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Tesla Motors Inc. is a
Silicon Valley-based company that designs,
manufactures and sells
electric
vehicles (EVs) and electric vehicle
powertrain components. It is currently the only
automaker building and selling highway-capable EVs
in serial production (as opposed to prototype or
evaluation fleet production) in North America or Europe.
According to recent paperwork filed with the US
Securities and Exchange Commission, Tesla produces at
least 15 cars per week — mostly custom-ordered vehicles
manufactured to owners' specifications.[2]
The
Tesla Roadster, the company's first vehicle, is the
first production automobile to use
lithium-ion battery cells and the first production
EV with a range greater than 200 miles (320 km) per
charge.[3]
The base model accelerates
0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 3.9 seconds and, according to
Tesla Motor's environmental analysis, is twice as energy
efficient as the
Toyota Prius.[4]
The company had produced its 1,000th Roadster as of
January 2011.[5]
The company has delivered Roadsters in at least 25
countries as of May 2011.[6]
Tesla began producing
right-hand-drive Roadsters in early 2011 for the UK
and Ireland markets, and the company began delivering
right-hand-drive Roadsters in the summer of 2011 in
Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore.[7]
Tesla is currently developing the Model S, an
all-electric family sedan. Tesla unveiled the car March
26, 2011 with an anticipated base price of
US$57,400 (or
US$49,900[8]
after a US federal tax credit). The Model S will have
three battery pack options for a range of up to
300 miles (480 km) per charge.[9]
As of March 2011, Tesla has taken about 2000
reservations for the Model S and expects to begin
delivering cars to customers in 2012.[2]
Tesla currently employs more than 500 people and is
aggressively recruiting employees for positions in the
headquarters in Palo Alto, California; at its European
headquarters in Windsor, UK; and at an increasing number
of sales facilities throughout North America and Europe.[10]
Tesla plans to build the Model S in 2012[11]
in
Fremont, California in an assembly plant formerly
operated by
NUMMI, a now defunct joint venture of
Toyota and
General Motors.[12]
Tesla purchased a stake in the site in May 2011 for
US$42 million.[11][13]
Tesla is named for
electrical engineer and
physicist
Nikola Tesla.[14]
The Tesla Roadster uses an AC motor descended directly
from Tesla's original 1882 design, which he said came to
him in a feverish
hallucination due to exhaustion when he was working
as an engineer and inventor in
Austria-Hungary.
Above courtesy of
Wikipeda
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Tesla Motors home page
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