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October 05, 2010 – Comments (7)

Talk about being in the right place at the right time, a billion dollar plant purchased for $42 million...  I found this story extremely interesting, and I think Elon Musk has it right about how to spur changes in energy focus:

The impact of switching to electrics would be transformative, Musk believed. With the combustion engine, we’ve been largely stuck with oil to produce fuel for transportation. Electricity, on the other hand, can be produced in many ways—by a coal-powered plant, a nuclear reactor, a hydroelectric generator, a wind farm, or a solar array. In a world dominated by electric cars, all these power-producing technologies would be spurred to compete, encouraging innovation. What’s more, an electric engine is inherently more efficient than a combustion engine: One gallon of gasoline could be used to generate enough electricity to power an electric vehicle for hundreds of miles.

It is a good story, enjoy.

7 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On October 05, 2010 at 12:12 PM, ikkyu2 (99.45) wrote:

Musk is certainly right.  Whether the stock is a good trade is a different question.  I think it is probably a good long-term investment - lot of forces aligning in support of the company.  But after the IPO I caught a brief swing from $15 to $22 and ducked out - I can't take the kind of volatility that stock has been showing.

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#2) On October 05, 2010 at 12:13 PM, chk999 (99.98) wrote:

Bet you a dollar that Tesla is never profitable.

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#3) On October 05, 2010 at 12:42 PM, mtf00l (46.41) wrote:

Never is never right and always is always wrong...

He's already made "his" money whether the company makes money or not. 

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#4) On October 05, 2010 at 1:19 PM, chk999 (99.98) wrote:

I never said anything about Elon Mush either way. I stand by my original statement. Tesla the company will never make a profit.

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#5) On October 05, 2010 at 9:10 PM, sawchain (< 20) wrote:

Oil is cheap.  All of the infrastructure to extract, refine, transport and sell it are already in place.

Large investment will be required to increase the capacity of our electrical grid to support electric automobiles.  So why bother?

If we do bother, when will we recoup that investment?  Never.  As I said.  Oil is cheap, and currently cheaper than electricity.  Until we start building nuclear plants all over, oil is king.

Tesla is a novelty. 

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#6) On October 12, 2010 at 1:00 AM, FreeMortal (30.03) wrote:

One gallon of gasoline could be used to generate enough electricity to power an electric vehicle for hundreds of miles.

This is quite a bold statement.  I'd love to see some actual data on this.  Is this a regular car for people, or an experiment with a big battery on wheels? 

The economic case still seems pretty weak, especially considering all the barriers to entry as described by other posters.  The price of oil may change my mind.

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#7) On October 12, 2010 at 2:32 AM, sawchain (< 20) wrote:

@FreeMortal.  I think they're referring to a train.  Trains run at constant speed for extreme distances.  Deisel locomotives only burn deisel to generate electricity that drives an electric motor.  The deisel engine doesn't drive the wheels like in a big rig.  Because the trains run at constant speed and load, the deisel engine can run at max efficiency RPM, providing electricity to a highly efficient electric motor.

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