The Model S will have a top speed of approximately 125 mph, a 0-60 mph time of approximately 5.6 seconds, and a single-speed gearbox. It will feature a standard 17” infotainment touchscreen on every Model S with in-car 3G connectivity for streaming radio and gps navigation, a liquid-cooled, floor-mounted battery pack, and panoramic glass roof and rear-facing child seats as planned optional upgrades.

Charing the Model S can be as simple as plugging into any regular 110 volt wall outlet. A 220 volt outlet, like the ones that are used for kitchen stoves and clothes dryers, will be able to charge the Model S more quickly, from empty to full overnight. At a fast charging station, the Model S is capable of recharging in 45 minutes. The Model S also uses regenerative braking to recharge the battery as well.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that the company could cover cross-country drives with 13 charging stations and 8 to 10 stations to cover the U.S. coasts. With each station costing about $25,000, “for a couple million dollars you have covered the country”.

The Tesla Model S will retail for $57,400 (or $49,900 base price after the $7,500 Federal Tax Credit). The 230-mile range battery option will retail about $10,000 more than the base and the 300-mile range battery option at about $20,000 more than the base. Expect to see deliveries of the Model S sometime around the summer 2012. Tesla wants to produce a total of 5,000 of the cars in 2012 and already has 4,600 reservations for the Model S which should cover first year of production.

The interior is reinforced with an improved sound-reduction materials and an optional seven-inch navigation system. Some of the upgrades will be available to existing Roadster owners as upgrades.

Pricetag remains in the stratosphere at $109,000.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the Roadster remains a priority for his company, even though Model S is consuming much of its resources.

“These improvements are a direct result of customer feedback and come only a year after release of Roadster 2.0, showing an exceptionally rapid pace of innovation,” he said in a statement.

Tesla has now sold more than 1,200 Roadsters to buyers in 23 countries. It claims the cars have logged a total of more than 5 million miles. Questions remain, however, over how the company can maintain its revenue stream. Tesla has a big gap ahead between when it will start making its next-gen EV sedan, the Model S, and when it stops selling the Roadster in 2011.

The closure of the NUMMI plant in Fremont, California six weeks ago was just another downfall to California’s struggling economy and double digit unemployment rate. Late Thursday, Tesla Motors announced that it is teaming up with Toyota to build its all-electric Model S sedan at the recently shuttered NUMMI plant in Fremont, creating more than 1,000 new jobs.

Under the agreement, Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, will invest $50 million in Tesla, which will buy the NUMMI plant for an undisclosed sum. The joint venture was unveiled by Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s CEO, who flew in from Japan for the announcement, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at a heavily attended 5 p.m. news conference at Tesla’s Palo Alto headquarters.

City Council members from Fremont, where NUMMI is located, were thrilled and raced across the bay to attend the news conference.

Unfortunately, there were some losers in the new deal. Among those who felt like the mistress that was kicked away for a newer and younger model were officials in the city of Downey in Los Angeles County. For months, they had been working with Tesla in hopes that the automaker would locate its factory there. The Downey City Council was hours away from voting on the terms of a lease for Tesla. Tesla executives finally told Downey city officials that they were going to Fremont instead on Thursday afternoon, catching staffers who have spent hundreds of hours on the nearly final deal completely by surprise.

“We’re shocked, appalled and disgusted,” said Downey Councilman Mario Guerra. “We have been dealing in good faith with Tesla and feel stabbed in the back.”

Tesla will use the NUMMI plant to begin production of the Model S, a sedan that can seat five adults and two children and has a range of 300 miles. Once it reaches full production at the NUMMI plant, Tesla expects to produce 20,000 electric vehicles each year, which will sell for $50,000.

But the Model S would occupy only a small part of the NUMMI plant, leaving room for Tesla and Toyota to manufacture other models of electric cars there.

“Long term, we think we could create 10,000 jobs, half from Tesla and half from our suppliers,” Musk said.

“We love our cars here in California,” said Schwarzenegger, who used the news conference to talk about how California’s strict environmental policies are driving innovation. “But we also love our environment, our coastline, our ocean, our sky. … I don’t have to tell you how much this means to California, where we have 12.5 percent unemployment.”

Official press announcement from Toyota after the jump.

You think Tesla is done with producing just the Roadster and the upcoming Model S? Think again, because word has it that the Model S sedan will be just the start of things, and Tesla is planning on a whole range of electric vehicles based on the Model S including a van, a CUV and a minivan.

Believe it or not, all of this news comes out as a way of explaining just what Tesla, the current EV darlings of the green car set, would be doing with that large green pile of loans they just got from the feds. Tesla applied for, and received, a low cost loan under the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program approved a few months ago. OK, fine, but what was Tesla planning on doing with it? Why give the money to a startup with potentially shaky finances and only one model currently in production?

Tesla’s response is potentially revolutionary.

Before Tesla, EVs were largely golf carts with pretensions of being a real car. Tesla stepped up to the plate, and, with its Roadster, really knocked it out of the park. OK, nice, but how about something more practical? Enter the Model S sedan. So, moving from strength to strength, Tesla is now planning to expand its line up, based on the Model S, and offer a wide range of EVs for a variety of different uses.

The Model S platform will be used for spin-offs including a minivan, cross-over utility vehicle (a CUV) and a utility van for fleets and other industrial or civic uses like delivery services and the like. This logically follows, because even if the Model S is as impressive as the Roadster, that still leaves Tesla with a two-model line up. And Tesla needs more than a two car plan in order to be viable in the long-term.

The loan money that Tesla got from the DOE will be used to complete development of the Model S as well as constructing the plant to produce the car, it will also be used for a separate powertrain plant to produce motors, electronics and batteries for the car.

And now it looks like Tesla will continue its trendsetting ways, and use the largess of the federal government to make even more economically and environmentally viable EVs.

Source: AutoBlogGreen

Photo from Flickr user dpstyles

Do you already own a Tesla Roadster? Do any of your friends want to buy one? If so, then you’re in luck. Turns out that Tesla has just started a customer referral program that can net you 500 dollars. The program even applies to those of you out there that are waiting to take delivery of your Roadster, or the upcoming Model S sedan as well.

All you have to do is talk one or more friends to purchase and take delivery of a Roadster, and Tesla will send you a $500 check. The catch is that the program ONLY applies to your friends that will by a Roadster not the Model S sedan, and you have to wait to get your 500 clams until after your buddy takes delivery of their roadster.

Tesla is being reserved about actual sales figures, but based on the most up to date information Tesla has released, the through-put has increased dramatically. Meaning your friends won’t have to wait as long as you to get their all-electric Roadster. Supposedly, the Roadster is sold out through November, so an order placed now should (emphasis on should) get one in your driveway by this Christmas

On the face of it, this seems like a smart move on Tesla’s part. Early adopters, as new Tesla owners are called by marketing folks, are bound to be good salesmen. Who else will sing the praises of your car better, yet also be seen as much more trustworthy than a car salesman?

The only question that I have is why are they limiting it only to the Roadster? It’s just speculation, but the reasons cold be many. They could be trying to free up production capacity. Or, they could be trying to shift production capacity and company focus onto the Model S, which would likely make more moolah.

Who knows for sure? What is known is that if you already own and love your Tesla, and you got friends that are interested, now might be the time to give them a shove towards the dealership.

Source: AutoBlogGreen

Photo from Flickr user theregeneration

The Roadster Sport has a hand-wound stator that increases winding density helping to eliminate resistance while increasing peak torque (i.e. more power). It also gets better tires. Yokohama Ultra High Performance tires in this case (people are speculating they will be the same Advan A048s fitted to Lotus’ Elise/Exige). The 0-60 time of 3.7 seconds is 0.2-seconds faster than the standard Roadster. The Tesla Roadster Sport also gets Lotus-derived components, including adjustable dampers and anti-roll bars that can be tweaked to suit the driver’s tastes.

Neat, right? Now the real question: How much?

The starting price is $128,500 in the US and €112,000 (excluding VAT) in Europe, or $28,000 more than the base model of Tesla Roadster.

It’s up to you, the buyer, if that is worth it.

Source: AutoBlog