After following this process from beginning to end, this day has finally arrived. About three years ago, Tesla announced the next step of its business plan, the highly-ambitious Model S. The independent American automaker would design and develop its own mid-size sedan.
In today’s business climate that is an exceedingly hard task, especially considering Tesla did not partner with any major manufacturer on its development. The platform that underpins the Model S isn’t shared by any other manufacturer; it has been developed entirely by Tesla, from the ground up. At the time of the announcement, Tesla didn’t own a factory to build the car.
In the time since, it made a deal with Toyota over the former Toyota-General Motors NUMMI factory in Fremont, California. A lot has happened in this period of time, such as the Initial Public Offering that was the first for an American automaker since Ford in 1958. Today it has all reached a culmination with the delivery of the first Model S to a regular customer. A few weeks ago Tesla delivered production-spec cars to a board member and its founder Elon Musk.
Today the company is holding a ceremony at its factory, and it is being streamed live on its website, Teslamotors.com. The historic event is taking place at 3:30 PM Pacific Standard Time. Following this, Tesla will kick off its “Get Amped about Model S” tour that aims to offer 5,000 test drives over 45 days. These test drives are open to reservation holders only at first, and there will be a series of them around the country. The first will be at the factory in Freemont, and the second in Los Angeles. Later dates are TBA. This day is the most exciting one for Tesla yet, and we’re eager to see these cars out on the road. If all goes to plan there should be quite a few of them. Head over to Tesla’s site, www.teslamotors.com at 3:30 PST to watch the live event.
