Nissan Juke

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Nissan has released official images of the Nissan Juke. At the front of the Juke, there is six pairs of lights including head lamps, fog lights, and large round auxiliary lights. The interior is inspired by a fuel tank of a motorcycle too [CNET].

Kia Ray Concept

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Below is a picture of the Kia Ray, a natural gas-powered vehicle that debuted at the Chicago Auto Show. Under the glass hood is a 153 horsepower and 1.4 liter direct-injection engine [AutoMobileBlog].

Patrick Crashes GoDaddy Car In 12 Car Pileup

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In her debut at the NASCAR Nationwide race, Danica Patrick crashed the GoDaddy Chevy Impala in a 12 car pile-up.

Saab Approved For $545 Million Loan

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Saab has been approved for a $545 million loan. “We are extremely pleased with the decision by the EIB as this was a crucial component in enabling the acquisition of Saab to proceed. Months of hard work have paid off, said Victor Muller, Spyker’s CEO. “We cannot wait to close this transaction now as soon as practically possible. We extend our gratitude to the EIB officials who have worked relentlessly to make this happen.” [eGMcarTech]

Musk Flying Around In Private Jet

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Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk flew his private jet to Washington D.C. over 12 times since last year according to Autospies. Some of these trips were intended to request government public financing. This is ironic because GM, Chrysler, and Ford executives were heavily criticized by members of Congress for doing the same thing. Musk flew in a Dassault Falcon 900 and landed in Washington in mid-June of 2009. Around that time is when Tesla was given a $465 million loan from the DoE. Tesla is planning to raise an additional $100 million in an IPO. [AutoSpies]

Elon Musk and Martin Eberhard are both co-founders of Tesla Motors. About five to six years after starting the company, the two had a falling out. Eberhard accused Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and the company of slander, mismanagement, and for delivering a damaged Roadster vehicle. Eberhard left the company in 2007 and it was rumored that Musk forced him out. However Eberhard was promised a first edition $109,000 Roadster, but it was delivered with a dent.

The media even reported that Musk accused Eberhard of Tesla’s financial problems which led to delayed products. Eberhard filed a lawsuit against Tesla for costs and damages as a result. Now it sounds like Musk and Eberhard wants what is best for the company. The lawsuit has been dropped and the company can now focus stronger on product development and delivery.

Financial settlements were undisclosed, but it is safe to assume that the company was hardly affected. Tesla Motors has a fat wallet after receiving a major investment by Daimler and the government.

Tesla Motors has a new VP of Communications and he comes from Google subsidiary YouTube.  Reyes was the Director of Communications at the video website service before joining Tesla.  Reyes will be starting in mid-September.

Before working at YouTube, Reyes worked in D.C. for projects involving public policy and communications.  Reyes also spent two years working at Bracewell and Giullani LLC.

“Ricardo has deep expertise in both the public and private sectors in managing complex communication issues. He has a well earned reputation for being forthright, possessing a nuanced understanding of the facts and adapting quickly to a rapidly changing landscape, making Ricardo the perfect person for a fast-paced, high-profile company like ours,” stated Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a press release. “This is further evidence that Tesla is aggressively recruiting from both Silicon Valley and the traditional automotive industry to build the best possible team.”

Earlier this month, Tesla announced that they were profitable and they raised $465 million from the Department of Energy in late June.  Daimler owns about 10% of Tesla.

Tesla Motors said that they have earned profit last month.  This is the first time the company has made a profit since 2002.  The company made $1 million on $20 million revenue in July after shipping 109 Roadsters.  The company said that the profit was due to improved margins on the two-seater car and a “surge” in orders.  The starter price of the automobile is $109,000.

“We achieved bottom-line profitability thanks to a tremendous amount of hard work by the Tesla team to improve quality, while simultaneously reducing costs on the Roadster,” stated Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk. “This also shows there is a strong demand for the car… Moreover, customers know that in buying the Roadster they are helping fund development of our mass-market electric cars.”

Although there has been a surge in orders, Tesla said that rolling cars out of production won’t be as fast.  Tesla has produced about 609 Roadsters since production has been rolled out in March 2008.  Tesla is on pace to meet the goal of rolling out 1,000-1,200 cars per year.

Tesla plans to spend an additional amount of money to expand retail operations and a new car model.  Tesla has showrooms in LA, NYC, Seattle, London, and Menlo Park.  Tesla plans to open showrooms in Chicago, Miami, Munich, and Monaco.  Tesla also plans on investing in the Model S sedan mobile which they plan to start selling around 2011.

In late June, Tesla announced that they are raising $465 million from The Department of Energy.   Tesla will be using the money to develop the powertrain for the Model S and prepare a factory to build the car.

The revenue and net income is based on the GAAP and was audited by a Big Three accounting firm.  The $20 million revenue does not include deposits made on Tesla automobiles that over 1,500 customers have put down.  The revenue and net income also does not include the $50 million investment that Daimler has made in Tesla.

[via Wired]

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) is a space transportation companies that was started by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk.  SpaceX is building reusable space launch vehicles called the Falcon 1 and the Falcon 9 along with a Dragon series of vehicles.

The company started in 2002 and employs about 800 people.  Musk himself put $100 million in seed funding for the company.  After that the company raised $20 million in Series A from The Founders Fund.  The company is now pursuing an additional $60 million additional round.  DFJ put in about $15 million of the new round.

Last year SpaceX launched a rocket into space after failing three times.  Now SpaceX is being hired by aerospace companies and the government to launch satellites.

[via VentureBeat]

About a month after Daimler put in an investment worth 10% equity in Tesla, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that they are putting an additional $465  million loan in the company.  Tesla will be using the loan to develop the Model S sedan.

It is pretty impressive that Tesla was able to convince the federal government to give them the loan considering that Tesla is far from profitability.  Tesla has also increased the price of their automobiles for customers that have already put down deposits. The Model S prototype does not have much to show in terms of a prototype yet either.  But what Tesla had was the Governor of California’s support.

Over the next two and a half years, Musk will need to build a powertrain factory and make the Tesla vehicles more affordable to reach a profit.  That’s quite a feat to pull off and we wish Mr. Musk well.

[via Gawker]

Looks like Elon Musk let Governor Arnold Schwarznegger’s words about Detroit getting off their butts and taking notes from Tesla get to his head.  “When the mess gets sorted out, I’d like to have a conversation with whoever’s in charge at the time — the car czar or whoever — and say ‘I’d like to run your plants, if you don’t mind,’” stated Musk at Wired’s Disruptive by Design conference in Manhattan.

Musk believes that the electric car is inevitable and will be the future.  “The reason I’m putting so much time and effort into helping create Tesla is because I’m hoping we can accelerate that transformation,” stated Musk at the conference.  Musk made $200 million when his company PayPal was acquired by eBay around 2002.  After PayPal Musk has been an investor and is focusing on three other businesses.  This includes electric cars at Tesla, space exploration at Space-X, and energy technology at Solar City.

Musk said that one of the problems with Detroit is the union system.  He said that he believes that unions are important, but if there are going to be unions they should be on the same side as the company.

“Most of our experienced factory workers come from unionized environments, and we asked them what benefit did they see in unions,” he added. “They said, ‘Well, if their boss was an asshole, they had recourse.’”

[via Wired]

The automotive manufacturing company behind Mercedes-Benz, Daimler AG spent “tens of millions” of dollars to buy 10% equity of Tesla Motors.  Tesla, based in San Carlos has been working with Daimler for quite some time to improve battery technologies.

Daimler has already been selling an electric automobile called the Smart Car.  Tesla was the company that provided the batteries and chages for the Smart Car.

Daimler used to own Chrysler after merging in 1998.  Nine years later, Daimler sold Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management.

Tesla is best known for building a roadster that costs over $100,000.  Last March the company announced a more affordable Model S electric sedan that costs about $57,400.  The Model S is able to get 160-300 miles on a single charge.

Earlier Tesla had attempted to raise $100 million in funding, but settled for $40 million from previous investors.  The partnership will also give Tesla access to Daimler’s “engineering production and supply chain expertise,” stated Tesla Chairman and CEO Elon Musk.  Herbert Kohler, VP of Daimler’s electric-drive systems will be joining the board of Tesla.

Musk was a co-founder of PayPal which sold to eBay for $1.5 billion.  Before that Musk sold a company to Compaq and merged a company with Confinity.  Musk is also the CEO and CTO of SpaceX.

[via LAT]