[caption id="attachment_1089" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Tesla Roadsters awaiting final prep and delivery to first owners."]
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Let me just give it away now….the first day we filmed this fall at Tesla, we got to see not one, not two, not three, but, and I counted—over 40 production Roadsters in the Menlo Park buildings. There is something about the sight of more than four million dollars of incredibly sleek, fast (they do look fast - even standing still) car flesh under one roof that really makes you tingle. It was tangible proof that the cars were.....well, that the cars were, and that the production line was moving. It's also when and where our Director, Chris, finally got to meet his car, a real beauty. See
Chris's Blog Post about his Tesla delivery.
Once again, it’s an exciting time to be following the electric car world. We’ve been following the Tesla story since they were in "stealth" mode, in the spring of 2006. Most of you have seen those few precious seconds of Tesla footage in "Who Killed the Electric Car ?" What most of you couldn't guess is that when JB Straubel backed the car out of an enclosed trailer below the windmills of Altamont Pass for our film shoot, there was a gaping hole where the front grill should have been. When asked, JB replied that some details, like the entire grill, were not yet finalized. Hmmmm. A quick trip down to Home Depot for some landscaping mesh plus some metal binder clips from Office Depot gave us all we needed [the film crew mind you, not Tesla engineers] to fabricate a grill worthy of a film appearance. Elapsed time: 35 minutes. JB was impressed! We even let him 'keep' our design.
That was our first brush with Tesla. Then, the company was pure California start-up - occupying a no-frills warehouse space in a little lane in the heart of Silicon Valley. We found a bunch of geeks, EV nerds and entrepreneurs who were thrilled to be able to actually get jobs working on a technology that they thought might help change the world—and what a sexy technology! The car we filmed that day was just a rough version of the highly refined luxury mobile offered today, but still it was the quickest 0-60 that I’d ever done.
Two years later, we took our crew back to Tesla to film the arrival of production car #1, Elon's personal hot car. The mood in the air was pure victory, even though the car was well over a year coming than originally forecast. Journalists jockeyed for the pole position to capture Elon's triumphant peel out of the driveway in his new baby. The crowd was on fire.
Six months later the world had changed. The financial market had tanked, taking Tesla's cash source with it. And the online rumor mill had changed its tune from "Gee, isn’t this an amazing technology that we wish we could all own?!" To, "Gee, how much longer do you think this company can last with dwindling cash reserves, missed delivery targets," and a new blogger chorus: "Tesla sucks for making a cool car that none of us can afford to own."
With storm clouds brewing, our "Revenge" team was lucky enough to be granted access to Tesla's San Carlos shop to check in with Elon, and see how his first weeks as CEO were shaping up.
While I can't tell you everything we filmed, or Elon would have to kill me. What I can tell you is that we were able to witness some serious team building and whip cracking ...which we'll share with you soon!
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Let me just give it away now….the first day we filmed this fall at Tesla, we got to see not one, not two, not three, but, and I counted—over 40 production Roadsters in the Menlo Park buildings. There is something about the sight of more than four million dollars of incredibly sleek, fast (they do look fast - even standing still) car flesh under one roof that really makes you tingle. It was tangible proof that the cars were.....well, that the cars were, and that the production line was moving. It's also when and where our Director, Chris, finally got to meet his car, a real beauty. See Chris's Blog Post about his Tesla delivery.
Once again, it’s an exciting time to be following the electric car world. We’ve been following the Tesla story since they were in "stealth" mode, in the spring of 2006. Most of you have seen those few precious seconds of Tesla footage in "Who Killed the Electric Car ?" What most of you couldn't guess is that when JB Straubel backed the car out of an enclosed trailer below the windmills of Altamont Pass for our film shoot, there was a gaping hole where the front grill should have been. When asked, JB replied that some details, like the entire grill, were not yet finalized. Hmmmm. A quick trip down to Home Depot for some landscaping mesh plus some metal binder clips from Office Depot gave us all we needed [the film crew mind you, not Tesla engineers] to fabricate a grill worthy of a film appearance. Elapsed time: 35 minutes. JB was impressed! We even let him 'keep' our design.
That was our first brush with Tesla. Then, the company was pure California start-up - occupying a no-frills warehouse space in a little lane in the heart of Silicon Valley. We found a bunch of geeks, EV nerds and entrepreneurs who were thrilled to be able to actually get jobs working on a technology that they thought might help change the world—and what a sexy technology! The car we filmed that day was just a rough version of the highly refined luxury mobile offered today, but still it was the quickest 0-60 that I’d ever done.
Two years later, we took our crew back to Tesla to film the arrival of production car #1, Elon's personal hot car. The mood in the air was pure victory, even though the car was well over a year coming than originally forecast. Journalists jockeyed for the pole position to capture Elon's triumphant peel out of the driveway in his new baby. The crowd was on fire.
