Models
While buying a Tesla Model S requires customers to fork out at least $69,000, owning one is more than affordable, given the fact that you don’t have to visit the gas station unless you need a sandwich and a soda. As of August 2014, current and future owners have one more reason to be happy with their all-electric sedan, as Tesla has extended the drive unit warranty for the 85 kWh sedan to match that of the battery back. Specifically, both the battery and the drivetrain now benefit from an eight-year, infinite-mile warranty.
The good news expands even further, as the rule doesn’t apply only to newly purchased vehicles. The warranty extension will apply retroactively to all 85 kWh Model S sedans ever produced. What’s more, the new warranty extends upon resale of the Tesla S too, no matter the number of owners, meaning the used-car market benefit from Tesla Motors’ gesture of generosity.
"If we truly believe that electric motors are fundamentally more reliable than gasoline engines, with far fewer moving parts and no oily residue or combustion byproducts to gum up the works, then our warranty policy should reflect that," Elon Musk explained in a statement.
The new warranty only applies to 85 kWh and 85 kWh Performance models. The former comes with 362 horsepower and costs from $79,900, while the latter carries a $93,400 sticker and cranks out 416 ponies. The entry-level 60 kWh version benefits from the same four-year, 50,000-mile warranty as before.
Click past the jump to read more about the Tesla Model S.
Last week Tesla undertook a world-record continental crossing with what it dubbed the Tesla Cross Country Rally. The goal was simple; take a pair of Model S sedans from Los Angeles to New York while spending an absolute minimum of time charging by using the new Supercharger network.
As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, the team decided to take a northern route during what has been one of this country’s worst winters in decades. Along the journey the team encountered temperatures well below zero, closed interstates, and more than a foot of snow in some places.
Despite all these challenges, a full seventy-six hours after leaving Los Angeles, the team rolled into New York City. The total trip was 3,427 miles and the team only spent 15 hours and 57 minutes tied to a charger.
The going was tough enough that one of the gasoline powered support vehicles for the trip suffered a breakdown.
I was part of a cross country record attempt last year with Audi, and I can attest that this type of journey is anything but easy. It is a grueling punishment of your mental and physical health. Aside from the sleep deprivation, sitting in a car for that length causes cramps, muscle spasms and many other maladies.
I personally applaud Tesla for their outstanding effort.
If you would like to see some of the crazy weather they traveled through, as well as see a few more facts about the journey, click the play button on the video we have above.
Click past the jump to read more about the Tesla Model S.
In what was more of a publicity stunt than anything, Tesla delivered its “first” Model S to its “first” owner about two weeks ago. Well, said owner just so happened to be an executive with the company that likely didn’t pay much, if anything, for the car. Now we are ready to announce yet another milestone for this all-new electric-powered sports sedan, and that is its official EPA ratings.
Keep in mind, that these ratings are all based on the 85-kWh battery, not the smaller and less expensive batteries. The Model S came in at a respectable 88 MPGe in the city, 90 MPGe on the highway and 89 MPGe combined. MPGe is basically how far an electric car will travel on the electric equivalent of the energy contained in a gallon of gasoline.
The EPA didn’t stop there, as it also had to put the Model S’s claimed 300-mile range to the test. In this test, the Model S came up pretty short, as it could only hit 265 miles on a single charge, which is a pretty significant 11 percent drop. In overall scheme of things, the Model S trumps the other, less expensive, EVs, like the Honda Fit, Nissan Leaf, and Focus electric in total range. In combined MPGe, however, the aforementioned EVs beat it out, as they net 118 MPGe, 99 MPGe, and 105 MPGe, respectively. The “as tested” Model S also has a base price of $69,900, which is over $30,000 more than the most expensive EV of the group, the Focus Electric.
Then again, the “as tested” Tesla Model S also zips to 60 mph in under 5 seconds and looks flat out awesome doing it. None of the other EVs can boast that combined with impressive range and MPGe. So, even though the Model S came up a little short, it is still impressively economical.
After an early interest in Tesla Motor common stock, things haven’t been so peachy, as a sell-off has given a big time reality check to long-term investors. Shares of the company closed on Tuesday at $16.11, down 16 percent for the day.
Near the end of the trading day, the stock fell as low as $15.83. The final closing price was 47 percent lower than the high mark for the stock, which was $30.42. That high water mark occurred on the second day of the stocks trading.
Around 13.3 million shares of the company were sold during the first public offering at a price of $17. This big first day helped Tesla raise $226.1 million for the company.
Many people believe that the reason for the stocks plummeting is down to the price of the cars. Few people are able to buy a car worth $109,000, especially an electric car. Other reasons include recall issues, delays with the Model S, and the company’s high debt levels.
The Tesla Model S should be out around 2012 at a cost of $50,000. The company plans to make around 20,000 sedans every year.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard so much of Tesla beginning to float an IPO and becoming the first automaker since Ford way back in 1956 to do it. Now it looks like it’s paying off. Big time.
On the first day of trading, common stock of Tesla Motors skyrocketed 41 percent on the Nasdaq stock exchange. With shares opening at $17, the number dipped a bit in the opening hours before steadily increasing the rest of the day, topping at $25 at one point before settling in at a closing rate of $23.89.
Needless to say, the overwhelming response and demand for Tesla shares has company CEO Elon Musk grinning from ear to ear. "The response from investors has been tremendous,” he said. “We increased the size of the offering and the demand was still enormous, so we increased the price to a dollar above the top of the range and we still had massive, overwhelming demand.
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There aren’t that many Tesla Roadsters out there – so far, there are around 940 units all over the world - so if one of them ends up in an accident, then you can bet that it’s going to make some news.
Ever the benevolent purveyors of exotic car crashes; our buddies over at Wrecked Exotics recently unearthed two Tesla Roadster crashes that happened just recently. Though the accidents weren’t related, the two accidents brings the total of Tesla Roadster car crashes, at least as far as Wrecked Exotics is concerned, to six, with one of them being a test vehicle that met an untimely demise even before production for the car began.
As for the two newest members of the Tesla Roadster car crash club, we’re relieved to say that both cars didn’t suffer the same metal-crunching fate that other sports cars seem to routinely find themselves in.
The black 2008 Roadster accident occurred in Orlando after the driver lost control of the car after which, it clipped a concrete divider resulting in the front left side of the car to need some facial reconstructive surgery.
As for the orange 2008 Roadster that figured into an accident of its own, it was merely a minor fender-bender mishap involving the over-eager owner of the Roadster. Despite the relatively subdued crash, the orange Roadster got introduced into the world of car crashes pretty early since the car – with a total mileage of just under 3,000 miles – is still what many consider as ‘just out of the box’.
It’s never a good thing for any of us to be reporting on car crashes of any sort. But these two Tesla Roadster crashes somehow alleviates our burden because the crashes, though expensive to repair, as we can imagine, didn’t come at the cost of a life.
According to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission the high end electric car builder Tesla Motors is planning to raise as much as $100 Million in capital through the aide of public investors. While the entire automotive manufacturing industry is facing difficult times, Tesla hopes that they will be able to supplement the $465 Million loan from the federal government and claim a lasting stake in the new car market by increase the public’s awareness about the forward thinking green car builder’s intent to mass produce electric vehicles for a wide range of consumers.
The California based car builder Tesla is currently offering a lineup of only two cars, with the high performance $100,000+ open air Roadster leading the charge and the $60,000 Model S sedan following closely behind. By opening themselves up to public investors with an IPO, the electric automaker is adding another element of uncertainty to their plans in an already unstable new car market; however Tesla co founder and CEO Elon Musk is no stranger to taking chances.
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Tesla’s attendance at the Detroit Auto Show has been finalized and the California-based electric car maker will go to Detroit the old fashioned way: road trip. Beginning on December 17, 16 Tesla employees will start their road trip from Los Angeles and will go on a city-by-city tour en route to Detroit and Detroit Auto Show in the first week of January.
The decision to travel to Detroit by land was prompted by the company’s desire to espouse the message that Tesla is more than just a rich environmentalist’s pet car. “We are out to porve the Roadster is tough and durable, and that range for anxiety is for the week,” Tesla’s announcement
said.
As we’ve mentioned, their trip from LA to Detroit will be marked by a number of pit stops along the way, mainly because the cars need to be recharged every so often but also because it affords the brand to expand their reach to other parts of the country. A number of cities have already been listed on the company website as to when the Tesla caravan will stop by their areas so if any of you are looking for a first-hand look at the electric sports car, check out their site to see if they’ll be dropping your city in the coming weeks.
Over at Tesla, a new motto is apparently taking shape: “you don’t come to us; we come to you.” In an attempt to establish a reputation as a brand that caters to the needs of its customers, Tesla Motors is keeping true to its mission of being of service to its patrons. So, as a way to ensure that they have the customer’s back in ways no other brand has, the California-based company recently announced that the arrival of their new at-home service vehicle.
It’s called the Tesla Mobile Service Rangers and it was created to allow Tesla owners to have all their auto needs taken cared off right at the confines of their own homes. Whether it’s the annual service tune-ups or unsuspected malfunctions, the Tesla Mobile Service Rangers seeks to provide Tesla owners with the most personal of care.
The flip side of this new service is that it comes with a price, and it’s not a cheap one at that. Anybody who wishes to give these guys a call will be charged a dollar per round-trip mile with a minimum charge of $100. Then again, the price for convenience is well, priceless. Besides, if you can afford to buy a Roadster, then we think you won’t have any problems forking over $100 for its maintenance.
These days, the push towards electric car production has not been limited to just big time auto manufacturers; even the small-scale brands have taken their turns in creating their own electric vehicles, proving that the electric car could very well be the future of the industry.
Take Tesla, for instance. While it doesn’t have the same resources as other car brands out there, the California-based electric carmaker has nevertheless made quite an impression in the industry as a foremost proponent of the electric car revolution. Though a relative newbie in the industry with a still questionable financial structure, Tesla has been able to produce some of the more popular electric cars out in the market today; so much so that it even secure a loan from the Department of Energy to help finance the building of a new plant to develop the Model S.
At least, that’s what the original plan was. As it turns out, the company is also using the funding it secured under the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program to develop a whole new fleet of electric cars, including a minivan, a CUV, and a utility van.
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Fresh of posting a surprising surge in sales in July and receiving a substantial government loan, Tesla Motors is looking to build on its momentum as it prepares to open an all-new powertrain production facility and corporate headquarters in Palo Alto, California.
Thanks in large part to the $465 million dollar loan the company received from the U.S. Energy Department, Tesla was able to use that money to open its new three-building facility located at Stanford Research Park with the objective of further developing and building new components for its new-line of electric cars, as well as products for other car brands. In a time where car makers are focusing more on cost-cutting, Tesla seems to riding a wave of momentum as it heads for a new chapter in the company’s history.
After witnessing the success of the $109,000 all-electric Tesla Roadster – which they say was the primary reason for the spike in sales last July - the California-based car maker has decided to widen its fleet of vehicles to cater to a more mainstream audience. The company is already hard at work developing a new line of cars to complement the Roadster, one of which is theModel S electric sedan, a seven-seater electric car the company unveiled a few months ago.
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We applaud Tesla for finally taking its cars to New York City but we can’t help but raise our eyebrows as to the location the company picked in the Big Apple to set up shop.
A day after Daimler announced that it sold a 4 percent stake in Tesla to an Abu Dhabi company; Tesla Motors officially opened its first dealership in New York City, joining its list of stores that include Menlo Park, Los Angeles and London, with Seattle and Chicago set to open soon.
While it’s a big step towards infiltrating the posh and sophisticated East Coast market, Tesla’s new store in New York isn’t found on Manhattan’s fabled auto row on 11th or Park Avenues, where a host of other top-of-the-line car makers including Ferrari and Mercedes are located.
Tesla, on the other hand, decided to pick the artsy district of Chelsea - West 25th street, to be exact -as the location for their latest showroom. Not exactly a hotbed for auto enthusiasts, is it?
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Electric car gets a speeding ticket!!