LATimes
The country's leading electric car maker delays its next model, replaces its CEO and will lay off workers.
The credit crisis has hit the country's leading electric car maker.
Citing "extraordinary times," Tesla Motors, maker of the battery-powered, $109,000 Roadster, said Wednesday that difficult market conditions were forcing it to delay production of its next-generation vehicle, close two offices, lay off an unspecified number of employees and replace its chief executive.
Tesla has been held up as a leading light in the clean technology start-up world, with its product (the Roadster) appearing on dozens of magazine covers and its chairman, Musk, appearing on "60 Minutes" less than two weeks ago. As a start-up, however, Tesla is particularly vulnerable to the vicissitudes of increasingly tight credit markets.
Tesla is the largest and best-funded electric car start-up, but is hardly alone. There are at least a dozen other firms working on such vehicles.
Last month, Irvine-based Fisker Automotive, which is developing a plug-in hybrid sedan, successfully completed a $65-million round of funding. And in July, Carlsbad's Aptera Motors, maker of a $30,000 three-wheel electric car, said it had raised $24 million from investors including Google Inc.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who played a key role in recruiting the Model S project to the state -- it had been planned for New Mexico -- was unsure of Tesla's future.
"We can't predict the fate of any one company," said Camille Anderson. "But clean technology in California is here to stay."
Well, thanks, George, for the delay in new technology and manufacturing techniques that might have made available an affordable Tesla or other make. Your energy and fiscal mis-policies have collided in a big way. Thanks go also to Alan "Bubbles" Greenspan.
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