San Carlos (CA) - After backing out of an agreement to open a New Mexico manufacturing plant Tesla Motors announced in early June that they would be building their second all-electric vehicle, the Model S in California. That vision is one step closer to becoming a reality.

Today, Tesla Motors will a deal to lease 89 acres of land in San Jose, California, to build its company headquarters and a 600,000 square-foot plant, which will produce the electric Model S sedan. Currently, Tesla is building their first model, the Lotus Elise-based Roadster, in the UK and California.

“This could bring 1000 green-collar manufacturing jobs, which we’re trying to get back after losing a lot in the bust,” Chuck Reed, San Jose’s mayor told the New York Times.

Tesla is only the latest clean technology start up to begin manufacturing in Silicon Valley. “We have had a change here in the last year in manufacturing jobs, and Tesla is the latest,” stated Mr. Reid, making reference to thin-film solar companies who have also begun production in the area. “Silicon Valley is the birthplace of the silicon revolution. Now Silicon Valley is going to be a birthplace again, this time of the clean tech industry, and Tesla epitomizes that industry,” Ze’ev Drori, Tesla’s chief executive officer told the newspaper.
 
The Model S will be able to operate utilizing power provided by a lithium-ion battery pack and is promised to travel up to 200 miles on a single charge. By the end of 2010, we should begin seeing the sedan on our streets, at least if Tesla can keep its timeline intact. The vehicle will be priced around $60,000, which is about half the price of a fully-equipped Tesla Roadster sports car, which currently has a one-year waiting list prior to delivery.

Tesla’s presence in Silicon Valley gets lots of attention courtesy of their high-profile investors and supporters among which are the former president of Ebay (Jeff Skoll), the founders of Google (Larry Page and Sergey Brin) and Tesla chairman Elon Musk (PayPal co-founder). Among the list of venture capitalists are Capricorn Investment Group, Vantage Point Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jervetson, and Technology Partners.

California lured Tesla into Silicon Valley with incentives valued at about $15 million - and potentially more, said Drori. Among the incentives are a rent waiver for the first 10 years of the lease and waiving the state sales tax on the $100 million worth of equipment purchased by Tesla. It has been rumored that New Mexico was merely offering the company $7 million in incentives, making California much more attractive.

Tesla had a rough year, but it appears that the company’s engines begin to run more smoothly. Ze’ev Drori became Tesla’s chief executive in November following the ousting of Martin Eberhard in August and a series of layoffs and production delays. In April, the company was reported by The New York times to have sued a former design consultant for stealing company secrets and launching a competing company.

As of today, Drori said that the company currently foresees no delays in production. Tesla is hoping to raise $100 million in funding, adding to the $155 million the company acquired previously.

Awesome.

Sep 17, 2008 12:46     

I hope to be one of the first in Canada to get the sedan model. Maybe someday I might be able to get the roadster.
C-Drive report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

Well this car would be cool, but...

Sep 17, 2008 19:35     

The reality of moving our car over to electric along with the rest of our house and belongings, and what that REALLY means only hit our family earlier this week when hurricane related storms knocked out our power for a day - our only food option other than crackers and still-frozen peas involved driving to an open restaurant. Knowing my car has its own independent power supply is suddenly very reassuring.

hank report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

RE: Power supply

Sep 17, 2008 20:25     

Most gas stations/pumps are run by electricity, so if the power goes out so do the pumps my friend.....and the car hold it's own charge "tank" of electricity...so it's really not that different.
Kalt report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -2