G R E E N M A C H I N E
in2000 for$187million (itwas later folded
by thebuyer,RupertMurdoch’sGemstar).
EberhardmetMusk,whohasanetworth
of$328millionandhelpedcreatePayPal, at
aMars Societymeeting (a group dedicated
tothe“explorationandsettlementoftheRed
Planet”) in 2001. Three years later, Eber-
hardandTarpenning, Tesla’s cofounder and
vice president of engineering, approached
Musk to back Tesla Motors. “He gave me
half anhour tomake a presentation, which
turned into two hours, and by the end, we
had a handshake deal that he would invest
in the company,” Eberhard explains. (Musk
is also backing SpaceX, the rocket-launch
company that recently won a NASA con-
tract to develop a vehicle to service the In-
ternational Space Station.) Today, Tesla has
venture capital of more than $100million,
including the initial investment fromMusk.
The company is building an assembly
plant inNewMexico, but like somany Sili-
conValley ventures, it is using technologies
invented and assembled elsewhere. For
example, the lithium-ion cells used for the
battery are wired together into sheets in
Thailand and surrounded by a computer
system that manages charge levels and
cools the cells.
Even thecompany’s signature technology
is borrowed. Nineteenth-century physicist
Nikola Tesla built the fir t AC induction
motor, the same kind of motor that gives
theRoadster its silent roar.What is propri-
etary and what the company controls are
the 15patent applications that focus on the
power train.
Themotor,whichweighsonly70pounds,
sits in the rearof thecar, alongwith thebat-
tery. The battery is equipped with 13 pro-
cessors that monitor everything from volt-
age and temperature to smoke levels; these
processors are linked to an onboard com-
puter that controls such things as the speed
of themotor, braking, andbatterycharging.
And those cooling vents in the rear of the
car work like the vents on the back of your
desktopPC tower.
“The things that are the core competency
of Tesla— like the drive train— are things
we hold closely,” Siry says. “The battery
pack, ourpowerelectronics, themechanism
to turn energy intomotion, and themotor
are unique to Tesla. That’s where the pat-
ents are.”
WhatTeslawill leverageare the suppliers
Detroit uses, as well as its experience. The
companyhas opened anoffice inRochester
Hills (north of Detroit). It has hired about
two dozen auto-industry veterans and em-
ploysmore than60people in total.
“The ecosystem for auto manufacturing
looks verydifferent,” Siry says. “Wehaveac-
cess to the same suppliersDetroit uses.We
don’thave tobuildeverything from scratch.
For example, forWhiteStar
[
thecodename
forTesla’snext planned car
]
,wehaveanas-
semblyplant inAlbuquerquewe’rebuilding.
Butwe arenot going tobuild the tooling to
manufacture the body.We’ll have someone
elsedo that. Theywill stamp thealuminum
and paint the car for us. We don’t need to
invest inmassive infrastructure to do these
things.”
When Silicon Valley’s talent for inno-
vation merges with Detroit veterans who
understandhow tomake cars, “it really be-
comesmagical,” Siryadds.
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