What You Don’t Know About Tesla!
17.
An Affordable Tesla Right now Teslas are considered to be luxury
vehicles, and their prices reflect that.
What most people don’t know, however, is that Tesla has always planned to release an
affordable car.
Elon Musk has long said in interviews that his plan for breaking into the car market
as a new player was to establish the Tesla brand as a well known high-end carmaker, and
then use that brand recognition to push into the consumer car market.
The Model 3 is that offering, and will start at just $35,000 when it is released later
this year.
16.
Second-Oldest Publicly Traded American Car Manufacturer
It may seem surprising, but Tesla Motors is actually the second-oldest publicly traded
American auto manufacturer, behind Ford which had its initial public offering in 1956.
This is because General Motors, or GM, despite being traded since 1916, went bankrupt and
had their stock de-listed in 2009.
GM did re-enter the stock market with an IPO in November 2010, but this was five months
after Tesla’s IPO in June of 2010.
Chrysler re-entered the market in 2014.
15.
In The Company of Friends Although Tesla Motors is still considered
a new, up-and-coming car manufacturer, they’ve got quite a lot to show for their time in
the world.
Tesla Motors currently employs more than 14,000 people, has a market value exceeding $33 billion,
and has seen its stock rise more than 1000% since its first public offering.
Although the company technically hasn’t had a profitable year yet, their annual revenue
continues to rise year over year, with revenues rising nearly $1 billion each year since 2013.
As of right now, Tesla Motors sells mainly direct to customers, as its sales model is
having difficulty gaining traction in many states.
In fact, Tesla currently only has 52 showrooms worldwide, compared to thousands owned by
other car manufacturers.
14.
Tesla Repaid Their ATVM Loan - 9 Years Early The Department of Energy lent Tesla Motors
a whopping $465 million to help them get off the ground and get operations set up.
They were given a term of 12 years to repay the loan when it was awarded to the fledgling
company in 2010.
However, Tesla raised over $1 billion in their second offering, and wisely chose to put about
half of those funds to getting their ATVM loan paid off - a full 9 years before they
were scheduled to do so.
13.
The Model S Broke The Stress Testing Machine The Tesla Model S, by far their most successful
vehicle to date, is renowned for being one of the safest, most durable vehicles on the
road.
It’s so safe, in fact, that when the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration)
attempted to administer a crush test to the Model S, it actually broke their machine.
That’s right - the machine designed to break cars itself broke when it tried to crush the
Model S. Because of this, the Model S holds the title for the highest safety rating of
any car, ever.
12.
Highest Ever Consumer Reports Rating Consumer Reports, the organization and publication
which is widely trusted for providing crucially accurate information about products, recently
gave the Tesla Model S the highest rating they’ve ever awarded any car - a 99/100.
This came after rigorous testing and retesting to ensure that they hit every possible point
and discovered every possible weakness, and even then they were still astonished by how
robust the car is.
The only points the car really got against it all had to do with how it charges - the
all-electric vehicle can take up to 12 hours to refill its batteries, and charging stations
are not yet available throughout the country.
Tesla has plans to change that, however, and already offers free charging up and down the
California coast.
11.
Tesla Supercharging Network Regarding that network up and down the California
coast, it’s pretty remarkable already.
Formally announced in 2012, the network of superchargers aims to downplay anxiety over
the range of Tesla vehicles - owners and potential owners alike worry that they will not be able
to take long trips in their Tesla vehicle, since there currently aren’t many places
to top up.
The network built by Tesla now provides a much faster option, and for free.
The network of Tesla charging stations currently offer a service which can charge your battery
to 50% in just 30 minutes, and are planning to integrate a system which will allow them
to swap your battery out for a full one, essentially giving you a full charge in about 2 minutes.
10.
A Name From Greatness The name Tesla is now a familiar one in American
households, and this is largely due to the excellent marketing and strategies of CEO
Elon Musk.
However, less people know where the name itself comes from.
The name Tesla is an homage to Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American electrical engineer who
lived in the early part of the 20th century and is directly responsible for nearly every
modern electrical device.
Although Thomas Edison is given credit for bringing electricity to the masses, his systems
actually fell far short of those created by Tesla, and it was Tesla’s designs which
have made our modern life possible.
Tesla Motors was named after this man to honor his legacy as well as to celebrate the work
he did.
9.
Elon Musk Wants To Eliminate Side Mirrors Although he has already significantly changed
the face of the auto industry, Elon Musk isn’t done yet.
He also wants to change the face of the cars themselves - literally.
When the Model X was debuted, spectators noticed it lacked side mirrors.
Instead, the car used small cameras built into the doors, paired with monitors on the
inside of the doors, to replace the antiquated side mirror system.
This drastically reduced the drag coefficient of the vehicle (giving it far better aerodynamics),
while keeping the vehicle just as safe.
Unfortunately this broke Federal safety regulations, so the production model of the X does in fact
have side mirrors.
Nevertheless, Musk has stated that he will seek to change those law.
8.
Tesla’s Patents Are 100% Open For Use Elon Musk has stated many times that his number
one priority with Tesla Motors is to change how humans interact with the environment.
To do this, he knows that he has to make electric cars viable for mainstream acceptance, as
well as make people want them.
Rather than just trying to do this on his own, though, Musk has taken a fairly revolutionary
step with Tesla - he has made all of its patents open for public use.
Musk encourages other manufacturers to adopt the creations and improvements Tesla has made,
in order to bring these features into public use faster and more widely than would otherwise
be possible.
This is an unprecedented step, and one for which Tesla has been widely commended.
7.
Musk Didn’t Start Tesla On His Own Although Elon Musk deserves much of the credit
for the mainstream, widespread success of Tesla Motors, he didn’t do it all on his
own.
In fact, the company was originally founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning.
In fact, Eberhard served as the company’s CEO until 2007.
Musk came into the company when he led the first investment round in 2004 and joined
the board of directors as Chairman, later of course going on to become the company’s
CEO.
6.
The Gigafactory No one has bet on Tesla’s success more than
Tesla itself.
In fact, the company is investing more than $5 billion to build what it calls the Gigafactory
1.
The factory, which will produce lithium-ion batteries both for use in Tesla vehicles as
well as home battery arrays for solar power, is being constructed in Nevada and, although
it is not 100% operational as of yet, is already producing batteries on a limited scale.
The name Gigafactory comes from the company’s goal for the plant to be able to produce 35
gigawatt-hours annually.
It is expected that this facility will reduce the cost to produce a Tesla battery by as
much as 30%.
Tesla is so invested in this idea that a Gigafactory 2 is already being planned for Europe.
5.
Commitment to Renewable Energy Tesla means business when it comes to renewable
energy.
With a facility as large and energy-hungry as the Gigafactory discussed above, you’d
think that Tesla would have to cave and subsidise some of its power needs with traditional grid
power.
Not so, actually - the Gigafactory will run on 100% renewable energy.
Much of this will come from onsite solar sources, since the Gigafactory is being constructed
in sunny Nevada, and will itself be covered in solar panels.
Tesla notes on its website that the Gigafactory will offset its energy needs so much by generating
renewable energy that its energy footprint will balance out to essentially zero.
4.
Virtually No Replacements Needed A lot of people still don’t quite understand
the appeal of electric vehicles.
And that’s okay - companies have a long way to go before they can convince the American
public that getting rid of their gas guzzler is a good idea.
This is especially challenging when the entry cost for a Model S is just shy of $90,000.
But one fact which might help sway some potential buyers is that the Model S itself, once you
own it, requires virtually no maintenance.
The electric motor is far less hassle to maintain than an internal combustion engine, and the
car only has 6 parts which need regular replacement.
Those parts are the 4 tires and the 2 windshield wiper blades.
3.
Solving A Major Problem Although the Model S is known to be essentially
the safest vehicle ever made, Tesla ran into some bad press in 2013 when certain car collisions
resulted in vehicle fires.
This was due mainly to the battery packs which power the Model S being punctured and catching
fire.
Although the drivers all exited the vehicles long before safety became an issue, Tesla
nevertheless received a lot of bad press regarding the incidents, and was forced to respond.
Their response was total; Tesla installed three shields along the underbody of the Model
S which effectively eliminated the risk.
The shields consist of a rounded, hollow aluminum bar which deflect or absorb the impact of
any debris in the road.
The next piece, the most substantial, is a titanium plate covering the battery area as
well as the front of the vehicle, and not only protects the vehicle but will destroy
objects caught under it.
Finally a solid aluminum extrusion blocks any debris which might remain and absorbs
the impact, effectively negating the risk they pose.
2.
Bioweapon Defense As if regular everyday safety weren’t enough,
Tesla Motors has equipped the Model X with a medical-grade air filter which is capable
of scrubbing the air inside the cabin of everything from smog to bioweapons.
In fact, this system is modeled after and specced to match that of hospital filtration
systems.
1.
What’s In A Name You may have noticed that Tesla has what appears
to be a fairly straight forward naming system for their vehicles.
They’ve only produced three cars to date, but the names themselves, while simple, might
seem a bit arbitrary to you.
We’ve got the Model S, the high-end luxury sedan, then came the Model Y, the luxury SUV.
Recently announced and soon to be released is the Model 3, the consumer grade Tesla.
What do these names stand for?
Well, it might become a bit clearer when you realize that the next Tesla is rumored to
be the Model Y, and that Elon Musk himself has confirmed that the naming conventions
do have a purpose.
Let’s line those up, and it should become clear.
S,3,X,Y.
See it?