In a move to placate jittery investors, Tesla Motors’ CEO and CTO Elon Musk has agreed to stay with the company long enough to see the Tesla Model S sedan to fruition. Musk is an important asset in the company’s public relations arsenal, thanks to his reputation as a business and technology whiz kid. His other accomplishments include building rockets for his private space travel company SpaceX and pioneering the ubiquitous online payment service PayPal.
Tesla is currently taking pre-orders for the Model S sedan, a zero emission electric vehicle that is capable of 0-60 in 5.6 seconds, with a range of 300 miles on a single charge. The company has faced a number of setbacks in bringing the car to the market, including cuts in production. Tesla Motors spokesperson Christina Ra addressed the delays in an interview.
“The things we are potentially having to work on are not big things,” she said. “98% of the car is ready to go.” This mildly reassuring assessment was buttressed by the announcement that Elon Musk would personally inspect each new Tesla S as it came off the line. “At a high level, he’s looking at everything,” Ra claimed.
Musk, often described as an eccentric, has led Tesla to produce not only its own vehicles, but also to break ground on an Original Equipment Manufacturing division which sells electric power train components to the likes of Daimler and Toyota. Tesla has forged another deal with Panasonic to develop better Lithium ion battery technology.
The first deliveries of Tesla’s S sedan are expected later this year. Tesla Motors is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the symbol TSLA.
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