Tesla Motors Inc

The next American car factory could be in the Southland. Amid the auto industry's worst decline in decades, Tesla Motors Inc. said Thursday that it would build its all-electric sedan in Southern California, a possible boon to the sagging local economy. Elon Musk, chairman and chief executive of the San Carlos, Calif., start-up, made the announcement as he unveiled the prototype of its new vehicle. The $57,400 Model S gets up to 160 miles on a single charge.

Tesla Motors Inc. founder Martin Eberhard will step down as chief executive to focus on production and research as the electric-car maker prepares to open showrooms this year. The San Carlos, Calif.-based company said Monday that Michael Marks, an early investor in Tesla Motors, would serve as interim CEO and that Eberhard, 47, would become president of technology. Marks is a former CEO of electronics maker Flextronics International Ltd.

Tesla Motors Inc., aiming to be the first high-volume U.S. maker of electric sports cars, named entrepreneur Ze'ev Drori chief executive of the San Carlos, Calif., company. Drori, who founded a semiconductor firm that was bought by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in the 1980s, replaces interim CEO Michael Marks on Dec. 3.

Tesla, the San Carlos, Calif.-based electric car company, said Tuesday that it had been selected to provide the batteries and chargers for Daimler's Smart EV electric car and would deliver 1,000 of the batteries this year and next. "Daimler just gave me permission this morning to announce the news," said Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, best known as the co-founder of PayPal.

San Carlos, Calif. On an overcast Friday in February, about 100 people gathered behind Tesla Motors Inc. headquarters, awaiting the future of transportation. A truck pulled up with a trailer, which disgorged a sleek black electric sports car that promises to change the world as much as the Model T did a century ago. The crowd toasted with champagne as Elon Musk, Tesla's chairman, climbed a staircase and made a triumphant speech. "This is the culmination of an enormous amount of work," he said.

Electric car maker Tesla Motors has sued a well-known automotive designer it hired to style the body and interior of its electric-hybrid four-door sedan, after the man announced plans for a competing vehicle.

The company that built the first mass-produced, all-electric car will keep its manufacturing plant in California, thanks to a new tax break. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Treasurer Bill Lockyer worked out the deal for Tesla Motors Inc. after learning that the Silicon Valley company intended to build its second-generation vehicle in New Mexico. The financial break, announced Monday, allows Tesla to avoid paying state sales tax on equipment it buys to build its Model S.

The credit crisis has hit the country's leading electric car maker. Citing "extraordinary times," Tesla Motors, maker of the battery-powered, $109,000 Roadster, said Wednesday that difficult market conditions were forcing it to delay production of its next-generation vehicle, close two offices, lay off an unspecified number of employees and replace its chief executive. For now, the San Carlos, Calif.

Struggling to raise money amid the financial crisis, electric carmaker Telsa Motors Inc. will eliminate nearly a quarter of its workforce in a bid for profitability. Chairman and Chief Executive Elon Musk said Friday that Tesla would cut as many as 87 staff and full-time contract workers, or 24% of the 363-person total. The company also will attempt to raise $25 million, rather than the $100 million it had been seeking.

Tesla Motors, the San Carlos, Calif., company that is marketing a $92,000 battery-powered roadster to boost the visibility of electric vehicles, said it had selected a site in Albuquerque for a factory to build a $50,000 electric passenger sedan. The company said it would spend $35 million to build a 150,000-square-foot factory that would employ 400 and be capable of producing 10,000 vehicles a year. The first Tesla White Star sedan is due to roll off the line in 2009.