Tesla has come a long way from its initial days as a boutique electric car manufacturer. Or has it?
Now it has stores around the globe selling its Roadster, of which 1,650 have been sold, and analyst coverage on the marque has been positive in recent months. But it still has a relatively long way to go until it introduces the Model S and the rest of its pipeline comes to fruition. Although running an auto manufacturer is probably one of the hardest businesses to run, at least it has a theoretical shift away from internal combustion engines on its side.
The problem is it's only theoretical. It's not like sales of the 2011 Chevrolet Volt and 2011 Nissan Leaf are blowing anyone's doors off.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing this week, Tesla mentioned plans for a new crossover, the Model X, but that won't debut for another two years after the Model S hits the road. This is a pretty long lead time.
Currently, Tesla says it has "approximately 4,600 customer reservations" with a minimum down payment of $5,000 smackers. That's not such a bad turnout, admittedly so; however, with prices ranging between the high $50,000 mark to the high $70,000 area, it better be damned good.
Taking all of this into consideration, do you think the Tesla boat is going to SINK or SWIM?
Tesla said it is planning to reveal a prototype of the Model X crossover by the end of the year and will end production of the Tesla Roadster in December, in a filing Wednesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The filing said that Tesla is "designing the Model X to incorporate the functionality of a minivan with the consumer appeal of a sports-utility vehicle." It noted that the electric powertrain developed for the Tesla Roadster "has provided the foundational technology for the Model S, the Model X and for electric powertrain components that (Tesla) has begun selling to Daimler and its affiliates that (Tesla) intends to sell to Toyota."
In an interview late last year with Greentech Media, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed plans to introduce a battery-powered crossover, the Model X, in 2014, about two years after the mid-2012 launch of its midsize Model S sedan...
[Source: Edmunds]
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