Friday, May 31, 2013

"Tesla’s Musk: Good Chance of Google Partnership, $35,000 Auto" (TSLA)

Following up on "Live Blog: Tesla's Elon Musk Speaks to CNBC (TSLA)".
From Barron's Stocks to Watch Today column:
During a CNBC appearance this morning, Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk said Tesla could partner with Google on self-driving car technology.

Tesla Motors (TSLA) shares are down $1.50, or 1.5%, at $103.36. Shares of Google (GOOG) are up less than a point to $875.31 in morning trading.

But before you get too excited about the prospect of 22nd-Century cruise control — a coffee in one hand and smartphone in the other — the government saw fit to issue a new policy yesterday on vehicle automation  – see this U.S. Department of Transportation press release.

Today, in a series of CNBC questions from Carl Quintanilla, Jim Cramer, and David Faber, Musk said there is a “good chance” Tesla would partner with Google to develop self-driving cars. But he said there is nothing planned at the moment, and that Tesla is interested, itself, in developing a self-driving car technology.
Musk said Tesla  may be able to produce a model costing $35,000 or so in about three to four years. When Cramer asked whether cheaper models would hurt the resale value of the current “Model S,” Musk said he thinks the current car will maintain its value because demand will be higher than the company’s own manufacturing ability for some time to come....MORE