automotive

Tesla To Showcase Roadster In Denmark

Tesla Motors Roadster

Tesla Motors, which makes high-end electric-powered cars, is doing shuttle diplomacy this week at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Denmark. Marketing at big-name events like Sundance is not unusual for auto marketers, but Tesla is one of the few who could get away with that at Copenhagen -- where the focus is, after all, global warming.

The San Francisco-based company will be offering test drives and will lead informational sessions about electric vehicles.

The conference will bring in some 15,000 attendees, who are staying in environmentally friendly hotels, drinking tap water instead of bottled, and using public transportation and electric vehicles to reach the Bella Center, where Roadsters will be the featured vehicles on display and available for test drives.

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The company, which has been expanding its dealership body, has delivered about 900 Roadsters throughout Europe and the United States. That is a miniscule number, but if Tesla succeeds in the affluent market, the news might be good for the lower reaches. The company says its two-seater, which retails for over $80,000, is twice as energy-efficient as the Toyota Prius.

Tesla will provide test drives of the Roadster during "Drive the Future" events this week in Copenhagen. The exposition showcases the Roadster, which is already on sale and in production, and climate-friendly prototypes that other automakers are developing and plan to sell in upcoming years.

Tesla's current Roadster has an MSRP of around $100,000, which perforce makes it a super-low-volume niche vehicle for affluent consumers whose other vehicle might be a Porsche Panamera. The company, with showrooms in London, Munich, Monaco, California's Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, Colorado, New York and Seattle, plans a sedan in the $50,000 range.

Wes Brown -- whose firm, Iceology, is currently advising another electric startup, Coda -- says Tesla's price point will keep it niche regardless of what happens in coming years. "It's ultimately difficult to measure, but at those price points you are dealing with a narrow market to being with." At $50,000, the market is mid-luxury, and north of $90,000 is high luxury and luxury sport.

The market will open up with the advent of vehicles like Chevy Volt, Coda and Nissan Leaf, all of which will be in the $30,000-$40,000 range. "What we have seen so far in EVs because of price point are very affluent people who buy because of design and performance," he tells Marketing Daily

Tesla, for instance, touts its Roadster as having more power than Audi's R8 supercar. But Brown says that while Tesla is getting early adopters who are willing to make a sacrifice, the market will always be limited if mass-market consumers steer clear because they are not.

"There is psychological barrier where infrastructure will matter. The reason hybrids have done so well is convenience," says Brown. "For EVs to work, you will have find a way to make it as convenient as possible to customers: where to charge, how long will it take, and what's the range. The companies that can work that out are going to convince people to make the shift."

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