Tesla drops production cost of Roadster, profitability could come next month

In Tesla Motors’ blog, CEO Elon Musk took some time to set the record straight over the much talked about lawsuit filed by co-founder Martin Eberhard. As “twisted and wrong” as it may be, Musk felt he needed to set the record straight. However, the whole blog post wasn’t about Eberhard’s allegations in the lawsuit; Musk gave us some insight as to where Tesla is headed and how soon the electric-car startup will reach profitability.

“With the release of the Roadster 2 this month, we are finally at the point where Tesla has a solid supply chain and a unit cost that allows us to operate the Roadster business line profitably,” Musk said in his post.

He said that the material cost of the Roadster has been dropped to about $80,000 from as high as $140,000 in the summer of 2007. That should help Tesla reach profitability as early as next month. The car has a starting sticker price of $109,000.

“Combined with a steady production volume of 20 to 30 per week in the third quarter this year and a good take up rate of the higher priced Roadster Sport, we expect to cross over into profitability next month,” Musk said.

Interested in what Musk had to say about theĀ Eberhard lawsuit? Head over to Tesla’s blog to read his lengthy post.

– By: Omar Rana

Source: Tesla Motors (via MSNBC)