Electric sports car gets $40 million funding

A Silicon Valley-based company called Tesla Motors has received $40 million in venture funding from a number of major investors, including VantagePoint Venture Partners and Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Tesla is secretly working on an electric sports car that insiders say can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in just four seconds -- that's enough to challenge a Ferrari F430, Porsche Carrera S, or BMW M5. It will also have a range of 250 miles -- an impressive figure for an all-electric car.





Founded by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in June 2003, the San Carlos startup said this week that it will officially unveil the car on July 12th in Santa Monica.

The car is believed to be a roadster, and is said to be extremely driver-oriented. Eberhard was involved with the development of the go-cart-like Lotus Elise before co-founding Tesla.

Unlike many "green car" makers, Tesla doesn't plan to license its technology to other automakers. Rather, it wants to build the car itself, under its own brand.

Tesla said much of the funding will be used to support final safety compliance testing and production. The company also announced that Jim Marver, managing partner and co-founder of VantagePoint Venture Partners, will join Tesla's Board of Directors.

Elon Musk -- founder of Paypal and CEO of SpaceX -- has also invested in the company, and is serving as chairman. "By leading the technology change from gasoline to electric vehicles, I believe Tesla has the potential to be one of the great car companies of the 21st century," said Musk. "The starting point is a high performance sportscar, but the long term vision is to build cars of all kinds, including low cost family vehicles. Tesla is one of those rare opportunities to change the world in a positive way and build a valuable company in the process."

Other institutional investors include Draper Fisher Jurveston and JP Morgan Bay Area Equity Fund.