Tesla Motors is an electric-car company based in Palo Alto, Calif. Its only current product is the Tesla Roadster, a two-seat convertible that costs more than $100,000. The beneficiary of excellent timing, Tesla effectively was the only company building battery-electric cars when fuel prices spiked in summer 2008. As a result, no news story on alternative fuels was complete without mentioning Tesla. Tesla has also received a grant of close to $500 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a more affordable and versatile Model S electric sedan. Tesla will do so in a section of the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. assembly plant in California that GM and Toyota closed after GM's bankruptcy restructuring. The target on-sale date for the Model S is early 2012.
Tesla Motors is publicly traded. Minority investors include Daimler, parent company of Smart, with which Tesla is developing an electric drivetrain for the tiny car. Toyota also has a partnership with Tesla that will result in an electric version of Toyota's RAV4 compact crossover.
