An Electric Vehicle Dream

Washington DC November 3, 2007; The AIADA newsletter reported that Tesla Motors, a Silicon Valley start-up with 250 employees, is aiming to make the ultimate green car.

Maybe you heard that celebrities like George Clooney and Matt Damon already have put down deposits on the $98,000 Tesla Roadster. Or perhaps you know that Silicon Valley A-listers like the Google guys are Tesla investors.

"They have a real shot at success," says GM car czar Bob Lutz. "Their Roadster, if and when fully reliable, is an extremely attractive proposition."

Tesla's overwhelmed executives hope everyone will be patient as they work through a long list of tests and tweaks. "Everybody will tell you that starting a car company is really hard," says Tesla's cofounder Martin Eberhard. "And they're right."

The Tesla roadster is powered with a 950-pound bundle of 6,831 lithium-ion cells, each about the size of a AA battery. But Tesla's ambitions go beyond becoming a battery supplier and creating a sports car for the Hollywood set.

The company's aim is nothing less than becoming the plugged-in Henry Ford. After the Roadster, there's a $50,000, five-passenger luxury sports sedan on the drawing board, code-named White Star, that's due in 2010. And a few years later, Tesla hopes to have a $30,000 model for you and me, code-named Blue Star.

"This is only interesting if we go mass market," says Musk. "The world isn't lacking for interesting sports cars."