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[Richard230]

According to an article in the financial section of today's newspaper, both Tesla and Panasonic have announced  that Panasonic will expand the delivery of its "automotive-grade" lithium-ion battery cells to a total of nearly 2 billion battery cells through 2017.  It was noted that in November 2010 Panasonic purchased $30 million of Tesla's common stock.

I found this paragraph particularly interesting:  " Practically every company that makes a lithium-ion battery has sent its cells to Tesla, which puts them through rigorous testing, with a focus on extending their life and safety. In the cell characterization lab at Tesla's Palo Alto headquarters, nearly 1,000 cells from various vendors are tested against one another.  In other labs, battery packs are subjected to stress tests that include freezing temperatures and high humidity."

Tesla expects to deliver 21,000 Model S sedans worldwide this year.  Also mentioned was that there are now 16 Supercharger stations along I-5 and Highway 101, between Vancouver and San Diego. A total of 31 stations have been constructed in North America so far.

[BrianTRice@gmail.com]

I like the idea that Tesla is a large pure-EV company operating at scale. They'll push up the quality levels of the component manufacturers if they keep up this level of testing and competition between suppliers.

I can only hope that the Supercharger network will eventually work with my Zero, since an electric ride down the coast would be pretty awesome from here in Seattle.

[WindRider]

From the article: "Tesla is being criticized for the fact that the superchargers are only available to their vehicles. But the company doesn’t want to wait for the entire industry to make up its mind about standards, or to catch on to its approach."

Sounds like Zero just needs to give Tesla a call and put a stack of chargers for Zero Motorcycles in the same locations....  All Tesla did for these "SuperChargers" is put a bunch of their standard chargers in parallel which is the same approach that Zero has for quick charging only Zero suggests that you buy the chargers and either cart them along or put them in your garage?

Zero should use the same locations and have ZeroStations where Zero owners can pull in and juice up on 4 parallel chargers.

[IowaGuy]

The Tesla motorcycles will be amazing if and when they build them...and cost 30 grand.

[NoiseBoy]

The Tesla motorcycles will be amazing if and when they build them...and cost 30 grand.

Glad to see you have a taken a scientific approach to your pricing estimate....

I don't believe they will ever make motorcycles, but as the model S is competitively priced with the competition i.e. top range german saloons, I have no reason to think a bike would be any different.  A ducati isn't far off £20k now anyway.

[Richard230]

It was reported on the TV news last night that, in the majority of the counties in the Silicon Valley, the Tesla Model S is the top selling vehicle.  (My guess is that the talking heads may have overlooked a vehicle class qualification for that statement.)