Tesla Motors to Build Electric Sports Sedan

Tesla Motors will build its new automobile assembly facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Construction on the 150,000 square foot plant will begin in April 2007, at the latest. The New Mexico plant will be the company’s first assembly facility in the United States, and will produce the WhiteStar, an upcoming four-door, five-passenger all-electric sports sedan.

The first cars will roll off the assembly line in the fall of 2009, and Tesla Motors will produce at least 10,000 cars each year. The vehicles will cost $50,000 for the standard model or $65,000 for a premium model with greater performance and range.

This is all part of Tesla's Secret Master Plan. Looks like they are shooting to release their sports sedan in fall of 2009. Not quite the 2008 they were hoping for earlier, but not that far off.

10,000 is a nice size to produce and a couple of magnitudes of order higher than the 100 Roadsters they are rolling out this year.

$50,000 is a good price decrease from the $100,000 the Roadster, but still pricey for sports sedan. Then again if you are only paying $.01 a mile for electricity rather than the $.10 a mile you pay with $2 gasoline and a 20 mpg car, the extra cost might pay for itself over the lifetime of the car.

The key thing for me is the range the batteries will get. If it is close to the 250 miles of their Roadster I think this vehicle will be a big winner in the marketplace.

via Green Car Congress