Tesla May Use Evonik Battery Cell Widely
Date: 15-Jan-09
Country: US
Author: Chang-Ran Kim and Kevin Krolicki
DETROIT - Electric car startup Tesla Motors Inc said on Tuesday it may use battery cells produced by Evonik Degussa GmbH, an affiliate of Daimler AG, for its own cars if they proved a better option than products from its current Japanese suppliers.
Privately held Tesla said earlier it had been selected by Daimler to supply battery packs and chargers for an electric version of the Smart minicar, saying it expected orders for about 1,000 units initially.
Tesla founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk told Reuters at the Detroit Auto Show that the Smart deal could extend to Tesla using Evonik's cells for its own Roadster and other models.
Tesla had recently signed a second supply contract with an unidentified Japanese battery cell maker to get dual sourcing on the battery cells, he said.
"There's a good chance we may use their (Evonik's) cells," Musk, also founder of PayPal, said. "If they are superior to what we are using now, we would hope to use them broadly."
Musk said Tesla was constantly evaluating cell makers, including some from South Korea and China, but Japanese manufacturers had thus far had the best quality.
Tesla plans to invest $350 million to produce a new electric sedan priced around $50,000 that it expects to unveil as early as next month.
Tesla currently sells the $109,000 Tesla Roadster, one of the first entrants into the electric car market.
"We're sold out until November, which is a good place to be, and not too many car companies can say that. That's why I'm very confident of reaching profitability by the middle of this year," Musk said.
He said Tesla was also looking to expand overseas, first setting up service centers in Britain, Germany and probably one in southern France.
"These days you have to be a global company," Musk said. "We're already taking orders in Europe and we have the European version under development."
He said Asia would likely follow, probably starting with Japan and eventually to other markets such as China and Singapore.
Tesla has applied for low-cost loans from the U.S. Department of Energy to cover up to 80 percent of planned investment projects worth $450 million.
(Editing by Peter Bohan, Gary Hill)