Viewing posts tagged "Tesla"

Tesla Prepping for IPO, Speculates Reuters

Tesla Motors is preparing to move forward with an IPO, according to unidentified sources at Reuters.

There is no S-1 on file right now, according to the SEC's website, but that would be the first step.

Many have waited for Tesla to start moving on an IPO. It is one of the most visible green companies and, with its loan from the government, will likely be able to fulfill its ambitions of bringing out a sedan in a few years.

The A123 Systems IPO likely had an effect as well. A123's stock zoomed up the first day of trading and sparked hopes that more would follow. (A number of people, in fact, sent Musk news articles on the A123 IPO the day it occurred, I'm told.)

Of course, not everything goes as planned. Although A123 nearly hit $20 on the first day of trading, it is now wallowing around $15. The company went out at $13.50.

How Much Do Lithium-Ion Batteries Cost to Make?

Battery cost – that single factor will likely determine when and how fast cars move from gasoline to electricity. Driving range and charging infrastructure are two problems that will likely take care of themselves: Consumers will lose range anxiety when they realize they have another car that they can take to Disneyland and lose interest in public charging stations when they realize they don't need many of them.

But battery costs directly impact car costs and hence the attractiveness of electric vehicles to consumers.

The short answer? It costs about $250 a kilowatt hour to produce ordinary lithium-ion cells for laptops, said Mark Duvall, an analyst at EPRI at a greentech breakfast sponsored by the SD Forum this morning. Making lithium-ion packs for cars cost more: Automakers have strict safety and performance standards. The general consensus is that lithium-ion packs for cars cost around $900 per kilowatt hour. General Motors, though, has strongly hinted that it is closer to $500 a kilowatt hour than the $1,000 mark, Duvall said. The Volt has a 16 kilowatt hour battery, so the battery costs about $8,000. The Volt battery, he added, also is overbuilt: It is bigger than GM needs for the car to do 40 miles on a charge. A supersized battery, however, gives the battery more charge cycles.

Ultimately, the price of batteries will approach the cost of manufacturing, he said, and many expect manufacturing prices for batteries to decline as volumes pick up. Ergo, batteries could get somewhat cheap in the next few years, if Duvall is right. Then again, improving battery technology has historically been tricky. There is no Moore's Law for batteries that allows performance to double every two years. It takes about ten years for performance to double.

Other notes at the event:

• Both Duvall and Marianne Wu of Mohr Davidow Ventures said that power prices will inevitably rise due to scarcity of resources, the influx of renewables and other technical and macroeconomic issues.

• "Consumers don't understand that the cost of energy is just going up," Wu said, adding that consumer expectations are "out of whack" with current trends.

• Creating green jobs also may not be easy. Solar installation jobs will be based in the U.S. but it's an open question how to bring solar manufacturing to come to the U.S.

ActaCell Gets $1M From Texas

ActaCell has received a promise of $1 million from the state of Texas to boost its development of longer-life lithium-ion batteries.

To be specific, the Austin, Texas-based startup said Tuesday that it had secured $250,000 in pre-seed funding from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund.

The remaining $750,000 awaits further proof that the company's technology, licensed from the University of Texas at Austin, is ready to be scaled up into commercial production, CEO Bill Ott said Tuesday. The company expects to deliver that by mid-year, he said.

ActaCell, founded in 2007, already raised $5.8 million last summer from investors Google.org, DFJ Mercury, Applied Ventures and Good Energies (see Funding Roundup: VCs Bet on Electric Rides).

Its goal is to deliver a longer-lasting lithium-manganese battery – the chemistry favored by such automakers as Nissan and General Motors for their plug-in hybrid and electric vehicle applications because of its ability to withstand higher operating temperatures (see In Batteries, Will Tesla Stand Alone With Cobalt?)

Without getting too specific, Ott said that ActaCell was "working to harden the material in the cell" so that it could be discharged and recharged more often, increasing what's known as its cycle life – a key consideration for batteries that are supposed to last for years.

The new round of funding will help the company hire new managerial and technical staff, with a goal of bringing full-time employees from five today to about 12 by mid-2010, Ott said. At the same time, the company would continue to make demonstration battery packs using its chemistry with an eye toward proving their commercial promise, he said.

Just when ActaCell might start mass-producing, Ott couldn't say. The company had been a partner in the so-called National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Batteries, which did not receive the up to $1 billion in stimulus funding it had sought from the Department of Energy to build a U.S. battery plant (see Green Light post).

Absent that funding, "We clearly need a manufacturing partner," he said, though he didn't name any such potential partners.

Fisker’s Cheap Hybrid Coming in Late 2012, After the Model S

Project Nina, the $39,900 plug-in hybrid for upper middle class families, from Fisker Automotive will start moving into production in 2012, thanks to a deal that will allow Fisker to take over a General Motors plant in Delaware.

Federal stimulus dollars have paved the way for Fisker to get the plant. Fisker will come out with its first car, the almost $90,000 Karma, next year. Earlier, it had hoped to come out with the Karma this year, but it's the electric car industry, people. Delays are endemic.

Although very few electric cars are in production today, the Nina will come out in a market that will be increasingly crowded. By then, Nissan, General Motors and Ford will have released, respectively, the Leaf (2010), the Volt (2010) and the Focus (2011) and Ford will be ramping up for a plug-in hybrid too. Many other Japanese manufacturers and some South Korean will likely have cars out then too.

And then there is arch rival Tesla Motors, which says the $57,000 Model S comes out in 2011. Panasonic will make the batteries for the Model S.

Granted, plug-ins, hybrids and all-electrics will only constitute a fraction of the market by 2012. Hybrids now account for 3 percent of new car sales and by 2020 it should rise to 10 to 25 percent. Still, The Nina won't be the only plugger in the showroom. Good news for consumers, but it makes it tougher for Fisker.

An Electric Car for $6,000

If you live in a Tulsa retirement community and have always wanted to own a low-speed electric town car, now is the time to buy.

Zenn Motor Company is winding down its car business and targeting Oklahoma drivers. Why? Oklahoma offers a 50 percent tax credit on electric cars. Zenn's low-speed vehicles – which top out at 25 miles per hour and are sold to retirement communities, army bases and college campuses – qualify for the credit. That brings the price down to $6,000. (Rebellious retirees take note: Drivers can tinker with the governor to get past the 25 mph limit.)

Zenn was one of the first new wave electric car manufacturers, but it never really achieved escape velocity. The low speed vehicle market potentially could be somewhat large, according to backers, but it's also not the glamorous, high-margin wing of the car business. In the most recent quarter, Zenn reported less than $400,000 in revenue.

Zenn will make the cars through 2010 and then has no plans after that. The Zenn City, a freeway-legal car based around an ultracapacitor from EEStor that has been promised and delayed for years, has shifted to become a "technology platform." In other words, Zenn won't make it. (It has been delayed several times.) The company though will show it off to other manufacturers and try to license it.

Tesla’s Manufacturing Chief Leaves

It was only about a year ago when Tesla Motors hired Mike Donoughe to help the startup electric carmaker tune up its manufacturing operation for mass production.

Donoughe, who came to Tesla with 24 years of experience at Chrysler, is now leaving to join St. Claire Consortium, a management consulting firm founded by another Chrysler veteran, John Miller.

A statement from Tesla's spokeswoman Rachel Konrad said Donoughe is due to become St. Claire's senior partner starting on Oct. 1 (via Autoblog Green).

San Carlos, Calif.-based Tesla announced Donoughe's hire as its executive vice president of vehicle engineering and manufacturing in July last year. The company had lost two executives in charge of manufacturing, and Tesla's co-founder and CEO Martin Eberhard was forced out in August 2007.

When Donoughe joined Tesla, the company had started manufacturing its first model, the sport Roadster that year, but the production pace was slow. The company was rolling out four Roadsters per week while having a waiting list of more than 1,000 customers.

"He will help us with the production ramp," said Darryl Siry, Tesla's vice president of sales and marketing at that time. "We knew from the beginning of production that we would be dealing with quality issues, and we need to resolve them before we ramp up."

By the summer, Tesla was producing 25 cars per week. The company has since delivered 700 Roadsters and unveiled a prototype of Model S, a four-door sedan designed for a broader appeal. Each Roadster starts at $109,000 while the Model S is priced at $57,400.

The company recently received a $465 million federal loan for building a powertrain factory and a Model S assembly plant in California. Tesla plans to launch Model S in the third quarter of 2011 (see Tesla Will Build Model S in SoCal).

Donoughe is leaving on good terms, Konrad said. Returning to Michigan would allow Donoughe to devote more time to a nonprofit he co-founded called Cornerstone Youth Development Fund, which is based in Rochester, Mich.

Donoughe will continue to be a Tesla shareholder. He also has put down a deposit for a Model S.

The company hasn't announced its plans for replacing Donoughe.