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Weekly Recap: The divergent paths of Tesla and Fisker

There's no doubt that Tesla is downshifting while Fisker has been grinding its gears. But it wasn't always that way.
In the wake of Tesla's recent success, it's easy to forget that there were once two California electric carmakers with bright futures.

Why Tesla will need more loans to make it through 2013

It's fun to bet against Elon Musk and Tesla - that's the best reason we can find for so many people doing it even though the man, his company and his cars are still here and still very popular. The latest name inscribed in the column labeled "Skeptical of Tesla" is John Shinal at Market Watch who, in year-end commentary on Tesla's financials, says that the "carmaker's financials are reminiscent of a dot-com's." He does not mean that in the good way.
To be fair, Shinal isn't exactly betting against Tesla, he's saying that if you check the bottom lines, the only thing keeping Tesla alive is the hundreds of millions in Federal Department of Energy loans it has received. Based on its filings, he says the company has less than six months of cash on hand, hasn't produced as many cars as it promised and had to lower its revenue forecast for 2012, has had a "year of net losses and negative operating cash flow," and was underwater by at least $37 million at the end of the third quarter.
But Shinal's not done there, summarizing Tesla as an operation with "a poor habit of failing to deliver to customers the cars it has promised them, while simultaneously raising the prices of those yet-undelivered cars," and "a lousy level of customer service." He says there are more damning things to be found in Tesla's SEC registration settlement from September, but we'll have to wait for his next column to find out what those are. The takeaway, in Shinal's opinion, is that even though Tesla will keep getting money from the government, that investors have no business dealing in Tesla stock.

Elon Musk: Tesla Model E will be 20 percent smaller than Model S [w/video]

Somewhere between a Lexus CT 200h and an Acura ILX. But a little quieter and definitely bigger than a breadbox. That's the best comparison we could come up with when trying to get an idea of how big Tesla's more moderately priced sedan will be when it hits the market sometime around 2016. Tesla Motors chief Elon Musk, speaking to the California Public Utilities Commission recently, estimated that the Model E will be about 80 percent the size of the Model S sedan. You can see the video of this below. Now we're not sure exactly what that means, but we can practice a little geometry with the Model S's 196-inch length and 77-inch width and have some fun with the possibilities. And a quick perusal of sports sedans will reveal that the Model E's footprint will be a little bigger than the Lexus in question and slightly more petite than the ILX. Either way, Musk's estimate rounds out the equation of sorts for the Model E, even though he doesn't use that name in the video below. The car will have a minimum 200-mile range, Musk said (perhaps from a 48-kWh pack?) at about half the cost. And with 80 percent of the size. As for when we'll start seeing sales of the Model E, which is supposed to start at $35,000, that deadline has migrated over the years from as late as 2017 to as early as next year and then back to 2016. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.