September 19, 2008

San Jose will be headquarters for Tesla Motors

By Bill Highlander
Editor

Tesla Motors chose San Jose for its headquarters, manufacturing and research and development campus. Tesla will construct its $250 million facility on an 89-acre site at Zanker Road and Highway 237 and the all-electric sedans will start coming off the assembly line in 2010.

The Tesla Roadster (above) has proven extremely popular; the proposed Tesla Model S sedan will be built in San Jose.

This is a major coup for San Jose. Gaining approximately 1,000 new jobs and an addition to the tax base, the city also adds benefits to its Green Vision goals of creating a center for clean tech innovation.

Tesla will lease the land for 40 years and get free rent for the first ten years. The payroll for the company is estimated to be $100 million plus per year, with much of that expected to be spent locally benefiting other businesses and increased sales taxes.

Governor Arnold Schwarz-enegger congratulated San Jose for making it possible for Tesla to bring green manufacturing jobs to California.. Tesla had considered locating in New Mexico until Califor-nia and San Jose offered incentives to keep the company here.

Tesla currently operates from San Carlos and the new site will not cause major disruption to its present workforce. Tesla president and CEO Ze’ev Drori said that Silicon Valley has a concentration of highly skilled engineers and support, has access to transportation and shares a commitment to environmental responsibility.

Tesla’s successful Roadster will continue to be built in England. Tesla has already delivered about 30 of the $100,000 plus sports cars and about 1,200 people have signed up for the car that accelerates from 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds.

The Model S, five-passenger luxury sedan will have a base price of about $60,000 and travel about 240 miles on a single charge. Consumers will be able to buy the vehicle in late 2010.