REPORT: Tesla gets $82.5 million investment; delivers 700th Roadster
Go to Frankfurt, get $82.5 million. That's sort of what happened to Tesla Motors, which is at the big auto show this week and received the "opportunistic" equity investment from a group led by Fjord Capital Partners. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that his company was "not looking for money," but did not turn down the offer. FCM's slogan is "clean energy investments for a low carbon world." Bloomberg reports that the FCM money might be used for expanding Tesla's retail stores around the world. Earlier this year, Daimler invested in the electric car start-up.
Also in Frankfurt, Tesla delivered the 700th Roadster to 24-year-old German law student Lennart Hennig. The young man didn't just opt for the standard Roadster, either. Henning is now the proud owner of an electric blue Roadster Sport.
UPDATE: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the investment was from Fjord Capital Management.
[Source: Bloomberg]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
DasBoese 9:26PM (9/15/2009)
I assure you that this in no way reflects the average financial situation of the typical German student ;)
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Chris M 2:28AM (9/16/2009)
Yeah, I kinda figured that out! Most students are on very tight budgets, they either use public transit or a very basic vehicle - used car, motor bike, or bicycle.
Nick From Montreal 10:58PM (9/15/2009)
Maybe not average, but you'd be surprised at the net worth of students from Switzerland and Munich. Having spent some time in Switzerland, it was refreshing to see many young people from rich families going to school, doing their military service and working at regular office jobs. I even knew a guy who was perfectly happy going to work on a bicycle while owning a lakeside residence in Geneva. I sometime get the feeling that many are embarrassed of being rich - specially when it's family fortune.
I think Tesla is going to sell at least 50% of their cars to rich socially responsible europeans. For many people, having a Lambo or a Ferrari gaz-guzzler is tired and cliche.
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Mark Kiernan 9:04AM (9/16/2009)
If I had the choice of a Telsa or a Ferrari I would go for the Tesla every time! Here in Italy they are a bit nuts for Ferrari (not sure why), I take hi-tech over low-tech most of the time, efficiency over inefficiency. I think in young rich people are more IN when it comes to responsible cars, and this is only a great thing.
nrb 11:25PM (9/15/2009)
700 EVs? That's almost half as many as Ford.
Oh please, I'm just having fun.
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Satn 3:02AM (9/16/2009)
as many as ford hasn't actually -sold- to anyone?
Phil L. 9:39AM (9/16/2009)
...and they've got a ways to go in order to catch up with Detroit Electric, which was selling one to two thousand electric cars a year. And were doing it almost 100 years ago.
Oh well - this is a solid start!
PopSmith 1:30AM (9/16/2009)
It's nice to see Tesla getting more and more attention, both in the news and in the minds of venture capitalists. In a slowly-but-surely recovering economic world it's also cool to see a car company start-up grow and (somewhat) flourish.
700 Roadsters = Just over $71 million (assuming base price of $101,500). I'm not sure how much Tesla is making on each Roadster at the moment, however. I also know that they were initially loosing money on each Roadster sold but I'm not sure how much or for how many deliveries that was occurring.
I wonder what the average cost is for Tesla to open one store. Maybe they'll use some of this money to open a store in Texas and other locations in the mid-west area before or just after the Model S launch in late-2011/early-2012.
They could also open a couple of stores in other places in Europe I guess.
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Chris M 2:33AM (9/16/2009)
A few months back Tesla Motors announced that they'd reduced the production cost below $80,000 for the Roadster, so they are making about $20K per car, or about $14 million. Don't know how much development costs were, though that will be stretched out over several years.
Jeremy 12:27PM (9/16/2009)
Average Roadster sale price is a decent amount above the $109k base price because most customers choose various options to add to the base car, just like any other car. Keep in mind, btw, that the $101,500 base price you see stated some places takes into account $7,500 in tax credit that you get from the federal government. Tesla still gets $109 from the customer. Plus options added, as mentioned.
Tesla was actually profitable in July (delivered, I believe, 109 Roadsters that month), which is pretty darn impressive considering how young the company is and the fact that it's selling a new technology (yes, there were electric cars a century ago blah blah). They're hoping for a profitable quarter but that remains to be seen.
There will be many more Tesla Stores by the end of 2011, for sure! So far LA, Menlo Park (silicon valley), Seattle, Chicago, NYC, Washington DC, Miami, Toronto... pretty sure upcoming locations will be in Vancouver, Denver, maybe Atlanta area. Texas will most definitely have a Tesla Store pending some complications w/ state law (and there are very similar laws in many states, actually). You see, Tesla isn't franchising its stores. They are company-owned, like an Apple store. Direct sales gives the company a much greater control over the salespeople and the level of service and knowledge that the customer receives, the image of the store, etc. They can guarantee a better customer experience. Anyway... there are laws in a handful of states that PROHIBIT auto manufacturers from selling directly. This is to protect the franchised dealerships from having to compete with the car company, because they obviously couldn't compete on price with the people who actually make the product they have to buy, mark up, and sell. So... Tesla cannot sell in these states because they are the manufacturer, whether or not there are dealerships they're competing with. I'm sure more and more companies are going to adopt direct sales models and, as that happens, these laws will have to be modified. I'm sure Tesla is working hard to figure that out right now.
BlackbirdHighway 3:08AM (9/16/2009)
The Model S is going to rule!
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gorr 10:01AM (9/16/2009)
Is there some tesla drivers recharging their cars with adapted home windmills or solar panels?
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Serge 10:17AM (9/16/2009)
Yes. http://www.jetsongreen.com/2008/07/martin-eberhard.html