Tesla holds customer town hall to explain price increases
Click above for high-res image gallery of Jason's Tesla Roadster
Tesla Motors held the first of a series of customer town hall meetings at its Menlo Park store on Tuesday to try and assuage anger over recently announced price increases. A couple of attendees have posted their thoughts about the meeting around the web. As usual, CEO Elon Musk was forthcoming with information, although it some cases it may actually raise more fears than calm them down. For example, when responding to a query about the price hike, Musk responded, "It was a really close call at the last round of investments, I can't shoulder the load of the company alone and I couldn't continue the company like that."
Musk also revealed that the company would be getting an investment from a "well respected company" in the next week or so. In the current environment, that may not have been the safest response if the deal has not yet closed. If something happens and it falls apart, the company could end up looking worse.
Musk blamed the new $3,000 price for the high-powered charging cable on the cost of making the current one and said a new, less expensive version is being developed. A 440V charger that would facilitate 45-minute charges is in the works, he said, possibly for 2010. Musk also announced that the Model S would be shown to customers and VIPs at an event at the Space-X headquarters in Los Angeles on March 5. Tesla is also working on drivetrain 2.0 with an eye on cost reduction.
Gallery: Jason Calacanis' Tesla Roadster
Gallery: Trying out Jason's Tesla Roadster
Photos copyright ©2008 Drew Phillips, Sam Abuelsamid, Sebastian Blanco / Weblogs, Inc.
[Source: Planettesla, TeslaMotorsClub]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Yanquetino 12:24PM (1/28/2009)
According to one of the privileged few who attended this Town Meeting, the Chief Executive Offender stated that "Tom Saxton published his blog after Tesla gave him info in confidence. Tesla implored him to wait. He refused."
Talk about pointing a finger at the victim! I wonder what Tom might have to say about that...?
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jharlan 6:16PM (1/28/2009)
Damage control, fixing the fence after the cows are gone. I guess it's better than nothing. I've been taught that to a man, a deal is a deal. The chiseling that goes on in the showroom office after they think they have you hooked is so unethical and distasteful to me that now I never consider buying a car from a showroom salesman. Was this guy a car salesman before he became a manufacturer?
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gorr 2:21PM (1/28/2009)
As of yet nobody is making money with battery cars and even the hybrid prius is costing money to toyota, LOL.
All these petrol and battery car makers are fighting the bible that said that the biological and physical energy come from water mainly, the rest of the energy come directly from the mind.
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iPineapple 4:26PM (1/28/2009)
WTF are you talking about GORR???
are you seriously insinuating the bible as a reference for justifying the automotive industry's power and propulsion issues?!!
man, i've read your comments before and they're as idiotic as some of the crap coming out of people wearing doomsday signs and pitching eternal salvation through generous donations.
your sewage is about as unhelpful as a freaking stone-throwing finger-pointing vomit-inducing gossip-queen pageant-show of ignorant arrogance and stone-headed backwards ideology.
if you're looking for something to drive you around in the future... go buy a horse! or better... a jackass.
Chris M 10:03PM (1/28/2009)
Gorr, apparently you didn't hear that Toyota actually paid off all the development costs for the Prius by 2003, and have been making a substantial profit ever since. Toyota has been boosting production of the Prius, something they wouldn't have done if it didn't make them lots of money.
iPinapple, please realize that one of those unwritten rules of the internet is that a successful blog with open comments will always acquire at least one nutter, and here we have a real champion! If you think this was bad, you should see some of his long rants!
Uncle B 9:41AM (3/01/2009)
China, no respecter of U.S. patent law seems to have developed a "Better Battery" and has proceeded to produce them en mass! The astounding Chinese have epoched the great GM, of U.S.A. in producing an Electric/gas/plug-in car! They are driving them in the streets of China as we speak, they will be retailed in the U.S.A. by 2011, they will cost half the price of a "Volt" and they are "On Order" for Israel! GM take a deep breath, your naughty parts have just been cut off by a Chinese high-tech competitor, and the "Volt" is still "Vapor-ware"! See:http://www.cleantech.com/news/3983/chinas-byd-sells-first-mass-produced-plug-cars
If China has, in fact produced a battery similar to the one Chevron/Texaco bought the U.S. patent for and swiftly buried in balderdash, Tesla will soon be able to provide even better, and certainly cheaper batteries for its modern day miracle cars!
awkward, backward, constipated, fight by some in America to maintain and unsustainable "Status Quo" is threatening the nation with "Third Worldship" but the Tesla is a force in the right direction, particularly with the coming Electrical grid improvements.
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