mathoda.com

If you are interested in the future of car design, or how to start an innovative physical products company, there is no more interesting company to watch than Tesla Motors (wikipedia), which is developing an all electric 2 seat sports car.

It has great range (200 miles), incredible performance (3.9 seconds to go from 0 to 60 miles per hour; top speed of 130 miles per hour), gets the equivalent of 135 miles per gallon (but electricity costs 2 cents per mile), and is relatively cheap for a startup sports car ($100k). Oh, and it’s a rather beautiful car (http://www.teslamotors.com/). 380 people have already put down a deposit.

I highly recommend their blogs, which you can find here (http://www.teslamotors.com/blogs.php?js_enabled=1). The blogs cover all aspects of their business. The innovation isn’t just in the cars, but how they have re-imagined the car dealership (you could see your car being worked on in a crystal clean room, for example), and the refueling station (they are offering roof mounted solar panel systems for home recharging).

And in 2010 they will start selling a sedan for $50,000 to $70,000.

Update, 5/17/07: Apparently they plan on selling a third vehicle in the $30,000 range after the roadster and the sedan. See this interview for more information on founder Elon Musk’s take on Tesla: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2006/07/26/exclusive-q-and-a-with-elon-musk-on-the-tesla-roadster-and-the-fut/

Update, 6/12/07: A great article on the founding of Tesla Motors, from Vanity Fair: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/05/tesla200705?currentPage=1 

This entry has been filed under tech.