“Rendered speculation” unveiled of Tesla Model S
Last week, a roadandtrack.com article displayed a picture of this vehicle in its new and future cars section. People are having a tough time nailing down where this rendering came from and its legitimacy. Was it released by Tesla Motors? Or is it just somebody’s best estimate of what the car could look like? A couple months ago, I wrote about some rumors swirling that Tesla had possibly leaked information on the Model S design. I must say, the rendering does share some features with the Rapide: a large, low grill, long, narrow headlights, and four doors. But there are also some disparities: more angular, Asian design influence, and smaller back seats.
I don’t believe the final Tesla Model S will actually look like this rendering for a couple reasons. The Model S project was created to bring a luxury, four door sedan to the electric car market. The rendering shows that the back seats are not really sedan worthy, but more like those you find in two door sports cars like the Nissan 350Z and Audi TT. The photo has been stretched and altered by many websites so it is hard to estimate the length of the vehicle, but the Model S is meant to be a very long and large vehicle. The rendering looks a lot like a Mazda RX8, which is by no means a family sedan.
To add to the confusion, a picture in businessweek shows Chief designer von Holzhausen supposedly with a prototype of the Model S. What we see is the rear of a vehicle that looks like a full on hatchback, nothing like the rendering or the Aston Martin speculation, but more like a Toyota Prius. So it looks like everybody is back to the proverbial drawing board.
Extraordinary Recession Affects Tesla Motors
October 15, 2008 by admin
Filed under Model S, Tesla Motors, Tesla Roadster
Newly appointed CEO of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, created a new post, Extraordinary Times Require Focus, in his blog today.
He announces Tesla is going to “consolidate operations”, which means “lay off” a few people. This was expected since every car company is getting hit by the economic crisis, even electric car startups. He also had some discouraging news on the Model S:
Tesla is absolutely committed to development of our next generation vehicle, to be unveiled early next year. However, we are going to reduce activity on detailed production engineering, tooling and commitments to suppliers until our Department of Energy loan guarantee becomes effective.
This will delay in start of production of the Model S by roughly six months to mid-2011.
Elon Musk is a very competent businessman, as exemplified by his Paypal success and his SpaceX gig. He also seems to have a genuine passion for electric cars, as he has spent about twice as much money as he expected in the project. So I don’t think a few bad quarters will end the ride.
Anticipation builds for Tesla’s Model S
Could Tesla’s $60,000 electric sedan look something like this?
That is what many are speculating after The Sun columnist, Ken Gibson, claimed he was given a “sneak preview” of the Model S at the end of his recent online column. Thus priming the the rumor mill at the telsamotorclub.com Model S potential design forum, and leading many to claim the Model S will look like the Aston Martin Rapide concept. This keeps in line with Tesla’s claims that the Model S will be a huge, very long, four door hatchback.
The design also fits the dimensions of the Dodge Magnum Mule that was spotted next to a Tesla Motors facility with no exhaust pipe and test wheels, also in the forums:
This is still all speculation, but anything rolling out of Tesla Motors is sure to be superbly designed and built, given their track record.
