Any of you guys following Tesla Motors and the Model S coming out next year? Over the last week or so I've been looking at it a little more. My wife may soon be attaining employment that requires frequent commuting and a little bit of style, and the Model S looks perfect. HOV lane access and no gas. I could give the finger to the oil companies day in and day out, it's perfect.

If you haven't seen the car, here it is: http://www.teslamotors.com/models

Price is a little steep at $50k for the 160 mile range version. And delivery wouldn't happen until mid-2012 at the earliest. But damn if the thing doesn't sound fantastic.

Anyone have a preorder on one of these, or know anyone that does? I'm interested to hear your input. I was also thinking of buying 100 shares, share price isn't too expensive and I love the vision behind the company.

thats a good looking car. part of the reason I like it too is that it doesn't look like an electric. I hate the styles that just scream "look at me, I'm 'futuristic'!" looks like a jaguar.

Yeah dude that's just it. The whole ugly electric car thing blows. The big car manufacturers pull out every excuse in the book for why they make ugly EVs and Hybrids, but I think it's just because they don't want their main product lines getting hammered.

If the gov't subsidized EVs like these two Tesla models to the point of making them as affordable as Honda Civics and Accords, suddenly every other manufacturer would be pulling out awesome looking designs for EVs since nobody would be buying gas-guzzlers and they'd have their hands forced. It's such crap.

Top Gear review .. it is from Dec. 08 though ...

http://www.streetfire.net/video/top-gea ... 206233.htm


And this happened ...

http://www.crunchgear.com/2011/03/30/tesla-vs-top-gear/

I thought the provision to allow these vehicles to access the HOV lanes already expired - or does that not apply to purely electric cars?

In San Francisco, on my commute home on carpool getting onto the Bay Bridge, the cops pulled over a Tesla not realizing it had that HOV lane sticker

I can't see the links from work, but I read that Tesla is suing Top Gear for some sort of misinformation? I gotta check into it a little more.

Yeah Blank I believe the EVs are good through 2015.

We have made a few parts for tesla at work and I can see why they are so pricey. Over engineered simple parts. We made a $28 bracket to hold a switch that kills the battery while the charge door is open so you can't drive away while charging. How about you use the battery plug to charge. Then you can't drive away and it costs nothing. Here in WA they are also going to tax EVs $100 per year to make up for not paying gas tax. Nice way to create incentive.

Tesla had a 'test ride' event the first weekend in October for reservation holders. The car is something like 90% complete save for some suspension and interior fine-tuning. The thing just looks better and better, when it takes off it reminds me of riding on an electric tram or railway. Check out the video (it's not youtube so I'm not sure how to embed):
http://www.viddler.com/explore/engadget/videos/3341/

I'm *this close* to giving them a $5k deposit to get in queue. I figure I can always cancel it for a refund if my feet get cold. The perks for my wife would be awesome as she steps into real estate sales. The gas alone in our Accord will probably cost us upwards of $300 per month.

Not to mention what a great advertisement it is for a person in sales. I imagine people would call her up just for a free ride in the cool new car

Screw it, I just reserved one

let me know when you get it, I'll come out for a visit.

Haha right on man.

Received my reservation # a couple days ago, #5370. That puts me in one sometime in the summer of 2013 (first year production capacity = 5,000, 2nd year = 20,000).

Puhhh-lenty of time to save up some cash. As long as I don't invest in any more shady movie productions, I should be good to go

where's the fun in that!

I successfully extracted another $2500 or so from the guy over the summer, but I had to listen to his 'I'm dying of cancer' schtick. First it was his brother, now it's him. Pretty soon he'll be faking his death.

at least you're still getting something. how much are you down at this point?

Tell him to put you in the will and hurry the F up.
Thats a long wait for a car but it does look like its worth the wait.

Oh, I imagine somewhere in the neighborhood of $15k. Did I tell you he's dying?

lol yeah Mopar exactly

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-10-28/tesla-s-musk-says-model-s-sold-out-profit-likely-in-2013.html

Looks like you made your reservation just in time Carl

Yeah I wanted to get in queue at least, especially when they have test-drivable models arriving early next year at showrooms.

I think Elon is a bit misleading in this part of the interview:
"Only about 600 people who have ordered Roadsters have also bought the Model S."

That number may be true, but I don't think they built more than even 2000 roadsters, if that. So it's actually a large percentage of Roadster owners who are diving in again, which tells me good stuff about the overall performance and quality of the vehicle in that first iteration.

I'll have to double-check the numbers on the Roadster production but I really don't think there were that many built.

Edit:
From Wikipedia: "As of June 30 2011, Tesla had sold 1,840 Roadsters worldwide and the carmaker announced it intends to sell a total of 2,500 units before it discontinues the model in early 2012."

Hey thanks for the story link Al! And in other news, the movie guy just sent me back another $1500 yesterday.

While you are buying the Model S Carl, make sure to put down some money for the Model X so you can get your electric SUV fix and when you hit your midlife crisis in a year or two you can buy their next generation Tesla Roadster: http://www.autocar.co.uk/News/NewsArticle.aspx?AR=259752

That's really interesting news Noobieee. Wonder what's up?

I'll tell you, on their pricing/options announcement, Tesla dropped the ball enough for me to request my deposit back. To make a long story short, I feel they misrepresented Model S performance with respect to the cheapest version (the one touted as $49,900). The principal of the thing pissed me off enough to raise a big stink on the Tesla Motors Club forums, and I'm not the only one that's pissed. The top model is gravy, but it's also $90k+. All this time they basically quoted the lowest price while specing the most expensive model, something that would be illegal if the vehicle was already in production.

I still hope to own one in the future (maybe the Model X for 2013), but they better clean up their marketing tactics. Hearing that these top execs have left is a little foreboding, especially given the excitement and upside potential of the company. Or is that downside potential?

It's always a risk to buy something that doesn't yet exist. As we all know, lots of things can work well in theory that don't work out so well in practice.

Maybe it is a good thing you got that desposit back Carl: http://jalopnik.com/5887265/tesla-motors-devastating-design-problem

32,000 dollars for a new battery seems a little expensive

Nope.

http://www.itworld.com/it-managementstr ... care-tesla