AND 
Is Tesla Pulling the Plug on the WhiteStar?
No sooner did we just discuss how Tesla VP of finance appreciates the Volt’s design, and heard directly from Darryl Siry, Telsa VP of marketing, that Tesla has the capability of building an E-REV (though he called it an RE-EV), that Jalopnik has reported a bombshell for the company.
It is no secret that the scrappy Silicon Valley start-up has had a shake-up at the top, with CEO Martin Eberhardt stepping down and being replaced by Ze’ev Drori .
It is also no secret that they have had trouble getting the $100,000 2-seat Roadster into production, despite having working prototypes.
Now, its no longer secret that the company may be scrapping plans to build a sub-$50,000 electric sedan called the WhiteStar, which they had been planning to release in 2010.
As per Jalopniks’ tipster:
Tesla’s Whitestar and Darkstar programs are DOA. The Detroit office is in trouble. it’s all hands on deck to get the roadster to work
Source (Jalopnik)
14 Responses to “Is Tesla Pulling the Plug on the WhiteStar?”
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December 8th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
With the Fisker Lightning serial hybrid in their rearview mirror, I’d say Tesla’s current impractical design is DOA in all but name. Free market competition can destroy a bad design really fast, as in Lightning.
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December 8th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
h*ll, it was the roadster that i was excited about in the beginning anyway. let’s hope they get that out the door, and then see what else develops…
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December 8th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
So who killed THIS electric car? Let the conspiracy theories fly!
Who’s gonna make a movie about this one?
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December 8th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
If Tesla goes under, that will be very bad news for the Volt, as it will strengthen the belief that electric cars will never work. Let’s hope they get some real sales (any model) out the door to real customers, who like them.
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December 8th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Tesla has provided a great service by focusing attention on the possibilities of electric cars.
Alas though, the history of the automobile industry in the U.S., and the world for that matter, is clear to see. When the big guys get in the game, the little guys are toast.
De Lorean, Yugo, Bricklin, Studebaker, Packard, Tucker, Kaiser, Crosley, and hundreds more from the early years – all gone.
The history of the industry in the UK is just the same. Austin, Morris, MG, Triumph, TVR, just to name a few. How about Jaguar and Range Rover being sold to Tata? Or Rolls Royce, Bently and Mini Cooper being owned by German corporations?
Pheonix? Fisker? Give me a break. The Volt and the E-flex architecture are going to blow them all away if GM has the guts to follow it through.
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December 8th, 2007 at 1:42 pm
#4, RB:
Why do you think a “belief that electric cars will never work” affects the Volt? The Volt engineers aren’t relying on Tesla for The Volt to be a success.
And besides, 90% of the American public probably doesn’t even know what Tesla is.
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December 8th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
A new, small, start-up company enters into a complex and challenging marketplace with a cutting edge product…. and they run into problems?
Nahhhhh.
death
to
oil
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December 8th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Tesla is nothing to GM. I’ll worry about the Volt when Toyota drops the Prius.
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December 8th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
I feel sorry for Tesla. Even though I could never afford to own one, it is really a cool looking car and completely EV. I hope they pull through.
I’m not worried about the Volt either.
GM is moving full steam ahead towards production. Fuel prices are still high.
Long live the Volt!!
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December 8th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
GM should buy Tesla outright and then sell it to the Germans.
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December 8th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
#1 kent, the tesla is a different consept, complete independence from any gasoline/fuel. No serial hybrid will compete with it and no mystical car that you can’t even find on the internet is going to be doing anything to it.
If I had the money I’d buy a tesla roadster.
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December 8th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
I’m always concerns whenever competition folds. Part of me believes Tesla didn’t think a $50K sedan car could compete with a $30K Volt. Smart.
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December 9th, 2007 at 5:38 am
#6 Brian… “And besides, 90% of the American public probably doesn’t even know what Tesla is.”
I think 90% don’t know about the Volt yet either… yet.
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December 20th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
This is silly; I don’t know who Jalopnik’s “really reliable source” is, but Elon Musk is out telling CNN that they’re going to announce the first Whitestar details early in ‘08, which rather suggests the project isn’t “DOA.” You guys really think that a glitch like needing a new transmission (a second time) is going to derail the company’s whole long-term strategy? It’s one thing to say that other projects are suffering, or have lower priority at the moment…but this just sounds melodramatic. They’ve very willingly pushed the roadster back a few times now, and are probably doing the same to everything else. But this random anonymous source is directly contradicting Musk, who so far has seemed forthright about the company’s status and who now has a promise to keep. It’ll surprise me greatly if he said they’d give Whitestar information to the public and then they don’t.
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