The all-electric Tesla Model X will debut today at 8 p.m. Pacific Standard Time at Tesla’s design studio in California.

Mere hours before the official unveil Tesla founder and CEO, Elon Musk tweeted a new teaser photo which shows off what are being called the Model X’s falcon wing doors.

The new picture doesn’t give away much more than the first teaser photo did, but it’s doing the intended job: creating a buzz before the full unveil.

The falcon wing doors resemble gull wing doors like those found on the Mercedes-Benz SLS but claim to lift up and fold, offering easier access for rear seat passengers. We will have to wait and see exactly where Tesla is going with its new door design.

Be sure to check back here for coverage of the reveal.

The new Tesla Model X crossover will be unveiled officially on February the ninth, but for the restless Tesla Fan, teaser photos have been released which showcase just a little bit of the new crossover’s styling.

The teaser photo shows us the front design lines as well as a little bit of the front end, which looks reminiscent of the Tesla roadster, only in bigger bulkier crossover form. The unveil will take place at the Tesla Los Angeles based design studio on Feb. 9th. Check back on the 9th for tull coverage of the Tesla model X reveal.

Let us know what you think of the Model X in the comments section below.

After every auto show there’s normally a lull in new product news as media and PR folks alike decompress. That won’t be the case with this year’s Chicago Auto Show, however, with the reveal of electric car maker Tesla’s new crossover the day after the Chi-town press day.

The reveal won’t be anywhere near Chicago either with Tesla announcing yesterday it would reveal the new Model X at its Design Studio in California. The new model is expected to sit on a modified version of the same platform used for the Model S electric luxury sedan and make use of similar powertrains.

Tesla recently announced pricing for the Model S, which will start at 49,900 after a federal tax rebate. The top Signature package will retail for $69,900 after tax incentives and will deliver a 300 mile range plus a 0-60 time of just 4.4 seconds.

In anticipation of the launch of its new Model S electric luxury sedan later this year, Tesla has been busy expanding its retail network to meet supply. “We added six new stores in the U.S. last year, four in the last quarter,” said George Blankenship, VP of sales and ownership experience, speaking during a conference call scheduled to address concerns over the company’s recent executive changes.

It might seem strange to open dealerships without any real cars to sell. After all, Tesla’s first vehicle, the Tesla Roadster, has been discontinued, while the Model S has yet to go into full production. And yet, says Blankenship, the new stores are “working exactly as we had hoped.”

In just the month of December, Tesla saw 299,000 visitors to its stores, helping bring the year-end tally for reservations on the upcoming Model S to 8,000.

Another major contributing factor was the release late in December of pricing for the Model S, with the entry level 40 kWh model starting at $49,900 after a $7,500 federal tax credit. “The strongest week for reservations was week we announced pricing,” said Blankenship, commenting on significant demand for the flagship Signature model despite its $87,900 starting price (before tax credit).

“We’re sold out of Model S Signature in the U.S.” he declared, and then announced that a waiting list is going to be created.

The future will see a continued ramp-up of sales infrastructure for Tesla throughout 2012 with plans to add 10 to 12 new retail stores in cities including New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Toronto.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk held an emergency conference call today to address concerns after news broke of two key executives leaving the company last week, sparking a 19 percent decline in the electric car maker’s stock value.

Addressing investors and media, Musk apologized for how the news came across and denied accusations that Tesla was looking to “dump” the news into the weekend.

“It’s actually a positive development that was misconstrued,” explains Musk, commenting that the changes are a part of a natural progression within any company, with different people better suited to different stages in a company’s life. The executives in question include Peter Rawlinson and Nick Sampson, both engineers involved in vehicle development.

Musk also waylaid concerns that Tesla was losing its brightest minds, stating that Rawlinson wasn’t the chief engineer of the new Model S sedan in its entirety, but rather the chief engineer in charge of body and chassis. “He was not responsible for powertrain, electrics or software,” said Musk.

In addition, Musk commented that Rawlinson left for personal reasons and, “that’s not a euphemism for something else.”

Looking to reassure investors and potential buyers further, Musk said he is, “highly confident” that Tesla will deliver 20,000 Model S vehicles next year.

Hints were also given about the upcoming Model X crossover, of which two prototypes have already begun testing, with a planned debut of February 9th.

In response to the assurances Tesla stock values spiked 15 percent in pre-market trading.

The Tesla Model X is something of an enigma, but thanks to some tweets that went out last month it sounds like it will be faster than a Porsche Cayenne and roomier than an Audi Q7.

Once again, thanks to internet chatter we’ve got some more information on this hum-dinger of an SUV. A member on the Tesla Motors Club forum said he read in the Barclays Capital research report that there would be an unveiling on February 9. According to a post by Autoblog earlier today, that date is now confirmed.

So far, Tesla has been leading the EV industry in style and performance, consistently proving that being without an internal combustion engine isn’t the end of the world, though it may be the end of your bank account. Their first release, the Tesla Roadster, is a head turner that makes you feel like Tony Stark. Next they released the Model S, touting it as the worlds first premium electric sedan. The Model X is sure to follow their attention magnet tradition.

[Source: AutoBlog]

Is this a case of another Twitter account hacker or just Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk having a Charlie Sheen moment? Either way, there were some strange tweets coming from Musk’s account a few days ago.

On December 30, the Twitterverse was treated to Musk’s 140 character musings on Catherine the Great. What’s so strange about that, you may ask. Well, he focused on the rumor that the Russian empress was crushed to death while having sex with a horse (which isn’t true, according to Psychology Today).

You can read all of the interesting tweets after the jump. What do you think of Musk’s musings? Leave us your thoughts in the comments section below. And follow us on Twitter – although we don’t tweet about barnyard romance, we still have some pretty interesting stuff to talk about.

[Source: Business Insider]

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After much speculation by the automotive community, Tesla has finally released U.S. pricing on its all new Model S. The Model S will go into production in 2012 and will be undeniably one of the best production all electric cars on the market.

The Tesla will have a base price of $49,900 after federal tax credits. The base model will get you a 40 kWh battery pack that will accelerate 0-60 mph in 6.5 seconds and have a range of 160 miles when traveling at an average speed of 55 mph.

There are four packages in total that consumers can choose from: a 40 kWh battery pack, a 60 kWh pack, an 85 kWh pack and also an 85 kWh pack that is coupled with the performance package which includes active air suspension with sport tuned traction control, performance wheels and tires, and standard leather seats and carbon fiber accents.

The 60 kWh has an MSRP of $59,900 and packs a range of 230 miles and a 0-60 mph time of 5.9 seconds. The truly impressive stats come from the 85 kWh battery pack which will get you 300 miles down the road on one charge and will accelerate 0-60 mph in 4.4 seconds. The 85 kWh without the sport package will retail for $69,900 after federal tax credit. With all the bells and whistles of the sport package included, the top of the line Tesla Model S will sell for $79,900.

GALLERY: Tesla Model S

Four years ago, Tesla launched their Roadster to the world, and 2,600 electric sports cars later, Tesla has announced the end of this generation’s production and it’ll go out with 15 Final Edition Roadsters.

Each of Tesla’s major sales regions will get five of the Final Edition models, with the United States, Europe and Asian being those major regions. The special edition Roadster will only come in Atomic Red paint with anthracite wheels and dark silver stripes to contrast the body. Other than that, there are no performance modifications – just your typical limited edition badging inside the car, each uniquely numbered.

[Source: Autoblog Green]

Last week we brought you a story about Aperta employees boorishly smashing the remaining shells of their 2e electric vehicle, including quotes from their disgruntled former CEO, Steve Fambro. You may wonder how things went so wrong.

If you haven’t been following the Aptera saga, or if you don’t know what Aptera is, this is a good time to jump in.

Rewind to 2006 where founders Steve Fambro and Chris Anthony found a company called Aptera with the intent to build and sell super-efficient electric vehicles. They planned to take advantage of a program offered by the Department of Energy by which companies could take over abandoned factories and enjoy low-interest loans if they made vehicles 25 percent more efficient than those they would replace.

Aptera had a funky three-wheeled car in mind that looked a lot like a tear drop made out of plastic composite. In September of 2008 Fambro found himself on the outside of the company, replaced as CEO by Paul Wilbur.

By December, Aptera’s application for money from the DoE had been submitted and promptly rejected— three-wheeled cars apparently didn’t qualify.

Over the next two years Tesla and Fisker both recieve hundreds of millions of dollars in DoE funding, and three wheel cars are provisioned for subsidy by the DoE.

In 2010 Aptera re-applies and was denied funding again, this time becuause the DoE says they cannot pay back capital costs for the company.

Shortly afterwards, the company re-allocated their remaining resources to developing a four-wheeled sedan that had a better chance of catching on.

At this point the DoE committed $150 million in loans on the condition that the company also secure $80 million in private funding. That proved to be too much. Aptera simply couldn’t find investors to pour money into their company after another operation failed to get funding because of their similar plastic composite bodies.

By early December of this year the company had run out of cash and needed to shut down. They decided to execute the close early enough to distribute remaining cash reserves among their employees as severance.

In an interview with Green Car Reports, Wilbur admitted that they spent too much time chasing DoE finding and that a better path would have been to look for private money from the beginning. The DoE, he said, took far too long to yield any money for Aptera to stay afloat.

[Source: Green Car Reports]