11:00am | Tesla Motors continues to tease the automotive world – probably to their own detriment – by telling the Associated Press on Saturday that they are “close” to picking a production site for their long-awaited electric four-door sedan, the Model S.
The Press-Telegram ran an article based on that AP report, which quotes Tesla brass as saying that they could be days away from choosing a site while Downey mayor Mario Guerra says an announcement is coming soon.
Tesla brass said the same thing back in January. Guerra said the same thing back in November.
So basically, nothing is new. All signs point to Tesla taking their production facility and its 1,200 jobs to Downey while Long Beach appears to be out of the running. But the delay in naming a site, let alone beginning to produce on that site, is only hurting Tesla. The electric automaker promised to have Model S sedans hit showrooms by late 2011 and the clock is ticking as they haven’t begun to build any, yet.
The Associated Press article did point out, however, that Tesla has been far from profitable thus far, losing about $230 million since 2003. Even armed with about $480 million in loans, it will be difficult to acquire a site worth hundreds of millions and then develop and produce a costly car.
Gee, if only someone had been saying that all along.