When Tesla has indeed imagined a car with thermal engine
Tesla's difficult pass, especially in Europeand more generally that of the electric vehicle market, pushes some to imagine a scenario where the American brand would develop models with internal combustion engine, in order to start its sales upwards. The point notably published an article Going in this sense, although no foundation makes it possible to consider this hypothesis as plausible. It would go against the brand's current strategy, which it is difficult to imagine being swept as easily.
A technical solution quickly dismissed
And yet Tesla has indeed imagined a car with a heat engine. This car, we all know it, since it is the Model S, the brand's first large series model. During its development, then under the code name Whiteitar, Tesla planned to produce two models of its sedan, one 100 % electric and the other with an extension of autonomy. “It's more than research. We intend to integrate it into our offer.”explained in early 2008 Ze'ev Drori, then CEO of Tesla, about this version with a range of autonomy (source: source: Cnet). However, as early as September 2008, four years before the launch of the Model S, Elon Musk, in the process of taking control of the company, announced that the future Tesla sedan would ultimately offer purely electric versions.
The counterpart to the Model S autonomy extension has therefore never seen the light of day. Finally almost, since Henrik Fisker, chief designer of the Whitestar project between 2007 and 2008, left Tesla for Foundé Fisker Automotive, the manufacturer with which he developed the Karma sedan … Electric with a range of autonomy. The designer was prosecuted by Tesla, who accused him of having stolen some of his ideas, but Henrik Fisker came out of this trial.
More than ten years after the launch of the two models, and although the electric vehicle market has little to do, the two are still in production. The Model S has evolved deeply, while Karma painfully tries to survive via the Karma Automotive company. It bought the assets of Fisker Automotive in 2014, after the manufacturer's fall, and revised Karma by declining it in particular in 100 % electric version. As for Henrik Fisker, he retained launching his own manufacturer under the Fisker Inc. brand, this time automatically with a 100 % electric car, the Ocean SUV, but the company went bankrupt in 2024.
