Tesla Production Updates

[tomsax]

We found out yesterday that Tesla is about to deliver car #5 and about to put car #15 into production. Also, the saga with the delayed delivery of Martin Eberhard's Tesla (#2) continues: his car was involved in an accident during the final testing just before it was to be delivered. It's being repaired.

http://earth2tech.com/2008/06/19/tesla-update-former-ceos-crashed-car-ipo-plans-roadster-s/

On the owner's forum, Darrly Siry says that they are now starting cars on the production line at a rate of four per week.

[tomsax]

The following letter just went out to all Tesla owners from Ze'ev Drori...

Update on Production and Delivery of Cars to Customers

You know of course the saying “Good things are worth waiting for” ... undoubtedly we were trying the truism of this adage longer than warranted, but we have broken the logjam. We are delivering the Roadster to our customers. Already 9 production Roadsters have arrived in California, another 3 arrive this weekend, and they will keep arriving at the rate of 4 per week (except for the scheduled factory shut down in the last two weeks of August). In fact, currently there are 27 Roadsters in various stages of assembly. In large measure we deliberately limit the production until we install our own born and bred final transmission by mid-September, at which time production will start to ramp up leading toward a monthly rate of over 100 cars in December. 

From the start we planned a slow production rate for the first several months to allow us time to work out the kinks of production prior to increasing the rate of production. As mentioned above, an important mile marker of our progress is the development and implementation of Powertrain 1.5, which is going smoothly. Already we have prototypes running with the Powertrain 1.5 configuration and we are establishing the manufacturing facility for the gearboxes in our own facilities. The performance of this production configuration is extraordinary.

The Roadster delivery to our customers perfectly dovetails with the Grand Opening of our second Tesla store in as many months. The first was the one in Los Angeles and it’s a huge success, and now the one in the heart of Silicon Valley right near Stanford in Menlo Park. The store in Menlo Park replicates the unique customer experience so successfully present in the LA store and more, since in addition to sales and service it is the place where all final assembly, tests and preparations are made with each car prior to customers’ delivery. We are pushing forward with planning for our next stores in New York, Chicago, Miami and Seattle. 

In other news, I have hired Mike Donoughe, an accomplished auto industry executive, as our Executive Vice President of Vehicle Engineering and Manufacturing. Mike spent over 24 years at Chrysler, where most recently, as Vice President of “Project D”, he had been tapped to lead their critical redesign of their mid-size vehicle program. Mike’s addition is an example of my commitment to build a world class team at Tesla, combining the best of what Silicon Valley and Detroit have to offer, to build this company into the next great car company. Keep an eye out for additional news on this front.

On behalf of Tesla employees world wide I would like to thank all of our loyal customers and assure you that we do our utmost to justify the faith that you have shown.

Ze’ev Drori

[tomsax]

The latest word is that Tesla has produced somewhere around 100 cars now. That's the 27 cars in the Founders Series, plus a quickly growing number of the Signature 100. Various delays in the complex process cause the cars to be delivered out of strict sequence number, but Signature 100 #54 was delivered today, and vehicles up into the 90s in the Signature 100 are going through the drivetrain install, testing and final delivery prep in Menlo Park, CA.

But enough about the numbers, here are some recent pretty pictures...

The following link will take you to a message posted on the Tesla Motors Club forum. It shows the difference in complexity between a gasoline engine and the electric motor in the Tesla. Tesla's motor has one significant moving part: the shaft, plus the bearings.

    http://tinyurl.com/5qlkb8

This gallery of photos shows the drivetrain being installed in Signature 100 #55, soon to be delivered to Bill Arnett. The photo of the Tesla motor came from this set.

    http://emeraldsequoia.com/55guts/

This is a beautiful photo of Signature 100 #16, recently delivered to the owner, Jason Calacanis.

    http://tinyurl.com/5udkj4

The color is called Very Orange. It certainly is. From the same set of photos, I think this one is funny.

   http://tinyurl.com/5gp643

If you click on the title just above the photo in either of the above two links, you can see the full gallery of 45 photos.