Seven new Tesla stores will open soon; one Roadster makes it to Yosemite
Click for a high-res gallery of Tesla's Menlo Park Store
It'll be that much easier to test drive a Tesla Roadster in seven cities - New York, Seattle, Chicago, Miami, London, Monaco and Munich - very soon. These cities are where Tesla plans to open its next batch of stores (officially, "Sales & Service Centers") and the first of the batch, New York, Seattle, London and Chicago, should open later this month. As much as possible, Tesla has picked store locations that "quick access to nearby highways and suburbs, giving prospective owners an opportunity to experience Tesla's best-in-class performance under a range of driving conditions." Seems smart.
In related news, a Roadster owner living near San Francisco decided it would be a fun thing to drive to Yosemite National Park. It took some planning to make sure the electric car wouldn't run out of juice during the 400+ mile round trip. The pictures and write-up of the drive are enough to make just about anyone jealous.
Gallery: Tesla Motors Menlo Park Store
[Source: Tesla]
PRESS RELEASE:
Tesla Motors to Open Seven Sales & Service Centers This Summer
Prospective customers can test-drive electric sports cars in New York, Seattle, Chicago, Miami, London, Monaco and Munich.
June 4, 2009
SAN CARLOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tesla Motors will open seven regional sales and service centers in upcoming weeks, establishing a coast-to-coast network in North America and a solid retail footprint in Europe.
Stores in New York, Seattle and Chicago will open in late June, followed by Miami. The new additions will complement Tesla's flagship stores in Northern and Southern California, which opened a year ago. Tesla is also scouting locations in Washington DC and Toronto.
Tesla's first European store will open in London later this month, followed by Munich and Monaco.
Tesla takes its showroom cues from Apple, Starbucks and other customer-focused retailers. Tesla stores provide a welcoming spot to surf the Web, test drive cars and learn more about Tesla, the only production automaker selling highway-capable EVs in North America or Europe.
"We are rethinking almost every aspect of the automobile - from the powertrain to the customer experience, both online and in our stores," said Tesla CEO and Product Architect Elon Musk.
Store locations and hours are updated online. The showrooms are centrally located to allow quick access to nearby highways and suburbs, giving prospective owners an opportunity to experience Tesla's best-in-class performance under a range of driving conditions.
The Tesla Roadster beats nearly every other car for acceleration yet is twice as energy efficient as a Toyota Prius. With an EPA-estimated range of 244 miles per charge, it costs roughly $4 to refuel and can be completely recharged in as little as 3.5 hours.
Teslas consume no gasoline, never need routine oil changes and require far less maintenance than internal combustion engine vehicles or complicated hybrids. They also qualify for numerous incentives, which significantly lower their total cost of ownership compared to gas guzzlers.
New Jersey, Arizona and Washington, for instance, waive sales and use taxes on EVs, resulting in an immediate savings of $10,000 or more compared to a conventional car. Combined with a $7,500 US federal tax credit and lower cost of electricity vs. gasoline, the Roadster has a lifetime cost advantage of at least $25,000 over a gas-powered sports car with a similar sticker price.
Last weekend Tesla delivered its 500th Roadster in the United States. In late June, Tesla will begin producing the Roadster Sport, a higher performance electric supercar that does 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds. European Roadster deliveries begin this summer.
About Tesla Motors
San Carlos, Calif.-based Tesla Motors produces electric vehicles with exceptional design, performance and efficiency, while conforming to all North American and European safety, environmental and durability standards. The Roadster, which has a 0-to-60 mph acceleration of 3.9 seconds and a base price of $101,500 after a federal tax credit, is the only highway-capable production EV for sale in North America or Europe. Winner of the 2009 Globe Award for environmental sustainability, Tesla expects to begin producing the all-electric, zero-emission Model S sedan in late 2011.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
BlackbirdHighway 1:25PM (6/05/2009)
Personally, I love all the Tesla coverage, but I can understand how folks who are less enthusiastic might complain about it.
Prediction: Eventually there will be a spinoff website, AutoBlogTesla.com
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Tesla Motors Concepts 5:56PM (6/18/2009)
I have to say that would make me a just a tad happy! :-)
~TMC
(http://www.teslamotorsconcepts.com)
meme 1:57PM (6/05/2009)
It almost seems like the EPA should have a different mileage standard for sports cars. Who drives a sports car as though it were a civic? Even knowing that they had to be careful with range, the driver here still found themselves doing things that they knew are wasteful, like blowing away other drivers on the road and traveling around with the top down.
Also, to that driver: you could have charged almost twice as fast at the place that only had 120V if you had one of these:
http://www.quick220.com/220_volt.htm
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why not the LS2LS7? 7:39PM (6/05/2009)
That device won't work in most cases. Good luck finding two independent and out of phase 115V power outlets near each other at the drop of a hat. Better yet, good luck finding any outdoor accessible 115V power outlet nowadays that doesn't have a ground fault circuit interrupter, they are required by codes everywhere on outdoor and wet duty (near outdoor, like garage) outlets for the last 35 years.
meme 1:41PM (6/06/2009)
I don't know about where you live, but I've stopped at half a dozen Iowa and Illinois rest stops, and they all have non-GFI exterior 20A sockets, in pairs of two, scattered around the exteriors of their buildings. And they're not going to be on the same circuit, and the odds of all of them being the same phase is virtually zero (and would be bad wiring if it was the case).
I've talked with a person who has an EV who uses a homemade version of that device all the time. Apparently some older EVs *only* take 240V, and so that's the only way you can charge them in the US on 120V.
why not the LS2LS7? 3:06PM (6/06/2009)
Why would it be bad wiring if the two were on the same phase? There are only two phases in most installations, why do you think it's impossible they would be on the same phase.
I'm baffled as to why rest stops would have multiple, paired outdoor 20A sockets, especially non-GFCI.
meme 3:24PM (6/06/2009)
"Why would it be bad wiring if the two were on the same phase?"
Oh, the two on each pair will very likely be on the same phase, for wiring simplicity. But between different pairs of sockets around the building, you don't want all of them to me on the same phase, as you want to level your loads out as much as possible between phases.
"I'm baffled as to why rest stops would have multiple, paired outdoor 20A sockets, especially non-GFCI."
Don't ask me why they're non-GFCI, but if there's any ground fault reset switch, it's not available at the socket, so I can only conclude that they're non-GFCI. And at all of the stations I stopped at, they were that type of nonstandard NEMA socket that supports both 5-15 and 5-20 plugs, so they're clearly rated for 20A.
As for why they're there, that's easy -- for the maintenance crews to run equipment. Rest stops actually have *massive* power feeds going into them -- I can't imagine how many amps, but they're huge, like the sort of thing you'd expect to run a mall. I imagine it's to run all those street lights at night, but they look oversized even for that. So I think it'd be pretty easy to add actual charging stations to most rest areas.
Next time you're at a rest stop, go tour around them. As a soon-to-be EV owner, I've been scouting out potential charging areas. My main disapppointment with rest stops was that I didn't find a single one of them that had a 240V/30A or higher socket, at least in a publicly accessible area. I was hoping that there'd be at least one somewhere for higher power equipment, but couldn't find any. Oh well.
stevejust 2:14PM (6/05/2009)
I'm starting to wonder about this... I mean, I agree that they need service garages in all these places. But free standing Tesla-only service garages? Wouldn't it be smarter to offer Tesla service and sales at select Mercedes-Benz dealers now that Daimler has a 10% interest in them? I mean, how many $109,000 are they going to sell? I make a bit of change more than $200k a year, and I don't think I could afford a Tesla because buying a two seat car with no trunk for that much $$$ is a stretch.
This is me just thinking alound, but let's say the floaters they get from Lotus is costing them $25,000 and they add another $20,000 in costs for the battery array. That's probably pretty conservative on the costs, and by that calculation, they gross about $50,000 for each Tesla they sell, and they've sold 500. Their blance sheet from sales would look like about 500 x $50,000 = $25,000,000. Then subtract out 5 years of salaries for all their employees, and the substantial R&D costs, and they're still way in the red and their investors aren't seeing dollar 1 of return. But now they're taking on all this additional overhead BEFORE the Tesla Model S is a reality?
I think Fisker's doing their distribution smarter by using pre-existing luxury car dealerships. And in my Fisker which should arrive someday, I could make the trip from Redwood City to Yosemite without worrying about where to plug in.
This is to take nothing away from the Tesla. I'd rather have a pure EV than a range extended EV. I can definitely see myself buying a Model S. I'd love a Roadster too, but...
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paulwesterberg 3:07PM (6/05/2009)
I think the battery pack cost is closer to 40k.
JayHmmy 5:14PM (6/05/2009)
I'm pretty sure they are building a presence in these places to also make people feel comfortable knowing they're there. The ability to be serviced locally is a major deciding factor in the initial purchase of a Tesla, I'd assume. The Daimler idea sounds great, however, stand alone centers seem pretty consistent with their whole "rethinking the automobile" stance. It could change though!
Rishard Chapoteau 3:02PM (6/05/2009)
I cant wait for the NY stores to open. I want to see on ein person. I'm also curious as to how they will handle hear on the east coast in the cold.
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why not the LS2LS7? 7:31PM (6/05/2009)
How does he calculate he could have made a 54.5KWh trip out on the Tesla's 53KWh pack?
Still, sounds nice. I think it'd be great to get a charger in Yosemite. Seeing as the state and feds are both broke right now, probably the Tesla owners will have to fund it.
This trip says a lot. It says how fun an electric car can be, and it also greatly underscores the impact of range anxiety, and the impact of charging. He had to spend 8 hours at an RV camp charging on a trip that only lasted 40 hours (morning one day to evening the next).
When you can't even be sure of going 150 miles and thus have to insert yet another charging stop (a quick one I figure), there's a bit of an issue.
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Cthulhugus 7:58PM (6/05/2009)
Regenerative braking downhills?
Chris M 6:54PM (6/06/2009)
Um, he made at least 3 stops for recharging. One stop had a 240 volt 70 amp charging outlet, another was a RV park with 240 volt 30 amp outlets, and the third was a 120 volt outlet at the Ahwhanee hotel in Yosemite, the overnight stay netted him only 7 Kwh.
Nowhere did he come close to the range limits of the car.
Of course, the trip home was mostly downhill, except for the Altamont pass.
boo 10:24PM (6/08/2009)
I like the idea of going to yosemite in an electric car... you get to drive through the beautiful valleys knowing that you aren't contributing to the pollution of such a pristine environment. Or disturbing the sounds of nature with your ICE.
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