Tesla Motors in the company behind the Tesla Roadster - an impressive electric sports car that costs $98,000. You can read articles on the Tesla Roadster here and here and watch a video of a road test here. Now Business Week is reporting that Tesla is planning a cheaper four-door vehicle. They are raising $250 million to create the factory needed to build these new cars.
Tesla started its mission out of Silicon Valley two years ago, getting funding from a slew of the tech industry's big players. The result is the $98,000 roadster (BusinessWeek, 7/30/07) that goes 220 miles on a charge and can reach 60 mph in a tire-screeching 3.9 seconds.
Sales are small right now. But Tesla has firm orders for the company's first 600-to be built this year. Another 400 buyers have put down $5,000 deposits for the first 400 cars the company will build next year, says Daryl Siry, the company's vice-president of marketing.
By 2010, Tesla plans to build a less expensive four-door that comes as either a pure electric car or a plug-in hybrid, which would get better range than a conventional gasoline-electric hybrid because it relies more on its electric motors to drive the car. Tesla is in the process of raising another $250 million for a factory for the next car, which Siry says should come out around 2010. Says Siry, "We invested in desirable, eco-friendly cars."
It sounds like a smart move for Tesla to take the good buzz they have generated from the electric sports car and use it to launch a new car that more drivers can afford.
Pictured below is the 2008 Tesla Roadster which is now in production. Prototypes of Tesla's next line of cars have not yet been made available.
