Tesla to open seven more stores

Electric vehicle company Tesla is to expand out of its northern Californian base, opening seven regional sales and service centres.

The company will open stores in New York, Seattle and Chicago later this month. Another in Miami will open shortly afterwards, and the firm has expressed an interest in DC and Chicago.

The company is busy expanding its product portfolio. In 2011, it plans to mass-produce the Series S, a family sedan that will carry up to seven people and which will have a 300-mile range. Its existing product is the Roadster, a sports model that recently sold its 500th unit. It also introduced the Roadster Sport in January, which is a higher-performance sports vehicle.

The company says that it has taken more than 1,000 reservations for the family model.

Tesla is planning to begin deliveries of the Roadster in Europe this summer, and has opened a regional service centre in London, the first of three planned immediately on that continent.

Daimler recently acquired a stake of almost 10 per cent in Tesla, and will be integrating the firm's lithium-ion battery packs into its own electric smart car.

However, Charles Territo, spokesman for the Association of Auto Manufacturers, said that sales of purely electric vehicles have been negligible thus far, and that even sales of hybrid electric vehicles have plummeted due to a decrease in oil prices and the economic crisis.