Hasta La Gadget!

As Tesla Motors first quarter ended, this week it was made clear that the electric car company’s plans for spreading beyond North American sales by the end of the year. With a “meaningful demand” appearing for the financing plan adjustment pushed earlier this month, the company made it clear this week that the growth they’ve seen in the very recent past will be continuing outside the North American market soon. At the moment, every Tesla Model S electric vehicle sold has been delivered within North America – soon the company will spread to Europe and Asia with numbers a bit smaller than their USA delivery schedule through 2013.

The first quarter of this year saw Tesla producing their 10,000th Model S vehicle body – and they’d better get a move on if their suggestions of rates of orders are correct. Tesla Motors noted this week that they’ve reached an order rate greater than 20,000 per year worldwide, and not just in the United States. Tesla notes that though the Model S has only been delivered to North American customers at the moment, they’ve seen “significant potential” in both Europe and Asia.

The company has suggested that they’ll be building right around 5,000 Model S vehicles in the second quarter of 2013, some of them headed for Europe for delivery in the third quarter of the year. The company has also raised their target for sales on this electric vehicle to 21,000 unit deliveries by the end of the year, worldwide.

“I think we’ll see at least 10,000 units of demand per year in Europe, and at least 5,000 in Asia.” – Deepak Ahuja, Chief Financial Officer

“Do not take these numbers as final in any way, but if I’m asked to speculate I could say 15,000 units for North America, 5,000 for Europe, and 1,000 for Asia [by the end of the year].” – Elon Musk

In the announcement mass this week regarding their first quarter of 2013, Tesla also noted that they’d exceeded their targets for deliveries, made a significant expansion in gross margin, and generated a profit of $15 million. That is, again, the first time the company has made a quarterly profit in the entirety of the company’s 10-year history. Producing approximately 400 Model S cars per week certainly must have had shareholders either nervous or pumped up – that’s a lot of metal with potential to hit the road.

[via Tesla Motors Live Conference]

Tesla Motors Model S push beyond North America detailed in brief is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Despite a bit of bad press for its Model S and a less-than-ideal close to the 2012 financial year, things have been looking up for Tesla. Sales are on an upward climb, company CEO Elon Musk has sworn to deliver more superchargers, better service for customers and continues to tout his EV’s high resale value. After promising in Q4 of 2012 that Tesla would turn a profit the next quarter, the EV manufacturer has done so — generating $15 million in net income and $562 million in revenue in Q1 2013.

During the first quarter the company built 5,000 Model S cars, and is scheduled to build the same number in Q2 to keep pace with the 20,000 orders expected this year. To better service all those vehicles, Tesla opened 12 new service locations in Q1, with 18 more to come online by the end of 2013. Additionally, the company plans to start deliveries of Teslas in Europe in Q3. An investor call with Mr. Musk will be starting shortly, and we’ll update things here should he have any other news to share.

Update: During the call, Musk said that the company plans to build upon its newfound financial success by continuing to focus on increasing production efficiency for the Model S — which is why the Model X has been delayed until late 2014. He also made mention of the fact that roughly half the folks buying the 60 kWh Model S are upgrading to supercharging hardware at purchase (85kWh cars have it standard), and he expects that number to grow as the Supercharger network grows in 2013.

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Source: Tesla [PDF]

Do you love Easter Eggs in video games as well as other kinds of software? Who would have thought that an Easter Egg of sorts can be found within the menu system of an electric car? That is exactly what folks discovered about the Tesla Model S, which so happened to have picked up just about every kind of automotive award that it could possibly pick up last year, but that does not mean it is the perfect ride. There is a new range of menus which remain hidden within the giant touch screen in the Model S, dropping hints that a couple those features might be on their way – in addition to a lane departure warning, too.

There is no firm word on what those options would be, but at least we do know that the software in action is in the prototype stage at this point in time. Of course, one cannot rule out the possibility that Tesla could very well install a slew of sensors on the sly without informing anyone, and to have these features switched on, it might require a whole lot more than a mere software update. Other unannounced apps that were hinted in the hidden menu include an image viewer, a sketch pad, a scheduler/calendar and different test apps.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Terrafugia TF-X Plug-In Hybrid Flying Car , Mitsubishi Works On Wireless Remote Charging For Electric Vehicles,

Tesla Motors, the company behind the popular Model S and its all-electric car tech in general, is interested in self-driving cars and is in talks with Google on how bring that technology to Tesla cars in the future. Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that self-driving cars are the way of the future and are the next step in car technology.

However, Musk is wanting self-driving technology that’s more like the autopilot system in airplanes, mentioning that the word “self-driving” implies that the car is “going to do something you don’t want it to do.” Instead, Musk says that autopilot would be perfect, and says that cars “should have it.”

While Bloomberg reports that Musk is currently in talks with Google, it seems as if he wants to implement his own system for self-driving cars, rather than just use Google’s technology. Musk says that “Google’s current approach is that the sensor system is too expensive.” Instead, he claims that “an optical system” would be better, which is an array of cameras that can tell what’s going on just by looking at the surroundings.

Toyota demonstrated a similar system to what Musk describes back in January, and the auto maker is also an investor of Tesla, so we could see the two companies work together possibly on a new self-driving technology. However, it’ll be a long while before self-driving and autopilot cars hit the mainstream. Until then, save up your money.

UPDATE: Elon Musk said over Twitter that making autopilot Tesla cars is “important,” but it’s not yet a “top priority” for the company. Musk says that production of autopilot cars is still a “few years” away.

UPDATE 2: Musk further comments via Twitter that the report from Bloomberg is “off-the-cuff” and that there is “no big announcement here.”

[via Bloomberg]

Tesla in talks with Google over self-driving car tech [UPDATE] is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Current or wannabe Tesla S owners can now opt for a Performance Plus option that adds a bit of range and a lot of extra handling — and the whole idea came from none other than McLaren. After a journalist told Elon Musk that his nimble sedan was nonetheless outdone by a McLaren MP4-12C supercar (duh?), Tesla’s engineers got to work tweaking the suspension and adding new Michelin tires. The latter boosts range by 6 to 12 miles over the stock rubber, while the whole package adds more cornering grip and acceleration “while maintaining ride quality,” according to the company. Current owners can get the option retrofitted for $13,000, but if you’re still kicking tires, it’ll add $6,500 to your total Tesla S bill for the up-rated suspension bits, plus another $3,500 for the optional 21-inch wheels. Sounds tempting for a poor-man’s McLaren, and given the new financing options, you might even be able to justify it.

Update: We’ve updated this post to clarify pricing. The 21-inch wheels are not included in the $6,500 Performance Plus package.

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Source: Autoblog Green