Re:Tesla announces biggest quarterly loss
by Retric on Thursday February 08, 2018 @04:13PM
(#16335642)
Well yea, if you include the governments contribution they spent over 1 million per EV1 produced. Look only at material costs and labor you can get ~80k each, but cost to GM per unit is really a question of: (how much GM spent on the program) / (number produced).
Anything else is subject to spin as for example it costs money to setup a factory making just (parts) + (labor costs) overly optimistic. Similarly marketing and sales costs can easily inflate unit costs to make it look worse.
On the other hand if GM could have used current battery technology and current battery costs they may have tried to make it work. But, it was clear at the time it was going to fail so they had fewer incentives to keep costs down.
Re:Tesla announces biggest quarterly loss
by cptskippy on Thursday February 08, 2018 @04:59PM
(#16335968)
> Well yea, if you include the governments contribution they spent over 1 million per EV1 produced.
You're not actually reading the paragraph. It says that the government contributed an unspecified amount from a $1.25 Billion budget to GM. And that the contribution defrayed the stated costs by GM which means a portion of the $500 million they spend was grant money.
"One industry official said that each EV1 cost the company about US$80,000, including research, development and other associated costs;[67] other estimates placed the vehicle's actual cost as high as $100,000.[2] Bob Lutz, GM Vice Chairman responsible for the Chevrolet Volt, in November 2011 stated the EV1 cost $250,000 each and leased for just $300 per month.[68] GM stated the cost of the EV1 program at slightly less than $500 million before marketing and sales costs, and over $1 billion in total, although a portion of this cost was defrayed by the Clinton Administration's $1.25 billion Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) program.[69][70][71] In addition, all manufacturers seeking to produce electric cars for market consumption also benefited from matching government funds committed to the United States Advanced Battery Consortium."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1