Tesla Motors and it's man in charge, Elon Musk, have had to make some tough decisions these past few weeks. The announcements made by Musk indicate that cash is getting tight, leading some to speculate that the company won't be in business much longer. Not so, says Tesla. Musk has reportedly personally guaranteed that the fledgling automaker would deliver all Roadsters to customers that have placed deposits, saying, "I have the means and wherewithal to do so. So people should have absolutely zero concern about their deposit." While the Roadster's production is moving forward as planned, the automaker's Model S sedan has been delayed by at least six months.

Tesla Motors has also just announced that it is close to closing on its latest round of funding to the tune of at least $20 million. As of right now, Musk suggests that the automaker currently has about $9 million in funds with which to operate, a figure that some point to when suggesting that Tesla's on the financial ropes. Musk discounts those rumors, saying that $9 mil is plenty for now and that more funds will be coming from past company backers in the very near future. Of course, we'll be watching the situation closely, but it appears that rumors of the company's death are more than a bit premature.

[Source: Tesla Motors, Reuters]

A couple of weeks ago we told you that Tesla was talking to the producers of Top Gear about having Jeremy Clarkson try out the Roadster. At the time Darryl Siry told us nothing had been finalized yet and we don't know if that has changed. What we do know is that the "other British car show," Fifth Gear, has already driven the Roadster. During the Goodwood Festival of Speed last July, Fifth Gear presenter Vicki Butler-Henderson strapped on a Roadster for the big hill climb event. Much like everyone else who has driven the Roadster, she was impressed with the immediate torque and the silent operation. I can't wait to see the Stig take this to the track. Check out the video after the jump. Thanks to Andy for the tip!

[Source: YouTube]

It looks like the wait might soon be over for aspiring Tesla Roadster owners as the company has just announced that it has completed validation of the upgraded drivetrain 1.5. Tesla has so far delivered 27 cars to customers with the interim drivetrain and another 23 cars are in progress. According to Tesla SVP Darryl Siry, 11 more cars will have the interim drivetrains installed for initial delivery. From that point on, within the next 2-3 weeks, the company will start installing the new drivetrains - including the upgraded motor, power electronics and single speed gearbox. For production, veteran transmission manufacturer BorgWarner will build the gearboxes for Tesla. Over the last several months, Tesla has been testing cars with the same transmission design manufactured both by BorgWarner and in-house at Tesla but ultimately chose BorgWarner.

Now that the powertrain is ready, Tesla will ramp production starts from four cars per week to ten per week. By next March, Tesla hopes to be up to 40 cars per week. The upgrades mean the Roadster's motor now goes from 211 to 280 lb-ft of torque, while the range also increases by ten percent to 244 miles. Over the coming months, the 38 cars that are delivered with interim powertrains will also be retrofitted with the new hardware. Sounds like it's time for another Tesla Roadster drive.

[Source: Tesla Motors]

Ever since Tesla Motors started letting outsiders actually drive the Roadster late last year the reviews of the over-the-road experience have been largely favorable. In recent months, Tesla has been taking the Roadster on a European tour trying to drum up sales on the continent. One of the people who drove the Roadster was Guido Reinking, editor of Automobilewoche. Reinking praised the performance saying "the car offered the emotional, heart-pounding ride of a street racer." However, he also highlighted powertrain and battery issues we haven't heard about before, aside from the well-documented transmission issues.

Of the three cars available for the test drive, one apparently didn't run at all, while a second reportedly emitted smoke from the battery compartment. Reinking uses these issues to highlight the problem of battery reliability and why the Roadster might not be ready for mass production. However, we checked with Tesla SVP of marketing Darryl Siry who was also on hand for these 16 days of media and prospective customer drives. According to Darryl, two of the three cars on hand were equipped with the new 1.5 drivetrain while the third had the 1.0 interim drivetrain. Siry tells us that the car that wouldn't go had a faulty parking pawl sensor. The parking pawl is essentially a locking mechanism for the transmission that keeps the car from rolling when the gear lever is in park just as it does on a conventional automatic. The sensor erroneously detected park being engaged and prevented the car from moving. Read on after the jump for more on the "smoky" battery.

[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]

click the photo of Eberhard and his car for a high res gallery

We are now happy to officially confirm what yesterday seemed a likely fait accompli. Martin Eberhard, co-founder of Tesla Motors, has now happily received his very own "Founders' Series" Tesla Roadster. The car,shiny gray with double orange stripes and a matching interior, was silently delivered by Tesla employees early on Saturday morning to Eberhard's solar panel-equipped home. After signing off on all the paperwork and getting the official walk-through of the Roadsters special features, Martin and his wife, Carolyn, were left holding the keys as the rising sun highlighted the orange accents of the beckoning electric sports car. Time to go for a ride!

The trio spent the morning together traveling the very roads for which the Tesla was designed. We suspect Martin's grin only grew wider every time a slower-moving vehicle appeared in his cars sights, giving him yet another opportunity to experience the "never-ending torque" the Roadster delivers while overtaking. You can read all about Martin's first day with his roadster at his blog, Tesla Founders Blog. Bookmark it, as he promises to update that space frequently now with more photos and Roadster observations.


[Source: Tesla Founders Blog via Tesla Motors Club]

Over on the Tesla blog, company CEO Ze'ev Drori has posted another production update for all you fans of the Roadster. Some time back, Tesla made the decision that the Roadsters would be shipped from the Lotus factory in England as gliders -- complete cars without a drivetrain. The first couple of production units had their battery packs and motors installed in the workshop at the company's San Carlos headquarters. As work has proceeded on preparing the second Tesla store in Menlo Park for opening, the final drivetrain installation work has been shifted to the dealership service bays. According to Drori, nine production Roadsters have now been shipped to California, with at least three of those having been delivered. In total, 27 cars are now in various stages of assembly. The upgraded motors, electronics and transmissions that comprise drivetrain 1.5 are scheduled to be installed in cars for delivery beginning in September. After that, the company hopes to ramp up production to the rate of 100 cars per month by the end of the year. At that rate, they'll probably need a bigger workspace than the Menlo Park shop to finish drivetrain installations.

[Source: Tesla]

The gang from Tesla left their Silicon Valley home base to pay a visit to the vicinity of the Big Apple this week. Part of the purpose of the trip was to spend some time with some of the people in the area who've plunked down cash toward a Roadster but haven't yet taken delivery (which would be almost everyone on the customer list at this point). One interesting note in the article from Greenwich Time is the length of time required to charge up the Roadster's battery. They note that charging the battery from a normal household outlet could take up to 30 hours. The Roadster's battery has a capacity of 53kWh. Tesla quotes a charge time of 3-3.5, but that is based on charging from a 220V 80A circuit. If, on the other hand, you plug the car into a typical outlet in your living room, you would only have 15A flowing at 110V. That's 53,000W / (110V * 15) = 32.12 hours. So if you plan to get yourself a plug-in electric car with any kind of serious range, be prepared to have an electrician install a high current outlet to charge it. At the very least you'll want a 220V/40A circuit for overnight charging in 6-7 hours.

[Source: Greenwich Time]

During the course of our discussion (presented in three parts: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3).Tesla Motors Chairman Elon Musk described how he came to be a part of Tesla Motors and how he, as "Product Architect," influenced the development of the Roadster as and what will become the WhiteStar sedan. Based on his description of the events, that sounds like a perfectly reasonable title. Even as told by Martin Eberhard, co-architect doesn't seem inaccurate, although Eberhard might have preferred it to be otherwise. One thing that isn't in doubt is that Musk is not a founder.

Some in the mainstream media over-simplify things by referring to Musk as the creator of the Roadster, and if anything Musk's sin here may be more an error of omission. By not speaking up to clarify his role in the process previously, he has at least appeared to passively take credit for more than he should. If nothing else, as with so many successful entrepreneurs, his self-assurance can certainly come across as arrogance. I don't know the man personally so I can't really comment as to what he is like on a personal level. Aside from the financial aspects his role is probably most analogous to that of Bob Lutz at GM where he makes high level decisions about design direction which are then brought to fruition by the engineers, designers and technicians. Read on after the jump for the rest of my conclusions.

In the first two parts of our discussion, Tesla Motors Chairman Elon Musk described how he came to be a part of Tesla Motors and how he influenced the development of the Roadster. It's important to note that he never described himself as the designer or creator of the Roadster. Rather he considers himself the co-architect of the sports car.

With production of the Roadster now sort of underway and the updated drivetrain hopefully coming soon, it's time to look forward. As the self-declared Product Architect, Musk is playing perhaps an even bigger role with the next product, a sedan that we've known for some time by the code name WhiteStar. We had hoped to see WhiteStar this spring but that obviously hasn't happened yet. In the conclusion of our discussion, Musk gives out some hints about what to expect and what Tesla has learned over the past five years. Read on to learn more about what's coming next.

Make sure you read Part 1 and Part 2.

As we continue the tale of Elon and Martin, we pick up from the initial involvement of Elon Musk in Tesla Motors. Musk has put in the single largest chunk of money that has allowed Tesla to develop and now start building an electric car. Here we delve into the subject of his role in design decisions. As some in the mainstream media have taken to referring to Musk as the "creator" of the Tesla Roadster, this is a particularly contentious subject.

The whole issue of the choice of transmission suppliers is a particularly thorny one. Musk was insistent that Tesla should build a car worthy of the price tag. Anyone who has ever worked in the auto industry knows that is almost always a lot harder than it looks. The friction that clearly existed between Eberhard and Musk from very early on in their relationship definitely didn't help matters. (Note:If you missed Part 1 check it out first).

ABG: So, how did you get to the first stage, of the Roadster, the specs that debuted in 2006 with the first prototypes? How did that come about?

Read on after the jump.

While Tesla Chairman Elon Musk is taking credit for other people's work, the sales team is off continuing its European tour with a visit to Le Mans. While the diesel Audis and Peugeots were out tearing up the track and shattering track records, Tesla's Aaron Platshon was spotted tooling around the driver's parade in the silent, battery-powered Roadster. Hopefully, there is as much effort going into completing cars for delivery to customers as there is in lining up new deposits for more cars. Thanks to Jonny for the tip!

[Source: AutoFiends]

Yesterday we told about news from Tesla Chairman Elon Musk that the Silicon Valley EV startup had struck some sort of deal with Daimler. We speculated that it might be an engine supply deal for the range-extended version of the WhiteStar. Tesla Marketing VP and primary spokesman Darryl Siry declined to comment on the deal and Daimler has apparently said nothing. Lucky for us, one of our readers pointed to where Fox Business News had the video up on their site so that we could see exactly what Musk said. Unfortunately, it appears that at least on the topic of the Daimler deal, Musk said nothing beyond what we had already heard and there isn't much to be drawn from his statement beyond our existing conjectures.

However, watching the rest of the clip, it became clear that in typical Fox (and almost all of traditional media fashion) they weren't about to let facts get in the way of a good story. Reporter Liz Claman started off the puff piece by introducing Musk as the creator of the Tesla Roadster. Now whatever you may think of Musk and what has transpired at Tesla over the past 10 months, calling him the creator of this car is blatantly wrong. Martin Eberhard had the vision for Tesla and he and the team of engineers are the ones who created this car. Musk then goes on to describe the Roadster as "the only production electric car for sale in the United States of any kind." This is most definitely not true. It may be the only really desirable EV but there are plenty of others of various descriptions. Obviously all the neighborhood electric cars out there are for sale and are drivable on many roads. They certainly aren't in the same class as the Roadster but they are electric. And of course we must grudgingly acknowledge the Zap Xebra here as well even though it is technically a motorcycle. Nonetheless this is not a promising start to the five-minute interview. And given that we know of only two cars that have been delivered to customers (one of which was Musk himself) calling the Roadster in production is still very much a stretch. We know almost no one watches Fox Business News but this is ridiculous and don't even get me started on this reporter. The video is after the jump.

Just as TTAC has finally put down their Tesla Birthwatch series and the first actual customer car has been delivered, the EV manufacturer has seen fit to update their customers on plans for the rest of the year. Although the car with serial number 2 destined for company founder Martin Eberhard started down the assembly line on March 17 of this year, only cars 3 and 4 have actually left the factory to date. According to the update letter from Marketing VP Darryl Siry, the factory is preparing to start assembly on cars 6 and 7. Tesla announced earlier in the year that initial production would be very slow as they stamp out bugs in the process. According to the schedule in the letter, the first couple of dozen Founders Series cars should be done by the end of June. After that the Signature 100 cars will be built for those customers that paid full price up front with that batch done by October. After that production really ramps up with the 600 2008 models expected to be complete by about April 2009.

Perhaps more important is the update on the new powertrain. Apparently the new power electronics module is going through durability testing right now. With the 850A current level the motor is putting out about 280lb-ft of torque and pushing the Roadster to 60mph in the original 3.9sec. A running change to the new hardware should take place sometime in September with vehicle 40 or so. The cars built prior to that will get free upgrades to the new hardware. The letter also clarifies the warranty at 3 years/36,000 miles although a 4 year/50,000 mile will be available at extra cost. Tesla had planned to charge an upfront fee of $8,000 that would cover the cost of shipping vehicles to a service center if the customer lived more than 100 miles from a Tesla Store. That has now been dropped in favor of a pay as you go scheme. As for those stores, the LA outlet is now open with a Menlo Park store opening this summer and New York in the fall. In the first quarter of '09 Chicago, Miami and Seattle outlets should debut. In addition Tesla plans to open satellite service centers in major cities over the next two years. If you aren't already on the list a 2009 Roadster will now set you back a minimum of $109,000 while a fully loaded example will run $120,200.

[Source: Tesla Motors]

Creating big things is generally the province of visionaries. All too often, big visions go hand in hand with big egos. Big egos are generally like electrons. Anyone who has studied sub-atomic particles knows that similarly charged particles repel each other. You can force them into the same space for a period of time but eventually they push each other apart. Such is often the case with startup companies.

Let's start with a little background. When Tesla Motors was first getting launched a few years back, as part of their initial investment in the company, the first two dozen or so people involved agreed to buy what became known as Founders Series cars. Initially, company founder Martin Eberhard who had the vision that became the Tesla Roadster intended to keep the first production unit for himself. When Paypal founder and seriously rich guy Elon Musk got involved as a major investor in Tesla Motors the situation changed. As Eberhard tells the tale (and I have no reason to doubt him on this) since Musk was putting up the bulk of the cash, he asked to get the first Roadster. After some back and forth Eberhard ultimately relented and took car #2. According to Martin:

During the entire time I was at Tesla, staff discussions about the early production cars rarely referred to the first two cars as "P1" and "P2." They were simply called "Elon's car" and "Martin's car." Everyone at Tesla knew this, and everyone knew how important these cars and their production sequence meant to both of us.

Continue reading the tale after the jump.

Click above for high-res live gallery of the Fisker Karma

For more than year, fans of Tesla Motors hoping for a more practical and affordable (relatively speaking) electric vehicle have been waiting for details on project WhiteStar. Rumors have run the gamut from something based on a Ford Fusion (no dice) to outright cancellation (not yet). The only consistent element has been the intention to build a battery-powered four-door sedan. The latest rumor to crop up has been that the styling of the car was the work of one Henrik Fisker. You might recall that Fisker unveiled a styling buck for a planned plug-in hybrid sedan bearing his own name at this years Detroit Auto Show.

As the story goes, Fisker was contracted by Tesla to design the bodywork for the WhiteStar, then later dismissed by the San Carlos company. Tesla VP Darryl Siry declined to confirm or deny the veracity of the story. Our sources however indicate the final look of the WhiteStar retains nothing of Fisker's drawings. Siry has confirmed that Tesla will reveal the WhiteStar later this spring after they have begun customer deliveries of the Roadster. The new sedan will start off as a battery-only vehicle but it is being designed to accommodate a range extended configuration as well.

[Source: Street Import Online, via Autoblog]