Tesla Motors, the automobile startup with backers that include Sergey Brin and Larry Page, held a party tonight to mark the launch of its Menlo Park storefront. The store, which is the company’s second, will be open to the general public beginning this Tuesday.
Despite Tesla Motors’ well deserved reputation as a high-end car manufacturer, it is still very much a startup - the company’s $150 million in funding pales in comparison to coffers held by large automobile companies like Ferrari. As a result, Tesla has strived to create a atmosphere of style and sophistication at its showrooms without breaking the bank.
The new dealership is situated in Menlo Park, about 5 minutes away from downtown Palo Alto and Stanford University. The interior of the building is designed to be “industrial chic” - a strange mix of luxurious furniture (white leather sofas, marble tables) and the trimmings of a basic garage (concrete walls, exposed wooden ceilings). It works surprisingly well, keeping the store’s high-end customers at home without distracting from the showroom’s main attraction: the cars.
Ah, the cars. Tesla has half a dozen of their Tesla Roadster electric car on display, and they don’t disappoint. It’s hard to put into words how ridiculously sexy the Tesla Roadster is in person, so we’ve grabbed a lot of pictures. Suffice to say, as soon as you walk in the store, you’re going to want one.
Unfortunately, actually buying a Tesla Roadster is an involved and lengthy process. To reserve a car, first you’ll need to make a $5,000 deposit, which is mostly just to show you’re serious. To actually get a place on the 1,100 person long waiting list, you’ll need to pony up another $55,000 - making a grand total of $60,000. Of the 1100 people on the waitlist, 600 are for the 2008 model, which had a base cost of $98,000. The remainder of the list is for the 2009 model, which has been upped to a $109,000 base value, mostly to account for the weakened dollar.
Tesla is currently telling customers that the waitlist is one year long, but production is only just ramping up so that time frame may slip a bit. By weeks end there will be around 12 cars on the road, most of which are owned by company boardmembers and investors. For the time being, cars are being assembled at a rate of about 4 a week, with expectations that the company will be able to finish 40 a week early next year.
Unsurprisingly, you won’t be able to just waltz in and test drive a Roadster. To get the keys to one of these beauties, you’ll need to prove that you’re serious (namely, pay the initial $5000), or otherwise convince the dealership that you mean business. At least you have these pictures.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Nice work, Kincaid. Why are there no pictures of you driving one of these bad boys?
It makes you wonder why billion dollar companies are in so much trouble given how obvious of a move for a car manufacturer this actually is! This was a very long time coming, EV1 dropped by GM over a decade ago is a prime example of stupid moves… GM could OWN this marketplace right now!
Jon
http://woodmarvels.com - Create Unique Memories
What would be even MORE obvious, besides GM bringing BACK the EV1, would be for Tesla, or someone else with talent enough to break the stranglehold of the Big Four, to actualize a sustainable resource for all of the electricity that electric cars are going to need.
Can you imagine massive amounts of electricity from the Ocean by a system completely OUT of the water?
I have.
Look it over; it’s called O.S.M.E.G.S.;
Ocean Swell Momentum Electricity Generating System,
it’s linked on the home page at Maritime Tradition.
Peace Out !
http://maritimetradition.com
was there. pretty amazing to see.
Why is this on techcrunch?
its a company that makes re-badged Lotus Elises with powerpacks. Wow, very “innovative.”
It’s only on TechCrunch because Sergey Brin and Larry Page are backers.
It’s an electric car, made of carbon graphite, powered by like $20,000 in lithium batteries, that can go faster than any porsche and all by one model of ferrari (0-60 in 4 seconds). How is that not worthy for a tech-blog? Congrats Telsa!
Way to not let true facts ruin your argument!
ccscsc said: “its a company that makes re-badged Lotus Elises with powerpacks. Wow, very “innovative.”
You are an idiot.
Real Nikola Tesla would never approve the use of his name for this type of vomit inducing capitalist effort.
I think he would have, given the current state of the American economy and the pollution levels generated by internal combustion engine.
Tesla had dreams of becoming a millionaire, quoted from letters he wrote to a female acquaintance.
If Tesla would have been a better businessman we would already all be driving EV’s. We probably wouldn’t even be paying electric bills.
One irony that I noticed while reviewing Tesla Motor’s website is that a major funder of Tesla Motors is the Bay Area Equity Fund, Managed by JP Morgan. It was JP Morgan who ultimately led Tesla to financial demise by cutting his funding for the Wydencleff project.
Wrong. He would disapprove of the use of DC.
It’s run on a 3 phase induction motor???? What DC are you talking about
No models!
How much does it cost to make one of these puppies? 110,000 a pop sounds a bit snotty. I think I’ll go with something safer with a better track record for that much money.
Ah, I think i’d pop for a 6.1 Litre Full Hemi, in a DodgeCharger SRT-8, with all the options possible, and stick the remaining $57,000 in the bank in a nice ‘n safe CD making 4% interest. After being “T-Boned” by a stolen car running from the cops, I think I’d like a bit more bulk than these tiny cars that are running loose all over. It would be a pity to have all that spendable coin, buy a Tesla, and then have some dude pile into you in his Ford F-250 4×4, long bed at 45 MPH.
Chances are the Tesla is safer than the charger. You want the car to crumble…know why? Because that means the force of the impact is transferred to the car, and not to you.
The domestic car makers really don’t give a shit about safety, all they care about is sticking a big engine into an unreliable piece of shit and calling it a day. And then they wonder why their companies are going down the tubes
“The domestic car makers really don’t give a shit about safety, all they care about is sticking a big engine into an unreliable piece of shit and calling it a day. ”
If that were true, the charger wouldn’t weigh 4100 pounds dressed, and we wouldn’t have 3100 pound economy cars. My high school car was an ‘84 Tbird and it weighed less than some modern small cars (3400lbs).
The biggest problem we have today is a fight between the engineers and the beancounters, and the middle ground is that it’s cheap to add weight to get the safety, which kills mileage and reliability.
Yeah, the crumbling absorbs energy, but you don’t want to crumple too much, or it crumples you.
Sanford, like the American automakers, you’re one savvy investor.
How much do you think this car will be worth a few years down the road, considering its first-of-its-kind status? (No, I know it isn’t the first electric car….HELLO) But it is the first serious mass-marketed high performance electric sports car that also looks incredible. These guys at Tesla will make a car for the “rest of us” next, and this will be the ORIGINAL collector’s item.
How much will your $57,000 invested in CD’s be worth by comparison down the road?
What a cool showroom. I’m thinking of going there sometime. Tesla’s cars are always hot!!!
Tried to order one for Toronto but Tesla hasn’t even applied for approval yet. Now that I see these photos, owning a dealership may be the way to go.
The Greek
“Approval” = to Canadian authorities.
Wow, I gotta get one of those babies and drive smokin circles around those redneck pickup trucks up here in Alberta. They won’t know what’s happening and call the canadian space agency
There’s a Canadian space agency?
I’m simply amazed by the level of ignorance of certain comments here on this website called “techcrunch”… Well for my part if I had 120 000 dollars I won’t hesitate a bit to buy me a Tesla, because between a car that’s a revolution in itself and amazing to drive and a car that can be called a dinosaur like the Charger, there’s no comparison or you don’t know your cars neither your tech…
And the Elise rebadge, this one is totally from the top of the ignorants, just go and see it you’ll understand my friend that there’s an ocean of technology between these two cars…
i want one besides i think the french air car project sponsored by india will be expanding.
Really nice car!! … Awesome! Inspiring!
Can I have one?
Been following these guys for over a yr now, but living in Europe I won’t be able to buy one for a LONG time. Its a shame really, very nice cars
Tesla is selling in Europe now. You can buy one for an April 09 Delivery
I work for Tesla… I can assure you this is not a lotus rebadge. The car is built on the lotus chassis, less than 6% of the car is lotus.
Tonight was a lot of fun. The customers are awesome! It was great to talk with them! The showroom is officially open to the public this Tuesday, so check it out!
Wondering why they aren’t producing an economy model on mass scale, that seems like the right thing to do business wise.
Use your head, Jono. It’s because a small startup that only has $150 Million couldn’t possibly meet the demand of millions of people.
Think about it…Do you really think you could produce a million cars for $150 each?!!?
You need billions and billions of dollars if you want to mass produce cars. Plus, you need a huge factory with a few thousand workers and lots of robots, lots of raw materials, big Automotive Union support, healthcare benefits for all of those workers, showrooms throughout the United States with dozens of employees working in each one.
Seriously… I can’t believe you asked that question, when the article says they clearly only had $150 million investment from the Google brothers.
Not only that, new technologies tend to be released to the public at the high-end of the market, and come down in price over time. Look at what happened with the iphones, or flatscreens, or whatever…. It makes sense since they can’t compete yet on scale until they really ramp up production.
Actually, Tesla is created a Sedan called the Model S, that should be available by 2010, for about $59K. They are starting with luxury vehicles and working their way down.
Am I the only one that was not impressed with this showroom? Jaw-Dropping? Negative.
I have to agree, hardly Jaw-Dropping. The building looks pretty cool but the inside looks more like a clean and tidy garage than a showroom. It also looks too dark in there, they need more light to show off these cars.
guys, it’s not about the show room, it’s about the cars… you may send a ton more on a tesla, but you’ll save a ton in gas expenses over the years.
A person with a middle wage salary would be dead by the time they “saved a ton in gas expenses over the years.” Compared to a car that even cost $45,000, which in many cases can be considered a high-end brand like a Lexus or Acura, you would have another extra $40,000 to put gas into the car that you saved from buying a Tesla.
Don’t get me wrong. I think the technology is pretty cool and it is a nice looking car. But my goodness, $90,000 is a lot of money for a middle class salary. No matter if it starts saving you money 90 years from now. Better get a Juiceman and hope it makes your life longer.
David G. - High-end sports cars aren’t generally for middle-income folks, however, you should also do the math. Your “90 years” swag is insane. If you drive a Lexus 15K miles/yr @20MPG, at an average gas price of $5.50 over the next ten years, you will pay $41,250 for gas in your Lexus, vs the the $40K sticker-price difference of the Tesla.
PLUS… factor in the time (and hassle) saved by never having to go buy gas (10 min/week x 520 weeks = 86 hours, x $25/hour (min value of my time) = another $2,150 advantage for Tesla.
And for you eco-friendly types, don’t forget that the Lexus over 10 years will release (7500*19.4/2000) 72.75 tons of carbon! According to AlGores carbon Offset calculator, that will cost you another $876 in carbon offsets!
Yes - electricity costs $, but that’s more than offset by not having to pay for oil changes & other normal “internal combustion” maintenance.
Bottom line is that today the ten-year TCO between a Lexus and a Tesla is similar, but as gas prices increase and Tesla (and other electrics) price decreases, they will soon (in a few years) be cost-competitive with mainstream models of cars.
Behold the stunning beauty of the corner unit in gray industrial building…truly an aesthetic powerhouse that overwhelms ones senses.
This has all the sophistication of my local Saturn dealership.
Actually I think the Saturn store is nicer.
On Tesla itself…they are doing some great work. I’m merely poking the writing here a little bit. Jaw-dropping, in that blog sort of way.
Kincaid - this showroom is not “jaw dropping” - give me a break.
I love how people think driving electric cars are saving the environment. All they are doing is exchanging one fossil fuel (oil / gas) for another (coal / natural gas for electricity).
In 5 years this won’t matter.
Tesla is advertising that it only costs 2¢ per mile in electricity to power their cars. I think it has less to do with the environment, and more to do with thumbing your nose at the gas pump. It’s about a small startup making it significantly cheaper to do the thing that Americans love to do…drive. Do you have any idea how much extra money Americans would have in their pockets if they didn’t have to pump gas anymore?? That’s what’s jaw-dropping.
It’s like driving around a chandelier.
(Yes, I realize that average americans can’t afford a Tesla. But they are smart to start on the high-end and small scale. One only hopes that in a few years they have enough investments to be able to offer cheaper models). Either that, or GM buys them out for billions of dollars.
Are they really claiming 2 cents/mile in electricity?
How would that work out? Electricity is probably about 20 cents a kilowatt hour for most of us. So 2 cents buys about 0.1 kilowatt hour. That’s the equivalent of running a 100 watt light bulb for an hour. Doesn’t sound right. Or maybe my math is wrong?
I guess their first big test is going to be whether or not they can increase production to 40 units per week in the next 6-8 months.
Matt
I think the goal here is that Tesla does not allow ANY car maker to buy them out. Lets say GM did buy Tesla. All they would do is crush the technology and scrap the cars in favor of some expensive gas version.
Trust me, the Big 3 and big oil do not want to see this car see light of day.
‘All they are doing is exchanging one fossil fuel (oil / gas) for another (coal / natural gas for electricity)’
What you’re missing in this argument is that it’s much easier to control pollutants at centralized locations(ie, processing plants) than it is for millions of cars on the road…
Furthermore, as the electric grid gets cleaner, the car gets cleaner still as it uses cleaner electricity.
And if you put a solar charger on your roof, you could power this thing completely from the sun.
I can’t believe how many people comment out of pure ignorance. Its the internet, folks, you can learn a lot before you open your mouth. I guess its just a lot easier to have an opinion than it is to have information.
Also consider the greater efficiency of electrics. Electricity from hydrocarbons is about 90% and so is the battery to motor. Internal combustion engines are maybe 30% efficient, so there is much less burnt. Make electricity from solar, wind or geothermal and you eliminate all emissions.
It’s not true that electricity from hydrocarbons is 90%, actually much lower, probably closer to 50% by the time you factor in all the transmission losses. But it’s still better than an ICE. And soon we will have solar panels powering these things so provided Tesla doesn’t get bought out by an oil corp. and squashed, the future looks bright for electric cars. The cork is almost off the bottle, once they are a proven technology and known to 90% of the population, there is no way the oil / auto industry can continue duping the public into believing that electric cars are not feasible.
Don’t you get it !!!!!
Trust me, the Big 3 and big oil do not want to see this car see light of day.
Trust me, the Big 3 and big oil do not want to see this car see light of day.
Trust me, the Big 3 and big oil do not want to see this car see light of day.
That is why it is taking so long to get to market….if ever or never.
The tech is neat and the car is a beauty. Clear hip value to own one. But as a contribution to our energy challenge, Tessla has yet to make the case for why this isn’t just a distraction from the meat of the debate.
wow, i really like tesla cars… its cheap
brian
http://www.themostpowerfulcompany.com
The car is pretty, and the tech is interesting, but looking at the fitment of the body (especially the back cover and bumper), the lack of amenities (the seatback can’t even be adjusted), and other practicalities… it’s not $100,000, wait-a-year-plus-to-get-it impressive for me. YMMV, of course.
And that 2 cents a mile claim clearly does not include actual cost-of-ownership. Figuring purchase price alone, and granting the car an impossible 100,000 life with zero maintenance, the cost is more than $1 a mile. I’m betting true cost-per-mile with amortized purchase and maintenance will run more to the tune of $3 a mile.
You can buy a hellish lot of gas for $100,000. Even at today’s prices.
I’ll keep my Z, thanks. The cost difference will fuel and maintain my car for 14 years.
Tesla is a pioneer. Buy one and hang on to it. The odds are Tesla will not be around in 5 years. If it takes 150M to launch the first model what is it going to take to launch the second and third model.
Since the car runs on LI battery packs the core technology is not that difficult for the Japanese, Koreans, Europeans, and even Yanks to bring to production in volume.
Fiat’s Ferrari badge is reputed to be developing an all electric vehicle with regenerative braking to extend battery life.
Right, and then the car can use those battery packs. This industry will eventually be run more like the computer industry, with interchangeable parts.
I bet they are profitable in the next two or three years. At $100,000 bucks for each vehicle, and lets say a 25-50% profit margin, it’ll only take about 3000-6000 cars to pay off their $150 million in funding.
I love the look and the gutsiness of the venture (consider how much better they’ve already done than DeLorean) but I think this is the easy part. Long-term social/econ credibility will only come with more scale, which means not 10K units/year at $100K each but 1-2MM units at $40K each That’s (order of magnitude) $10BN/year sales and at 10% margin you’ve got a nice business. But it won’t happen overnight and it will suck up investment capital –exposed to considerable risk for technology, competition, regulation, even cost of KwH. People are currently so freaked about oil pricing and forecasts that they will throw money at Tesla for a while but that isn’t patient money and the baseline (where oil goes next, what substitutes appear, etc.) is very short. Tesla and similar entrants face this volatility. They also face free riders on their technology. As “Not a Yank” says, what barriers to entry? And if this is all about the batteries (and I believe Tesla has done some –literally cool– engineering to beat the battery pack heat issues and so on) then whoever controls the battery supply is in the driver’s seat here. As for other ways to store energy? The trick for cars is energy density. Gasoline rules (100x or more better than batteries). Batteries have a long way to go, both to support intercity driving range and speed of recharge (or swapping-out at a “service station” –think of the infrastructure implications for THAT). I’m curious to know how the flywheel technology is doing, it might someday compete with batteries? You would literally “wind up” your car overnight (or at the service station) using some hellacious fixed drive motor, and then tap the stored rotational energy as you drove. Note that regen off a flywheel is inherently less inefficient than regen from brakes to battery back to motor. You are just converting one kind of rotation (at the wheel) into another (in the flywheel) and back again. I’d welcome some comments/corrections from the technology and engineering experts.
For the long distance inter-city driving you could go down to your local U-Haul and rent a generator trailer for $30 a day (once there are enough electric cars to justify offering trailers for rent), and burn a little gasoline, then drop it off at your destination’s U-Haul.
Judging from the photos, it doesn’t seem to attract many ladies.
Looks dusty and dirty in there. I don’t get it.
This is just repackaged geek hipsterism. Since when is cement “stylish” you see this at a lot of tech-money wineries too.
Provocative idea, the electric car, but imagine when all the folks in LA decide to plug in at once - the electrical grid would experience an overload like a DoS attack on a server! Kudos to Tesla, however, for bringing their innovative idea and stylish design to the attention of the public. American ingenuity and the free market will solve our gas dependency.
I’m so tired of hearing about how an electric vehicle is merely “exchanging one kind of fossil fuel for another.” Yes, that’s technically true, but electic cars are still far far far more efficient than gasoline cars.
1. The coal plants are already in use. We’re already burning that coal to produce the electricity.
2. There’s absolutely nothing that makes an electric car mandate coal or oil-produced electricity. The overall mix of power plants in the U.S. is 55 percent coal, 9 percent natural gas, and 4 percent oil (9). The other 32 percent include nuclear power and renewable energy sources such as hydroelectric, solar, wind, and geothermal. So, got a problem with coal? Call or email your congressman. But stop attacking what’s obviously a good idea because something else is slightly disagreeable to you.
3. Cars that run on electricity are simply more efficient and better for the environment than cars that run on gasoline. Electric vehicles do not emit any gases. None. ICE’s are huge polluters, even in their highly-cleaned-up modern form. And EVs are significantly more efficient in converting their energy into mechanical power.
sh - Oh yeah, I noticed how the other day, everyone in LA bought a Tesla Roadster. It was a pretty remarkable thing, cruising along on the 101 and nothing but electric vehicles as far as the eye can see.
As you can imagine, the grid will just implode like a server under a DoS attack when all 11 million Los Angelinos get home tonight and plug in.
Jesus, where do you people come from?
No it won’t. The grid at night is underutilized.
With $150 m in the bank why don’t they pick up some more bandwidth and get a faster site, pages take forever to load
I think that yellow one is mine!
I love the Idea, but Ya I’m kinda getting tired of all these claims. We need action not some high end company making these claims. Build a car for everyone that doesn’t pollute and use food to power it and you’ll be the next Bill Gates. Build a motor that uses methane these guys spew so much of it. Thats a Alternative Fuel.
IF I knew growing up that going to a no nukes concerts would lead to a ten year permit wait to build new power plants I wouldn’t have been hanging around those damn hippies. LOL
Its beautiful and I should have mine in a few weeks.
Obviously there will be cheaper ones in the future - and the idea of starting at the high end makes total sense. Every electric car and even most hybrids (I’m talking about the Prius) are butt-ugly. I don’t want a prius, it just looks stupid. You don’t require an ugly car to have energy efficiency.
Those who said lets power cars with food needs to do a little more critical analysis. That’s one of the LEAST efficient ways to go about it. Using food for fuel is why food prices are so high right now! It takes way more fossil fuels to produce energy from food than from solar or just taking it from the relatively dirty electrical grid. Do you know that to grow food on our nutrient exhausted lands they put petroleum based fertilizer on the crops? Did you know this fertilizer makes it into the waterways, causing overgrowth of algea which is killing the fish? There’s HUGE dead zones all over the world where no fish can live, because of the runoff from crops.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4624359/
Grow corn, kill fish. Kill fish, ecosystems collapse, people starve. Global warming accelerates, more people starve.
This is just science, folks, no opinion. You can find out all this an more if you just follow the news and read the science.
Why not get a Lexus LS600h, or just wait for the new S-Class hybrid? Both are truly world class.
@jon
how is 20mpg comparable to the tesla, my $20k acura does 50% better than that and it’s a standard ICE.
I will power mine off the wind generator I am building. Too bad there are so many economic roadblocks in the way of selling power into the grid I could help pay for my Tesla. Power companies should provide the upgraded meters for their cost plus installation.
Tesla does deserve a lot of credit for getting this out the door, but you have to wonder how they will compete against the Chevy Volt which has about $1 billion, and 1,000 engineers behind it. I would love to see a new company come and take out one of the big 3 automakers, but that is a business built on mass production, so it is a long-shot that a new co. could win that ultimate battle.
If I had $150 million to develop a LI battery based car I would try to emulate Henry Ford or Michael Dell and figure out how to mass produce these things for cheap? LI battery powered cars are where the PC business was 30 years ago. Tesla is a beautiful sports car, but it could end up just being a fancy toy and not a real solution to a problem.
Very nice car, costing less than 2 cents a mile who can complain! Unfortunately the price is too expensive for most. http://blabtech.blogspot.com
I’d like to see the Larry and Sergey also get behind an electric car for the masses as well as the rich.
Another VC wet dream. They will be out of business in 5 years. There’s no logical exit strategy for the venture backers, so the losses will pile up.
In case you didn’t know, GM built (and then cancelled) its electric car program in the late 1990s.
What are you talking about? Forget GM. They have zero vision. They only cancelled the program because they were afraid people might actually like the EV1 and they wouldn’t be able to reap profits via the replacement parts business for the obsolete ICE. Tesla is NOT going to fold in 5 years. You are a fool.
Any news when the Tesla cars will be coming to Europe?
The cars ARE in Europe. They have been at many events, and you can buy one now for an April 09 Delivery. Going to be in Germany next month.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m glad a company like Tesla is out there making progress, but I can’t emphasis enough how disappointed I am with this car. I don’t care if it’s only 6% Elise - the dimensions kill it for me. It needs to be significantly longer and significantly wider. I was hoping for a car much more in line with a Mercedes Benz SL550 or an Aston Martin DB9. To the general public, this car looks no more high end than a Pontiac Solstice.
it was actually designed in part by lotus (although the tesla design team gives very little credit I wonder why…)
its been done before and they need actually to get cars out the door unlike the past attempts and it does not look like they are going to do that…
I hate to say it but mercedes benz and BMW are going to eat them alive
if you want a fuel efficient eco car then buy a lotus 1.7 engine that will go and go and go….
regards
John Jones
http://www.johnjones.me.uk
..agree with others that the overall design doesnt live up to the $100k price tag. the front nose/light combination lacks finesse while the rear is a complete mess. The most attractive view is probably the side/profile and even then it looks like something from the 70s.
What I am constantly amazed by is how much credit the Tesla guys get for what they do. Everyone writes how jaw dropping an amazing their cars are, but if you take a closer look one notices that they have been burning through a ton of money, without much to show for.
Their design is mediocre at best. I am surprised that everyone is just harping the same old stuff, without really taking a closer look. First I think the people they have don’t really know their stuff… based on recent changes they had to make…. which anyone who knows a little bit something about this or works in the industry could have told them years ago (switching from 2 to 1 speed f.e.). Second their engine really sucks… it is complicated and performance is mediocre at best - there are much better alternatives out there….
By the time they have their sh?t together, they will be steamrolled by at least 4 other companies…
Then there are a variety of other issues where I think Tesla just has a bunch of business people who have no clue about reality…
To summarize it they have good marketing but that’s about it. Unless they change a number of things really fast, they will end up in the graveyard in a few years from now…. There are much better contenders in this category… I am surprised that the people investing their money didnt do their research first…. maybe it is the stanford thing… however that’s just not good enough….
What are these much better contenders? How is 0-60 in 4.0 mediocre?
If you’ve got a car that has better acceleration, better range and a cheaper price point me in the right direction.
the showroom is NOT jaw-dropping, in fact, most car showrooms I’ve been in seem much nicer. This actually looks like the front office of a brake shop with a couple of cars parked in it. Also, I’ll give a kudos to the new-tech aspect of the car, but the exterior is awful - I don’t know why anyone would pay $110k for what looks like a Kia-designed convertible.
Please change “Menlo Park” to “Menlo Park, California”. I was thinking all this time that Tesla Motors was a New Jersey concern, and thought it was rather weird to choose the name Tesla in order to follow in the footsteps of Edison.
It’s still weird, but everything’s weird in California.
I’ve been following Tesla for awhile now, I think anybody spending that kind of money on a car that Tesla is asking for the Roadster should be slapped, but if you have the means, then by all means prove Mr. Barnum right. I am waiting for the sedan to come out which I understand to be at a lower price point.
Surprised no one mentioned Aptera, Tesla’s ‘competitor’ from southern California, http://www.aptera.com. But seeing as I have one on order and want the company to succeed, I will!
Tesla reminds of the second car I owned (though much upgraded!) in 1978, a