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Reuters reports that Elon Musk, speaking at an industry conference in Detroit, said Tesla may not be profitable until 2020 but that Tesla plans to boost production of electric cars to "at least a few million a year" by 2025. Musk told attendees at the Automotive News World Congress that "we could make money now if we weren't investing" in new technology and vehicles such as the Model 3 and expanded retail networks.
Musk does not see the Chevrolet Bolt as a potential competitor to the Model 3. "It's not going to affect us if someone builds a few hundred thousand vehicles," said Musk. "I'd be pleased to see other manufacturers make electric cars." On another topic, Musk said he was open to partnerships with retailers to sell Tesla vehicles, but not until after the company no longer has production bottlenecks. "Before considering taking on franchised dealers, we also have to establish (more of) our own stores," said Musk adding that "we will consider" franchising "if we find the right partner." Musk did not elaborate, but said Tesla "is not actively seeking any partnerships" with other manufacturers "because our focus is so heavily on improving our production" in Fremont. Last year, Tesla delivered about 33,000 Model S sedans and said the current wait for delivery is one to four months. Tesla has already presold every Model S X that it plans to build in 2015. “If you ordered a car today, you wouldn’t get it until 2016."
[Update] The above links presented conflicting reports as to whether it was the Model S or the Model X whose 2015 orders were sold out. According to Tesla Motor's own web page, it was the Model X :
The delivery estimate for new reservations is early 2016.
(Score: 2) by McGruber on Saturday January 17 2015, @11:05PM
That's an interesting question, but my guess is that it won't be as big of an issue as you think. When I've driven I-80 over Donner Pass (the Sacramento to Reno trip tftp mentioned above) in a gas car, I have to downshift and/or constantly brake from Donner Summit all the way down the mountain. If I were in a Tesla, I presume that its regenerative braking would be recharging the battery on its descent.
My guess --and I'm pulling numbers out of my ass-- is that a Tesla might use 50% of its charge to go from Sacramento up to the top of Donner Pass, but then it might only need to use another 5 to 10% of the charge to get the rest of the way to Reno.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Sunday January 18 2015, @12:02AM
Perhaps that is so, but prospective buyers don't know until they try - and Tesla wants them to buy the car first, and only then try different routes. This is exactly the problem with Tesla that I wanted to point out. Tesla should hire a few drivers to drive a few common routes and publish all the records. It can't be that difficult. Once the energy loss is measured, it becomes trivial to add so many MJ here and so many MJ there and a charge here and a charge there... They don't even need to actually drive all the routes - it would be enough to measure performance on different inclines and different road surfaces. It would be also easy to add temperature and weather compensation once enough data is gathered. Make it as an Android/Google Maps application and let everyone try the virtual Tesla on their own trips. This is so obvious that I cannot imagine why Elon Musk hasn't figured it out. Unless, of course, it's not in his interest to figure it out...