Daimler electrics to use Tesla batteries
Tesla, the San Carlos, Calif.-based electric car company, said Tuesday that it had been selected to provide the batteries and chargers for Daimler’s Smart EV electric car and would deliver 1,000 of the batteries this year and next.
“Daimler just gave me permission this morning to announce the news,” said Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, best known as the co-founder of PayPal.
Musk said that he had been in discussions with Daimler, maker of the SmartCar and Mercedes-Benz, since mid-2007, and that Tesla delivered its first prototype a year ago. If the program develops, he said, it could lead to the production of “tens of thousands” of the batteries.
A fleet of electric Smart cars now being tested in London does not use the Tesla batteries, Musk said. The final version of Tesla’s battery, which will be built in California, is still in development.
According to company spokeswoman Rachel Konrad, Tesla’s powertrain business, as distinct from its full-fledged electric vehicle unit (which sells the $109,000 electric Roadster) is “cash-flow positive.” Musk said that although the company as a whole was not yet profitable, he expected to find the black on operations by “the middle of this year.”
In addition to the Roadster, Tesla is also developing a high-end sedan, the Model S. It will be built in San Jose and, Musk said, will cost $49,900, after a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles that was passed by Congress last fall. That is, the Model S will have a sticker price of $57,400. Musk said the company hoped to produce 20,000 of the vehicles, on an annualized basis, by mid-2011.
To fund development of the Model S, Tesla has applied for two sets of government-backed low-cost loans from the Department of Energy. One, for $250 million in Title 17 loan guarantees, “is a when, not an if” proposition, Musk said. The other, loans under the much-publicized $25-billion program for development of advanced automotive technology, would be for $350 million, but that is pending.
Additionally, Musk said the company had a “sub-application” of $100 million in loans to build a plant that makes powertrain components for other auto manufacturers.
In other news, Mike Donoughe, Tesla’s chief operating officer, said the company had opened a new office in Auburn Hills, Mich. Staffed with about 15 people, mostly engineers, it will work mainly on development of the Model S.
In October, the company announced that it would close its office in Rochester Hills, Mich., at the same time that Musk removed Ze’ev Drori as CEO and put himself in the position, raising concerns about the company’s financial health.
To date Tesla has delivered more than 150 of its Roadsters, Donoughe said. Later this year it will begin selling a souped-up, more expensive ($128,500) version called the Roadster Sport, and will begin selling the Roadster in Europe in June.
--
