AltEnToday

Just a short post on this, but it looks like San Jose has won a major new “green” business here in the valley with the announcement that Tesla Motors will be building a new factory and office park here in the Silicon Valley. Funny enough, professor Bruce Olszewski was mentioned in the Spartan Daily (the San Jose State newspaper) - and I happen to be in his class this semester (ENVS 152 for those looking for a nice upper division general elective to fill one of those R or V requirements, I don’t remember which one).

The facility proposed includes about 1,000 new jobs in a variety of roles, although nothing has been officially posted on the Tesla Motors website. The company has already released its hotly anticipated Tesla Roadster, which is a 2-seater all-electric sports car with a price tag just over 6-figures. The new factory in San Jose, CA will focus on their upcoming all-electric sedan, currently named the S-Model. Although the car has yet to be announced or even prototyped (here’s a mockup which is pretty clearly an Aston Martin front-end slapped on a body photoshop), the rumor is that the company will be releasing cars from the San Jose factory by the fourth quarter in 2010 - just 2 short years away. Considering it takes Detroit almost 6 years to put a car through the design, development, and release paces, I would imagine that number might push back a little ways.

In the meantime, get ready to have a new green biz company in town!