Now we have word that Tesla got its government loan to develop a car using the same stuff it has already developed. Huh? Can I get a loan to learn how to walk, talk and not crap my pants? Now Tesla has a loan to match it ridiculous valuation – they have doubled their money! – and so the cure of the environment is now complete. Ahh, happy times. To be fair, Tesla has delivered hundreds of cars. Hundreds. The US market for cars and trucks and suvs is currently around 10 million units per year, so if we divide 500 by 10,000,000 we get a …. really small number. So the impact of the Tesla is less than a rounding error of current automotive emissions. It sure is a good thing that people are so darn proud of it.

Tesla will soon be in another game. A real game, where the fanboys who love them so much on the internet will soon have to reverse course and start calling a spade a spade. The realities of making a niche sports car are much different than the realities of making a mid-volume sedan. Sports cars aren’t driven often and usually not for long distances. The electric car can fit this bill. How many high mileage Ferraris do you ever see for sale? A family sedan is typically driven daily, every day, to and from work, soccer practice and to go get groceries. This car needs to be reliable – very reliable. A little inconvenience in the sports car will become a major nightmare when you can’t get to work in your family car. This is the trick that is the hard part – make it good, make it cheap and get people to buy it. Toyota’s spectacular growth has been built on this – I don’t personally think that Tesla has a chance.  Neither do some engineers.

If Tesla was really clever, they would start a racing series and open it to all the other manufacturers. It seems strange to me that will all this hype about electric cars for so long, there never was a series that got off the ground. Leave it to the motorcycle guys to do it first – there will be a motorcycle series as part of the  FIM world championships in 2010.

My rant is over – what do you think?

Daimler (the old Dodge owner, remember?) just paid $50 Million for a 10% stake in the company and we all know how good their judgement was when it came to valuing the last car company they took ownership of. This valuation is at the low end, if you consider what Sharepost thinks the little electric car is worth. Speculation is running rampant about the intent of Daimler, but it is either not smart or not good if you ask me.

What kills me about this stupidity is that this is a car, and a new car company is building it. There is nothing really new here – an existing chassis, with existing battery technology, built by a company that doesnt know how to build cars and who doesnt have a dealer network.  How does this make it worth more than GM?

And of course the irony is – if Tesla built electric delivery trucks, not sexy sportscars then the valuation would be next to nothing.