Electric car maker Tesla Motors took the wraps off of its electric Model S sedan Betas at a customer event this weekend, allowing interested customers the opportunity to participate in short drives of three of the company’s Model S beta cars. Beta cars are essentially a fully-completed car before the car goes into final production, and you can see the differences in styling between Tesla’s alpha Model S cars (photos here), and this close-to-commercial beta.
Tesla’s VP of Worldwide Sales and Experience, George Blankenship, told me that close to 3,000 people attended the Model S Customer event on Saturday night at Tesla’s Fremont plant, and the event included tours of the factory, food and drinks, and the opportunity to buy more Tesla merch like t-shirts. As you can see from my photos, at least a dozen customers that already own Tesla’s first car the Roadster, attended and lined up their Roadsters outside of the event. I also saw two Nissan electric LEAFs, and a lot of really high-end cars in the parking lot.
The Tesla’s Model S is supposed to be available to the public in mid-2012 and will cost $57,400 (or $49,900 after the U.S. federal tax credit) for the 160-mile version. The 230-mile Model S starts at about $10,000 higher and the 300-mile Model S starts at about $20,000 higher than the base. Tesla says it has 6,000 reservations for the car.
Here’s a video I took of one of the test rides (It was just with my cell phone video, so excuse the shaky hand. We’ll have more detailed videos coming up):
Here’s my photos of the event:
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1 / 23EntranceArriving at the Model S Beta Cusomer event -
2 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventRoadsters lined up outside of the Model S Beta Customer event -
3 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventTesla Roadsters lined up outside of the Model S Beta Customer event -
4 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventCustomers lined up at the Tesla Model S Beta event -
5 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventCustomers lined up outside of the Model S Beta Customer event. -
6 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventA sign greeting potential customers at the Model S Beta Customer event -
7 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventTesla showed off the design of the car at the Model S Beta Customer event. -
8 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventA design demo of the Model S, at the Model S Beta Customer event -
9 / 23Tesla merchTesla merch at the Model S Beta event. A toy Roadster -
10 / 23Tesla toy roadsterTesla merch at the Model S Beta event. A toy Roadster -
11 / 23Telsa t-shirtsTesla merch at the Model S Beta Customer event -
12 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventCustomer rides of the Model S Beta -
13 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventCustomer rides of the Model S Beta -
14 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventCustomer rides of the Model S Beta -
15 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventCustomer rides of the Model S Beta -
16 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventThe Model S Betas got buffed between rides. -
17 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventCustomer rides of the Model S Beta -
18 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventCustomer rides of the Model S Beta -
19 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventNew styling on the Model S Beta -
20 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventThe styling of the Model S Beta -
21 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventCustomer rides of the Model S Beta -
22 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventCustomer rides of the Model S Beta -
23 / 23Tesla Model S Customer eventCustomer rides of the Model S Beta


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