Shortly before Tesla officially debuted its Model S Sedan, three photos were leaked via (sigh) Twitter. This was one of them. Ouch. Tesla asked the leaker (Digg founder Kevin Rose) to remove the photos, prompting him to comment that he is “not sure if the company knows how the ’ol web works.” Anyway, the Model S (formerly WhiteStar) is supposedly being built on a chassis of Tesla’s own design (insert mirthless laugh here), will go up to 300 miles on a charge and hit 60 mph in 5.5 seconds. And all those “facts” sound reasonable compared to Tesla’s assertions that it will go on sale in 2011, ramp up to 20,000 units in the first year, and seat seven. Did the Jetson kids sit in the trunk too? Prices start at about $60K, depending on the battery choice, tax break and how gullible you are. Oh, and the looks? They got nothing on Fisker’s Karma.
Hey Twitter ain’t so bad, TTAC should get a feed going. I don’t know if it’s going to catch on as much as people think, but it’s hot now and is a fun way to connect with your audience. It don’t take much & it’s free to set up.
Also, a Twitter account allows you to follow the development of the leak/angry Tesla/bloglaughs story AND it’s another avenue of connection to the automakers. It’s worth looking into, anyway.
Also Tesla has shown itself to be a very dysfunctional company, I sure hope they get their stuff together soon. It’s hard to change the world when you can’t even run your company. It just shows that Silicon Valley companies are just as screwy as the Detroit automakers.
Soon Tesla will have a full line of cars you can’t actually buy.
I’d rather have the Karma. Preferably the convertible one. IMHO, of course.
While I’m at it, if this is true, holy shit!
White Star… Isn’t that the name of the company that owned the Titanic?
For the debut of the Tesla Model S, TTAC chooses to run a twitter photo of the unfinished interior of the car, puke out a few caustic sentences and call it a day. That’s some lightweight, lazy-ass blogging, even by TTAC’s declining standards. Now go ahead and remove this comment, because I now it’s not getting past the censorship board. So long, TTAC. Maybe we’ll meet again when you start paying your writers again.
I’ve heard the claim that this thing seats 7. How exactly does that work? Are there two rearward-facing jump seats?
I have to agree with BuckD. Why so negative? I have been following this site for a couple of years now (just now took the time to register), and while I appreciate saracasm as a tool, sometimes the stylistic guide of TTAC seems to mandate its use at least once every article.
All of the pictures I’ve seen of this car are attractive. Tesla has already proven its critics wrong by successfully delivering to its customers the Tesla Roadster…maybe you TTAC guys should give this one a chance before you get another round of pie-in-the-face.
On what surface does that screen reside? I’m voting for photoshop editor. As for the 7 seater, 5.5 sec 0-60, 300 mile charge claims, I’m gonna call shenanigans. I doubt even Tesla would make claims so ridiculous.
If you think this post is too hard on Tesla, how do you resolve that there is there is no money, no factory, the technology to produce it doesn’t exist, and they are taking orders and asking for our tax dollars?
…and besides, TTAC should be nice before karma comes full circle…you once had a Tesla Deathwatch, now I’m pretty sure there’s a DeathWatch on TTAC…
I kid…but not really.
I would love to buy a Model S. If they ever make it. I am with BuckD, this is a pretty pathetic post for TTAC.
I’m with BuckD, vandstra, and rolosrevenge. I hope they make it, I’d buy it if they did, and where is the actual coverage of the model S?
Anyway, the Model S (formerly WhiteStar) is supposedly being built on a chassis of Tesla’s own design
Well, they claimed the same thing for the Roadster, claiming it was so different to the Elise it was actually completely distinct.
As for the 7 seater, 5.5 sec 0-60, 300 mile charge claims, I’m gonna call shenanigans. I doubt even Tesla would make claims so ridiculous.
And yes, it is supposed to have rear-facing jump seats. And the 300 mile battery will be a (presumably expensive) option.
As for why they are calling a hatchback a “Model S sedan, I have no clue.
Hatchbacks are better than sedans, so why don’t they market the hatchback-ness more?
The exterior styling? Mazda 6 hatchback meets Jaguar XK butt and the front looks like a molten Lancer. Not offensive, but meh.
Another Mazda 6 platform. What does that make about 6?
I’ve read somewhere that you can it for 49 900 if you sign up for one right now.
I’ve just checked out the car on AutoBloggreen – It’s actually a very handsome car (hell, it’s beautiful).
The interior is a little rough, but it looks like a “gas-discharge” gauge screen with a simulated analog speedo.
Supposedly, there are to be two rear-facing child seats behind the rear seats (accessible through the hatch? Hmm), and a front “trunk”.
If it works out to be 80% of what they claim, there are well-to-do people that will line up to buy one (hopefully making future models cheaper).
I can’t see why this is not progress; putting aside politics and personalities, there it is, the electric car that many have said they wanted; and it’s just over the horizon.
The Volt is in serious trouble, I fear.
I think it looks great. A bit of a Jaguar copy, but it comes together nicely, except for the C pillar, design of which I think they outsourced to Dodge.
“Chassis of their own design” == “way more money than Tesla has access to”. I think the sarcasm is quite warranted.
I’m going to say the sarcasm is less than it could be:
“Goes on sale 2011, and produce 20k in the first year.”
We’re 1/4 of the way through 2009. That means Tesla has 21 months to.
1. Choose a site for a factory.
2. Get financing for said factory.
3. Build said factory.
4. Finish designing, testing, and sourcing the car.
And all this with ~250 employees and almost no cash flow. And considering it took them 20 months to go from showing off their roadster prototype in public to the delivery of the first vehicle on a chassis they bought pre-built, more than a little sarcasm is warranted.
And In know the scale isn’t the same, but it took Toyota (a company with billions of spare dollars, thousands of experts in the field, and 50+ years of experience) 3 years to build the Tundra plant in Texas.
TTAC is right on the money with this one.
Unless Tesla gets umpteen billion in Federal Loans, er Grants, or whatever, they’re toast. Look at the email their CEO sent out to all the employees, trying to find out who was leaking information to the press. Each email was fingerprinted, i.e. had different phrases, so they could tell who was the leak. Well, one of the execs forwarded his copy to the whole company, exposing the ruse.
Having a hostile, paranoid, and lying boss is probably not a pleasant experience. So where’s the dead pool to sign up for when this company is going to implode?
No profits, delivering very few of very many promised (and paid for) products… problems abound. I’m actually curious, how many Tesla Roadsters have been ordered? How many have been paid for? How many have been delivered? How many people have deposits sunk which they will NEVER get back? And furthermore, How many have been returned (or are trying to get returned as Schwarzenegger is)?
Finally, has Tesla ever delivered on ANY of its’ claims, ever? It is kind of easy to make a high jump if you keep constantly lowering the bar until you can just sorta ‘hop’ over it.
Bluescreen of death in the center console? I’m not sure what is going on there but can only assume its a huge touch screen to control all the accessories? If so: worst idea EVER!
+1 to SexCpotatoes. As a finance guy, the ambitions of this company seem to outstrip its capacity to deliver by at least a hundredfold.
I see this kind of crackpot loan applicant on a daily basis – the guy who wants to build a $15 million dollar sports complex/furniture store/chicken wing joint in the middle of nowhere and thinks he’s going to get you to put up the cash for his “dream”.
Until Tesla is able to finance at least 10-20% of the production of this new model using re-invested profits from current roadster sales…ain’t nothin’ gonna happen. Who on god’s green earth would be stupid enough to loan this dog of a company money for this project?