Tesla WhiteStar plant coming to ... somewhere in America

Michigan may have received the nod for Tesla's new Technical Center, but the location of the factory where future Tesla models will be built remains unknown. According to the Greensboro News-Record in North Carolina, the town of Alamance has been offering itself up like a, well, like a place ready for Tesla. But Tesla Motors CEO Martin Eberhard won't tell where the plant will be, only that California, New Mexico and Arizona are the current frontrunners. Wherever this plant sets up shop, it'll make up to 13,000 of the upcoming WhiteStar sedans a year. In a nicely worded understatement, Eberhard told the News-Record that the WhiteStar is a four-door sedan that's less costly than the Roadster and a little less "hot." No kidding.
The regular production Roadster will start its life later this year in overseas plants, at a rate of a "few thousand" a year.
Gallery: Tesla Roadster
[Source: Michelle Jarboe and Donald W. Patterson / Greensboro News-Record]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mike 9:49AM (1/30/2007)
Funny, I said to my wife last night that working for Tesla would be a dream job. I live just outside of Charlotte but Greensboro/Burlington are not that far away. Also right down the road from the RTP would be a great way to draw technology employees (like me). Resume anyone?
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Lithous 8:16AM (1/31/2007)
I applaud them for (soon) having a factory in the U.S. Now, if at least most (51%) of the parts are made in the U.S. too then I'd really be thrilled with Tesla, well, until they sell out to Toyota.
I think they (the company members) need to learn to respect GM and Ford a little more (instead of dis'ing them). At one point something like 1 in 300 Americans were employed by GM. Most companies that had 600K+ U.S. employees and had to downsize would probably have been gone instead of fighting. They *are* *one* of the reasons America *is* such a great country.
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