Tesla Motors in Bad Need of Funding

Tesla’s roadster might be one of the most talked-about cars in the industry, but the company seems to have bitten off more than it can chew. The CEO has admitted that the company is down to having $9 million in the bank, which is nowhere near as much as is required to deliver all of the cars pre-purchased or those with a down-payment.

To date, less than fifty of these sportsy electrics have been delivered to customers, which is far less than the 1,200 that have been ordered. Some customers have paid for their car outright, while others have paid down-payments of at least $5,000. This could be a huge problem if it was unlikely that investors were going to give up on the company, but CEO Elon Musk expects $20 million worth of funding to become available next week.

Things are not looking that great for the Silicon Valley startup, and unless sales begin to further improve or prices begin to go down, customers are going to become much more interested in more modest offerings once they become available, especially once Detroit manages to get their own electrics out the door.

Do the math: If Tesla has $9 million in the bank, and requires another $20 million to get to positive cash flow over the next nine months, then it is burning at least $3 million a month. And that’s after it laid off 24 percent of its workforce and announced plans to shutter its Detroit office.