Tesla’s Model S is here (a prototype, anyway)

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

After much bated breath and drawn-out anticipation, it’s finally here: Tesla Motors’ Model S electric sedan.

The prototype was unveiled this afternoon in Hawthorne, Calif., inside the SpaceX rocket factory, run by Tesla chairman and chief executive Elon Musk. Unlike Tesla’s currently available Roadster, the Model S was entirely designed by Tesla and is capable of carrying more than two passengers. In fact, Tesla executives say it can hold as many as seven (!) passengers, as long as two of them are children.

‘We’re trying to accelerate the electric car revolution,’ Musk said to an audience of about 100 journalists and film crews. ‘This is not a handmade car. It’s not a derivative on an existing gasoline car.’

Tesla, based in San Carlos, Calif., last year began selling the only highway-legal electric car in the U.S., the Roadster, which has a sticker price of $109,000 and gets 244 miles on a charge. But because it’s built in England at the Lotus factory, it’s a low-volume vehicle, while its small size means it’s not practical as a regular-use car.

The Model S is intended as a mass-market vehicle.

With production goals of 20,000 units per year, it will come with three battery options. The entry-level car will have a battery capable of a 160 mile range, while the sedan can be upgraded a 230-mile range battery or a 300-mile range battery. The basic model of the car will go from zero to 60 mph in 5.6 seconds, Tesla said, and in the second year of production, a ‘sport’ model will come out capable of much faster times.

In addition, the smallest battery will be capable of a fast charge as quick as 45 minutes, much faster than the current charge times of four to eight hours. Musk said the battery will be located under the car, making it possible to swap it out in order to change it for a fully charged battery, and he said the company was planning to lease the battery in addition to selling it as part of a complete car.

‘We’ll lease the whole car and we’re not opposed to third parties leasing the car as well,’ Musk said. But the main sales channel will be directly through Tesla showrooms. Currently there are two, in Los Angeles and in Menlo Park, Calif., but Musk said the company expects to open up to 40 in North America.

The starting price for the car is $57,400, Musk said, but he took pains to point out that the car will be eligible for a $7,500 tax credit. Pricing for the upgraded battery packs was not released.

Musk said that production of the Model S will begin in the third quarter of 2011, with deliveries beginning in the fourth quarter of that year. And in something of a surprise news flash, he said the car would not be built in San Jose, as had been expected. Instead, the car will be built in Southern California.

The reason for the shift, he said, was that low-cost Department of Energy loans Tesla is seeking to help fund the car require that the factory be situated on unused industrial sites that are at least 20 years old. The car’s powertrain engineering, however, still will be performed in the Bay Area, Musk said.

Currently, Tesla’s biggest rival in the alternative-drivetrain vehicle space is Irvine-based Fisker Automotive, which plans to introduce a plug-in hybrid sedan early next year. It will have a starting price of $87,900. Both it and Tesla’s Model S were designed by designers with considerable experience in the auto industry: the Fisker vehicle by Henrik Fisker, who worked at BMW and Aston Martin, among other places, and the Model S by Fran von Holzhausen, most recently at Mazda Motor Co.

-- Ken Bensinger

Photos: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times