Tesla Motors Launches Revolutionary Supercharger for Long Distance Driving

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-motors-launches-revolutionary-supercharger-032000226.html

by joeyespo • 14 years ago

62 23 14 years ago

finance.yahoo.com

cryptoz3• 14 years ago

This is epic. It surprises me that the markets care more about the short-term profit adjustment announcement than this long-term epic plan. I picked up a bunch of TSLA this morning to take advantage of it being down 7-12%, but I'm confused why the stock is down on such incredible news.

This company is going to take the auto industry by storm. And I bet they partner with Google circa 2017 to build self-driving electric cars that can navigate across a continent without supervision.

And at the same time, all the other auto makers are aware but somehow unable to move. They cancel their projects [1] even as Tesla expands and prepares to go further. Incredible that they're going to be taken "by surprise" as Tesla ramps up production in the next few years.

[1] http://inhabitat.com/toyota-cancels-productions-plans-for-th...

palebluedot• 14 years ago

I am a Tesla shareholder, so I definitely believe in what they are doing, and think they are a revolutionary company. However, it is more than just the short-term revenue adjustment affecting the stock price - in addition to revenue drop, Tesla also announced an additional stock offering[1], essentially diluting existing shareholders.

With 105M shares currently outstanding, and Tesla planning to offer 4.34M shares, 4% of today's drop is likely just the market adjusting for upcoming dilution.

As a (very very minor) shareholder, I am glad they are doing this - relying on the current cash position and cash flow to get to profitability would have been cutting it too close for comfort, IMO. From an investor's perspective, I view Tesla as not much different than investing in a biotech - it is likely either going to be a huge hit, or a huge miss. The difference (for me) from a biotech is I feel I can understand and follow the tech in Tesla, and I believe in the company.

[1] http://ir.teslamotors.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=709221

cryptoz3• 14 years ago

Ah - I had missed that. Thanks, that makes a lot more sense.

indiecore• 14 years ago

You're surprised that the market cares more about short-term profit than long term gain? No offense but have you been living under a rock for the last 20 years?

cryptoz3• 14 years ago

I'm new at this. Who put money into TLSA expecting a short-term positive return, though? That's what I don't get. Google, or Apple, I could understand. Tesla? Seems silly.

DougBTX• 14 years ago

This looks like a news article, but is actually a press release. The giveaway line:

> By next year, we plan to install Superchargers in high traffic corridors across the continental United States

(It does say that it is a press release in light gray text, but that is effectively hidden.)

mcpherrinm• 14 years ago

No giveaway needed. It's got the MarketWire logo fairly large at the top, and look at the byline:

  Press Release: Tesla Motors, Inc.

gubatron• 14 years ago

Did anyone else think of opening their own charging station(s)?

I think the big news here is that someone is creating a distributed electric plant with social benefits to attract customers to buy their cars, pretty brilliant and world changing ideas. Why not join the fun?

Even if there's not enough Tesla or other electric vehicles coming to your station you'll at least be making your money back on solar energy generation and selling coffee, internet, etc. to customers that come in.

Tesla doesn't have to be the sole provider for the free charges.

toufka• 14 years ago

and the average Tesla customer is likely to consume much coffee and internet...

nancyhua3• 14 years ago

Charging was definitely the biggest problem with the Roadster. If you want to drive from Berkeley to Mountain View and then back, the car has to charge for a good 3 hours on the fast connection while you're in Mountain View or you risk going dead. The Roadster nominally drives 200 miles on one charge but it was more like 140 unless you're going downhill the whole time.

I'd heard rumors of Stanford letting you charge without plugging in while driving past the campus- that would be awesome.

jblow4• 14 years ago

As a Roadster owner of two years, who uses the car as his daily driver, I can tell you this is completely untrue (the Berkeley-MV thing).

You can drive from SF to Santa Cruz and back on one charge.

You can drive from SF to Mountain View and back, and then there and back again, on one charge.

I only need to think about recharging if I am going on long road trips -- say, SF to Lake Tahoe. This is exactly where the Supercharger comes in and Tesla's announcement is way huger than I expected. It makes me want a Model S even though I have been thoroughly delighted with the Roadster for two years.

nancyhua3• 14 years ago

My experiences were from the Roadster I had for a month while in the Bay area. I had been considering buying one until this experience with the battery. Your battery must be way better than mine and/or you're much better at driving- neither of which is that unlikely. Based on the mileage stats the car would display, there is NO WAY we could've gone from MV to SF 2x on one charge. Even once was seriously pushing it despite speeding down the 101 or the 280 in the carpool zone.

icey• 14 years ago

Awesome. I can't wait til they license Google's DriveSense (or whatever 2 word name they'll come up with for their automatic driving technology).

It'll feel weird having my car drop me off at work while it goes and gets charged up, picks up my groceries, takes itself to get washed and shows up again when I'm ready to go home, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

backprojection• 14 years ago

But at that point, do you need to own the car? Basically you just described a taxi service without human drivers.

Perhaps a taxi service based around self driving cars could drive costs below the cost of ownership. My guess is that the limiting factor is rush-hour.

danielweber• 14 years ago

So how much wear and tear does a supercharge put on the battery pack?

robododo• 14 years ago

Wow, they need a new name. I came in here thinking they'd invented some sort of new electric forced induction mechanism [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercharger]

001sky• 14 years ago

Drive the Model S Electric Car Anywhere in the Country on Pure Sunlight for Free

-- Not sure about that [1]

________________

[1] Tesla Unveils Supercharger Stations; <Six> Now in California.

http://www.teslamotors.com/tesla_theme/images/supercharger/s...

PCH: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Gil...

Tesla Motors Launches Revolutionary Supercharger for Long Distance Driving

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