The CEO of Tesla Motors said today that the material cost of the electric car company's Roadster sports car has dropped to about $80,000, which should help the company reach profitability next month.
Elon Musk said in a blog post on Tesla's Web site that the material cost, which is the total cost of the parts and components that make up each vehicle, was as high as $140,000 in summer 2007.
The car currently 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 wrote in his blog post.
The Roadster, a two-seat electric sports car, can get more than 200 miles on a single charge with an acceleration of zero to 60 mph in just under 4 seconds.
Musk said a key step toward lowering the costs was moving production of the vehicle's battery packs from a factory in Asia to the San Carlos-based company's home state.
"This may sound counterintuitive, but our unit cost actually went down and quality improved as we went to a more automated system and could iterate quickly with engineering to find design efficiencies, " Musk said.
In addition, moving production of the heavy and bulky battery packs significantly lowered the company's shipping costs, he said.
Closer to affordable! ;)
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