Tesla posts heavy losses, blames Top Gear
Electric car company Tesla Motors is leaking more money than a rapper at a strip club -- and apparently Jeremy Clarkson is to blame.
Tesla Motors, the achingly cool electric car company responsible for the brilliant Roadster, is unfortunately leaking more money than a rapper at a strip club -- and apparently Jeremy Clarkson is to blame.
Tesla Motors reported losses of $65m in the third quarter alone, the Detroit News reports, which isn't exactly ideal, seeing as the company's total turnover is just $200m.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed the losses were partly due to "the continuing adverse impact on the Roadster via reruns of Top Gear, the UK's leading car show". (He means after Car Tech, obv.)
"As a result," Musk moans, "we had an excess inventory of right-hand drive versions of the Roadster and continue to incur additional costs to correct the consumer misperception."
We're not exactly sure how many customers are holding off buying an £89,000 Roadster because of what a middle aged anti-electric car journo said on a Dave repeat, but Tesla believes it's a factor and hopes to recoup some of this lost revenue by suing the BBC.
Remarkably, Tesla Motors and its shareholders don't appear too bothered about its losses -- at least not in the short term. Musk expects the company to carry on haemorrhaging cash as it continues to invest in research and development of its future cars -- specifically the Model S, which is aimed at a more mainstream audience.
That car, a fully electric saloon to rival the likes of the BMW 5 series, should sell in higher volumes, as the entry level model will go on sale for the more affordable price of $57,500 (£36,000), excluding a $7,500 subsidy from the US government.
Whether the Model S will be successful enough to plug the existing cash gap and prevent Tesla going the way of Greece remains to be seen. Let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?