NEW YORK – When Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk says there’s enormous demand for his powerful electric cars, he may not be exaggerating, says a recent article in Forbes.
In many of the metro areas where they’re sold, the cars — with a base price of $70,000 for the standard Model S, up to $104,000 for a high-performance version — have long waitlists of interested buyers. Musk plans to ramp production from the current level of 1,000 cars a week to 2,000 cars a week near the end of 2015. Even with the extra output, Tesla is sold out — it has booked commitments for 70,000 cars for custom build. Musk uses a conservative estimate for 2015, promising about 50,000 new cars, even though the output and order book point to a number substantially higher, says Forbes.
Tesla upgraded its Fremont California plant in August, adding a new production line for skeletal assemblies to expand on volume and improve on precision. Despite revenue forecasts of $6 billion for 2015, Musk is still not satisfied — and he’s growing increasingly impatient, says Forbes.
Musk has even bigger ambitions. He wants all the cars in the world to switch from gas combustion to electric. “To that end,” writes Forbes, “he needs to goad his competitors to adopt new electrical standards and create momentum – and funds — for upgrading the aging electrical infrastructure that needs to support the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.” Given that the world’s car makers produced 65,000,000 vehicles in 2013, it’s not possible for Tesla to move the needle on the world’s carbon crisis as a minor player.
Musk open-sourced the company’s patents this year in an effort to encourage other car manufacturers to leverage Telsa’s R&D to catch up technologically, hoping to make Telsa’s technology an industry standard. As Forbes writes, the esprit de corps created by more joining the green revolution may help make the case for upgrading the grid for ubiquitous supercharging stations.
According to the company website, Tesla has built a network of 272 charging stations (132 in the United States., 102 in Europe and 38 in Asia) and charging is free for Tesla owners, though most will charge from home. Musk may need thousands of charging stations to compete with the convenience of a gas station on every corner, but the world’s electrical grid also needs a big jolt to handle the additional load. According to Musk, solar energy may be the solution and he is investing accordingly. Musk also aims to bring down the costs for expensive batteries to power his rocket-fast electric cars, partnering with Panasonic to become the world’s largest producer of batteries and develop breakthrough technology to reduce the cost of energy storage.
Radical change on a scale as vast as the one envisioned by Musk calls for massive funding, worldwide coordination and fast footwork. Even facing incredible odds, Musk has made breathtaking strides to bring renewable energy to consumers. Surprisingly, his competitors are his most enthusiastic fans.