Tesla not considering SUV, $20,000 Bluestar
The head of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, was in the house at the Always On Going Green conference giving a talk yesterday and had lots to say about possible upcoming products from his company. First off, in contradiction to what we heard earlier from Tesla marketing guy, Daryl Siry, there may very well be an SUV in the pipeline. Although it might seem antithetical to the green agenda Musk espouses, he believes it would be a strong driver of sales. Of course, his idea of an SUV might be closer in size to a Captiva than a full-blown Tahoe but we guess we'll have to wait for an actual sketch before we make too many assumptions. We suspect he hasn't gotten the memo that the stationwagon is the new SUV though. If an SUV EV does come to fruition it would be built on the Model S platform most likely at it new factory in San Jose.While talking about making cars less expensive in the future, he let slip that they are "confident in being able to get to a $30,000 car, or perhaps a $20,000 car, in partnership with a major car company," sometime in the future. Whether or not that major car company is Daimler is unknown but in a phone conversation with Earth2Tech, Mr. Musk said that "Tesla's partnership with Daimler won't focus on its Model S".
Speaking of the Model S, Musk said that the as-yet-unseen luxury sedan would feature a swappable battery. Not that they plan on jumping into bed with Better Place but having that function would make the vehicle easier to service. Of course, it also leaves the door open to some future battery-swapping-station scheme. We hope it also has the ability to accept a quick charge.
[Source: Earth2Tech / greentechmedia]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Shannon 6:29PM (9/18/2008)
I got to hear Daryl speak at a conference a while back and loved how he referred to the Roadster as a sexy marketing wrapper for great battery technology. The flash secures the cash so they can build phenomenal technology. If/when they can reach even the $30k price point, the shift could be incredible.
Speakin of Tesla flash - anyone see the video of the Roadster burning rubber in the showroom lot?
http://greenhome.huddler.com/forum/thread/656/crazy-tesla-burnout
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vlane.com 6:37PM (9/18/2008)
This would be awesome!
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Larry Miller 8:32PM (9/18/2008)
"Although it might seem antithetical to the green agenda Musk espouses"
If it's a full EV, why would it seem antithetical?
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Seek 12:22PM (9/19/2008)
Re: Musk & "green agenda". He may talk the talk, but he definitely does not walk the walk. Keep in mind, private jets (yes, plural), kerosene burning rockets, etc, etc.
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litteuldav 3:31AM (9/19/2008)
speaking of swappable battery pack :
It means that the battery pack can be easily removed ,no ?
Has anybody thought it would be interesting to STEAL a 10 k$ battery pack ?
Robbers will notice it at the time the first model is showed in showrooms.
Car robberry is already pretty common right here, I believe few people will accept the 'easy to rob batterry pack' on their car.
At least make it an option, with the same model cheaper w/o swappable battery pack.
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Domenick Yoney 8:17AM (9/19/2008)
That's a very good point. I expect people would steal the whole car, then remove the pack since we're talking 800 -1000 lbs. Even if they have to tear down the pack, the batteries would still be valuable. Yikes!