Detroit Auto Show: Tesla gets in for cheap

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Speaking of Tesla, the upstart electric automaker wouldn’t even be at the Detroit Auto Show if not for the dire state of the economy -- further proof that there’s a silver lining to every dark recession cloud.

According to Rachel Konrad, Tesla’s spokeswoman, the company had no plans to attend the North American International Auto Show. In fact, Tesla has never before exhibited at a car show.

But with exhibitors dropping out of Detroit like flies (Suzuki, Rolls-Royce, Ferrari, Mitsubishi, and Land Rover all pulled out this year, and Porsche is out for the second year running), the show’s organizers were panicked to get exhibitors.

They’d already invited a supplier, Denso, as well as two Chinese automakers, Brilliance and BYD, onto the main exhibit floor (an unprecedented break in institutionalized hierarchy that for years kept all but major automakers in the building’s dank basement). They’d already let several local auto dealer groups (such as Mitsubishi and Lotus) erect makeshift stands on the floor to display cars in the manufacturers’ absence. They even approved a ‘lounge’ area on the main floor, where a vendor would sell cookies and coffee.

So when the show called Tesla’s offices in San Carlos, Calif., Konrad said, they made an attractive offer. She wouldn’t say how low the price was, but she ....

kept modifying her speech with ‘very, very’ and ‘shockingly’ to describe the deal.

That presented a problem for Tesla: Since it doesn’t have experience on the auto show circuit, the company had to scramble to put together a display in just a few weeks. To do that, company staffers took a mock-up electric Roadster chassis that was on display in the company’s retail store in Menlo Park and transported it to Detroit, putting on a drivetrain and battery in the process. The company also shipped out an off-red Roadster, and put the two machines up on platforms, flanked by a couple of flat screen monitors.

Et voila! Spare and unfussy, but functional.

Across the aisle from the simple stand was the decidedly high-style booth owned by the company’s archrival, Fisker, which is developing a plug-in hybrid. Where Tesla kept it basic, Fisker cut no corners, with an elevated platform, two rotating daises for his vehicles, a coffee bar in the back and a second floor.

Unfortunately for Fisker, the company reserved the space long in advance, well before show organizers began cutting prices to the bone.

This afternoon, while Tesla held its press conference to announce a business relationship with Daimler, Fisker’s chief executive, Henrik Fisker, stood under the bright lights of his own stand, steadfastly ignoring the events just yards away.

Fisker said that his company reserved the spot a year ago and that the company paid full fare for the exhibition space. But he said he wasn’t concerned with Tesla’s presence. ‘I’m not here to compete with other people,’ Fisker said. ‘I couldn’t care less.’

-- Ken Bensinger

Photographs: Elon Musk of Tesla, top; Fisker’s Henrik Fisker. Credits: Ken Bensinger/Los Angeles Times, top; Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times