Tesla's biggest test: Elon Musk's company has confounded naysayers - but its audacious growth plans will stretch Tesla far beyond its comfort zone

摘要

In the past year, electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors has posted its first quarterly profit, quintupled its stock price, and won a near-perfect score from Consumer Reports for the Model S sedan. Now comes the hard part. Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk wants the company's estimated 2013 U.S. volume of 20,000 units to soar to 250,000 - and to 500,000 globally - by the end of the decade. Such rapid growth would be unprecedented in the history of the automobile. In an exclusive interview with Automotive News, Musk candidly acknowledged the challenges facing Tesla. He spoke with less bluster than normally heard in his public statements. "We have a lot of work to do. We'll do our best to make it happen," Musk said. "I mink we will, but this is not a bold assertion we unequivocally will. There is a possibility we may not." Its initial order bank sated by true believers and early adopters, and its quarterly profit reports pocked with asterisks, Tesla now must win customers away from established luxury brands. To grow to its hoped-for volumes when its $35,000 Gen III cars arrive in a few years, it must transform from an automotive boutique to a volume automaker.