First Tesla Electric Car Store Opens in Santa-Monica

thats an awesome idea... they should open more electric car stores all around the world...

I'm not exactly sure how this is considered Santa Monica. Yes, it's on Santa Monica Boulevard but it's a few miles outside of Santa Monica.

Unless there is some other Los Angeles location Tesla's new dealership is in West LA closer to Westwood than Santa Monica.

I think the press just like saying Santa Monica more than West LA.

Queue anti-Tesla wing-nuts.

See? You loons keep babbling about Aptera and other nonsensical clown cars as if they are actually for real. I wouldn't have a problem with that if you all didn't also give Tesla static. Suck it down. Tesla is real. Tesla has dealerships. Tesla has an actual factory.

In 2010-2011, there will be the mid-line Tesla models, a myriad of Volt platform options, and probably something similar from Ford. Embrace the wave and ALL its protagonists.

Great Car... We need stuff like this to help with the environment. Hopefully I can get to look at it some time at an Auto show

I really hope this means they'll finally release a left hand drive version soon. I'm sick of only being limited to inefficient 35mpg hybrids over here.

It really dismays me to see people going googly over "alternative-powered" private cars. This is about the worse greenwashing there is. There is no such thing as an environmentally friendly private automobile. There seems to be an assumption among too many people that, although it is important to "save the planet", nothing but nothing must be allowed to get in the way of the Sacred Car (an appropriate replacement for the term Sacred Cow from the 19th century).

Let's assume that all the owners of new electromobiles have religiously replaced all their incandescent lightbulbs with compact fluorescents (or LCDs or other energy-saving alternatives that may come out in the next few years). Now, I don't think anyone can convince me -- and I would be floored if this turned out to be the case -- that continually drawing current off the electric grid so they can keep driving their electromobiles all over the place the same way they do everything in their petromobiles today is not going to lead to WAY WAY higher electricity consumption than even staying with their incandescents. It makes no sense to think that powering a whole car fleet with electricity is not way more wasteful than using incandescent lightbulbs all over the place. I'm sorry, but electric cars are no more a "solution" than hydrogen-powered cars (that went *poof* a couple of years back) or biofuel-powered cars (in the process of going *poof* right now).

The problem is not an addiction to petroleum, but rather an addiction to private automobiles and the irrational denial that there are better ways of organising our transportation system. Cars hog space, not only on the road, but also wherever they need to be stored at each end of every journey. The private car-based transportation infrastructure forces sprawl that otherwise would not happen, sprawl which leads to massive waste of resources and inefficiency in servicing spread-out residences and commercial buildings. The only solution that is not simply greenwashing is to cut back on private cars and to retool the transportation infrastructure to widespread, comfortable and efficient mass transit including metro and trams in urban areas and intercity trains, with a return to bicycles and other human powered transportation options inside urban areas, including commuting through the suburbs to the local commuter train station on the former freeway (where the sprawl is not too spread out to allow this to happen). In a really environmentally friendly transportation system, private automobiles would end up restricted essentially to rural areas where there is no other choice. That is the only context where alternative power sources is part of a solution.

Christopher, have you seen this?

Christopher, have you ever heard of Vehicle 2 Grid? Electric cars can actually help in implementing alternative energy sources like wind and solar by providing a medium of storage for excess power and help the grid during peak demand...

Christopher, welcome to the 20th century, and hey while you're at it, the 21st too. Private vehicles are not going anywhere, as much as you might daydream about it. The 20th century was about private ownership and freedoms - its a little late to promote Marxist ideas now...

Instead, try something you actually can change, like power source. Start small my friend - you're not going to reprogram society over night.

Private vehicels are good, if they are human powered like bicycles.

The BEV are a step in the right direction. Dont hate Tesla for making them popular and replacing the ICE.

Beautiful work Elon and co! The event was wonderful and the walks of life were an enthusiastic bunch. Cheers to a new era of ingenuity and steps toward freeing us from our dependency on that old worn out fuel that we used to call petrol!

I think they are putting the showroom ahead of the car... I know someone who was supposed to get their car last November... Now it looks like this September - a 10 month delay/backlog. It would seem IMHO, they should invest in more production capacity than more sales capacity.

Private vehicles are good, however, human powered vehicles like bicycles ARE NOT.
If you are ME,
or various other people who are DISABLED with a severe Muscular Disease. , as I am. A lot of us support measures to protect the environment and remove some of the power from the oil companies but we are not able to PEDAL or WALK and as far as public transport is concerned we may feel like using it when the companies have finally managed to create something worth using. I live in North East England. We have a FREE bus service, it is accesible to Wheelchair users, I still don't use it, for the following reasons.
1. When you book they tell you when THEY can pick you up, and when they can collect you for the return journey. This means that to visit my local shopping mall I am told my pickup will be aprox 10.30am most days but they actually turn up at about 11.15. The mall is heaving with people when I arrive which is unpleasant for a powerchair user. The return I am told will be 2.00pm which leaves me with Not enough time to negotiate the crowds and do my shopping. If you are a minute late for the retrun pickup they leave without you and I have witnessed other powerchair users with booked in return journeys being refused by drivers who have just boarded a lot of pensioners who can also use this service and no longer have enough space on the bus. Put simply Public transport SUCKS and this is in a country with Serious public transport subsidies. We have double decker buses which I can board also but these are terrible for anyone in a powerchair or wheelchair. Your chair is not restrained so it will move anytime the bus lurches around a corner, The designated wheelchair space also has a flip down seat and is always occupied by a pensioner who argues about giving it up, the other fornt sideseats etc are filled with mothers with prams pushchairs and buggies and of course the toddlers who use them which means trying to avoid driving over the little ones feet as I attempt to reverrs into the space, all this of course while the bus is moving since the driver is on a tight schedule and will have strated to drive away. NO THANKS. This is why I drive my Gas guzzling accesible Van down to the mall. I support electric vehicles and would love to see one which would work for the public but the old get on your bike nonsense is quite frankly outdated and OFFENSIVE to those of us who just Can't and I I have said the buses aren't an answer even when they have been well designed and supported. Also as commented by others the electric vehicle needs to be capable of NORMAL use. For me i give an example of this as a journey 3 days ago a round trip of 110 miles. This would not be possible in many of the EVS currently available. The driving was mostly Motorway 70mph here in Britain so the 35mph type evs would not have been suitable for that either. As a final note I would say I am already a permanent electric vehicle user since everywhere I go which means even in my own home I am driving an electric powered wheeelchair, I guess that if I added it up I would probably have driven more miles in an EV than most people here though with regard to this particular vehicle the choice has more to do with genetics than anything else.

In 1964 i remember seeing the worlds fair on disney television , it was wonderful what was to come, all the mass transit was a monorail and the cites and work places were all interconected and the landscape was never touched as people were transported above it all. solar would be the power and all the countries used the same transport system. even africa had monorails running all across its vast wilderness.
WE CAN DO IT, WE CANT AFFORD NOT TOO, I so much wanted to be part of that future,but i will do whatever it takes to have my grandchildren to have a chance to see that it can be done.
good luck with this car,for all the nay sayers hey at least someones trying to help out.
peace to all