No update on the all-electric Model X, a crossover/SUV type of car due in 2014. A prototype may emerge next year.
COMMENTARY: I have been following and blogging about Tesla Motors for quite some time, including everything about the Roadster, the Model S and their June 2010 IPO.
I love Tesla Motors, and believe they have the best looking and technologically-advanced EV's out there, but the competition is going to be fierce within the luxury segment, and I am not so sure they can make money with a volume of only 5,000 Model S sedans. I estimated their breakeven at about 8 to 10,000 units. This includes Roadsters.
According to a previous blog post about Pike Research. 33,000 and 45,000 EV's will be sold respectively in 2012 and 2013, the remainder are hybrids. Tesla expects to boost production of the Model S sedan to 20,000 units in 2013, which represents nearly half the total estimated by Pike for 2013. That's pretty bold, but at this juncture, these are raw estimates.
Hybrids have a lot of appeal because they can run on both gasoline and electricity. However, the price of gasoline is now at nearly $4.00 per gallon, and projected to climb to $5.00 by late spring, so this may make hybrids less appealing and spark interest in all-electric cars. Electric charging stations are still a problem and will lag behind EV unit production.
What the article doesn't say is what increasing the range from 160-miles to 300-miles will have on the overall design of the car. Batteries take up a lot of room, and something will have to be sacrified.
The timing of this announcement is also very interesting, coming at a time when gasoline prices are skyrocketing. I am working on a theory that customers demanded a longer range Model S sedan. Just for your information, the additional $20,000 price works out to $142.85 per mile. Owner's will also have to shellout another $35,000 (estimate) to replace the original batteries in 5 years. That's a tough one to swallow and could become an issue upon resale.
Courtesy of an article dated March 7, 2011 appearing in GreenTechMedia
The Model-S is really awesome. I am really impressed how Tesla took their time into putting a lot of effort into this.
Posted by: Crystal Clear Headlights | 04/23/2012 at 07:18 PM