Tesla-cofounder Martin Eberhard's lawsuits and smack-talking of the electric automaker's got current CEO Elon Musk deciding to set the record straight in a ginormous blog post. Bottom line: He expects the company to be profitable next month. Also, Eberhard sucks.
Along with airing pretty much all of Eberhard's dirty laundry, refuting from his perception, all of the claims in the lawsuit, Musk also makes Eberhard look like something of an incompetent nincompoop. There are some real stingers buried in the enormous writing, complete with emails copied in to back up Musk's story, some of our favorites include:
There were several smaller items I suggested, such as the touchpad door latch that Eberhard tries to use as an excuse for why it cost over $140M to bring the Roadster to market instead of the $25M that he estimated in the 2004 business plan. That would have to be one hell of door latch! The $140M excludes any costs associated with the Model S."
and this not-so-subtle slap:
"All he had was a business plan to commercialize the AC Propulsion Tzero electric sports car concept. Three years later, when Eberhard was asked to leave Tesla, most of the work that he had been paid to do had to be redone."
Ouch.
In any case, Musk goes on to say over the last few years of work, the total bill of materials price which was pegged around $140k when Eberhard was running the show has been reduced to around $80k. Along with improvements to the supply chain, the optional Tesla Roadster Sport and a run rate around 20-30 cars a week, Musk is expecting to see the company turn the corner and see profitability next month.
It's a bit of a long read, but if you want a look at all of Tesla's dirty laundry being aired in pretty much one place and understand a lot of the history behind the car and its delays, it's well worth the time. [Tesla]