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Electric Car Won't Go Into Production Until Late 2011, If Financing Comes Through
 



It Goes: Tesla chairman Elon Musk takes Model S prototype for a spin during press conference.








By John O'Dell, Senior Editor



First of all, we're talking here about a plastic-bodied prototype of a car that isn't scheduled to go into production for almost two and a half years. Remember, please, that a lot can be done, or undone, in that span of time.


That said, Elon Musk and the rest of the crew at Tesla Motors pulled the covers off the proposed Tesla S battery-electric sport sedan today, and likely will be wallowing in publicity from the event for weeks to come.


The car, which seems to draw a lot from Jaguar and Aston Martin, was designed by former Mazda North America design chief Franz von Holzhausen, who calls the car's silhouette an example of "classic modernity."



He and Musk liberally refer to the "S" as the world's first mass-production, full-function electric car, even though production won't start -- if all the money can be rounded up -- until late in 2011 and Nissan Motor Co. has said it will begin selling a mass-production, full-function electric car in the U.S. in 2010.


Whether first or second, it's a very good-looking four-door, glass-topped hatchback that hides the hatch quite well.


Fast, Far, 'Affordable'




And whatever one may think of its roots, von Holzhausen says the "S" is a clean-sheet design he began after joining Tesla last August and listing to Chairman and CEO Musk's vision for the vehicle intended to replace the Roadster as Tesla's signature product.







That vision, according to dot-com millionaire-entrepreneur Musk (right), was to build an electric car that would hold a big family, go fast, be beautiful, offer enough range between charges to appeal to most buyers, and not cost an arm and a leg.


Let's get fast out of the way: Musk says the car will be capable of a sub-6-second sprint from zero to 60 mph, and will have an electronically limited top speed of 135 mph. A "sport" model to come later will do that same 0-60 in under 5 seconds, he said.






Musk, who staged the unveiling at his Space X rocket development facility in the Southern California community of Hawthorne -- no doubt to draw more press than he'd get up in Tesla's official home in the Bay Area community of San Carlos, near San Francisco -- confirmed that the base model of the "S" (the initial apparently doesn't stand for anything) will cost $57,400.


He actually said it will have "an affordable starting price of $49,900," but that, ladies and gents, is after you qualify for the $7,500 federal tax credit that is supposed to still be around in 2011 when production is slated to begin.


The sticker price, meanwhile, will still be $54,700, which is probably affordable to lots of people, but we don't know any of them personally.


That's with a battery pack, by the way, that is slightly smaller than the one on the Tesla Roadster but is capable of powering the much larger "S" for 160 miles of combined city and highway driving.


Add bucks, probably lots of 'em, for either of the two optional larger battery packs the company says will be rated at 220 miles and 300 miles.


Musk says, though, that if you figure $4-a-gallon gasoline (and we do figure it will get there, and stay there, by the time  the "S" and other electric cars and plug-in hybrids are hitting the market) that the cost of electricity to run the Model S will represent a real bargain, effectively cutting $10,000 or more from the lifetime cost of the car versus a 15-mpg sports tourer that swills 1,000 gallons or more per year.




He said he expects the "S" batteries to have a lifespan of close to 10 years and to cost less than $5,000 to replace when they do wear out.





Room for Seven

Tags: Batteries, Plug-ins and Electric, Tesla, Electric Cars, Electric Vehicles, Tesla Model S

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Tesla Model S Unveiled: A Great Concept, but Now the Wait Begins was originally published by Green Car Advisor. Read the full story by clicking here.