Mygreenwheels

I hope I'm not dreaming. Elon Musk of Tesla has revealed his fabulous 7-seater electric sedan, the Tesla S, and it's got all of us EV bloggers in a froth, but in a more grown up kind of way than we did over the roadster. Tesla is talking about producing 20,000 of these in its first year at just under $50,000 for the basic model that does 160 mile range, but a 230-mile and 300-mile pack will also be available and you can even rent them for long trips. Wow! Someone's really thinking about this from the potential customer angle - whatever next???

It all sounds wonderful and - amazingly - practical for everyday life, seating 5 adults in comfort and two kids rear-facing (where they love to be anyway) with loads of space left over for luggage. But it's still got lots of snazzy details - like the ubercool dashboard with its 17" screen instead of buttons that's fully 3G and internet capable.

The warranty is still being worked on, but they expect it to be 3-4 years for the car and 7-10 years for the battery pack that should come in 'well under $5,000' according to Elon Musk, boss of Tesla. They're also working on a deal with a government-affiliated infrastructure partner to set up battery changing stations that will be able to change the battery in 5-8 minutes.

If you want to check the spec you can see the potted version here. But in case you get all over-excited about it, just consider what gawker has to say about putting down a deposit on a Tesla S Sedan.

"Musk is now asking Tesla buyers to pony up $40,000 in deposits for the new Model S, even though he has yet to reveal a site for the factory where he plans to build them or financing for production... With Tesla desperately short on cash, and breaking even at best on its sales of its Roadster sports car, Musk is clearly planning to use Model S buyers' deposits as a source of capital. It's a sneaky way of turning them into lenders ... And Musk is not being straight with buyers on how safe their deposits are. On Thursday, when he unveiled the Model S in Los Angeles, he stated flatly that buyers could lose their money."

Ouch. That makes me stand back a bit.