Since it was founded in 2003, +Tesla Motors has had one month of profitability. http://green.autoblog.com/2009/08/07/tesla-achieves-profitability-in-july-but-for-how-long/ Not one quarter, but one month that was largely a fluke because they shipped a bunch of batteries to Daimler for a build of Smart EDs and delivered a bunch of Roadsters. 

The other day, CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the company had been cash-flow positive last week for the first time. While that is certainly progress and Tesla has made progress in a lot of areas this year, it is still far from a trend. 

A lot of people have worked very hard over the last nine years trying to make Tesla viable. I hope the company succeeds because they are doing interesting things. But let's not get too excited just yet. 

A big contributor to that profitability is their personalization program that lets buyers customize absolutely anything on their new ride for a price, usually even if it isn't on the regular menu. Among the crazy items that are on the regular menu are painted trim around the nav screen for $2,225. If you have more money than sense, Porsche is more than happy to take if from you. 

Reshared post from +TECHNICS

Trust me i'm an Engineer.

Way back in January we had some discussion here https://plus.google.com/u/0/114133424228405038490/posts/gsqgiPQqsdM  about how many plug-in vehicles would be sold in the US in 2012. +Anton Wahlman was projecting sales of about 130,000 units. My estimates were considerably more conservative at no more than half that number. 

So far with 11 months down, the tally stands at just 43,193 not including the Fisker Karma and Tesla Model S (they don't report sales) and if the November number carries over, we'd be at about 55,000 for the year. 

While my total was closer than the Anton's, my distribution was a bit off. Here's what I called in January.

Nissan Leaf – 20,000
Chevy Volt – 20,000
Fisker Karma – 5,000
Toyota Prius PHEV – 10,000
Mitsubishi i – 2,000
Tesla Model S – 5,000
Ford Focus Electric – <1,000
Ford C-Max Energi – <1,000
Ford Fusion Energi – <1,000

As of November 30, the totals stand at

Nissan Leaf – 8,330
Chevy Volt – 20,828
Fisker Karma – 1,500 (est)
Toyota Prius PHEV – 11,389
Toyota Rav4 EV – 140
Mitsubishi i – 511
Tesla Model S – 1,500 (est)
Ford Focus Electric – <518
Ford C-Max Energi – <1,403
Ford Fusion Energi – 0 (this one isn't coming until January '13)
Honda Fit EV – 74

It turns out that sales of the Nissan Leaf, Mitsubishi i, Fisker and Tesla  were all significantly lower than I expected. The Volt, Prius and C-Max Energi have all done a bit better than projected. 

I'm guessing 2013 will probably finally top 100,000 and probably fall somewhere short of 150,000 with the addition of the Chevy Spark EV, a less expensive, longer range Leaf, availability of the Fusion and Honda Accord PHEV, and a full year of the Model S and C-Max Energi. I suspect Fisker will be hard pressed to match this year's total with the problems at battery supplier A123. 

The plug-in market will remain a niche for some time to come. 

I've been a fan of the current Quattroporte and Gran Turismo for ages and I'm looking forward to see how the new ones turn out.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/30/in-the-autoblog-garage-2008-maserati-granturismo-w-video/