All-electric car, 240+ miles per charge, 0 to 60 mph in under six seconds, to be built in San Jose Tesla factory

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The specs for Tesla Motor's new car are in: an all-electric, four-door, five-seat sedan that gets in excess of 240 miles per charge and accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in under six seconds. It will be built in what the company is calling the "greenest auto manufacturing plant in the world" on the outskirts of San Jose, Calif., the self-proclaimed world headquarters of clean technology. In other words, the car of the future is on its way here. Eventually.

Winning a $250m (£139m) deal with electric car maker Tesla to base its new factory there, the city beat other contenders to secure a project that will bring more than 1,000 jobs to the area. "This is a big step toward being the center of world cleantech innovation," said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. Tesla boss Ze'ev Drori said that "this is proof the time has come for the electric car."

The company plans to produce an all-electric luxury sedan, called the Model S, at the plant with a retail price of around $60,000 (£33,000.) It already manufactures a two seater zero emission Roadster which sells for $109,000 (£61,000) and is built by Lotus in England.

Mr Drori told BBC News Tesla hopes to deliver its first cars by 2010. They will have a range of about 240 miles (390 km) per battery charge. The production run is set for around 15,000 vehicles initially, with half of the line being sold in Europe. "This car signals an end to dependency on foreign oil. The summer of high gas prices has accelerated demand for such a vehicle." San Jose's mayor Mr Reed agrees. "This is the next step in transportation. Shifting from petroleum to electric vehicles will make a huge change to how the world moves and we are excited to be part of that happening."

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Photos courtesy of gas2.0, Justin Sullivan / Getty Images, Edmund.com, and Michael Kelley / Telegraph UK

Original Source: Forbes and BBC News

Official Site: Tesla Motors