San Carlos, Calif.-based Tesla Motors Inc. is investing $47.7 million to put a new R&D and
engineering center in Rochester Hills. Assistance offered through the Michigan
Economic Development Corporation convinced
Tesla Motors to select Rochester
Hills over other competing sites in South Carolina, bringing 76 jobs.
The company makes a high-end, electric roadster-style car powered by lithium-ion batteries. The three-phase induction motor can propel the vehicle to a top speed of 130 mph and accelerate from zero to 60 in about 4 seconds.
Tesla Motors is the winner of the Business Journal’s Green Award in this year’s emerging technologies competition, the People’s Choice Award fo Best Invention of 2006 and was one of Time magazine's "Best Inventions of 2006."
The company was awarded a Single Business Tax credit valued at $602,000 over three
years from the
Michigan Economic Development Corp. "By locating our R&D center near Detroit, we will have access to the great talent pool that exists here in automotive engineering and design," Tesla Motors CEO Martin Eberhard said in a statement.
More on the company and the Tesla Roadster at
www.teslamotors.com.
Source: Michael Shore of MEDC
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