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Diarmuid O'Connell VP buss. Dev. Tesla on everything from Roadster to G3

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That is a great interview. Thanks for posting! A guy who worked for the gov't and was in the middle of all that Middle East stuff understood what was going on and starting thinking EVs were the best way for the future?

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Thanks for posting. Always interesting to hear other senior Tesla employees besides Elon talk about their experiences and the company.
Noteworthy that he was very conservative with Gen3 numbers. (200k/yr). There are too many people, especially in the media hyping 500k+ per year.
Much better to set more reasonable expectations. He also didn't acknowledge one way or another the interviewers comment that Gen3 would cost roughly half the cost of the Model S. Smart move.
 
He said that the Chevy Volt is "essentially a conversion" of a Chevy Cruz, and Nissan LEAF is built on a Nissan Versa platform.
I think that is a bit unfair to them. Yes, they used those related vehicle chassis as mules when developing the drivetrains, but I think of Volt and LEAF as nearly "ground up" vehicles. It would have been more fair to point the "existing platform" finger at Ford Focus, ActiveE, Fiat 500, Daimler A/B, Smart, and even Toyota/Tesla Rav4EV
 
Many thanks for posting this great interview

i agree with other posts

tesla will be much more than an electric car company with its development of the mega factory , the huge area of battery storage
becomes another future large income stream

Rob
 
He said that the Chevy Volt is "essentially a conversion" of a Chevy Cruz, and Nissan LEAF is built on a Nissan Versa platform.
I think that is a bit unfair to them. Yes, they used those related vehicle chassis as mules when developing the drivetrains, but I think of Volt and LEAF as nearly "ground up" vehicles. It would have been more fair to point the "existing platform" finger at Ford Focus, ActiveE, Fiat 500, Daimler A/B, Smart, and even Toyota/Tesla Rav4EV

Great interview and Mr. O'Connell certainly is top notch. I agree about the Leaf and Volt statements however, espically given Tesla's strong objections about the Roadster being just a converted Elise. Most "new" platforms are derived from old ones. However, the Model S is probably the first platform not derived from an ICE, so Mr. O'Connell does have a point, but "just a conversion" is overstating it.

GSP
 
Agree, an excellent post! +1 for Calvin.K

Diarmuid (pronounced like 'pyramid') is one of TM's "secret weapons" who served as an early company spokesperson during the Calif Air Resources Board (CARB) hearings in March and May 2007 in San Diego and Sacramento. The model 'S' was only 'a glimmer in their minds eye' then, but as this reveals, their jobs have been executed with foresight and well thought out plans. Diarmuid is in large part responsible for implementation of that strategic thinking that let to their successful positioning today, imo.
 
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Thanks for posting. Always interesting to hear other senior Tesla employees besides Elon talk about their experiences and the company.
Noteworthy that he was very conservative with Gen3 numbers. (200k/yr). There are too many people, especially in the media hyping 500k+ per year.
Much better to set more reasonable expectations. He also didn't acknowledge one way or another the interviewers comment that Gen3 would cost roughly half the cost of the Model S. Smart move.

JB Straubel(Tesla employee #5) said at a talk at Stanford 700k total Tesla units in 2018 and 900k total Tesla units in 2019.

The talk in the Media of 500k units is the consensus minimum total sales figure among industry analyst about how many units Tesla needs to sell annually to remain a viable independent auto company long term.

The smallest independent auto company that is not less than 50% of a larger conglomerate(i.e. Mitsubishi Motors) nor permanently supported by a National government(i.e. any Chinese auto company) is Mazda Motors. They make ~1.3M units worldwide.
 
Wow. I actually had the opposite experience of most here.

He is obviously bright and capable. He also has a background in government and dealing with political elements. This part of his persona leaves me flat. The answers are guarded and the information right out of the publicly available (mostly from Elon's free wheeling mouth) playbook. He would make the UN feel right at home as he lulls them to sleep with his voice........

I'm sure he serves a vital purposes bringing methodical plodding execution to his assigned tasks but, please, bring on more Musk as you just never know what's going to come out of Elon's mouth. And his sense of humor seals the deal for me.
 
The interesting part was when he confirmed that Tesla will be building its own battery factory. Elon has mentioned needing to build a giga-factory, but always left it ambiguous as to who would build it. It sounds to me like Tesla has recently made an internal decision to build it themselves and not rely on Panasonic, Samsung, etc. to build it. Strategically it makes sense to me. Obviously there is a lot of information about intellectual property rights to battery chemistry and design that we don't have. I also thought it interesting that he said they weren't wedded to the 18650 form factor. So, sometime in the next year or so, look for a Tesla announcement that they will be building their own battery mega-factory in the US. It will use updated battery chemistry and have a new form factor...
 
The interesting part was when he confirmed that Tesla will be building its own battery factory. Elon has mentioned needing to build a giga-factory, but always left it ambiguous as to who would build it. It sounds to me like Tesla has recently made an internal decision to build it themselves and not rely on Panasonic, Samsung, etc. to build it. Strategically it makes sense to me. Obviously there is a lot of information about intellectual property rights to battery chemistry and design that we don't have. I also thought it interesting that he said they weren't wedded to the 18650 form factor. So, sometime in the next year or so, look for a Tesla announcement that they will be building their own battery mega-factory in the US. It will use updated battery chemistry and have a new form factor...

I don't think you should take that as confirmation of a Tesla battery factory until Tesla actually breaks ground.
Tesla should be looking at every possible angle on how to get the cells they want in the quantity they want at the price they want.
They should be modeling their own factories of various sizes and constantly calculating the cost/benefit of each option and how much capital it will take.
If they don't do that, they won't know how to negotiate with Panasonic - in fact the factory talk could just be a negotiating tactic.
They may decide that using suppliers should continue, they might not.
 
Agreed,as he says Elon already confirmed it. Cool! Wonder when the media will pick up on this?
The interesting part was when he confirmed that Tesla will be building its own battery factory. Elon has mentioned needing to build a giga-factory, but always left it ambiguous as to who would build it. It sounds to me like Tesla has recently made an internal decision to build it themselves and not rely on Panasonic, Samsung, etc. to build it. Strategically it makes sense to me. Obviously there is a lot of information about intellectual property rights to battery chemistry and design that we don't have. I also thought it interesting that he said they weren't wedded to the 18650 form factor. So, sometime in the next year or so, look for a Tesla announcement that they will be building their own battery mega-factory in the US. It will use updated battery chemistry and have a new form factor...
 
The interesting part was when he confirmed that Tesla will be building its own battery factory. Elon has mentioned needing to build a giga-factory, but always left it ambiguous as to who would build it. It sounds to me like Tesla has recently made an internal decision to build it themselves and not rely on Panasonic, Samsung, etc. to build it. Strategically it makes sense to me. Obviously there is a lot of information about intellectual property rights to battery chemistry and design that we don't have. I also thought it interesting that he said they weren't wedded to the 18650 form factor. So, sometime in the next year or so, look for a Tesla announcement that they will be building their own battery mega-factory in the US. It will use updated battery chemistry and have a new form factor...

I'm glad to have bougth lithium-mining stocks last year. And not the Samsung or Panasonic stocks.