WEBVTT - The Tesla Tale Part Two 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in test with technology with text Stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:13.880 stuff dot com. We're there, we won and welcome to 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:17.000 text Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren foc Obama, 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:20.520 and we are going to continue our discussion about Tesla Motors, 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:25.800 the company that strives to bring electric vehicles to everyone 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:28.639 as long as you have lots of money, lots of 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:31.080 money right now. They have they had solid plans for 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:33.880 the future, and it's really impressive for a company that's 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:36.600 only been around since two thousand three, right, especially for 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:39.839 a company that went through so much public turmoil. I mean, 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.040 there were a lot of moments that we talked about 0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:44.400 in our last episode where you could have looked at 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:46.320 that at the time and thought, Okay, the writings on 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.400 the wall, this company is not going to last. But 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:52.479 it lasts. It's still around. I mean, you can you 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.279 can buy Tesla's now, so yeah. Yeah. At the end 0:00:55.280 --> 0:00:57.640 of our previous episode, we were talking specifically about some 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.760 of the financial problems that were happening um and during 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:03.400 which Elon Musk talked to his brother Kimball and went like, 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:06.240 I really just need just a little bit more private funding. 0:01:06.280 --> 0:01:08.119 And one of the things that Kimball said to him, 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:10.600 was like, are you sure, Are you sure that's what 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:12.280 you need right now? Like, are you sure it's going 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.160 to be worth it? Right? And? Uh, you know, Musk 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:18.640 is a determined individual. I think you would say, especially 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:20.839 if you'd listen to our episode that we recorded about 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:26.080 Elon Musk last year. Uh, he's he's certainly, he's got 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.319 He's got that vision and the determination to follow through 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:33.200 to achieve that vision. That is pretty important in this 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:36.440 kind of industry. So August two thousand nines where we're 0:01:36.440 --> 0:01:39.160 picking up, and that is when Tesla Motors relocates its 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:44.119 headquarters from San Carlos to Palo Alto. Over the course 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:46.640 of two thousand nine, they would produce about eight hundred 0:01:46.720 --> 0:01:49.640 roadsters um and managed to get the production cost down 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:53.160 to some thousand dollars a piece, which is a lot 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:55.559 better than the hundred and forty thousand dollars a piece 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:57.920 that they were operating at a couple of years previous, 0:01:58.000 --> 0:02:00.600 especially since they were selling them at a hundred nine 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.160 thousand dollars a piece. So now they're selling them at 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.560 a profit profit as opposed to add a loss. Yeah, 0:02:06.680 --> 0:02:09.040 it's a in general, I mean, I don't know a 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.160 lot about business, but I do know that you generally 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:15.079 want to sell something for more money than it costs 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:17.960 you to make it. Uh at least that's I mean, 0:02:19.000 --> 0:02:23.200 I probably a missing something here. But in January, Tesla 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:26.400 registered for an initial public offering, which is kind of 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:29.680 interesting because, like we said, they had just you know, 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:33.680 asked the government for four hundred and sixty plus million 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:37.080 dollar a loan, but they were getting ready for it, 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:39.200 so they were registering it. And that's not exactly when 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:41.560 they held it, but that's when they registered. UM. The 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:44.360 key to that loan, if you remember from our previous episode, 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:49.160 was that Tesla had to have a mass production facility 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:51.160 UM and they did not have that yet. But in 0:02:51.200 --> 0:02:55.000 March of Musk secretly toward Knew Me, which was a 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:58.720 or is a two acre vehicle production plant in Freeman, 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:02.080 California that's valued some like one billion dollars UM. It 0:03:02.120 --> 0:03:05.280 belonged at the time to Toyota and General Motors. Well. 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.079 GM had backed out of the plant UM in two 0:03:08.120 --> 0:03:11.680 thousand nine after declaring bankruptcy, and Toyota was planning on 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:15.600 stopping production the following month and in April, so this 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:17.880 plant was basically up for grabs, and no one else 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:19.920 in the auto industry was doing well enough to really 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:22.480 want to take it over. Yeah, that global financial crisis 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:26.000 had really hit the auto industry, particularly in the United States, 0:03:26.040 --> 0:03:30.720 really really hard. Akio Toyota, that the president of Toyota 0:03:30.840 --> 0:03:33.800 himself had actually arranged this tour for Elon Musk and 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.080 would develop a friendship with Musk over the next couple 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.280 of months. Uh, they like test drove the roadster together 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:43.400 and like towards SpaceX and bonded over through you what. Yeah, 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:47.119 I know that happened. There, there's journalistic evidence of this thing. 0:03:47.240 --> 0:03:50.960 You mean that maybe one day I too might be 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:53.080 able to sit across the table from Elon Musket and 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:56.280 Joyce fro you. I think I think it's possible, especially 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.520 if you become the president of a multinational corporation that 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.480 ask can greatly profit from. Oh it's nothing but a 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:04.960 gravy train from myro on outfolks. All right, So May 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:09.080 two thousand ten, Tesla ends up buying that plant. Yeah, 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.520 for just forty two million dollars. You just told me 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:13.880 it was worth a billion. That is exactly what I said. 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:16.560 But you know, it's it's that thing where really no 0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:18.200 one else was in a position to buy it, and 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:21.159 they were fro Yo buddies at this point. So so yeah, 0:04:21.200 --> 0:04:26.160 you know, nothing, nothing really greases the wheels, like like Oreo, 0:04:26.400 --> 0:04:30.760 Like an Oreo crumbled Froyo. But yeah, sotwo million dollars. 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:34.320 This incredible, right, Yeah, Meska had budgeted that amount for 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:37.520 a much more modest factory and and ended up with 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:40.880 this massive place, this massive place. Yeah. And and Tesla 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:44.680 and Toyota also announced an agreement. Oh yeah, they said 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:47.240 they were going to start developing electric vehicles together at 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:51.520 Toyota agreed to purchase shares in Teslas. So in June, 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:56.040 Tesla has its initial public offering and joins the NASDAK 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:59.760 Stock Exchange. Now, that public offering was very successful, at 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:03.280 ray more than two twenty six million dollars, and it 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:05.839 was the first American car company to complete an I 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:10.360 p O since Ford's way back in Yeah. So at 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:16.400 that point, right, this is the same wired piece that 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:20.640 a quote from our previous episode had had been in. Right, 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:24.680 that's when Elon Musk said, at that point, every day 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:28.800 was like eating glass and staring into the abyss of death. 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:33.719 I'm not positive that was a dramatic reinterpretation, you guys, um, 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:36.760 but uh, yeah, that's that. That was a quote from 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:39.760 two eight or so when things were really not looking 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.120 very good for for for Musk and for Tesla, and 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.280 so things had turned around at this point a whole lot. 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.080 Musk at this point said, I'm not staring into the 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:53.880 abyss of death anymore. I'm just eating glass now. It's 0:05:53.920 --> 0:05:58.400 like sunshine and puppy dogs. Uh. And And that that 0:05:58.440 --> 0:06:01.000 wired piece, by the way, is how Elon Musk turned 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:04.000 Tesla into the car company of the future, by one 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:06.680 Joshua Davis. And it's a really triffic piece. I'll try 0:06:06.720 --> 0:06:08.440 to remember to link it on social so that you 0:06:08.440 --> 0:06:10.599 guys can enjoy it as well. Yeah, it's great. It's 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:14.880 a great resource for this this whole podcast. In January 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:18.520 two thousand eleven, Tesla reports its financial results and they 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:20.839 have to do this so publicly traded company has to 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:24.280 report part of the because you have the responsibility to 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.760 your shareholders as well as the government, and revealed that 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.680 it lost a hundred fifty four point three million dollars 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:35.159 in twenty ten, not a big not a big surprise. 0:06:35.200 --> 0:06:37.880 I mean again, because the roadster was really the only 0:06:37.920 --> 0:06:41.640 thing they had, uh as to sell. They had received 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:44.680 some investment money and alone, but they hadn't They didn't 0:06:44.720 --> 0:06:47.960 have any more product to move yet, right, and they 0:06:48.000 --> 0:06:50.560 still weren't producing a whole whole lot of them. Yeah. 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:54.560 In fact, roadster eventually, I mean spoiler alert, eventually the 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:57.279 the full number of roadsters that they produced was somewhere 0:06:57.320 --> 0:07:01.000 just south of two thousand, five hundred, so not that many. 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:04.400 Now we skip ahead a whole year, so let's all 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:09.480 go dolululu little in January two twelve now, and Peter Rawlinson, 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:13.000 who was vice president and chief engineer, and Nick Sampson, 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:17.240 who was a vehicle and chassis engineering supervisor, both resign 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:20.600 on the same day. At the as soon as the 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:26.200 news breaks, shares drop nineteen per cent. So it's part 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:29.200 of the problem here is that, uh, both of these 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:33.239 guys were very heavily involved in developing the models, and 0:07:33.520 --> 0:07:37.560 the fear was that this was going to lead to 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:40.080 some sort of problem with the model lesque production and 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:45.040 that people lost confidence in tesla Um. And also they 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:47.080 decided to do something else that was a little radical. 0:07:47.600 --> 0:07:50.280 Uh yeah, that that is when they in fact ended 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:55.360 production on the roadster before I could get one. Were 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:58.160 you planning on getting a roadster? Plan is a strong word, 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.679 dream or hope? Are you planning on getting a driver's license? 0:08:01.840 --> 0:08:04.240 I know I was playing on getting a driver and 0:08:04.320 --> 0:08:07.040 a roadster. The hard part is sitting in the back 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:09.920 of a car that only has two seats. That that 0:08:09.960 --> 0:08:12.920 part I hadn't figured out yet. But anyway, February two 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:17.960 thousand and twelve, that's when Tesla unveils a new vehicle. Yeah, 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:20.840 the Model X, which is an Suv yep, to go 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:25.880 on sale in early it's not it's they're they're supposed 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:29.200 to be delivered sometime this year. But although in another 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:31.040 spoiler alert here, if you were to put in an 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:33.320 order right now, it would essentially be a pre order. 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:37.520 They can't guarantee delivery till two thousand fifteen, so I'm 0:08:37.520 --> 0:08:39.360 telling you guys know. But but they were. They were 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:42.600 taking five thousand dollar deposits for the vehicle, and it 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:45.720 has my favorite feature of a vehicle ever. So now, okay, 0:08:45.720 --> 0:08:48.840 if the roadster can't be mine, I'm not a big 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:51.520 suv guy in general, but this one I would get 0:08:51.559 --> 0:08:56.440 for this one feature. It has freaking goal wing doors, 0:08:56.880 --> 0:09:00.520 you know, like the yea yeah, and hey, hey that 0:09:00.520 --> 0:09:02.520 would have a back seat, so you could have a driver. 0:09:02.800 --> 0:09:04.640 That's right, that's all right. I can have my driver 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:08.000 driving around in the electric STV. Okay, got a new goal. 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.880 I'm all right, I've recentered myself. So May two thousand twelve, 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:15.280 Tesla announces it will begin delivering Model S cars to 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:21.439 customers starting on June twelve. And then on June twelve, 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:25.400 they had an Apple like launch event where they started 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.280 to deliver the first Model S vehicles in person and 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.400 for the first three anyway. Uh I watched the video 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:33.640 on this and it was definitely very much like an 0:09:33.640 --> 0:09:36.000 Apple event, although I guess it was more of an 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:40.040 internal company event that press were invited to. I think 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:42.400 it was mostly Tesla employees and it was more of 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:45.000 a you guys, we did it. This was something that 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:48.839 people said was impossible. Everyone kept saying that, uh, it 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.199 was the company was not in good shape, that the 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:54.080 global crisis had caused us to lose sight of everything. 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.640 That never happened. It out here it is. And at 0:09:57.679 --> 0:10:02.720 that time there were ten owls and reservations for the models, 0:10:02.880 --> 0:10:05.960 and most of those people had never seen one, let 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:10.160 alone Saturn one let alone driven in one. So that's 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:14.400 that's a lot of promise. Yeah, and you've got, Yeah, 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:17.520 you've got. Some might say it's a little cultish. It 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:20.640 reminds me of another car company, the Saturn Car Company, 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.920 where people who got Saturn's early on. Did you ever 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:27.920 meet anyone remember some of the hype surrounding it, But 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:29.800 I didn't know anyone at the time. Now, yeah, well, 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:33.280 Tesla they talked about being a community, especially the roadster 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:36.840 community early on because those very few people, very exclusive, right, 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:39.360 But same sort of thing, Like it was this idea 0:10:39.400 --> 0:10:42.720 that you're being inducted into this sort of exclusive club. 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.480 But also because you shared this vision of an electric 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:49.960 car future with zero G emissions. I mean this was 0:10:50.320 --> 0:10:53.000 a big deal for a lot of people. Sure. Speaking 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:55.640 of cults, has that cult going? The cult of Matt? Oh, 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:58.839 the Matt one. Yeah. See, I'm not allowed to talk 0:10:58.920 --> 0:11:02.520 about that. I also can't talk to my family anymore. 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:06.520 But other than that, it's great. This is all Ben, 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:08.920 Ben and Matt of stuff. They don't want you to 0:11:10.040 --> 0:11:14.360 inducted Jonathan into a call they did. I'm not sure 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:17.120 if Scott bought in. Its kind of a holdout. Yeah, 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:19.600 it's Okay, we have people watching his house all the time. 0:11:19.720 --> 0:11:21.400 But if you go to their YouTube channel you can 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:24.840 check out Jonathan on that. Yeah, it's fantastic. So getting 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.480 back to the model s, it's a four door sedan. 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:30.880 This is that that luxury sedan that they had been 0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:35.400 talking about years before, right and they here it is 0:11:35.440 --> 0:11:38.840 finally coming out. It has an optional seating for seven. 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:41.480 As it turns out, there's a lot of extra cargo 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.520 capacity when you remove the need for exhaust systems and 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:47.000 thermal shieldings so that you don't cook your passengers like 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:52.240 eggs on an engine block, the catalytic converters and etcetera, etcetera. 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:55.120 It's also the body is made mostly of aluminum instead 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:57.840 of steel to cut down on weight, obviously very important 0:11:57.840 --> 0:11:59.960 so that you can not have to use as much 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.600 power to move the vehicle. Uh And unlike the Roadster, 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:07.280 it actually had two battery options, so you had one 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:11.520 that would give you the bigger battery package option would 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:14.080 give you three hundred six miles of range or about 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:18.160 four kilometers on a single charge, and the smaller had 0:12:18.160 --> 0:12:20.520 more arrange that was closer to the Roadster, which was 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:25.720 about two hundred forty four miles or around three kilometers. Now, 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:28.280 it was also designed to be very aerodynamic to cut 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:30.840 down on drags, so again to try further reduce the 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:34.400 load on that battery exactly, and it had regenerative breaking 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.080 to again reduce the load on the battery some more. 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:42.480 And uh, you know, the recharging thing still kind of 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.760 an issue, especially since some people just can't get over 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:47.520 that idea that oh, I want to be able to 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:49.800 drive as far as I want, whenever I want, and 0:12:49.880 --> 0:12:54.360 not worry about running out of juice. Well, it has 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:56.720 a mobile connector that can plug into a hundred ten 0:12:56.840 --> 0:13:00.480 vault or two hundred forty volt outlets. Uh. But you know, 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:02.120 usually you would just plug it in at night. If 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:04.439 you were to plug it into one of these outlets, 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:08.960 you would get only a fract faction of your full range. 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:11.439 So yeah, if you were on the road and you 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:14.160 wanted to charge your car, Uh, let's say you go 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:16.760 to a public charging station and you recharge the battery 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:19.760 at a rate where you get about twenty two miles 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:24.640 or kilometers for every hour of charge. Some can charge 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.080 a little faster than that. A two forty volt outlet 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:30.720 will provide thirty one miles or fifty kilometers of range 0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:34.559 per hour of charge. But they're super charger stations, and 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.040 I'll talk more about them in a little bit, but 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:40.400 they can provide one seventy miles or two hundred seventy 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:43.480 four kilometers of range for just thirty minutes of charge, 0:13:43.760 --> 0:13:47.240 and that's pretty incredible. Still, it's a half hour, right, 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:50.200 It's a lot different than it's much more cumbersome than 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:52.200 pulling up to a gas station and being out in 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.680 under ten minutes. Yeah, So that that's something that some 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.240 people still ball cat, even though I think most of 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:00.640 us if we were to actually right down how many 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:03.600 miles we traveled in a typical day, I think for 0:14:03.640 --> 0:14:06.320 most of us it would be significantly below the range 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:10.000 of the Tesla. Again, some people, obviously are are exceptions, 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:12.280 but I think the majority of us would be able 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.840 to uh comfortably drive that range and then plug in 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.160 at night and be fine the next day. Of course, 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:19.800 if you forget to plug in your car, then you're 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.760 you know, up the creek. So the car has a frunk, 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:27.280 which is a front trunk of that work. I don't 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.440 approve of it, it does. It just sounds dirty, but 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.520 that it's got it's got a frank. But yeah, I 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:36.720 don't I don't like the that that version of front 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:40.080 trunk either. I mean having a front trunk awesome. That's fine. 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.760 By calling calling it a fronk not good. But yes, 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:48.560 you can store stuff there excellent. Well. And the Roadster 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:50.840 just like the Roadster, it has an electric motor and 0:14:50.880 --> 0:14:54.480 fixed gear drive, but it has a liquid cool power train. 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.120 Unlike the Roadsters, which, as you recall from the last episode, 0:14:57.960 --> 0:15:00.400 exactly it just brought in air from the vents, this 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:03.520 one had a liquid cooling system and again it uses 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:06.400 lithium ion batteries just like the Roadster did. One of 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:10.720 the big shiny elements of this car was it's or 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:14.160 is it's seen UM touch screen for all of the 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:19.960 controls and UM media communication. You can you can do 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:23.640 everything from controlling the temperature in the cabin or know 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:26.280 all that kind of stuff. There's some people who I 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:29.840 know have said that that was a little scary to 0:15:29.880 --> 0:15:32.920 have a big panel that could be distracting to the 0:15:33.000 --> 0:15:36.960 driver but sor that could electrically short out and stop 0:15:37.000 --> 0:15:41.800 stop giving you, you know, importantality and information UM. But 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:46.240 chief designer friends von holtz Heusen said, uh, it's like 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:48.440 the leap of faith Apple took with the iPhone. There's 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:51.240 a cleanliness to the interior and the screen is the hero. 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:53.640 We're in the midst of a transition toward a new 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:56.320 way of thinking. For me, that's an iPhone moment, and 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.840 it is an impressive display. I mean, i've I've I've 0:16:00.360 --> 0:16:03.200 only seen pictures of them, because George is not one 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:06.000 of those places. We we live in Georgia, and George 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:07.400 is not one of those places that has a lot 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.320 of the supercharger stations. In fact, we have one, and 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:12.960 it's in Savannah, which, for those who are not familiar 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:16.880 with Georgia geography, is way the heck away from Atlanta, 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:19.800 about five hours travel time by car. Yeah, so you're 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.040 not gonna see a lot of these. Not saying that 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:23.960 no one has them in Atlanta. I'm sure there are 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:25.800 a few, but I haven't had a chance to see 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:27.760 one in person, but I've seen the pictures and they 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:31.000 are pretty so. When it launched, they had talked about 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:36.080 the base price of the lower end models without any 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:39.280 options on it or anything, was around sixty thousand dollars, 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:41.600 and the one with the larger battery pack was around 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:46.040 eighty thousand. Um, those numbers are different from today's numbers. 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.720 And also they changed year to year and based upon 0:16:48.720 --> 0:16:51.000 all the different options. So that was the idea of 0:16:51.000 --> 0:16:53.600 when it first launched. Um. And also there was this 0:16:53.640 --> 0:16:58.160 optional third row seat that that idea that seventh, it 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:00.000 wasn't that you would set three people in the front 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:01.840 and four people in the back or something. You know, 0:17:01.960 --> 0:17:03.960 it's meant just for children. And it meant that they 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:06.400 also had to put in extra safety features. Sure. Well, 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:10.120 the this this third row was facing backwards, and uh, 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.480 if customers order the car in this layout, it includes 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:17.800 a special rear bumper like like double bumper in the back. Yeah, 0:17:17.920 --> 0:17:20.239 it meant more there was more crumpled space there in 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.000 case of a rear collision. So if if a collision 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.720 happened at highway speeds, then uh, it would be just 0:17:26.800 --> 0:17:29.240 as safe from the rear as it would be from 0:17:29.240 --> 0:17:31.520 the front. So uh, and we'll talk more about its 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:34.800 safety record when we get into the second half. In fact, 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:37.520 this is a good place to take a quick break 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:40.879 to thank our sponsor. All Right, we've worked our way 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:44.160 up to September two thousand and twelve, the models has 0:17:44.160 --> 0:17:46.920 come out and at this point, Tesla announces that will 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:49.879 build out that supercharging network that I had talked about. 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:53.440 So the super charging stations were places that are our 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:58.320 places rather where people can quickly recharge their Tesla vehicles. 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:03.240 They use this proprietor arry kind of of connection between 0:18:03.240 --> 0:18:06.720 the supercharger and their vehicle, and for absolutely free of 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:10.280 charge for any Tesla user, they can start to recharge 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:13.240 their car and after about half an hour they've got 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:15.880 you know, a hundred seventy mile range. Like we said 0:18:15.880 --> 0:18:18.520 in the earlier part of this podcast, they would announce 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:22.320 a year later the the option to have um in 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:24.439 instead of sitting there for half an hour and charging 0:18:24.480 --> 0:18:27.000 your car, just swapping out the battery pack, which can 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.919 take as little as nine seconds. Yeah, yeah, there was. 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:32.200 There was one demo where they showed it being done 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.159 in something like thirty seconds. But this was you know, 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:38.080 in a in a scenario that was specifically engineered to 0:18:38.119 --> 0:18:40.880 be as fast as it possibly could be, all right, 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:43.440 and that is for a service fee. And I think 0:18:43.440 --> 0:18:46.160 that the formula that they use is is the market 0:18:46.200 --> 0:18:48.960 price of fifteen gallons of gas, which they estimate to 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:51.760 be somewhere between sixty and eighty dollars. Yeah, that's exactly 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:53.960 what I've heard as well. So in other words, you 0:18:54.000 --> 0:18:56.199 can if you if you have the time, you can 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:58.520 sit around for half an hour and let your car recharge, 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:00.880 or if you're gonna get going, you can dish out 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:03.439 the sixty to eighty bucks or whatever the equivalent is 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:06.719 at that given moment and get a new battery switched 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:08.760 in and it'll be fully charged and does give you 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:14.600 a full range of travel. Again. So the other thing 0:19:14.600 --> 0:19:18.159 about this proprietary technology is it means that only model 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:22.400 S vehicles can um plug into this stuff. So it's 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:26.400 not like there's any kind of uh market sensibility to 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:29.399 to get these things into as many charging stations as possible. 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:31.720 It's really just based on Tesla putting them in. Yeah, 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:35.600 because if you drive any electric vehicle from any other manufacturer, 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:40.320 you cannot take advantage of these superchargers. Um So it's 0:19:40.400 --> 0:19:43.600 it's kind of uh, it's kind of Tesla guaranteeing that 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:48.200 they're going to have an invested base because they've they're built, 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:50.680 they're the ones actually putting the infrastructure out there. They're 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:55.000 not depending upon other UH entities to do that. So far, 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.000 they have built seventy nine of those supercharger stations in 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:00.960 the U s um it's a it's a mostly West 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:03.280 coast trail. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. If you look 0:20:03.320 --> 0:20:06.680 at the map, um, imagine that it starts in Seattle. 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:08.719 It didn't really start in Seattle, but just think of it. 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:10.359 It looks like it's looks like it's a snake in 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:13.360 a way that the one end of it is in Seattle. 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:17.080 Then goes down the West coast with lots of stations 0:20:17.080 --> 0:20:20.600 in California, starts to loop inward. You guys who are 0:20:20.640 --> 0:20:22.399 not from the United States are going to get a 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:25.480 really weird sense of geography here. But starts the loop 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:28.919 inward and goes into Arizona and New Mexico before arches 0:20:29.080 --> 0:20:33.560 northward and goes into the upper Midwest States. Lots of 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.520 stations in Chicago, so once you get to Illinois, there's 0:20:36.520 --> 0:20:40.080 a good cluster there. Then it continues into the northeastern 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:43.399 part of the United States, then trails down the East coast, 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:44.720 which is where we get you know, the one in 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:48.640 station goes down into Florida, and then you have a 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:53.560 disconnected pocket of supercharged stations in eastern Texas. In fact, 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:58.040 Bernie Burns of of Rooster teeth has a model s 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:01.959 Tesla and talks about how it's great. He loves it, 0:21:02.000 --> 0:21:05.000 and he loves the supercharge stations, and he's frustrated about 0:21:05.000 --> 0:21:07.199 a certain law that we will talk about in a 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:10.960 little bit. But yes, Um, Tesla plans to continue building 0:21:10.960 --> 0:21:13.480 out this network of stations to get better coverage, and 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:15.760 in fact says that they estimate by the end of 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:18.160 two thousand fourteen they'll have eight percent of the United 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:20.600 States covered in parts of Canada as well, and by 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:24.160 the end of two thousand fifte percent of the country 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.440 should be covered, so that you should have a supercharger 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:31.280 within range of your vehicle and another one within range 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:38.400 of that one. Meanwhile, Europe does have a few yeah, yeah, 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:43.240