What happened to Teslas plan for 2000 roadsters a year and a 5 door sedan?

[Iamthecaliflower]

How did the Model S come from this plan? How did plans change? What caused them to end the sale of the Roadster? Was there a problem with demand when they sold 2000 in 4 years then ended production? Really hoping someone can shed some light on this.

Teslas First Electric Vehicle, 2008 Roadster, Now Under Production

 

[doug]

ehhh... a lot happened between then and now, much of it is chronicled in these pages. Take some time to look around.
Watch Revenge of the Electric Car.
The wikipedia history on the Model S has a brief timeline: Tesla Model S - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

History

The Tesla Model S was initially codenamed WhiteStar during research and preliminary development.[SUP][citation needed][/SUP] Model S was announced in a press release on June 30, 2008.[SUP][7][/SUP] The prototype vehicle was displayed at a press conference on March 26, 2009.[SUP][8][/SUP]
Construction of an assembly factory in Albuquerque, New Mexico (a central location for shipping)[SUP][9][/SUP] was supposed to begin in April 2007, but was cancelled. A factory to be built in San Jose, California was also announced.[SUP][10][/SUP][SUP][11][/SUP][SUP][12][/SUP]
On February 1, 2008 it was reported that Tesla Motors was planning to offer a range-extended version of its Model S. This version would have included a gasoline engine to extend the driving range of the vehicle,[SUP][13][/SUP] but it was removed in later revisions. Speaking at the GoingGreen conference on September 18, 2008, Musk officially said that Tesla was only pursuing all-electric cars and not hybrids.[SUP][14][/SUP]
On February 12, 2009 Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, officially stated on the Tesla Motors Blog that the prototype car would be revealed March 26, 2009 at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California.[SUP][15][/SUP]
On May 20, 2010 Tesla Motors announced it would produce the new lower-priced Model S at the former NUMMI assembly plant in Fremont, California,[SUP][16][/SUP] now known as the Tesla Factory.

Main thing is, though some of the goals have taken longer than hoped, they appear to be on track.

 

[AnOutsider]

....and it won't affect your precious stock price :tongue:

But yeah, since 2009 Tesla has become a stronger company in my opinion. Not sure if that's when the executive shuffle happened, but it's around when i began to hear things I liked and followed the company closer. I think back then the S was scheduled for late 2011, so the date has slipped 6 months, but not much else has missed the mark

 

[grisnjam]

How did the Model S come from this plan? How did plans change? What caused them to end the sale of the Roadster? Was there a problem with demand when they sold 2000 in 4 years then ended production? Really hoping someone can shed some light on this.

Teslas First Electric Vehicle, 2008 Roadster, Now Under Production

The reason that they are not selling the roadster in the US (but still outside the US) is that the exemption for non compliant advanced air bags in low volume cars has expired, see here:

end of advanced airbag exemption

 

[dhrivnak]

Another issue is the base frame and body for the roadster is no longer made by lotus. This is also the end of their run for this model.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Another issue is the base frame and Body for the roadster is no longer made by lotus. This is also the end of their run for this model.

This was the biggest reason; Lotus is retooling to launch a spate of models of their own over the next 4-5 years and couldn't continue doing this for Tesla. In any case, Tesla had always intended the otherwise-hand-assembled Roadster to be a limited run car primarily to serve as a proof-of-concept highway-capable, no-compromises sports car. Model S, X, the Roadster 3.0 and the Bluestar were always the real goal with production lines established at a real factory.

 

[vfx]

I would challenge anyone to find something pre 2009 from Tesla that says the Roadster will be a limited car run.

I remember an analyst saying he would be surprised if Tesla sold 2000 cars a year. Compare that to Ferrari's sold per year.

Not that I mind. It's just a changing of a plan and that happens all the time. Guy Kawasaki's books talk about Apple launching as a spreadsheet computer. They shifted when the customers started using them as desktop publishing machines.

 

[Mycroft]

I remember an analyst saying he would be surprised if Tesla sold 2000 cars a year. Compare that to Ferrari's sold per year.

Wow, an analyst who ended up being right! I wonder what that analyst is saying about the Model S.

 

[doug]

We've covered this in other threads, but yes the original plan with the Roadster was to sell about 2000 a year. Not about 2000 total.

There were some delays and cost overruns. The 1.5s (2008MY) Roadsters ended up costing more to produce than what they were selling them for, which required a last minute price increase that angered some early customers. That stuff was worked out by the (2010MY) 2.Xs.

The end of the airbag exemption and Lotus changing their production line ended the Roadster this year. But I think if Tesla could have sold 2000 Roadsters per year in 2010 and 2011, they would have produced them.

 

[DrTaras]

Remember Tesla said they'd sell 2000 Roadsters a year but ended up only selling about 2000 total.

You're head monitor and have over 6K posts :love: ... I'm sure you'll have the goods on me, BUT I seem to remember that they said they'd produce almost 2K cars total; not per year. I'm sure it will only be minutes until I am corrected :redface:

 

[vfx]

You're head monitor and have over 6K posts :love: ... I'm sure you'll have the goods on me, BUT I seem to remember that they said they'd produce almost 2K cars total; not per year. I'm sure it will only be minutes until I am corrected :redface:

Many interviews with Martin have Tesla goals of selling 2000 a year.

 

[AnOutsider]

So pre-elon?

 

[doug]

Many interviews with Martin have Tesla goals of selling 2000 a year.

So pre-elon?

According to Elon, there is no pre-elon. But I think that was still the stated goal even after he became CEO in 2008 (after Martin, Michael Marks, and Ze'ev Drori). Back when Martin was the face of the company, he put it as "a few thousand cars a year," suggesting maybe an even higher initial goal.

 

[rsquared99]

But that was when they thought they could make money on a, what, sub $80K max'd out car too, right? I think the miscalculation of the car price, even to the extent of having to make some original included features pay-for options, really changed the goal. They always had a hard calendar end at 2011 because an extensive redo would have been required for the US airbag system, so I'm not sure there were plans to go further than end 2011 with the current Roadster anyway. Who knows, maybe they thought the waiver extension would be easy. Still, they probably had a goal nearer 6000 being sold rather than 2000. As bad as the economy got, they're probably lucky they got as many sold as they did. I'm just personally glad they got 562 built and sold. Fisker Karma (just thought I'd use the topic title at least once.)

 

[DrTaras]

According to Elon, there is no pre-elon.

Best line I've seen in years!

 

[vfx]

Best line I've seen in years!

^+1














...

 

[DrTaras]

We've covered this in other threads, but yes the original plan with the Roadster was to sell about 2000 a year. Not about 2000 total.

I thought that I had read it was 2000 total, but majority rules so I'll eat my humble pie.

That being said, I went looking for those original "White Papers" that Tesla (Martin) had posted on their original web site, but don't find them anymore.
http://www.teslamotors.com/media/white_papers.php

Ideas where to look?
I thought one of them more discussed the business model of Tesla with the path to all the insert-color-"star" cars.
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/showthread.php/867-21st-Century-Car-Whitepaper?highlight=white+papers helped me to find one
http://www.stanford.edu/group/greendorm/participate/cee124/TeslaReading.pdf

 

[TEG]

Obviously things change over time, but:

The Song Remains the Same | Blog | Tesla Motors
(December 21, 2007)

...Roadster will be produced in quantities of one to two thousand per year...

Teslas First Electric Vehicle, 2008 Roadster, Now Under Production
(March 20, 2008)

...Tesla is now taking orders for 2009, and plans are in the works to ramp up production to 2,000 per year in the near future. The company also has plans to release an electric, 5-passenger sports sedan in 2010.

 

[spatterso911]

Well, the five-door sedan is here in the Model S. That is, if you count the rear hatch/trunk as a fifth door. It probably should be, especially for those that opt for the jump seats.

 

[brianman]

The quote (at least the one TEG included) was 5-passenger not 5-door. The S is 5 (base) or 7 (with jump seats) passenger. No "count" regarding the hatch involved.