GM to introduce Tesla rival, JB Straubel comments on battery cost

[Sparky]

I just googled the article title.

Kevin Gallagher, a chemist and researcher at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory, said auto makers are spending about $500 a kilowatt hour on battery packs. ....

Tesla Chief Technical Officer JB Straubel says the company's battery costs are half or even a quarter of the price of the industry average, partly because of the company's strategy to use thousands of commodity battery casings rather than the specialized batteries that GM and Nissan use.

"The battery prices in the Model S are substantially lower than what everyone expects today," he said in an interview. Mr. Straubel expects the energy density in Tesla's batteries will increase by more than 20% by the time Tesla's mass-market car comes out in about four years

 

[Convert2013]

Try this one:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...GJKaKeGdh__tf2hZKuaCTSA&bvm=bv.52164340,d.cGE

This has be be great PR for Tesla. Validates Tesla's technology. Stock should react positively. I see GM, VW, etc all in catch-up mode hence no real time frame for production start. Knowing GM intimately, this will take them 7 to 10 years to release and then they will send out massive recalls due to technical issues, if they went all alone on the project. Build quality will be average and 99/110 for consumer's report and a high crash safety rating..FORGET IT. What would be nice is if the majors actually did a partnership with Tesla for their first one. TSLA to $400!

 

[Palpatine]

It really doesn't matter if GM (or others) come out with a 200 mile EV. From a competitive standpoint, they are all still at a disadvantage to Tesla.

By 2015-2016 Tesla Motors will have a fully functional Supercharger network covering the USA and Europe.

Let's say that BMW, GM and Tesla each have a 200 mile EV at approximately $35,000 to $40,000 on the market in 2016.
From a purely objective standpoint (removing Tesla fanboy hat), Tesla Motors still would have the best product due to the fully developed Supercharger network.

Until the others have access to a 120 kw network of Superchargers, they are selling EVs at a disadvantage to Tesla.
Customers don't want to deal with range anxiety. Tesla has resolved that. The others have not.

Tesla is beating them in safety, style, performance, range and just about every other category. If this was little league, we would be invoking the mercy rule and calling the game early.

 

[liuping]

Until the others have access to a 120 kw network of Superchargers, they are selling EVs at a disadvantage to Tesla.
.

If Gen III Teslas have access to the SC network it will become basically useless. There are nowhere near enough chargers to support 500,000 Gen III cars.

 

[stopcrazypp]

How did you create a link that works without logging in?

Search for the article on Google or Google News and copy the link via your right click menu. This gives you a link that goes through Google. As others have mentioned, WSJ lets you view a limited amount of articles if you go through Google (this is because that's the only way they get indexed by Google).

If you click the link first and copy from your address bar, it's not going to work because that is a direct link and you hit the pay wall.

 

[pGo]

I think this news will make the deals & merger departments of many companies active specially the small players. Tesla may get a few buyers of the proven technology.

Also, I think Tesla could expedite the introduction of Gen 3 (2015 end?) to stay ahead of competition.

 

[stopcrazypp]

BTW, we already have a long thread on the 200 Mile GM rival car:
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/14562-GM-Working-on-a-200-Mile-Range-EV

GM will be using Envia batteries:
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/show...ttery-Announcement-400-Watt-hour-Battery-real

These batteries are estimated to take 2-3 years to be commercially ready by the earliest (according to manufacturer, which usually translates to 5-10 years).

 

[Discoducky]

The article isn't coming up as it looks like the website fell over (most likely a ton of traffic). I'm getting proxy errors from just the domain http://online.wsj.com/

Anywho...the above comments are spot on:

1. GM behind on infrastructure. Could use CHaDeMo to catch up but we know that most likely won't be on par with Supercharging
2. GM behind on cell size inefficiencies. Could get on the 18650 bandwagon and try a skateboard, but now we are really talking 2018 and beyond.
3. GM behind on that who 'dependent on ICE' stuff like those pesky dealerships we all love. Could spin off a new company (cough...cough...Saturn) but that just pushes the timeline out farther
4. GM subjectively behind on aesthetics. Maybe not that subjective as I don't know anyone who thinks the Volt (production version) looks better than the S. I actually think the prototype Volt looked better than the S Alpha...but then they went all ICE sedan on it.

And let's not forget that GM is ahead in some respects

1. GM has a huge workforce and under the right leadership, restructuring plan and optimization efforts could put out a car in 2016 if they tried really hard
2. GM has supply chain. Waking this up to do aluminum, carbon fiber, recyclables...etc could be a huge win long term

I've most likely left out a bunch but those are what come to mind after a long day at work...

 

[mitch672]

I do like competition--it validates the space and the technology.

It also clearly shows Teslas "first mover / leader" position in the EV space, since GM is trying to figure out how Tesla did it.

Newsflash GM: Tesla is willing to license their technology to you, for a price. There is no need to re-invent the wheel.

 

[Palpatine]

If Gen III Teslas have access to the SC network it will become basically useless. There are nowhere near enough chargers to support 500,000 Gen III cars.

If Tesla charges Gen III owners $2,000 for the Supercharger option, that would basically fund the expansion of the system.

 

[stopcrazypp]

If Tesla charges Gen III owners $2,000 for the Supercharger option, that would basically fund the expansion of the system.

Yep. 500k * $2000 is $1 billion. The currently planned 100 stations will only cost about $125 million.

 

[brianman]

Newsflash GM: Tesla is willing to license their technology to you, for a price. There is no need to re-invent the wheel.

Pride vs. humility.

 

[scottf200]

They can say they will have a $30,000 car with better miles, but will it look as sleek as a Model S? <snip>

The Model S looks are far from unique. There are a bunch of cars that look very much alike. To the masses they look like a lot of other cars. It is unique is so many ways but looks is not one of them. Put the same grill on several other cars and most could not easily see the differences. Jag XF is obvious but even look up the Ford Fusion or Hyundai Sonata at a glance like the masses look at cars.

 

[Tacket]

"

Tesla is the lone auto maker to offer long-range electric vehicles with its Model S—and Tesla still hasn't shown it can steadily make money selling them."

Oh come on!!​

 

[aznt1217]

So GM is going to make an electric car while still producing cars like the Cadillac Elmiraj? Goodness people who are running that company are air heads.

 

[vfx]

Here's another article on this. They say they have dissembled Teslas and they intend to beat it. on http://green.autoblog.com/2013/09/16/gm-expands-warren-battery-lab-to-better-test-elr-next-gen-volt/

 

[texex91]

Here's another article on this. They say they have dissembled Teslas and they intend to beat it. on http://green.autoblog.com/2013/09/16/gm-expands-warren-battery-lab-to-better-test-elr-next-gen-volt/

Not a surprise--every car company has done that at this point.

Proof is in the pudding--haven't seen any pudding yet.

All a bunch of hand waiving at this point.

 

[ggies07]

The Model S looks are far from unique. There are a bunch of cars that look very much alike. To the masses they look like a lot of other cars. It is unique is so many ways but looks is not one of them. Put the same grill on several other cars and most could not easily see the differences. Jag XF is obvious but even look up the Hyundai Sonata at a glance like the masses look at cars.

I didn't say it was a unique style, I said it was sleek like other ICE cars. No other auto company, not even Nissan, has made a nice looking EV yet. I hope GM can prove me wrong, but I doubt it.

 

[qwk]

They mention that the Tesla battery is not very intriguing? It doesn't have to be, as it just works, and works great.

 

[Bardlebee]

Am I the only one that, even if every competitor such as GM or Ford created a 300 mile car much like the Tesla, I would still buy a Tesla? I mean I just trust Tesla more not to screw me over being a smaller company they can't cut corners to be the best product. Also they already would have then infrastructure installed by the time the big dogs get with the times. I would be glad to see cars like from the big companies, but at the end of the day I would still buy the Tesla for the infrastructure and the security in a quality product.

What do you guys think?