The numbers broke down to about $20 million in revenue and $1 million in profit. That $465 million is set to fund development of the company's first sedan offering, the $50,000 Tesla Model S. Not stumbling anymore, it seems. [CNN]

From WiredBiz's twitter feed:

A sub $10,000, zero-emissions car will be the most desirable consumer electronics device in history.

Apparently, the quote came up while discussing Tesla with founder Elon Musk. When asked how he is reacting to the Detroit meltdown, Wired editor Chris Anderson noted in his twitter feed that Musk would like to buy a car factory and build 100,000 cars a year. That having been said, do you agree or disagree with Agassi's assessment? [Wired Biz]

According to the numbers (we only know that it's "double digit millions"), Jalopnik speculates that Tesla's valuation is actually less than Twitter. [CNN Money via Jalopnik]

Tesla basically "unlocked" the prices of their electric vehicle options, forcing customers to re-select or lose their spot in line. All-in-all, the price of a fully loaded Roadster has increased by the aforementioned $9,300—so it is either pony up or deal with a car equipped with less features.

According to Tesla, the reason behind the price increase was to make the car's margins appear healthy to the next round of investors, and in order to do that, making the move now was unavoidable. With all of the negativity surrounding the company, you would think that investors and customers would shy away—but according to the company not one of the 600 people on the delivery list have requested a refund so far. [Saxton via Jalopnik]

After using a meter to track power usage, Eberhard calculated that 22% of his car's juice was being wasted while parked. He also notes that this constant activity causes significant wear and tear on the pump—most likely diminishing its useful life by about 2 years or 20,000 miles. Eberhard is no longer with Tesla Motors, but when he speaks, his former colleagues should listen up and get the problem fixed. [Teslafounders]

If you're one of the 27 people who already own a Roadster, Tesla will be offering a free retrofit come next month. Now that the gearbox is all figured out, the company expects to start producing 10 new Roadsters every week, ramping up to 40 per week by early 2009. [NextAutos via Jalopnik]

For your money, you'll be getting one of the fastest all electric vehicles around. The 2009MY can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, has a top speed of 125 mph, and can go 227 miles on a 3.5 hour charge. If you're especially opulent, you can add sweet extras like a painted carbon fiber top for $3,200 or a premium leather interior for $1,800.

Want to think a little more before you let this sweet lil' ride burn a hole through your bank account? Here's a couple of reviews to help you make your decision. Or if you're in California, scuttle over to their dealership in LA. [Tesla Motors]

The Mercury News says:

In a typical scenario for a 2.8-kilowatt system, Rive said, a customer with a $150-a-month electric bill before installing solar would end up with a $60-a-month electric bill, an $80 or $90 monthly lease payment to Solar City, and thus "positive cash flow" of as much as $10.

Automobile Mag:These guys start by doing a brake stand launch to 60, noticing the electric motor's instant torque of 211 foot-pounts straining the brakes from 0 RPMs. Sounds like a warranty buster to me. Clearly, we've known its fast. What's interesting is that Automobile puts away all concerns about the 1000-pound battery pack consisting of 6831 3.7 volt lithium ions affecting the handling of the lotus based chassis. There is a fair amount of oversteer in the system, but "with 65% of the weight at the rear and no stability control, this probably isn't a bad idea." It sticks, even if it can't touch the handling of an Elise. It's setup for grand touring: The car's circuit protection systems, suspension and overall weight make it better for long drives, although the range of the vehicle is only 200+ miles. (Even factoring in the car's regenerative braking.)

But its not all gravy. Telsa's powerful drive system is destroying transmissions and they've gone through two designs. The first was a single gear setup, which forced the 13.5K RPM car to choose between fast off the line times and top speed. The second had two gears to handle this, which caused an unmentioned problem, so they're onto a third design which will probably have to be shipped out and swapped into the cars of the first batch of customers. Also, the editor here couldn't tell whether or not the car was on at first start, but that ends once you drive. He found the high-pitched RPM, squeeks and rattles annoying.

Road and Track: The R&T guys found the same gentle understeer in handling, but commented on how precise the electric accelerator peddle felt underfoot. Another benefit of an all electric powertrain is that the traction control can be entirely motor based, eliminating the need for the traditional intervention of brake modulation. They also investigate the differences between the Lotus Elise the Tesla shares its space frame with, and realize its bigger in almost every dimension, including the now leather and carbon fiber adorned cockpit. Here's a video of the car, set to some terrible rock.

Motor Trend: MT gave an entire history lesson on Nikolai Tesla, glancing his beef with his old boss, a little known inventor by the name of Thomas Edison. As far as driving particulars go, they complained about the drive lash when you snap off the accelerator, like the kind of deceleration you get when you lift fast off a stick shift, but exaggerated to nasty heights. That's likely from the regen system aggressively scavenging kinetic energy. Brake feel is good and old-fashioned, they say. Oh, here MT discovers the reason why the second-gen two-gear tranny is being replaced: They're breaking after only a few thousand miles under the full-torque-at-a-standstill electric motor. No gas engine has ever tested a gearbox like this.

And those teeth-eating launches? Drama-free, too: "There's no wheelspin, axle tramp, shutter, jutter, smoke whiff, cowl shake, nothing. I'm being eerily teleported down the barrel of a rail gun, head pulled back by a hard steady acceleration. Bizarre." [Automobile Mag, Road and Track, Motor Trend, photos from these pubs as well]