Reg Hardware

Original URL: http://www.reghardware.com/2009/08/07/tesla_announces_profits/

Tesla speeds to $1m profit

Roadster surge

By Rik Myslewski in San Francisco

7th August 2009 21:48 GMT

While the rest of the US auto industry is dissolving during the ongoing Meltdown, Tesla Motors - the manufacturer of high-end all-electric speedsters - is making money.

The San Carlos, California company announced [1] on Friday that it had squeezed $1m of profit out of $20m in sales during during July. The company sold a record 109 cars last month and "enjoyed a surge in new Roadster purchases," according to a statement.

The company has been basking a a series of good-news events recently. In June it wrangled $465m [2] from the US government's Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program (ATVM [3]). It plans to use $100m of that low-interest loan to develop a high-performance drive train manufacturing center, and the rest to build a production facility for its upcoming Model S sedan [4], which the company says will "have a base price of $49,900, roughly half the price of the Roadster." The Model S is scheduled for release in the US in 2010.

Then, in mid-July Tesla announced [5] that it had secured a financing deal with Bank of America. That deal, according to CEO Elon Musk, "will help advance EV adoption by allowing more Americans to experience the joy and convenience of owning a Tesla. And like our current customers," Musk said with more than a modicum of smugness, "our new customers will never need to visit a gas station again."

Tesla also announced Friday that it would open two more European dealerships this summer, in Munich and Monaco. It opened [6] its first European showroom, in London, in late June.

At its UK opening, Tesla also introduced its £100,000 Roadster Sport, which can leap from zero to 60mph in 3.7 seconds. The standard Roadster, the company's flagship model, is a relative slowpoke, with a 3.9-second zero-to-60 performance. ®