Electric car company Tesla Motors isn't having a good week. The AP reports that the company's shares just took a 6 percent dive. A video of a Tesla vehicle on fire was posted to the internet by the car blog Jalopnik, sent in by one of their readers. Here's the video that was taken near Seattle (beware, the videographer's reaction includes some expletives):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0kjI08n4fg
Here's what the AP story says about what happened:
“The incident happened Tuesday after 8 a.m. as the driver was traveling southbound on state Route 167, said Trooper Chris Webb of the Washington State Patrol. He said the driver stated that he believed he had struck some debris on the highway, triggering the fire, but a trooper who responded to the scene was unable to locate any objects on the roadway.”
Tesla has experienced explosive (excuse the pun) growth over the past year and has recently expanded their super-charging stations in the Pacific Northwest.
This fiery crash story comes just as Reuters reports on automobile giant GM studying the upstart Tesla, not just for its innovation with electric vehicles, but also with how they are selling the cars. Reuters spoke to GM Vice Chairman Steve Girsky:
“In unusually frank praise for a competitor, Girsky said Tesla was "revolutionizing the business model ... not just how you put an EV (electric vehicle) together (but) how you go to market with something like this.”
It’ll be interesting to watch how the electric vehicle maker fares in the long-run.
-- Toni Tabora-Roberts