Tesla's Musk plans to beef up charging options
Posted: Thursday, May 30, 2013 11:56 AM ET
By:
Michael Fowlkes
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Electric-car maker Tesla
(TSLA) has been on a roll lately. The company is coming off of a stellar first quarter, and has managed to repay a federal loan earlier than anticipated. Tesla has been selling its fair share of electric cars, but there is still a big concern… the time required for Tesla owners to charge their cars.
For some people, a 16-mile driving distance on a 30 minute charge is simply not going to be enough for them to even consider the purchase of a new Tesla vehicle. The company does have Supercharge stations, that will give you around 150 miles for that same 30 minute charge. The problem is that there are currently just nine of these charging stations currently in operation.
At this week's D: All Things Digital conference, Elon Musk, the head of Tesla, announced plans to
dramatically increase the company's number of supercharging stations, tripling the count of operational stations by the end of next month.
This phase of Tesla's growth is of vital importance. The company has a great product, which recently got a
99 out of 100 score from Consumer Reports, who called it the best new car since 2007. The only reason why it was unable to pull a perfect 100 was that Consumer Reports deducted a point for the long charging time.
A 30-minte charge with a 240-volt outlet will yield just 16 driving miles. For the majority of people, that is simply not good enough. On the other hand, 150 miles on a 30-minute charge starts to sound a lot better. It is still not ideal, but most people don't drive more than 150 miles a day so it becomes more acceptable.
Musk plans to extend its network of charging stations to the point were you could drive from New York to Los Angeles using only fast-charging stations.
Tesla has already proven that a small company selling electric cars can be profitable, and with a 25% margin the company expects to be "better than slightly profitable" by the fourth quarter.
Tesla can certainly build some amazing cars, if it can build on that success with a wide-reaching network of fast-changing stations the sky is the limit for how far the company will be able to go.
| Michael Fowlkes is a financial writer who has been with the Fresh Brewed Media family since 2004. Over the course of his tenure with Fresh Brewed Media, he has worn many hats, including portfolio manager, options analyst, and writer. Michael received his undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech in Accounting and got his start in finance working as a stock trader for six years at Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Va.
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