Tesla Posts $89.9 Million Q1 Loss, Model S Here by June

Written by Naption on May 10, 2012. Posted in Rides

Elon Musk is good at a lot of things. Starting PayPal. Launching a rocket into space — and recovering it. Starting a car company. Being fascinating on the Daily Show. Making money.

He’s not, however, very good at making money with his car company. Tesla has just posted Q1 financials and they’re worse than expected.

Tesla posted a $ 89.9 million quarterly loss on revenues of only $ 30 million. Last year Tesla only lost $ 48.9 million in the first-quarter on revenue of $ 49 million.

There is, however, a light on the horizon in the form of the Model S. Tesla is finishing crash testing now and plans to begin customer deliveries by June. Tesla plans to deliver 5,000 model S sedans in 2012 (They have 10,000 reservations on the books.) for a projected 2012 revenue of $ 560M.

Tesla has also announced that they’re rolling out a new “Go Electric Digital Experience” in its Tesla Roadster retail stores to “help customers visualize the EV energy needed to accommodate their individual driving and life style.” Tesla has been claiming big range numbers with the new Model S and a new chart helps to visualize what impact speed has on range.

Oh, Tesla also gives the caveat that this graph is representative of a drive on flat ground with no wind, a constant speed, climate control OFF, 300 pounds of vehicle load, windows up and sunroof closed, tires at recommended pressure and a new battery pack (defined as one under a year old with fewer than 25,000 miles).

Tesla assumes it is possible to go 400 miles on a single charge but they’ve yet to test the theory. They are, however, “planning a prize for the first customer that actually drives over 400 miles on a single charge. ” Yes, they added the emoticon.