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Filed under: GM, Earnings/Financials

GM logo

Most automakers have already reported earnings for the first quarter of 2011, but General Motors is still busy counting its loot. We don’t know how well the largest automaker in the United States fared, but Bloomberg reports that GM could post a profit of $1.74 billion for the quarter. That would be a 63 percent improvement versus Q1 2010 and the best first quarter for GM in 11 years. A first quarter profit would also be the fifth consecutive quarterly profit for The General – a significant task given the fact that the automaker exited bankruptcy protection less than two years ago.

GM’s profit is expected because of the automaker’s successful quarter in the U.S. and China. The automaker sold 26 percent more vehicles in the U.S. during Q1 2011 than it did in the first quarter of 2010, while car buyers in China appear to be picking up as many GM products as they can.

In the short term, analysts are questioning whether a solid profit statement will affect the company’s stock. GM is still trading at levels close to the same $33/share when the company’s IPO was released. The stock briefly climbed to nearly $39/share before dropping back down into the low $30 range. Analysts claim that GM stocks could take a turn for the better due to supply chain issues for Japanese automakers. The General is reportedly in a good position to reap additional sales as the result of its competitors’ issues.

GM projected to have most profitable Q1 in 11 years originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 04 May 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Sedan, Technology, Earnings/Financials, Tesla, Electric

Tesla Model S

Tesla Model S – Click above for high-res image gallery

It’s not exactly a surprise that battery costs for electric vehicles will go down over time, but the big question is by how much and how fast. Tesla Motors, which uses small lithium-ion cells similar to the kind found in laptop computers, believes that lithium-ion pack costs will be low enough to make the $57,000 Model S profitable even though it’ll likely sell in smaller numbers than all-electric competitors like the Nissan Leaf.

That’s what Tesla’s chief technology officer J.B. Straubel told Bloomberg, adding that Nissan has “a cost challenge that will be more difficult to solve. It will require a lot higher volume before they really get to a cost point that is internally sustainable.” Nissan, of course, paints a different picture because it has been developing li-ion technology for almost two decades, but there you have it.

Nissan’s annual sales target for the Leaf, once full production gets going, is in the hundred-thousands, while Tesla hopes to sell around 20,000 units of the Model S a year. The big difference is in the price per kilowatt hour (kWh). Tesla co-founder Martin Eberhard told Bloomberg recently that he thinks Tesla’s battery packs might cost just $200 per kWH, while the large-format cells in the Leaf (and most other plug-in vehicles) could cost around $700 to $800 per kWh. Nissan has previously said the Leaf pack costs just under $750 per kWh.

[Source: Bloomberg]

Report: Tesla says Model S will be profitable thanks to cheaper batteries originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 02 Jan 2011 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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