Back from the event, we had a bit of bad luck with a snow storm hitting yesterday causing JB to show up 1:15 minutes late, so instead of running from 6-8pm, he was only able to talk/take questions for about 45 minutes. It was nonetheless an informative, useful disucussion. Here are the main topics of interest that came up:
1) CHAdeMO -- My comment/question was basically what dpeilow says above. It's all over the place in Japan now, and is about to proliferate in Europe/US as well, so what is Tesla going to do about it? JB seemed to agree that it will become, or at least has a very good chance of becoming the standard, but that it's not yet a given at this point. He described it as a kind of chicken and egg scenario where it was hard to commit to it if they are not sure yet that is the way the market is headed. My point to him was that certainly it seems that is the way the market is definately headed! He did seem to agree I thought even though he would not come right out and say it...
Anyway, JB did at least say that it will be very easy for Tesla to produce a CHAdeMO adapter for the Model S, X, etc., and they will of course produce one if that is the way the market is headed (which I think at this point everybody other than Tesla seems to agree on). So while it seems very unlikely (impossible?) that we are going to see direct CHAdeMO charging, at a minimum there will be an adapter so that CHAdeMO charging stations can be utilized. I also asked him if the Roadster would ever support CHAdeMO or any other sort of quick charging and the answer here was that almost certainly it would not . He said also that any sort of upgrade to the Roadster's charging system such as support for the Model S supercharger is also unlikely.
2) Future battery packs for the Roadster -- It will be a few years off, but JB envisions a lighter battery pack offereing the the same range, a pack of the same weight with a lot more range, or something in between. He said that one of their goals is to work on something for the Roadster where the cells could be replaced more easily since that's really the only part of the battery pack that is going to wear out. He mentioned that support for the Roadster long-term is definately a priority for Tesla and that Roadster owners will not be left in the dark.
3) Where are Tesla's resources currently directed? -- 95% of their resources are currently aimed at a successful, on time Model S launch. He is confident that the car will ship on time.
4) Model X -- The car that eventually ships will be much exactly like the prototype including the falcon wing doors. Since almost all Tesla's effort is currently going into shipping the Model S, not a lot of resources are currently being used on the X. Model-X range will be approximately 15% less than the Model S, and thus only the 60 kWh and 85kWh battery packs will be offered. Did not get a chance to ask about towing solutions unfortunately.
5) Relationship with other car companies -- The Toyota and Benz relationships are extremetly important to Tesla; did not mention if other models would be coming out, but he did hint that those relationships would continue to strengthen and evolve. Also he said that is very unlikely that Tesla would forge relationships with car companies other than those two. Somebody asked in the future would Tesla be open to being bought out, perhaps by Toyota. JB said that he does not see that happening. It is very important for them to stay indendent and that a lot of the talented, motivated people that currently work for Tesla would probably leave the company if they ended up as a division of a bigger car company.
6) Future battery chemistries (including metal air / li-ion...) -- No plans at the moment. JB also feels that metal air / li-ion holds tremendous promise for the future, but that it's still a long way off. It would definately seem that while Tesla wants to use the best available battery chemistries available, they themselves won't be the ones pushing development. JB mentioned that the Panasonic relationship, like Toyota and Benz, is extremely important to Tesla and that Tesla is depending on Panasonic to keep making improvements.
7) Re-gen -- the Model S is most likely have adjustable re-gen, and this is something that Tesla has put a lot of work into. The main question, due to safety reasons, is it adjustment will be allowed on the fly, or if the car must be parked or stopped, etc.
It would have been much better to have had 2 hours as planned rather than 45 minutes.... another problem is that everything had to be translated back and forth between Japanese and English which ate even more into the limited time available. People were asking some not so useful questions such as "will braking really be safe on such a big vehicle as the Model X?". I think almost the whole crowd were either Model S / X reservation holders or people thinking about buying one. One other thing JB mentioned -- the Model S will not start shipping in Japan until 2013, although hopefully we'll get a beta here soon after the US launch.
