I’m not sure how, but Pilar and Roy managed to get the Velvetron crew into an opening event for the Tesla Showroom in Westwood last Saturday. It was a subdued gathering, with people more focused on the cars than each other - even more than is usual in Los Angeles. The showroom itself is more of a boutique than a real dealership, emphasizing style over substance: there didn’t seem to be anywhere to store vehicles, making it very unlikely that you would drive a car off the lot. Of course, the first shipment of 1000 vehicles hasn’t yet arrived, but the Roadsters have all been sold nonetheless - and the Tesla isn’t a traditional car: with a $109,000 price tag, a 125mph top speed, and styling that ensures competition from the Lotus Elise, the Tesla isn’t about bang for your buck - it’s about having an all-electric car that goes fast and looks good while generating no emissions aside from heat. While this doesn’t ensure environmental friendliness - coal-based power plants aren’t exactly green - it does mean that making it environmentally friendly is a matter of building green power plants, rather than replacing the vehicle. Such decoupling of the energy production from use would go a long way towards breaking our addiction to oil.

Anyway, the Tesla event certainly got me excited about the Roadster again, something I’ve been looking forward to since the Silicon Valley based company was founded in 2003. I look forward to seeing one on the road!

I took a few pictures at the event, here’s one from the back of the showroom looking out:

Here’s a closer shot of the silver car in the above shot, this time with Roy in it:

And one from the front of the showroom, looking in:

Finally, the (remarkably clean and neat) service bay:

Stay tuned for details on the Tesla Electric Roadster from Santi, Velvetron’s resident rocket scientist (Seriously!), and I’m sure Pilar and Roy will have some things to say about the experience as well - I manage to always forget a thing or two!

Filed under: Cars | Transportation — Max @ 6:06 am