Tesla a Step Closer to Producing Its Electric Sedan
The company's IPO adds $226 million to its coffers.
Kevin Bullis 06/29/2010
- 3 Comments
Tesla Motors, based in Palo Alto, CA, went public today, selling stocks to raise $226 million, according to Bloomberg.
The company sells the electric Roadster, which may be helping change perceptions of electric vehicles, which many have seen as underpowered. The Roadster can accelerate to 60 miles per hour in just 3.6 seconds.
Tesla plans to shift to producing an electric sedan, called the Model S, in coming years, but it doesn't expect to make money soon, which is why the successful IPO is a little surprising. The company also recently got a boost from Toyota, which agreed to work with Tesla on developing electric vehicles and to buy $50 million of Tesla's stock. It's also getting a $465 million load from the U.S. government, through the Department of Energy.
The next couple of years could be key for the company, which will face competition from major automakers such as GM and Nissan which plan to roll out electric vehicles two years before Tesla can started selling its luxury sedan.
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Gurthang
52 Comments
EVs
While advancements continue to propel EVs closer to actual practical use. What I have not seen yet is attempts to standardize. Just like your gasoline must fit within certain criteria and the refueling mechinisms themselves must be standard. I think they (the industry and possibly our governments) needs to be working out the EV equlivent of a USB port for recharging. And not only that but also some series of standard battery packages and interfaces to allow third party replacements. Hopefully something that could be safely swapped out in modules to quickly "refuel" either via robot or human hand. That way you could essentually "lease" the batteries rather than own them. And develop a whole indistry around the replacement, recycling, and repair of them. That way you are not held hostage by a single manfacturer who could at any point decide to stop making replacements for your car and thus force you to upgrade or else.
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