Tesla Motors founder Elon Musk, who made a fortune selling PayPal to Ebay, can
attest to that, claiming to have run out of cash. Luckily for him, helping
hands from Uncle Sam and Toyota, plus public fascination with green
technology, have put the lossmaking electric car pioneer on a firm enough
footing to launch an initial public offering this month, tentatively valuing
his company at $1.4bn.
It helps that Tesla is no mere concept. Cumulative sales of 1,063 cars are
rounding errors to car giants, but what cars they are! Its Roadster’s sleek
lines and breakneck acceleration have millionaires who crave green chic
salivating.
Mass market
Tesla hopes to enter the mass-market by selling a family sedan by 2012, but it
will be beaten to the punch by General Motors’ Volt and Nissan’s Leaf by
late 2010, while China’s BYD is perhaps farthest along.
The Roadster’s raison d’être was to subsidise the development of cheaper cars
and the approximately $180m raised in the IPO will help. But, with a $50,000
price tag after federal subsidies, the sedan is not aimed at those who wince
at pump prices. Critics dub them “welfare wagons”.
Niche manufacturer
Environmental bang-for-the-buck aside, Tesla might have been better advised to
remain a niche manufacturer. Based in costly California, it has lost nearly
$300m to date and will struggle to compete with Detroit, much less China.
A similar miscalculation can be seen in Mr Musk’s other flashy venture,
SpaceX, which seeks to outdo other multimillionaire space hobbyists by
launching payloads into high orbits. That is far more challenging and
expensive - two words that might equally describe Tesla’s upcoming offering.
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