Is Tesla Motors a good investment?
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M$2 Answers
The viability of Tesla may depend if any of these patents are critical to the success of the entire electric car industry. Most seem to be incremental improvements to battery charging technology.
duenhsiyen
PS: In comparison, Apple Computer has nearly 3000 patents, many of which look very exciting!
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M$"My hunch is that some time in mid-2011, as production on the Model S ramps up, and consumer frenzy reaches a fever pitch, these guys get bought out by one of the larger legacy auto companies that are trying to reinvent themselves. Perhaps it'll even be Daimler or Toyota doing the buying (or even one of the aggressive new Chinese auto companies), but for certain, the purchase price would be at $75 a share or higher...representing a quick 450% profit in a classic American success story."
However, read the comments to that article and you'll see a very good point:
"4- Other “real” car companies are working on the same concept. If I have to spend 50K to get an electric car, frankly I trust more the Nissan or GM engineers than a bunch of techies from the Bay Area. Remember, cars also have chassis, suspensions, etc. that have to be reliable and pass US standards. "
Car and Driver didn't favor it too much, either. Their review ends with this:
"With 10 miles to go, the battery gauge didn’t even show a one-pixel-wide stripe of red. But there was nothing stopping me. I could not spend another hour or two waiting for this car to charge. Going for broke, and with fingers crossed, I exited the expressway on Main Street and prayed the car would make it.
2010 Tesla Roadster SportIt did. I plugged it in in our garage and walked away. I was never so happy to get out of a $130K car in my life. Getting into an Audi A3 TDI after nearly 24 hours and 181 miles felt like what I can only imagine a tethered parolee feels when the electronic leash is removed from their ankle. The Roadster is cool. It puts a smile on your face and attracts attention like a Ferrari. But if a car limits me to a circle of 70 miles, it abruptly falls off my list of lustworthy rides. Just give me an Elise. At least then I know I can make it home for Saturday Night Live."
Motor Authority has an article simply titled "Tesla falls short of performance claims."
"Tesla claims the Roadster can drive on a single charge up to 220 miles on its ‘maximum range mode’ and 165 miles whilst in ‘standard mode’. The guys from Autoweek only managed to get 93 miles out of the car before it went into a limp-home mode. Then there were the transmission problems, which included gearboxes not shifting gears or swapping cogs involuntarily."
Ask a stockbroker.
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M$
"Tesla claims the Roadster can drive on a single charge up to 220 miles on its ‘maximum range mode’ and 165 miles whilst in ‘standard mode’. The guys from Autoweek only managed to get 93 miles out of the car before it went into a limp-home mode."
93 miles? I wonder how exactly they were driving...I can take any car and make it perform bad by driving it hard all the time (which I'm going to guess they were doing - spirited driving). Numerous long-distance competitions prove the car is viable even past Tesla's claim on 220 miles.
"Then there were the transmission problems, which included gearboxes not shifting gears or swapping cogs involuntarily."
Hey genius, there is no gearbox! It's is single speed. Lost cred right there.
I never believe the Motor magazines or trust what they say about anything. I would prefer to get a review from an actual owner.
Beg to differ, and perhaps agree to disagree, but I'm right, and so is Motor Authority.
And so are you.
I'm no mechanic, but I'm reasonably sure that unless you've got a motor that's anywhere even close to the size of--and directly connected to-your wheel, there's gonna have to be a gearbox somewhere. It does not mean it's a 5-speed car.
Witness the single-speed bicycle. Power source (the feet) power a large gear, which drives chain.that drives a smaller gear on a larger wheel. More energy is created at the pedal, or the bike's gearbox, and transferred to the smaller gear--only one "speed"--or it would be incredibly inefficient.
In a tiny kids' tricycle, it's a 1:1 ratio. The energy is not increased through the use of gears.
The Green Optimistic explains Tesla's single-gear gearbox better than I do:
"The Tesla Roadster just got better: its manufacturers equipped it with a new gearbox, a more efficient one, that has about 30% more torque on a single gear ratio and achieves 10% more mileage on average.
The new gearbox has about 280 foot-pounds of torque, and you will be able to travel an extra 23 miles with the car in the same conditions as you were driving before the upgrade."
Source: http://www.greenoptimistic.com/2008/09/13/tesla-roadster-new-gearbox/
That Motor Authority Article I originally cited apparently referred to "The P1," and car's internal organs were redesigned and the change to a single gear was made in early 2008:
"The roadster’s gestation has been a turbulent one. Not only did the engineering team suffer some major technical problems, forcing the original specifications to be changed, but the company also underwent a major management reshuffle as well. According to Tesla, to overcome the previous technical problems, the first batch of cars, dubbed ‘P1,’ will come with an interim two-speed transmission that meets durability requirements but limits acceleration to a disappointing 5.7 seconds for the 0-60mph sprint.
Future models will come with a new one-speed gearbox mated to a more powerful drivetrain than the power unit in the P1 cars. The existing motor will be modified to have advanced cooling capabilities to handle the additional power and the permanent transmission unit will be engineered to handle the higher torque of the powertrain. This second version will meet the original promise of 0-60mph acceleration in four seconds."
Source: http://www.motorauthority.com/blog/1025442_tesla-solves-gearbox-problem-with-new-one-speed-unit
