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]

There's apparently two kinds of Tesla employees — current employees and former employees suing Tesla. Frankly, we're not surprised Eberhard's suing Musk and Tesla. We're more surprised that it took this long to happen especially given Musk's propensity for diarrhea-of-the-mouth types of comments. For the moment, the only thing we have to go off of is the PDF file from the California Superior Court — which you can see here.

In response, we're told Tesla plans to counter-sue Eberhard. That went over real well with Henrik Fisker — let's see how well it works here. All we know is we're just proud Eberhard quotes former-Valleywag Owen Thomas in his court filing. Gotta love the V-wag love! (Hat tip to Owen!)

Photo Credit: Yodel Anecdotal @ Flickr

In a post on the "Tesla Founders Blog," Eberhard was quick to throw his full support behind the alleged electric wonder known as the Chevy Volt. He continues to praise the vehicle, its chief evangelist Bob Lutz and all of the technology involved in the conceptual design of the car, especially the battery. And yes, Eberhard did indeed say that he would drive a Volt if it were available today. Nevertheless, the original posting on the Tesla Founders Blog was quickly removed. Fret not: Google has done its job saving the cache and making it available for the world to ponder and/or mock. [Google Cache via GM Insider News]

"Tesla's Whitestar and Darkstar programs are DOA. The Detroit office is in trouble. it's all hands on deck to get the roadster to work"

I am writing for two important reasons:

1. To update you on the status of the Tesla Roadster program and your car
2. To let you know about a recent change in my role at Tesla Motors

First, the change in my role. I have had the distinct pleasure of being CEO of Tesla Motors for four years now, growing the company from two people in a tiny office in Menlo Park to 250 people spread around the world. The Roadster, once just a crazy idea of mine, is now almost ready for production, thanks to the hard work and quite a few strokes of brilliance by our team.

This week I move from the CEO position to become President of Technology, and I remain on Tesla's board of directors. In my new job, I will focus on the final details of the Roadster and on advancing Tesla's leadership in our core technology. I will also be able to spend more time with you, our customers. My passion is for creating technology that brings about meaningful change, and for the people who embrace such technology. As we move towards production and contemplate the choices ahead of us, we at Tesla need leadership with that same kind of passion and talent for operations - passion that will secure Tesla's future as the next major automobile company.

I initiated an intense CEO search some time ago, but the board and I have yet to find the right person to fill this role - even as Tesla continues to grow and its operational needs become paramount.

We are incredibly fortunate that Michael Marks, former CEO of Flextronics, the world's largest contract manufacturing company, has agreed to serve as CEO on an interim basis. Michael grew Flextronics from a small company to the 19 billion dollar powerhouse it is today. He is also an early investor in Tesla Motors and a customer. We could not ask for more able leadership during this transition. The Board and I will continue to search for a CEO to lead Tesla on a permanent basis.

Now, let's turn our attention to the Roadster. The excitement is building as we move towards the start of production. And naturally, the question on many Tesla customers' minds is "When will I get my car?"

The short answer is: We are still planning to start production of the Roadster by the end of next month and deliver the first cars to customers this fall. We have a good chance of meeting this goal, but to be fully transparent, I want you to know that while it is within our reach, it is not yet fully within our grasp.

Since my last formal update to you in December, we've made tremendous progress in building and testing the second generation prototypes. With each successive technical improvement, the driving experience has improved as well. We're waiting to publicly announce the results of our EPA range validation tests until all the results are in, but I'll let you know in advance you will be pleased. You are going to love this car.

So what's left to do? Testing, testing and more testing. It falls into two major categories.

* Crash testing. We're in the midst of final crash testing now, as outlined in the most recent issue of The Roadster newsletter. We feel confident about passing these tests, since we conducted these same tests on the first generation prototypes much earlier in the program. However, there is always the chance that something unpredictable occurs causing us not to pass this time, in which case we would incur a delay to address the issues. As soon as we complete crash testing our customers will be the first to know.

* Durability testing. This is where it all comes together to ensure that your car is durable and reliable. Durability testing includes both the mechanical components of the Roadster and also the software that controls everything from door latches to battery cooling. This testing has been underway for some time and will in fact continue after we start production of cars. This is typical of all car manufacturers; we want to insure that our test cars discover any long-term durability issues ahead of your car. We will soon enter the next phase of durability testing that incorporates all previous fixes. The results of this testing are critical to the schedule.Once we enter production, we will build the first cars very slowly - about one per week - accelerating as we gain experience. It takes about 5 weeks to ship the car from the U.K. to the U.S. So a September production start translates into an early November delivery of the first car to a customer.

We will hold short of projecting a specific delivery date for your car until we work through the milestones outlined above. In the meantime, we are working to the general timeframe of delivering Founders' Series cars this year, Signature 100 cars in Q1 2008 and other customers' cars after Q1 depending on when you placed your reservation. If we incur any additional delays due to the ongoing testing, I will let you know.

I want to express my deep gratitude for the trust you placed in Tesla when you reserved your car and for your willingness to embark on this journey with us. During this development program, I have learned that the first 5% and the final 5% of the creation of a car are the most difficult to achieve. We are going to build and deliver a great car for you. We're in the final 5% now and the end is in sight. Stay tuned.
Best regards,
Martin Eberhard
Co-founder and President of Technology
Tesla Motors