Daimler working with Tesla on electric car

Posted May 19th 2009 3:20PM by Beth Gaston Moon
Filed under: Deals, Competitive Strategy, Daimler (DAI), Green Stocks

Ed Begley, Jr. will soon have more options should he be in need of a new electric car. Daimler AG has announced the acquisition of an equity stake of nearly 10% in Tesla Motors (not to be confused with these guys -- five man electrical band, indeed).

The German-based automaker is teaming up with the California company to work on making electric cars "a reality." Tesla is a visionary on the electric-car front; its Roadster, which runs on battery power, is the only electric vehicle approved for highway use in both Europe and North America. (Of course, it also comes with a price tag of $101,500 -- you'd have to save a lot on gas to make up for not buying a Taurus).

Thomas Weber, Board Member of Daimler AG, told the press: "Our strategic partnership is an important step to accelerate the commercialization of electric drives globally." This news is certainly timely, as the Obama administration is pushing to enforce higher fuel economy standards.

Beth Gaston Moon works for The Options News Network (www.ONN.tv). The above comments are not intended as trading or investment advice.

Tags: daimlerchrysler, electric car, ElectricCar, environmentallyfriendly, featured, tesla

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

5-19-2009 @ 3:51PM

Liam O Brien said...

Has Telsa motors ever completed on-road tests of their battery packs to end-of -useful-life. Where can we see the results?

Lab testing or even simulated road testing does not represent the real world of driving the EV, until the batteries fail to deliver the published 300 MPC or the 240 MPC.

How does Telsa charge their battery packs to 80% SOC in 45 minutes.
That is impossible to do using a household power grid connection.
So when a person buys a Telsa EV, what does Telsa suggest they do to get the vehicles charged to 80% in 45 minutes?
Take the EV to a specially constructed 480V connection ....but where are these connections.
One may find 480V connections at SKY Harbor Airport in Phoenix where they fast charge EVs for service work on the airport.

And how long to charge Telsa battery packs to 100% SOC.

I can gas-up my Honda Ridgeline in less than 5 minutes to get 370 miles at 70 mph before my next 5 minute fill-up.
I am flabbergasted that none of the financial supporters of Telsa have not asked or demanded answers to critical issues on useful life of battery packs, and fast charging.

All the marketing hype in the world will not sustain any product when customers discover its short comings.
The EV graveyard is filled with high flying EV start ups, including GM's infamous EV1; they produced 1170 EV1's, and leased them. But finally took them back and crushed them.

Where does Telsa publish the "cost of maintenance" for their EVs, for example replacement battery packs, wear and tear and repair due to accidents.
I only wish Telsa great success. But unless Telsa can provide more real world performance testing on their battery packs, then down the road they will find plenty of room in the proverbial EV graveyard.
GC

5-19-2009 @ 4:24PM

anom said...

To GalacticCannibal...
Well, my guess would be Daimler's investment is to improve all weak points of the project, and make Tesla more affordable to people that really care about environment they live in. I can guarantee you one thing. They are not doing it for ignorants like you that think only about saving his wallet...