Tesla Uncoiled Amid the strange doings at Tesla Motors, the first all-electric, 250 mile range, stunningly fast production Tesla Roadster arrived stateside today, with the "P1" (Production, 1st model) making landfall at Tesla HQ for its happy owner, Tesla chairman Elon Musk (of PayPal and SpaceX fame).

"P1 was flown from the Lotus manufacturing plant in Hethel, England; its battery pack came from Tesla’s plant in Thailand and is being installed this afternoon at the company’s California headquarters."

Tesla, located in the Bay Area, has been a darling of the technorati, but has recently gone a bit off the rails. Many of the key personnel have left; the Roadster was long delayed (despite having sold through the initial run in preorders); the transmission was scrapped for a "temporary" 1 speed that will be replaced in all of the cars when the new one is perfected. But even odder comes the news that the fabled WhiteStar sedan, which was always Tesla's secret weapon (they used the Roadster as a lure to get customers and funding; the sedan is for mass production) is not dead as previously was rumored, but is now coming back as a hybrid? Look, I'm all for Silicon Valley to make Car 2.0, but Tesla needs to get some stability to be there for the long run.

Congrats to them for the first car off of the line. Uh...got any extras?

Labels: cars, Eco-friendly

  ¶ 1:45 AM