BEIJING (AP) — Tesla Motors Inc. delivered its first
eight electric sedans to customers in China on Tuesday and CEO Elon Musk
said the company will build a nationwide network of charging stations
and service centers as fast as it can.
Tesla probably will invest
several hundred million dollars in charging infrastructure in China,
Musk told reporters. He said it will open several hundred service
centers.
"My instructions to the team are to spend money as fast as they can spend it without wasting
it," he said.
The
Palo Alto, California, company previously announced a $121,000 sticker
price for its Model S in China. It said import taxes and shipping
account for the difference with its U.S. price tag of $81,000.
Customers
received the first Model S sedans at a brief ceremony at Tesla’s office
in a Beijing industrial park, also the site of its first Chinese
charging station.
"I’m incredibly appreciative of customers like
you for taking a chance on a new product from a new company," Musk told
them. "Without customers like you, we would have no chance."
Chinese
leaders want to develop an electric car industry and called in 2009 for
annual sales of 500,000 electric cars by 2015 but have scaled back
those plans. Industry growth has been slow partly due to rules that
limit market access unless foreign manufacturers share technology with
Chinese partners that might become rivals.
Tesla hopes to partner
with China’s state-owned power monopolies, State Grid and Southern Grid,
to operate charging stations, but no "serious discussions" have begun,
Musk said. He said the car can be charged from a wall socket but the
charging stations speed up the process.
The stations will have
solar panels, but Musk said that was meant to show vehicles can run
without power generated from coal rather than to make them independent
of utility companies. He said charging stations will be built both in
cities and between them to facilitate long-distance travel.
Musk said previously Tesla might sell 5,000 cars this year in China but emphasized Tuesday that was
"just a guess."
"I
do think that’s probably a good number. Maybe it will be higher," he
said. "I don’t honestly know. Thus far the response has been very
positive."
Musk also previously said Tesla might try to
manufacture cars in China in as little as three to four years. He said
that might take longer but the company still hopes to produce vehicles
where they are sold.
Foreign manufacturers that want to produce
electric cars in China are subject to import taxes unless they give
ownership of key technology to a Chinese partner. Producers such as
General Motors Co. and Nissan Motor Co. have chosen instead to import
electric and hybrid vehicles and pay duties that boost their price and
limit sales.
Some Chinese customers expressed frustration after
Tesla delayed deliveries by several months. Musk said the company wanted
to avoid a repeat of trouble it had in Europe when it rolled out
vehicles too quickly. He said deliveries were postponed while the
company made sure all customers had access to charging facilities.
"We
intentionally held back on the debut to the Chinese market until we
were confident of that," he said. Referring to customers, he said, "I
met with them earlier today and personally apologized."
Musk said
Tesla still is deciding where in the United States to build what it says
could be the biggest factory to produce lithium-ion batteries.
The
company is looking at four states — Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada and
Texas — and is likely to break ground in more than one before making a
final decision, Musk said. He said the company wants to make sure
construction stays on schedule and keeps up with demand from Tesla’s
California auto assembly line.
"We are going to proceed with at
least two locations in parallel, just in case one of them encounters
some issues after breaking ground," Musk said. He said Panasonic was
likely to be Tesla’s partner in battery production.
Tesla has no
plans for additional modifications to strengthen the Model S
undercarriage to protect against road debris after announcing in March
it would add a titanium shield, said a company spokesman, Simon Sproule.
Tesla announced the modification after two cars were destroyed in the
United States in fires blamed on road debris that punctured an aluminum
shield and their batteries.
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