Detroit wasn't much help with Tesla Roadster - Automotive News

TO THE EDITOR:

While I agree that startup car companies can benefit from Detroit talent, Richard Truett's telling of the early Tesla story misses a couple of very salient points that contradict the thesis ("EV startups lean on Detroit to get ideas rolling," March 18).

First, the "last-minute save by BorgWarner" was actually fixing a transmission problem caused by another Tier 1 supplier, Magna. This was a case of one Tier 1 fixing the problems made by another Tier 1, not Detroit rescuing Silicon Valley.

Second, during the development and launch of the Tesla Roadster, Tesla had an engineering and supply chain office in Rochester Hills, Mich., with the express purpose of tapping the excellent automotive engineering talent of Detroit. We had over a dozen superb engineers and supply chain people there, all formerly employed by Ford, Chrysler, General Motors or a major Tier 1.

It is worth remembering that when we started Tesla in 2003, nobody in Detroit believed in electric vehicles at all. Detroit had famously just declared the EV dead, and there was nothing crazier than a bunch of engineers in Silicon Valley who thought they could start an EV company. Getting a supplier to even take a phone call was difficult, and persuading a professional to come join us was only possible when they were already under threat of a layoff by one of the Detroit 3. I would have hired more Detroit talent, and used more Detroit suppliers, if I could have done so.

MARTIN EBERHARD, Founder, chairman and chief technology officer, Tiveni Inc. San Mateo, Calif. The writer is the co-founder and original chairman and CEO of Tesla Motors.

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