Tesla Roadster will soon to be distributed in Europe
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With the dollar steadily falling against the Euro during the past year, the Tesla Roadster has grown more expensive to build because some components are sourced abroad and a lot of the construction is being done in Hethel, England.
Selling the car in Europe would provide the company a better balance between income and cost currencies.
Tesla hasn’t decided which countries might get it first, but InnovationBeat notes that Norway and Sweden are logical candidates because they offer tax incentives on low-emission vehicles, which effectively makes them cheaper. With all of the 2008 models spoken for, it’s a safe bet Europe won’t see the car until next year.
Although the company started full-scale production this week, don’t expect to see the cars flying off the assembly line. Tesla’s building just one a week and won’t pick up the pace for a month or two.
At $98,000, customers will demand perfection. The one-a-week pace at a Lotus factory will continue “for a couple of weeks” before slowly increasing to 30.
The first couple dozen cars will have modified one-speed transmissions that will be replaced once Tesla’s perfected what it calls Drivetrain 1.5. As we reported in “Tesla: The Cars Are Coming in March. No - Really”, the early transmissions proved unreliable, so Tesla turned to a temporary fix so it could begin production. Drivetrain 1.5 — which abandons the complex two-speed box originally planned for the car in favor of a one-speed transmission and improved power electronics module - is undergoing testing and certification. Once it’s ready, Tesla will retrofit it into any cars that got the Band-Aid.
The first run of Roadsters is sold out — more than 900 people have placed deposits for the car — and the company is taking reservations for ‘09 models. Tesla plans to sell about 1,800 cars next year and hopes to launch a four-door sedan in 2010. Development of that vehicle is well underway, and as we noted in “Tesla Gets $40M, Says We’ll See Sedan This Year”, could have a prototype by year’s end.
Source: Tesla Motors
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