{"id":221451,"date":"2010-01-24T00:36:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-24T05:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9864176.post-2113060140124511255"},"modified":"2010-01-24T00:39:58","modified_gmt":"2010-01-24T05:39:58","slug":"interview-with-tesla-ceo-elon-musk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/221451","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Tesla CEO Elon Musk"},"content":{"rendered":"

MNN has an interview’s with Tesla’s Elon Musk – MNN exclusive: One-on-one with Tesla CEO Elon Musk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elon Musk is a billionaire, not a rock star, but he was nonetheless mobbed when he met the press at the Detroit Auto Show last week. This is, of course, a glamorous story. A mega-rich young businessman \u2014 cofounder of PayPal and whose other enterprise involves space flight \u2014 sets out to build the sexy, range-friendly, high-performance sports car they said would never hit the road.<\/p>\n

Actually, the very dirty white example on the show floor demonstrated that Teslas are not for display only. Tesla\u2019s loyal employees took turns driving that example from Los Angeles to Detroit (with charging stops at RV parks and people\u2019s houses) and didn\u2019t even get around to washing it.<\/p>\n

Tesla Motors has sold 1,000 Roadsters (capable of 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds) for $109,000, and is poised to expand the company\u2019s reach with the four-door and four-seat $57,400 (with an available $7,500 federal tax break) Model S in 2011. The company sold a 10 percent share to Daimler for $50 million, and also landed a $465 million low-interest loan from the Department of Energy to build production capacity for the Model S.<\/p>\n

Musk admitted that 1,000 cars looks \u201csmall and humbling\u201d when compared to giant automakers such as General Motors and Toyota, but it is \u201ca huge milestone\u201d for a small EV company, and indeed few others in the last 40 years (since the late 1960s battery-car revival) can claim that kind of volume.<\/p>\n

\u201cSales are doing very well,\u201d Musk told me. \u201cThe economy affects us obviously, but we\u2019re comfortable producing the Roadster at levels of 700 to 1,000 annually.\u201d<\/p>\n

The half-priced Model S could quickly escalate Tesla\u2019s sales volume, and Musk said it can break even at volumes of 8,000 to 10,000 annually. But the company will have to build them first. The one in existence, once silver and now Tesla red, gleamed on the show stand. Musk assured the press, however, that the car we were looking at is \u201cnot a static model, but a real car that\u2019s capable of 100 mph.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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