Posted on 02/26/2014 8:56:24 PM PST by ckilmer
No automaker has quite the momentum that Tesla Motors enjoys today. It sells every car it builds easily, with customers queuing around the globe. It's considered the best car for sale in America by several critics, and Wall Street has bought into Elon Musk's vision with a fervor rarely seen outside riverside baptisms. And yet everything Tesla stands for today and wants to accomplish in the future rides on a single stubborn, expensive piece of technology — the battery.
Today, Tesla revealed its grand plan for tackling that weak spot, a $5 billion plan to build the world's largest battery plant, dubbed the Gigafactory — one that would power the company from start-up to an auto industry player with 500,000 vehicle sales a year.
Even with all the attention it's received to date, Elon Musk's firm remains a small timer as far asglobal automaking goes. Tesla plans to build 35,000 Model S sedans from its California factory this year; Ford typically builds that many F-Series pickups in about 20 days. All of those cars will rely on lithium-ion battery cells shipped from Asia, where Panasonic and other suppliers control most of the world's supply. While researchers have spent decades hunting for better ways of storing electrical energy, none has emerged as an alternative — and at the moment, there's no technology on the horizon that's better or cheaper.
The price of those cells has been the major reason the Tesla Model S and all other electric cars cost far more than gasoline-powered ones. A few automakers have built their own battery plants in the hopes of driving down costs and ensuring supplies, with Nissan's $300 million Tennessee plant the largest in the United States to date. But none have been built to the scale Tesla would need to supply hundreds of thousands of vehicles a year; the company already uses a third of all electric vehicle battery production.
In its outline, Tesla says by the time the plant goes online in 2017, the plant to lower its battery costs by 30 percent — which coincides with its plan to launch a third "affordable" all-electric model for roughly $45,000. Three years later, Tesla expects the Gigafactory would produce enough batteries for Tesla to bolt into 500,000 vehicles a year, more lithium-ion battery power than the rest of the world built last year.
The cost for doing so: roughly $5 billion, with Tesla providing up to $2 billion and current battery supplier Panasonic and other partners providing the rest. Tesla says it has narrowed the potential sites for the plant and its 6,500 jobs to four states: Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The company also said today it would raise $1.6 billion to help pay for the plant and developing new models.
When Tesla launched, many executives and critics questioned whether it could ever survive building expensive vehicles limited by battery range and recharging times. If Tesla can open its Gigafactory as planned, and meet the goals it's set, those critics will finally have their answer.
bump
It is a question of where our money goes, and whether we fund our adversaries, or whether we spend it in America. Otherwise, Asia will keep demand for oil up as a global commodity.
What did they get from Stimulus, a half billion or something? Probably a million bucks per car sold.
And that tells me everything I need to know. He's a tree hugger. As noted in my earlier post Governor Sarah Palin nailed this guy to a T.
I love sarah but disagree with her on this one.
for one thing the funds from the feds that tesla tapped were set up under George Bush. For another, the loan was paid back in full with interest.
Obama’s only part in this story has been and will be that he happened to be president during this time period.
What did they get from Stimulus, a half billion or something? Probably a million bucks per car sold.
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Tesla did not get any stimulus funds however, Tesla did tap a loan program that was set up under george bush. Tesla also paid that money back in full with interest.
CEO Elon Musk told reporters, This is going to be a very green factory.”
And that tells me everything I need to know. He’s a tree hugger. As noted in my earlier post Governor Sarah Palin nailed this guy to a T.
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Musk is definitely a tree hugger. But he’s building the plant in the desert. He’ll likely use solar power provided by his cousin’s company. But the main idea will be to keep costs to a minimum so he can price his cars at price points the middle class buyers will go for.
“70K? LOL I am buying something else.”
I drive a Jag currently, and won’t trade mine for that. Anything the libs drive, I avoid. I’d rather save that 70K for the next Barrett Jackson auction and bid for another Corvette. I’m not surprised some on this board get a hard on for this “car”.
“And that tells me everything I need to know. Hes a tree hugger.”
Known that for a long time. It’s the new favorite toy for the libtards aside from the Prius. Anything the braindead Dumocraps love, I hate and avoid.
Lest you think we're at loggerheads or that I want to pick a fight with a fellow FReeper, it was your mention of George Kennan that actually captured my attention, hence the "long telegram" mention in my prior post. He lived a long life (died at 101) and was astute enough to warn of the dangers of America being balkanized by the Mexican hordes resulting in a "polyglot mishmash", as he phrased it.
See post 46
Collapse the price of oil and you collapse the industry keeping America afloat right now.
It is a question of where our money goes, and whether we fund our adversaries, or whether we spend it in America. Otherwise, Asia will keep demand for oil up as a global commodity.
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true. But the collapse won’t happen for 15 years. There will be at least 12 years where the oil industry will be adding 1 trillion dollars to the economy.
Here’s the thing. energy costs are very elastic. if you lower the cost of energy its like pure oxygen to the economy. the economy lights on fire and the demand for energy goes up.
while cheaper energy will chop down new fracking 15 years from now.,..the USA will have entered into a whole new era of technology and abundance brought on by lower energy prices. The economy will be growing much faster than it is right now —when the only thing keeping forward momentum is the oil patch.
Lower energy prices kill one trick pony economies like Russian and Saudi Arabia. But for countries with very diverse economies like the USA and China say...lower energy prices are a great boon.
He lived a long life (died at 101) and was astute enough to warn of the dangers of America being balkanized by the Mexican hordes resulting in a “polyglot mishmash”, as he phrased it.
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yeah he was right on that too.
Obama-subsidized Tesla?
You might want to tell Ms. Palin Tesla paid the $$ back with interest.
Has our Texas-hating California-apologist now joined the Feminazi movement? She is Mrs. Palin and will soon be President Palin. You certainly are comfortable with leftist speak.
Do you call sodomites "gay", too?
Sorry about the typo...(Ms. Mrs).....
Seems you being corrected regarding the facts rang your bell.
We have seen this before, and it is how we ended up producing less than half of our oil to begin with.
Lower prices will benefit Iran, Venezuela, the Saudis and others who are tapping conventional reservoirs, especially when the US has slowed down offshore drilling.
As current wells mature, their production drops off, especially the case with horizontal wells which stabilize somewhere around 20% of IP in a year or so. That wave of initial production will flatten out without new wells, and we'll end up importing more.
The current floor for WTI (or Bakken crude, roughly equivalent) is about $80.00 for drilling to continue. Get much below that, and drilling will grind to a halt.
This is going to be bigger than Solendra.
The wealthy love cool toys. And they also like the fact that the less than wealthy subsidize their toys and have no say in the matter. What’s not to like about that...
That’s nice.
What about the federal and state tax subsidies for every freaking car sold? It’s big bucks and you and I pay for it but don’t get the benefit of the car.
And as far as paying it back - Musk got to have taxpayers take the risk while he got the reward... What a deal...
That’s the very definition of crony capitalism. The next step down that path is fascism.
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