[SoCalGuy]

This is what Fisker should have done, among other things - finding a tested secondary battery supplier in the event they have delivery (or insolvency) issues with their primary one.

This becomes especially true when your business is entirely dependent on one, in this case, smaller-sized supplier (TSLA:$21B mcap; Panasonic $20.6B).

http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/08/tesla-motors-inc-tsla-adds-samsung/

 

[Fabulist]

This is what Fisker should have done, among other things - finding a tested secondary battery supplier in the event they have delivery (or insolvency) issues with their primary one.

This becomes especially true when your business is entirely dependent on one, in this case, smaller-sized supplier (TSLA:$21B mcap; Panasonic $20.6B).

http://www.valuewalk.com/2013/08/tesla-motors-inc-tsla-adds-samsung/

Does Tesla assemble the battery in-house using the modules provided by Panasonic, and soon Samsung? Or do they buy the entire battery as a completed unit? If the former is the case, it would be a lot easier to convince multiple suppliers to provide modules, but the latter would be more complicated.

Fisker could barely support one supplier. It would have been a tall order to get a second supplier to commit to making the same battery that is sitting around collecting dust at the first supplier's warehouse.

 

[SoCalGuy]

Does Tesla assemble the battery in-house using the modules provided by Panasonic, and soon Samsung? Or do they buy the entire battery as a completed unit? If the former is the case, it would be a lot easier to convince multiple suppliers to provide modules, but the latter would be more complicated.

Fisker could barely support one supplier. It would have been a tall order to get a second supplier to commit to making the same battery that is sitting around collecting dust at the first supplier's warehouse.

It is the former. It is true that Fisker opted for the sealed auto pack solution from A123 rather than buying battery cells and assembling their own pack. But tying one's own fragile fate to the viability of another startup seems like a recipe for disaster (which was proven true in retrospect - the Consumer Reports fiasco as well as the battery recall were two near-fatal blows to FA - only thing worse was the set of fires).

 

[Fabulist]

It is the former. It is true that Fisker opted for the sealed auto pack solution from A123 rather than buying battery cells and assembling their own pack. But tying one's own fragile fate to the viability of another startup seems like a recipe for disaster (which was proven true in retrospect - the Consumer Reports fiasco as well as the battery recall were two near-fatal blows to FA - only thing worse was the set of fires).

Turned out that incompetent, or maybe even self-dealing, management was even more devastating than the fires, etc.

 

[Falcon9]

Tesla looking to double to triple all consumer battery production in a few years, that's crazy amount of battery!

http://www.greencarreports.com/news...ne-double-global-demand-for-its-battery-cells

 

[AnOutsider]

Tesla looking to double to triple all consumer battery production in a few years, that's crazy amount of battery!

http://www.greencarreports.com/news...ne-double-global-demand-for-its-battery-cells

Craziness:

CEO Elon Musk has noted that some suppliers tooled up based on projections that Tesla would build no more than 3,000 Model Ses over the car's lifetime. Instead, that's now only six weeks' production.

Not sure why they did that considering there were over 10k reservations by launch. I guess they were just hedging their bets.

 

[SoCalGuy]

Sorry, saw this graphic and it made me laugh (from Jalopnik):

 

[ct-fiskerbuzz]

Sorry, saw this graphic and it made me laugh (from Jalopnik):

Wrong kind of teeth: it needs shark teeth.

(The front end of the Model S has always made me think of a shark, somehow.)

 

[AnOutsider]

Wrong kind of teeth: it needs shark teeth.

(The front end of the Model S has always made me think of a shark, somehow.)

ya me too, and the X like a bird of prey. Funny pic tho