If you want a Tesla Roadster, you better sign up now. Tesla Motors plans to stop building the car in 2011.
Buried deep inside the Securities and Exchange Commission paperwork Tesla filed ahead of its IPO is the announcement that production of the two-seater and its souped up Roadster Sport sibling (pictured) will stop next year, and a replacement won’t hit the road until 2013 at the earliest.
Why? Because it doesn’t have anyone to build it.
“We do not plan to sell our current generation Tesla Roadster after 2011 due to planned tooling changes at a supplier for the Tesla Roadster,” the company wrote in the filing.” The Roadster is built by Lotus, so presumably Tesla is talking about changes at the British automaker’s factory in Hethel, England, but we can’t confirm that because Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes declined to comment.
Tesla plans to replace the Roadster, but not “until at least one year after the launch of the which is Model S,not expected to be in production until 2012.” The company just closed a $465 million loan with the Department of Energy to finance construction of the Model S sedan, and it is focusing most of its time and resources on that car.
Stopping production of the Roadster could could present a problem, because it means Tesla won’t have any cars to sell — and no revenue coming in.
“As a result, we anticipate that we may generate limited, if any, revenue from selling electric vehicles after 2011 until the launch of the planned model S,” the company says in the SEC filing. That may not be a problem if S production starts on plan and goes off without a hitch, but if Tesla hits any snags, things could get ugly fast — a point it concedes in the filing.
“The launch of the Model S could be delayed for a number of reasons and any such delays may be significant and would extend the period in which we would generate limited, if any, revenues from sales of our electric vehicles.”
The move amounts to killing the car that made Tesla famous for the sake of the Model S. Tesla better hope everything goes according to plan, or it surely will regret that decision.
