Daimler passes 4 percent of Tesla to Abu Dhabi firm

July 14, 2009 | Camille Ricketts | Comments | |

aabar-eng-with-tag-lineJust two months ago, Daimler made news with its purchase of a 10 percent stake in electric vehicle front-runner Tesla Motors — but it’s already scaled back its ownership, offloading 40 percent of its holdings to Aabar Investments, a firm based in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Daimler — which claims that it always planned to sell off this part of its stake — says the deal is part of a strategic collaboration with the firm to develop low-emissions technology.

Aabar, which now owns 4 percent of Tesla, became Daimler’s largest stakeholder in March, now holding 9.1 percent of the company. The firm is a subsidiary of International Petroleum Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s government-controlled investment firm focused on the oil industry. Its interest in Tesla fits in with Abu Dhabi’s recent emphasis on renewable energy development. Even though the region controls a massive amount of oil, it is investing heavily in projects like the as yet uncompleted Masdar Institute of Science and Technology to jumpstart cleantech research and development. In the meantime, its relationship with Daimler and Tesla is serving to fill the gap.

smart-ed-tesla-batteriesWhen Daimler first acquired its 10 percent chunk, Tesla agreed to supply the car maker with battery packs to power its first 1,000 electric Smart cars and to continue research on advanced battery technology.

While Tesla is known more for vehicle production than its battery operations, the latter has proved very lucrative for the company. That said, it’s not surprising that Aabar waited until now to pull the trigger on the deal with Daimler. Last month, the U.S. Department of Energy granted Telsa a $465 million loan as part of the stimulus bill that will be used to bring its ambitious Model S sedan to market by 2011. If the highly-anticipated car, priced at $57,400, sells as well as the San Carlos, Calif., company predicts, Aabar could reap a nice payoff.

[Image from AutoBlogGreen]

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About the Author, Camille Ricketts

Camille is the lead writer for GreenBeat. She came to VentureBeat from Google where she worked on its traditional platforms team, particularly in TV. Before that, she was a reporter for the Wall Street Journal in New York and London. Follow her on Twitter at @camillericketts, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

With GreenBeat 2009, VentureBeat's all-star conference on all things Smart Grid, coming up in November, Camille will be expanding coverage of this exciting space. Stay up to date by following @greenbeat2009 on Twitter or by becoming a fan of the event on Facebook here.

  • I'm excited about electric cars news but tired of hearing about Tesla Motors- until they start producing cheaper models. For electric cars to be serious contenders, they need to be mid-priced economy vehicles that most households can by with tax incentives etc. According to new reports, up to 1/3 of cars buyers want to go electric- which would reduce oil dependency, green house emissions, foreign oil dependency, health care costs, and create jobs. For more information about electric cars, I suggest checking out the website http://www.twocentspermile.com or http://www.bit.ly/2centspermile