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PayPal cofounder, SpaceX Founer and Tesla CEO Elon Musk takes the stage today at the Web 2.0 Summit to talk with John Battelle.

What do space flights and electric cars have to do with Web 2.0? Absolutely nothing. Still, there will be lots to talk about. In September SpaceX put a Falcon rocket into Earth orbit, the first privately developed launch vehicle to reach earth orbit from the ground. More recently, his Tesla Motors has gone through layoffs and raised another $40 million, and Musk took over the CEO role. There have also been some spectacular Tesla crashes.

Our live notes of the interview are below:

Tesla:

Musk says they’ll be making 1,500 Tesla Roadsters a year at full productions. He says it’s faster than a Ferrari - 3.9 seconds 0-60, and more efficient than a Prius - about 130 MPG equivalent. There are 1,200 people on the waiting list.

The next product Tesla will launch is a sedan, the Model S, which will be unveiled in Q1 2009. It will be half the price of the $109k roadster. The third model will be a car that’s less than $30k, and they’ll create “hundreds of thousands” of them per year.

Battelle ask Musk about the recent layoffs, the funding and the CEO change. Musk says the last time there was a successful auto startup was Jeep in 1941. Building a car company is hard, he says, but that we can’t leave electric cars up to Detroit, because we’d be waiting too long.

Musk says they raised $40 million from existing investors instead of raising $100 million from new investors so that they’d maintain control of the company.

When Battelle asks why General Motors doesn’t buy Tesla, Musk responds “They can’t afford us.”

Solar City:

Musk says he spends very little time on Solar City, which provides solar panels to residential customers, and lets buyers get the panels with no down payments.

SpaceX:

Musk says the Internet, energy and space exploration are the key areas of exploration for humanity. SpaceX is now six years old and he started it from scratch.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Source: Michael Arrington

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Don’t pull the plug quite yet on Elon Musk’s electric sports car startup Tesla Motors. After laying off 18 percent of its workforce two weeks ago (69 people out of 384, we have confirmed with the company) and reportedly burning through all but $9 million in cash, Tesla is getting another lifeline in the form of a $40 million convertible. That is convertible as in debt, not convertible as in riding with the top down. Investors have now sunk $186 million into the company.

Add to that the tens of millions of dollars in deposits that Tesla has already collected for 1,200 vehicles (only 50 of which have been shipped). These are $110,000 machines, some of which already have been paid in full and others which have deposits on them ranging from $5,000 to $60,000.

Despite all of this cash coming in, Tesla was still dangerously close to running out of money. That is what is so alarming. Building a car is not cheap. But this is not a cheap car. Tesla still has 315 employees, and is building an automobile manufacturing plant in San Jose, California.

Elon Musk has taken over as CEO and the company’s next vehicle, a more modestly-priced sedan, is now on the back-burner. All efforts are now on getting as many of the sports roadsters out the door as possible at a profit, and licensing its electric-battery power train to other car companies such as Mercedes-Benz.

Will this $40 million infusion be enough to get Tesla to the finish line and profitability or will it run out of gas trying?

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: Erick Schonfeld

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Filed under: Transportation

We knew good and well it was on the way, but now we’re bubbling over with excitement. The forthcoming Model S — an all-electric, five passenger sports sedan that will ride on a platform developed entirely by Tesla — has apparently been revealed. Of course, there’s still a real possibility that the image you’re drooling on above isn’t a finalized look, but Road & Track has a pretty good record to fall back on. We’re also hearing that the 2010-bound whip will get around 240 miles per charge while still doing the zero to sixty in under six ticks, and the $60,000 base price just makes it all the more appealing. For those with a thing for rear bumpers, check out Autoblog’s link below for a sneak peek of the fanny.

Read - Road & Track writeup
Read - Sneak peek of the rear

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Source: Darren Murph

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The electric car start-up blamed the worsening financial and credit crises for the upheaval.

Source: By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

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Companies itching to IPO are braving the markets again. This morning, Rackspace had its IPO, and today nanotech battery company A123 Systems filed its IPO registration document (an S-1) with the SEC. The Boston-based company is hoping to raise $175 million in an IPO. (It’s already raised $132 million in venture funding from Sequoia, General Motors, Motorola, Qualcomm, and others).

A123 Systems makes next-gen lithium ion batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles, as well as for smaller portable devices. It is working closely with GM and Black & Decker. The company, which came out of MIT, already employs 1,100 people (150 in R&D alone), and has been manufacturing batteries for two years. The company’s revenues in the first quarter of 2008 was $10.3 million, and its sales for all ofg 2007 was $41.3 million. It’s also been eating through a lot of cash. Last quarter it had a net loss of $14 million, and last year it lost $31 million.

And those losses are not going to end anytime soon. From the S-1:

We have had negative cash flow before financing activities of $17.0 million for 2005, $29.1 million for 2006, $56.1 million for 2007 and $13.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2008. We anticipate that we will continue to have negative cash flow for the foreseeable future as we continue to make significant future capital expenditures to expand our manufacturing capacity and incur increased research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administrative expenses.

But A123 Systems is going to be a story stock. If you believe in a future of electric-powered vehicles, it is one way to invest in that future. Of course, other company’s are trying to create batteries for electric vehicles as well, such as Aptera and Tesla Motors (which, in addition to creating its own electric cars, has a deal to supply Mercedes-Benz with electric batteries). But they are still private.

Here’s A123 Systems’ income statement:

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0

Source: Erick Schonfeld

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Filed under: Transportation

Tesla Motors sure has been doing a lot of explaining about its all-electric Tesla Roadster since it first announced it way back when, and it’s now aiming to clear up what it says is another common misconception about the car: that it’s a converted Lotus Elise. According to Tesla’s Darryl Siry, the total number of shared parts between the cars is actually “under 7%,” and that “if you were to try to convert an Elise to a Tesla and started throwing away parts that aren’t carried over what you would basically be left with a windshield, dashboard (complete with airbags!), front wishbones and a removable soft top.” He does admit, however, that the remaining pieces (particularly the dashboard and steering wheel) are so noticeable that they give drivers the impression of an Elise, as we’ve seen in some of the road tests of the vehicle. If you’re still not convinced, you can find Siry’s full, lengthy explanation at the read link below.

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Source: Donald Melanson

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Filed under: Transportation

We knew Tesla had plans to open up dealerships in some of the, how should we say, more affluent markets in the US, and according to the company its first dealership and service center will be opened in one of the richest neighborhoods in the States, Menlo Park (just an electric hop, skip, and jump away from its San Carlos-based HQ).

[Via AutoblogGreen]

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Source: Ryan Block

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