EV road map: Follow the sun

Are solar panels the peanut butter to electric cars' chocolate?

A prime critique of electric cars is that they have serious range issues thanks to battery limitations, slow charging times and a lack of electric infrastructure. Another is that they're not truly carbon-free since most electricity in the country comes from fossil-fuel power plants.

SolarCity, a Foster City, Calif., designer and installer of solar panels, thinks it may have licked both of those problems at once.

The company said today that it has put up a "corridor" of high-watt/high-amp electric charging stations on the route of the 101 Freeway. That will allow electric vehicle drivers to make the trek from Los Angeles to San Francisco without "range anxiety" -- a condition that loosely translates as fear of having to stop overnight at the Motel 6 every time the battery runs dry.

The money shot is that one of the stations will be solar-powered, generating all of its electricity from the sun and wiping the EV's carbon footprint from the face of the Earth. And filling up the tank will be free of charge.

There is a catch, of course: For now the chargers will work only with the Tesla Roadster, a $109,000 sports coupe that only a few hundred people in the world own. By no coincidence, the chief executive of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, just happens to the chairman of SolarCity. (The company plans to eventually retrofit the stations to be able to charge other EVs.)

Tesla feud discharged

Good news, EV fans: the Hatfields and McCoys of the electric propulsion world are friends again.

A defamation lawsuit against Tesla Motors Chief Executive Elon Musk, filed by ex-Chief Executive Martin Eberhard, has been settled out of court.

Musk, who made hundreds of millions of dollars as the largest shareholder in PayPal when it was bought by eBay, took the reins at Tesla in October. Eberhard left the company late in 2007.

News that the lawsuit was resolved, broken by the LegalPad blog on Friday and confirmed by Tesla spokeswoman Rachel Konrad today, puts to bed a contentious issue: Who founded Tesla?

The suit, filed in May by Eberhard, largely revolved around the right of Musk to call himself the founder of the San Carlos, Calif., automaker. Over Eberhard's protestations to the contrary, it was a distinction that Musk availed himself of frequently.

But now, thanks to terms that are "confidential," Eberhard and Musk are equals. Konrad, in a statement, called the them "two of the co-founders of Tesla."

(The others, according to reports, are Chief Technology Officer J.B.  Straubel, as well as departed execs Marc Tarpenning and Ian Wright.)

Eberhard, who has bashed Musk on his (now restricted access) blog, and accused him of sundry errors in leadership at Tesla in the lawsuit, is suddenly singing a different tune. "Elon's contributions to Tesla have been extraordinary," he said in a statement.

Electric cars are proving to be an awfully litigious technology, with Tesla leading the way. Last year, Tesla sued Henrik Fisker, head of rival Fisker Automotive, for stealing trade secrets. That suit was ultimately thrown out.

The resolution of this latest dispute will doubtless be mourned on the Silicon Valley gossip circuit. The suit, among other things, alleged that Musk had falsified information about his education, to which the South African exec responded with a detailed riposte on his blog.

--Ken Bensinger

Photos: Elon Musk (top right). Credit: Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times. Martin Eberhard (bottom left). Credit: Paul Sakuma / Associated Press.

Bank of America to finance Tesla Roadster purchases

With a Tesla -- like a Ferrari -- if you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it.

Starting at $109,000 and with just enough trunk space for a pitching wedge and a decent bottle of single malt, the all-electric Tesla Roadster would hardly appear to be the car for the guy who counts his every dime. But now, thanks to Bank of America, cheapskates (read: the lumpen masses) may finally have an entree into the electric sports car market.

The Charlotte, N.C.- based banking behemoth, long a leader in auto loans, will begin offering financing for the purchase of a Tesla. Qualified borrowers will be eligible for a loan of up to 75% of the value of the car and can have up to five years to pay it off.

According to Tesla Motors, based in San Carlos, Calif., that means for just $20,000 down, you too can get behind the wheel of the coveted Roadster.

Of course, that number isn't exactly accurate. It includes a $7,500 tax credit that you don't get until you file your taxes next year. It also doesn't account for $10,628 in sales tax and $1,322 in registration fees you'd pay if you were a resident of Los Angeles. (Sadly, the new car sales tax deduction included in this year's stimulus bill doesn't apply to cars that cost as much as a Tesla. Ditto for the Cash for Clunkers program.)

So, in reality, for just $30,237.50 down -- or about the sticker price for a Ford Mustang Premium GT, you too can get behind the wheel of the coveted Roadster.

Then you get to make monthly payments, which Tesla suggests could run at around a 5% annual rate, of a mere $1,700 a month. At the end of the day, you'll have paid just shy of $12,000 in interest on the electron-fired hot rod as well.

According to Tesla's Chief Executive Elon Musk, the loan program "will help advance EV adoption by allowing more Americans to experience the joy and convenience of owning a Tesla.”

Leaving aside the fact that there's a pretty darn long waiting list just to get a Tesla, one might wonder just how many Americans can afford $30 large down and a monthly nut as much as a nice one-bedroom apartment on the Westside just for the right to drive an electric car.

Another question also comes to mind: Which lasts longer, the monthly payment or the 6,831 lithium ion cells in the Tesla battery?

-- Ken Bensinger

Photo: Tesla's store in Menlo Park, Calif. Credit: Tesla Motors

Tesla chief executive speaks his mind as company faces obstacles

Elon Musk, the PayPal co-founder who made a large fortune -- about $200 million -- when EBay acquired the company in 2002, has figured out the entrepreneurial maxim, “How do you become a millionaire in high-tech? Start with two.”

Musk, who bounces between ideas like Heidi and Spencer bounce between reality shows is a serial entrepreneur and with that, some ideas seem to work, such as Solar City, a company Musk is involved in that builds solar power systems for homes and corporations. And some are just so odd that we find them awesome, such as Musk’s space exploration company Space-X, which recently won a $1-billion contract from NASA to resupply the International Space Station after the space shuttle retires in 2010.

But Musk’s most noble, or ignoble, if you are one of those types, company is Tesla Motors. It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Musk and Tesla. First Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard sued Musk and Tesla for libel and breach of contract stemming from a variety of personal and professional issues with Musk and the company. 

Another electric car maker aims for California market

Add Coda Automotive to the list of companies that want to sell electric cars in California.

The Santa Monica-based company said today that it plans to begin selling a mid-size, all-electric sedan called — what else? — the Coda in California by the fall of 2010.

 Built in China by state-owned automaker Hafei, the car will sell for $45,000 and have a range of 90-100 miles on a single charge.

The list price is cheaper than the $57,400 Model S sedan that Tesla Motors Inc. is developing, although the Model S is designed to travel up to 160 miles per charge (higher-priced versions will have greater range) and is slated to be built in California. (Tesla has already delivered about 500 of its $109,000 Roadster sports cars.)

Buyers of both the Coda and the Model S would be eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit.

Coda Chief Executive Kevin Czinger said he hoped his car’s lower price would help put an electric vehicle within reach of more buyers.

Tesla recalls electric Roadsters

Electric car maker Tesla Motors said today it is recalling all 345 of its Roadster sports cars produced before April 22 so they can be inspected for a possible suspension problem.

Tesla blamed the problem on bolts that were improperly installed on the rear chassis “of a small percentage” of Roadsters by British automaker Lotus. The Roadsters, which sell for $109,000, are assembled in Britain by Lotus and then shipped to California, where Tesla installs the cars’ batteries and electric powertrain.

Tesla said no accidents had been reported as a result of the defect, which it said was unrelated to the Roadster’s all-electric powertrain.

Lotus is recalling 27 of its 2009 Elise and Exige sports cars with the same suspension problem, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “If the problem is not addressed promptly, the driver could lose control of the vehicle, resulting in a crash,” the agency said in its recall notice.

Lotus could not be reached for comment late Thursday.

Tesla, based in San Carlos, Calif., has delivered almost 500 of the two-seat Roadsters. The company said it found the problem after an owner reported “uncharacteristic handling.”

The company said it would send technicians to customers’ homes to make the needed repairs free of charge, or pick up the cars and bring them into a service center to do the work.

“We plan to do everything we can to address this matter swiftly and keep customers satisfied,” said Greg Zanghi, Tesla’s director of service and parts operations. The company wouldn’t disclose how much the recall would cost.

Although Tesla has struggled at times to get its electric-car program on the road, the recall shouldn’t pose a major setback to the company, said Karl Brauer, editor of auto website Edmunds.com.

“They’re not selling this car to hundreds of thousands of consumers who are going to be impatient or annoyed because of these problems,” Brauer said. “They’re selling it to hundreds of people who think it’s the coolest car in the world and are buying it to make a statement.”

The recent decision by German auto giant Daimler — maker of Mercedes-Benz — to buy an almost 10% stake in Tesla should help soften the financial consequences of the recall, he added.

—Martin Zimmerman

Photo: Tesla Roadster

Credit: Associated Press

Tesla's Model S is here (a prototype, anyway)

After much bated breath and drawn-out anticipation, it's finally here: Tesla Motors' Model S electric sedan.

The prototype was unveiled this afternoon in Hawthorne, Calif., inside the SpaceX rocket factory, run by Tesla chairman and chief executive Elon Musk. Unlike Tesla's currently available Roadster, the Model S was entirely designed by Tesla and is capable of carrying more than two passengers. In fact, Tesla executives say it can hold as many as seven (!) passengers, as long as two of them are children.

"We're trying to accelerate the electric car revolution," Musk said to an audience of about 100 journalists and film crews. "This is not a handmade car. It's not a derivative on an existing gasoline car."

Tesla, based in San Carlos, Calif., last year began selling the only highway-legal electric car in the U.S., the Roadster, which has a sticker price of $109,000 and gets 244 miles on a charge. But because it's built in England at the Lotus factory, it's a low-volume vehicle, while its small size means it's not practical as a regular-use car.

The Model S is intended as a mass-market vehicle.

Oops, Tesla S-Class sedan photos released early

Tesla's media event this afternoon in Hawthorne, Calif., was meant to be the first glance the automotive press would get at their new "S-Concept" sedan. Their timing was cut a bit short today when official photos were uploaded by Digg co-founder Kevin Rose on his flickr account, and the product photos are now coursing through the Web at lightning speed.

Our own Ken Bensinger is at the event to get the full story, but early speculation from the auto bloggers hints to a possible partnership with Mercedes-Benz. One thing that Tesla has announced is pricing -- $57,400 for the new sedan. Stay tuned for a full report from Ken later today.

Jalopnik.com reported that Tesla quickly asked Digg's Mr. Rose to take the photos down, but we're afraid that electric horse has already left the virtual barn.

-- Joni Gray

For photo gallery: click here.

Photos: Tesla via Jalopnik

Detroit Auto Show: Tesla gets in for cheap

Speaking of Tesla, the upstart electric automaker wouldn't even be at the Detroit Auto Show if not for the dire state of the economy -- further proof that there's a silver lining to every dark recession cloud.

According to Rachel Konrad, Tesla's spokeswoman, the company had no plans to attend the North American International Auto Show. In fact, Tesla has never before exhibited at a car show.

But with exhibitors dropping out of Detroit like flies (Suzuki, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, Mitsubishi, and Land Rover all pulled out this year, and Porsche is out for the second year running), the show's organizers were panicked to get exhibitors.

They'd already invited a supplier, Denso, as well as two Chinese automakers, Brilliance and BYD, onto the main exhibit floor (an unprecedented break in institutionalized hierarchy that for years kept all but major automakers in the building's dank basement). They'd already let several local auto dealer groups (such as Mitsubishi and Lotus) erect makeshift stands on the floor to display cars in the manufacturers' absence. They even approved a "lounge" area on the main floor, where a vendor would sell cookies and coffee.

So when the show called Tesla's offices in San Carlos, Calif., Konrad said, they made an attractive offer. She wouldn't say how low the price was, but she ....

Detroit Auto Show: Tesla to make batteries for Smart EV

While Tesla's major-auto-show debut may have lacked style and free espresso, it more than made up for that with actual news (something painfully absent in most press conferences in Detroit this week).

The San Carlos-based electric-car maker said today that it has been selected to provide the batteries and chargers for Daimler's Smart EV and that the company would deliver 1,000 of the batteries this year and next.

"Daimler just gave me permission this morning to announce the news," said Elon Musk, best known as the co-founder of Paypal. He said he had been in discussions with Daimler, maker of the Smart car and Mercedes-Benz, since mid-2007, and that Tesla delivered its first prototype a year ago. If the program develops, Musk said, it could lead to the production of "tens of thousands" of the batteries.

A fleet of electric Smart cars now being tested in London does not use the Tesla batteries, Musk said. The final version of Tesla's battery, which will be built in California, is still in development.

According to a company spokesperson, Tesla's powertrain business, as distinct from its full-fledged electric-vehicle unit (which sells the $109,000 electric Roadster) is "cash-flow positive." Musk said that although the company as a whole is not yet profitable, he expects to find the black on operations by "the middle of this year."

In addition to the Roadster, Tesla is also developing a high-end sedan, the Model S...