tesla roadster

In conjunction with the opening of its two newest stores in
Copenhagen, Denmark, and Newport Beach, California, Tesla has unveiled the fourth major production iteration of its only current product, the Roadster. Dubbed the Roadster 2.5, in proper Southern California fashion, the revised electric sports car gets a nose job and fanny lift.

We've been poring over Tesla's IPO filing with the SEC and hidden within the indecipherable legalese is a little gem for those of us more interested in product then federal oversight.

It looks like Tesla Motors will finally be going public the week of June 28, if a report in the Wall Street Journal is correct. The long anticipated stock offering was originally planned for the fall of 2008, but the global financial melt-down made that impossible. Tesla is hoping to sell 11.1 million shares at a price of $14 to $16 a share for a total take of up to $178 million.

The connection between high-end sports cars and high-end watchmakers has been solidified for decades, and this newest partnership is a clear indication that the union is alive and well into the 21st century. Here in Geneva, Tesla has teamed up with Tag Heuer to create a limited edition run of Roadsters created in conjunction with the automaker's chief designer Franz on Holzhausen and the Swiss time piece purveyors.

After finally getting myself situated in the back of the Boeing, I notice the lady to my left wearing a Tesla fleece. As fate, the alignment of the stars and unbridled dumb luck would have it, I was seated next to Rachel Konrad, Tesla's Senior Manager of Communications... for the next 10 hours.

After exchanging pleasantries, discussing each other's plans for the Frankfurt Motor Show and getting acquainted, the topic of conversation naturally turned to cars, and the Tesla Roadster, in particular.

For the first time in more than fifty years, a U.S. automaker is holding a public offering. Henry Ford made shares of Ford Motor Company public back in 1956. Tesla, the Elon Musk-owned Silicon Valley electric car company, filed to do so today. There's no word as to when the shares will be available for public consumption, nor any word as to how much each share will cost.

After delivering some 900 Tesla Roadsters, over a dozen employees are taking one on a road trip. Tesla will be back at the Detroit Auto Show next month and this time they're driving there. On Thursday, December 17, 16 Tesla employees will depart from Los Angeles and head across the Southeast toward Texas and then north east to Chicago and Detroit.

While the the 2,700 mile trip could be completed in a few days in conventional car, it will take two and a half weeks for the Roadster. According to Tesla's announcement, "

Since it was announced that the highly quotable Bob Lutz would be departing from his General Motors management spotlight, automotive bloggers and reporters everywhere have been mourning the loss of an executive with such an exquisite way with words. Now it appears that the pining may have been premature, thanks to the emergence of another top management type with the brass, it seems, to freely speak his mind in public.