NEW Tesla Model S - $50k Electric Sedan with 300mi Range

Finally! a Truly Great Electric Vehicle

Elon Musk, Inc. Magazine's "Entrepreneur of the Year", and the guys (and gals) at Tesla Motors have brought electric vehicles (EV's) BACK to mainstream America.

You don't have to be a lefty tech geek to be excited about the new electric cars coming to market, or to be outraged that it's taken so long. If you've seen the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car", then it won't surprise you that electric cars have been around since before cars with combustion engines, and you will not be one of the many Americans scratching their heads wondering why American car companies are doing so poorly. Well most of them, that is...

Except for one new American car company - Tesla Motors. Started by Elon Musk (founder of Paypal and SpaceX), Tesla is a new kind of car company, with a business structure more like Google than like General Motors. This has allowed the company to grow quickly, adapt quickly, and quickly bring products to market that consumers actually want.

In the Beginning - the Tesla Roadster

Tesla unveiled it's first model - the wildly successful $110k Roadster, to let the mainstream see that an electric car can perform as good as or better than any high end sports car. It looks very similar to a Lotus Elise, and it should - much its look was designed by the English carmaker.


The Latest - the Model S

Slated for delivery in 2012, Tesla is now taking orders for the Model S - the stunning sedan that looks like an elongated Aston Martin (thanks to design work by Franz von Holzhausen, former designer for Aston Martin, BMW and most recently, Mazda) , starting at $50k, with up to a 300 mile range, quick 45min charge capability, seating for 7 (5 adults and 2 children), and 0-60mph in 5.6 seconds. And it will get you a $7500 federal tax credit to boot.

Where a tank of gas in other full size sedans that would last you 300 miles might cost $65 per fillup, to travel the same distance in the Model S will only cost you $4 worth of electricity.

Even skeptics who argue that the pollution created to generate the amount of electricity needed to power an electric car for that distance will have a hard time arguing that one.


For more beautiful pics of the Model S, check out Jalopnik.com's great spread HERE.

What's Next?

Rumor has it that the next Tesla model will be a sub-$30k EV, truly bringing this technology within the reach of the average American household.

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