Tesla Motors, one of the original electric vehicle start-ups and currently the biggest player of the few remaining, recently reiterated its plans to end production of its all-electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, for commercial purposes. 2011. The Tesla Roadster has been Tesla Motors’ main source of revenue since its launch, with the first hundred units sold in three weeks and the second hundred in just under a year since its launch date.
So why would Tesla end production of the vehicle that made them a household name in the electric car industry? It could have something to do with Tesla Motors’ stated primary goal as a company, which is not simply to make a profit and allow its CEOs to retire in style, but to increase the variety and popularity of electric vehicles in today’s automotive market. Selling its cars is just one of three ways Tesla has stated as a strategy to achieve this goal.
The other two involve selling Tesla’s electric motor technology to other automakers to help them on the electric vehicle path and provide a positive example to the auto industry that it is possible to create electric vehicles that are efficient, high-performance. and popular. .
Although the Tesla Roadster has helped Tesla Motors achieve international fame, possibly the geniuses behind the company have decided that it has completed its course. Tesla Motors is working on something even bigger than the astonishing success of the Roadster. There has been quite a bit of rumor in the recent media about Tesla’s new electric vehicle, the Model X.
Although not much is known about the Model X, reports indicate that it will be in the popular crossover SUV genre and that the platform will be based on another Tesla model, the Model S. The Big Three Automakers, in the 1980s. Each of them developed a solid vehicle platform, only one was needed, and they began to use it as the basis for dozens of different car models. With a single vehicle platform, these companies produced cars, trucks, SUVs and crossovers of all shapes and sizes, placing different body styles on the same platform. This strategy allowed them to quickly make a killing in the market.
Possibly ending production of its Roadster is Tesla’s way of diverting necessary resources to this single-platform strategy. If they can perfect their Model S platform, they can cheaply build many different electric models (SUVs, minivans, sedans, pretty much anything they want) using the Model S as a base.
There’s only the small question of being able to keep your head above water in the six-month interval between the end of the Roadster and the start of the Model X. Tesla recently announced plans to issue 5.3 million of its shares to the public. to help them raise money and survive as an independent business until Model X takes off. Could this strategy be the key that will ultimately enable them to achieve your company’s goal of making EVs a part of everyday life for the general consumer? ?