Tesla to turn a profit in July, CEO says
Citing decreased production costs, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced that his electric car company stands to make some money next month.
A Monday morning blog post focused mainly on refuting claims made by ousted company founder Martin Eberhard in a lawsuit he filed against the company earlier this month. But Mr. Musk also tucked in word that material costs for the company's $100,000 Roadster had dropped from $140,000 to $80,000. That, combined with steady production of 20-30 of the Roadsters per week, and the positive reception of its higher-priced Roadster Sport, will allow the company to turn a profit in July, Musk wrote.
The upstart car company has been in the headlines quite a bit recently. In late May it recalled all 345 of the Roadsters in the wild, pledging to make housecalls to correct a manufacturing defect that originated at Lotus, the British carmaker contracted to assemble the cars' frames.
Earlier last month the company received a $50 million shot in the arm from Daimler when the German auto giant bought a 10 percent stake in the California company, which brought the five-year-old company both cash and caché, as Business Week reported.
And of course, Musk made waves when he brought the company's new four-door Model S to David Letterman's show in April, dissing the Chevy Volt (and ruffling GM's feathers) in the process.
Here's a look (in HD) at the Roadster in action.
