Tesla Wants Sedan, Crossover?

Tesla Roadster

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Tesla Motors, the fledglingCalifornia car company that has impressed even die-hard car buffs with its experimental electric-powered roadster, also wants to build a sedan crossover vehicle to fill out its model line.

Martin Eberhard, chief executive office and founder of Tesla Motors, said Thursday during a visit to Detroit his company has already hired a dozen engineers to staff its new technical center in Rochester Hills, Mich., to manage the project.

The staff at the Michigan center will grow to about 60 by the end of the year and will focus on Tesla’s “White Star” program, which is expected to do the basic automotive engineering for a vehicle that can carry four or more people and would extend the Tesla’s product range into sedan/crossover territory.

“We’re deep into the engineering on White Star and staffing up like crazy. We’re looking to hire chassis engineers, body engineers, and suspension engineers, not so much on the powerplant.”

Eberhard said Tesla’s goal is to produce a second electric vehicle that will sell for around $50,000, or about half the price of the all-electric Tesla Roadster, which will retail for $92,000 when it goes into production in England next year.

GM vice chairman Robert Lutz recently told reporters he would like to get one and Time Magazine named the car, which it described as “pure California,” as one of its “Best Inventions of 2006.”

Tesla promises the Roadster will go from zero to 60 mph in four seconds, and will have a top speed of more than 130 mph while running only on an array of lithium-ion batteries. The roadster also could have a range of miles on the highway, the company says.

Electric cars always could deliver performance and power comparable to that of an internal combustion engine. But the range of electric vehicles has been limited by the relatively short range of the batteries needed to power the car.

Lithium-ion batteries, which are widely used in cellphones and laptop computers, extend the range of so-called plug-in electric vehicles that can be recharged from a standard, 110-volt wall socket, making electric vehicles much more feasible now, Eberhard said.

Eberhard also said its electric vehicles have already attracted considerable interest both from people interested in protecting the environment and from people who are concerned about the U.S. dependence on imported oil.

The Toyota Prius hybrid has been successful because it makes a statement about values, Eberhard said. “People are buying these vehicles because they make a moral statement,” he said.

Tesla, which was founded in 2003 and has about 140 employees in San Carlos, Calif., now has fully-paid orders for 270 roadsters, said Eberhard, who has raised $27 million from venture capitalists to finance the venture. Tesla will probably initiate a second round of fund-raising later this year, he said.

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