Posted on 08/14/2007 12:25:31 PM PDT by Red Badger
The Mercury News reports that Tesla Motors, makers of the all-electric Tesla Roadster, has replaced Martin Eberhard, its co-founder and CEO, with Michael Marks, an early investor in Tesla.
Marks joined buyout firm KKR after a stint as CEO of Flextronics, a Singapore-headquartered electronics manufacturing services provider. Prior to joining Flextronics, Marks was president and CEO of Metcal, a precision heating instrument company in Menlo Park.
Tesla will post the news as a message from its chairman, Elon Musk, on its Web site (www.teslamotors.com) Monday morning, according to the Mercury News.
Eberhard is a co-founder of Tesla, and has been its CEO since 2003. He’ll continue as the company’s president of technology “and focus on the success of the Roadster program as well as the advancement of our core technologies,” Musk’s message says.
The statement gives no reason for the demotion of Eberhard. “Martin and the board have been planning for CEO succession since early this year, and will continue the search for a permanent CEO to lead Tesla Motors,” according to the statement.
Eberhard has been the public face of Tesla, testifying before Congress, the California Air Resources Board, and appearing with the roadster at high profile events such as the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the Los Angeles Auto Show in 2006.
HUMMMM!................
Can a company be it's OWN CEO???
No, but the Board can...........Apparently, KKR and other investors want to see some returns on their investments in short order.........
Thats good. They can't get returns on their investment until the car is available to buyers.
Endless sales shows don't convert to dollars.
Or, it could be that Eberhard just wants to do what he does best, “tinker” and let the money guys do what they do best, .........
I understand that first cars for sale will be around October, starting at $98K. Initial annual production of 2000 cars expected, with a battery charge good for 200 miles in mixed street/highway use (lower in all-highway use) and normal recharge time of approximately 4 hours without booster.
If they don’t increase the density of Lithium-Ion battery, it maybe a tough sell for anything but niche high end market. Certainly, at this point not a mass market potential for EV, but very cool looking car and probably profitable at this price and should have no problems selling.
With new battery technology (foam graphite, etc) coming on line, this car looks like it may be close to the average sportscar fan sooner than expected.......
The Jay Leno review of the Tesla.
Don't hold your breath. Those technologies have been promised for years.
Not the foam graphite, it’s relatively new and soon to be on the market. Developed by a subsidiary of Caterpillar and easily incorporated into existing batteries designs..........
It will be interesting to see how the expen$ive batteries hold up in real life.
I got one of the AZ tax credit special Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEV), and on old technology, it only got 1100 miles on a set of batteries. At a replacement cost of well over $1000, it’s not a very good per mile cost...:^)
If they are not careful with the charger design, they might find that the per mile cost of batteries is higher that the electricity to charge them...
I read the press release a few years ago. The release to the market is always just around the corner. I’m still waiting.
Can I go down to Sears and buy one, or do I have to read these pie in the sky press releases forever?
Any day now Sears will be releasing their “Dilithium Hard” battery.
You can go down to Sears and buy an A123 battery. Enough energy density for an EV, safe and long life. Price is still a little too high for mass automotive use though.
This is the tech that GM is supposed to use.
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