[mgescuro]

Tesla Motors to set up factory and HQ in San Jose

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2008/09/15/daily45.html?f=et78&ana=e_du

Electric car company Tesla Motors Inc. plans to move its headquarters to San Jose and build its upcoming electric sedan at a factory to be set up there.

The news was reported this morning by the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal, a sister paper to the Business Times.

The company, now based in San Carlos, has leased land on the border between San Jose and Santa Clara for its new home, and needs the OK of both cities for the deal.

The San Jose factory will roll the first Model S out during the fourth quarter of 2010, Tesla said, and plans to produce about 15,000 during its first year.

The company added that it expects its new factory and corporate headquarters to create about 1,000 jobs.

In June, the company said it would build the latest model in California after saying earlier it had chosen New Mexico. Tesla’s CEO, Ze’ev Drori, said he wanted to keep the car manufacturing in California, where the company has been since it was founded in 2003.

 

[mbukukanyau]

California will kill this car.

 

[minnfang]

California will kill this car.

No kidding, it will be pretty hard to be cost competitive with all of the other hybrid and/or electric vehicles coming on-line in the next few years. I would have built it in Michigan.

 

[Pedal 2 Metal]

I really hope this company does well. It would be nice to have at least ONE automaker that can make a profit. Even if it is tiny

 

[igotzzoom]

As long as Tesla can keep the UAW away, they'll be OK. I agree that California is an expensive place to do business, but I'm sure they got a lot of incentives and tax breaks from the cities.

 

[edsuski]

As long as Tesla can keep the UAW away, they'll be OK. I agree that California is an expensive place to do business, but I'm sure they got a lot of incentives and tax breaks from the cities.

Cutting costs, while widely popular, is only one way to make a platform successful. The other, more difficult, is to design features that people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars more for. This "innovation" is what used to differentiate American designs from others in the past. Now we spend lots of time whining about paying people good wages, offering retirement and the cost of manufacturing domestically etc.

The Cadillac CTS is a great example of GM offering a product that people are willing to pay a little more for. I know this is more difficult than beating up vendors to reduce the cost (and possibly quality) of components and trying to pay people ever decreasing wages and benefits.

I vote for more innovation that the general public is willing to pay for.

 

[mgescuro]

California will kill this car.

Why would it do that?
Because of high costs? Tesla is getting significant tax breaks to set up shop in CA and remain a CA company.
If the tax breaks weren't enough to offset the cost of doing business, then they would have moved to New Mexico anyways.

Part of the reason of remaining in CA (and in the Bay Area), is the talent base of the SF Bay Area, and the burgeoning green/green-tech business environment. Plus being a green company in a region that is focused on being green and sustainability gives Tesla a little extra aura about it.

 

[ChevroletRevived]

That is really neat; the Bay Area will actually have an auto plant! :whoa: What a shocker. I hope they do tours!

 

[vcs2600]

That is really neat; the Bay Area will actually have an auto plant! :whoa: What a shocker. I hope they do tours!

Hey hey, what about NUMMI, home to the locally popular Pontiac Vibe?

 

[ChevroletRevived]

Hey hey, what about NUMMI, home to the locally popular Pontiac Vibe?

Oh yeah, duh. I've toured the plant...forgot it was in the Bay Area though.