Electric car company Tesla just unveiled a new financing plan today so that people interested in getting one of its Model S vehicles can essentially turn the car back over to the dealership after three years of payments.

“We want to combine the best parts of ownership and leasing,” Tesla founder (and real-life Tony Stark) Elon Musk said in a press conference. “We want to make the car more broadly affordable for people.”

Tesla outlines all the federal and state tax credits offered to someone who buys an electric vehicle (between $7,500 to $15,000), which is enough to cover the 10 percent down payment on a Model S. Musk said monthly payments, after factoring in fuel savings costs and other maintenance, will be about $500 or less. The financing plan basically offers you the chance to sign up for a 5- to 7-year loan, with the option to get out of the deal after the first three years.

How can this be? Well, Tesla will buy back the car, which Musk asserts will increase or retain its value. Musk even went as far as telling people he’d sink his own money into this plan to ensure customers could walk away with no additional costs after three years.

“It’s a great peace of mind play, and if the claims match the reality, then this is completely different from any other financing model in the industry,” said JD Rucker of KPA Automotive. “In essence, you’re buying half the car much in the way a lease works but still gaining the benefits of ownership. They’re banking on low mileage, and I’m sure there’s fine print but it sounds like a ‘best of both worlds’ financing concept.”

But the average eligible driver still has a few hoops to overcome before it can truly make this beneficial to your wallet.

First of all the monthly payments factor in fuel, so the true monthly cost could be another $200 to $300 per month depending on your driving habits. Musk also noted emissions tests and such as other costs you would get to avoid paying with a Model S (like oil changes). Also, this is still a loan that banks must approve you for, so people with bad credit will still have a hard time. And there’s the matter of running out of fuel before you can get back to a charging station to think of, which could net you a handful of towing bills.

Still, if you’re interested in buying an electric car, this could sweeten the deal, Rucker told me.

“Only Tesla could pull this off,” Rucker said. added, noting that the niche market for people looking for electric cars combined with Musk’s panache make this possible. “It will definitely get prudent people in the right situation looking at Tesla.”

Updated 2/12/2013

If you get into a dispute over facts, it always helps to have a nice, clean, data trail.

Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk is unhappy enough with a recent New York Times review of his company’s new electric Model S sedan that he says he’ll publish the car’s digital log of the reviewer’s actual drive — which, he says, differs substantially from the account in the Times.

“We will publish the actual logs on the car and it is crystal clear,” Musk said in an interview with Bloomberg West earlier today (see video below).

The Times reviewer, John M. Broder, took a Model S for a 200-mile drive along I-95 recently, starting in Newark, Del. and ending up in Milford, Conn. That’s well within the 300-mile range that Tesla claims its car’s weighty lithium-ion batteries are capable of.

But Broder barely made it. He coasted in to the charging station in Milford with barely any power left. The car had shut off the heater to conserve energy and he drove as conservatively as possible most of the way.

Talk about range anxiety.

But Musk claims Broder failed to mention how much he was punching the accelerator early in the ride, a move that Tesla warns its customers will drain the battery faster. Also, Musk says Broder took a detour through Manhattan. And he didn’t fully charge the car before departing.

“If you do all those three things, which we were clear should not be done and obviously common sense suggests should not be done, then you will not be able to go as far,” Musk said. “If you did not fill a gasoline car’s gas tank far enough, then went on a detour and ran out of gas, you should not be surprised if that occurs.”

Musk hasn’t actually published the logs yet. But his threat might worry ordinary buyers of the car, too. If he can pull the location and driving profile of a reviewer’s car, could he do it for anyone’s?

Musk seems to recognize the potential fallout, and tried to assuage those concerns in the same interview.

“We are very sensitive to privacy, so these logs are only turned on with the explicit permission of the customer and a signature. For media drives we turn on logging, which tells us the position, speed, what someone is doing with the car in terms of charging.”

In other words: Model S reviewers, you better be honest. Tesla is watching you.

Added 2/12/2013: The New York Times has responded to Musk’s claims with a very detailed explanation by Broder.

Top photo: Tesla Motors

To put it mildly, the Tesla Model S has been a resounding success.

The New York Times has called the all-electric luxury sport sedan a game-changer, comparable to the Model T Ford. It’s won virtually every 2012 “Car of the Year” honor, including the only unanimous Motor Trend award in the magazine’s 65-year history.

Tesla Motors has a waiting list of nearly 20,000 eager buyers. Its production line is now humming at full capacity. And the 3,000-odd customers who’ve taken delivery of their cars are, for the most part, ecstatic.

But nobody’s perfect.

In fact, it would be something of a miracle if there weren’t at least a few teething troubles from a revolutionary, clean-sheet-of-paper design, built by a fledgling startup company, relying heavily on software, and assembled on a brand-new production line.

The Tesla Model S, too, has had its share of glitches, quirks, and peccadilloes.

In an ordinary car, these minor blips would likely pass unnoticed. But the Model S is no ordinary car.

Under a microscope since the prototype was revealed four years ago, the car has attracted a devoted clique of fanatical followers who pore over every scrap of Model S minutia.

(Count me as one of them; my 2013 Model S, with the 60-kilowatt-hour battery pack, is now due to arrive in just a couple of weeks.)

Here, in any case, are some of the handful of blemishes sighted on the otherwise happy face of the Tesla Model S, as recounted by owners on Tesla Motors’ own online forum.

* Self-opening door locks. Several owners report having returned to their supposedly locked cars to find them unlocked, with one door slightly ajar. This has occurred both after manual remote locking with the key fob, and in the “walkaway” auto-lock mode, where the car locks itself when the key fob recedes to a certain distance.

* Sticking sunroof. Owners have reported difficulties opening the sunroof, which is controlled entirely from the touch screen.

* Software glitches. Model S software update 4.1 was designed partly to offer a “sleep” mode to reduce power consumption when shut down.  But it has proven prone to bugs, with numerous reports of unpredictable glitches with the panoramic roof, door handles, locking, wipers, displays, and controls. (In fact, the two problems listed above are likely software problems, not mechanical.)

Rebooting seems to resolve many of these malfunctions, but for a few owners, rebooting has become almost a daily occurrence.

Laments one owner on the Tesla on-line forum, “You shouldn’t have to look to the east, raise your right hand, do the hokey-pokey, and tap the screen randomly to make something work!!!”

Responded another owner, wearily, “You obviously have no experience with software. The hokey-pokey is a basic required user skill.”

Tesla is currently remotely downloading Model S software version 4.2, to cars in the field. It eliminates the sleep mode that apparently caused most of the problems. “Reduced power sleep mode remains a high priority for future software releases,” says Tesla.

* Fogged windshields.  Numerous owners have reported poor defogger/defroster action in cold or humid conditions. Tesla has already come up with a new vent design, and expects to have retrofit kits available  at its service centers soon. Estimated installation time is less than an hour.

* Balky charge port doors. Owners report that the doors, disguised as part of the left taillight, occasionally don’t open or close properly, and sometimes  pop open repeatedly. One poor fellow had his charge cord jam in the socket, immobilizing the car. He had to be rescued by a Tesla service rep.

* Substandard Floor Mats. Even top-of-the-line Model S cars come with no mats for the back seats, and cheap, low-quality mats in the front footwells.  “They are the crappiest ever,” complains one owner. If you want nicer ones, Tesla will sell you “premium” mats for the front and rear footwells for $400.

* No regenerative braking in the cold.  The recent Midwest cold snap has revealed an odd characteristic of the Model S: In subfreezing temperatures, the regenerative braking doesn’t kick in until the car has been driven 10 or 15 miles.

This is apparently because Tesla engineers don’t want a cold battery to receive the sudden charge that occurs when a Model S driver suddenly backs off the throttle, or descends a steep hill. So the regen is automatically disabled or limited until the battery warms up.

This has proven disconcerting to a few owners who weren’t expecting it. “I was caught off guard by this over the weekend,” commented one owner on the Tesla forum.  “It’s not hard to adjust to, but with something as important as braking, the car should stop in a consistent, predictable way.”

“It’s a wart on what is otherwise a superior, consistent driving experience,” commented another. And, oddly, the Chevy Volt suffers no such quirk. Its regenerative braking functions consistently in all temperatures. Do Chevy engineers know something that Tesla’s don’t? Or vice versa?

A few Model S owners have suffered more than one of these problems.

One unfortunate buyer who took delivery in late December–when Tesla was rushing to deliver as many cars as possible before year’s end–reported multiple problems with his car’s paint, GPS system, body trim, and door handles.

“I am so frustrated with all of these problems,” he wrote recently on the Tesla forum. “Had I known about this before I made a final order I never would’ve purchased this car. I wish I could take this car back to them now. Be forewarned.”

But the vast majority of Model S owners aren’t suffering any problems, or seem far more willing to cut Tesla some slack and give the company time to work out the few bugs.

One of them summed it up this way: “The car is just too awesome to whine about little problems that will (eventually) be taken care of.”

David Noland is a Tesla Model S reservation holder and freelance writer who lives north of New York City.

This story originally appeared on GreenCarReports, one of VentureBeat’s editorial partners. Follow GreenCarReports on Facebook and Twitter.

Tesla Motors is facing a formidable opponent it may not have sufficiently appreciated: the auto dealers of America, and their state associations.

Tesla, you may remember, is selling its electric cars online, not through franchised, independently owned dealers, and delivering them directly to buyers from the factory.

In doing so, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] has removed the two parts of car shopping that customers clearly hate most: haggling and buying.

Its Tesla Stores, it says, are simply educational showrooms where no cars are actually sold.

Dealer groups–who view the approach as a dire threat–do not believe this, and they are both changing state laws and suing Tesla to prevent the company from opening its stores.

By the beginning of this month, Tesla faced lawsuits in four states over its stores.

Conciliatory, polite

Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk weighed in, posting what was for him a relatively polite, conciliatory response to those challenges on the company website.

“In many respects,” he wrote, “it would be easier to pursue the traditional franchise dealership model,” which would save Tesla money and broaden its distribution much more quickly.

The problem, he argued, is that any conventional dealer has a fundamental conflict in explaining the advantages of battery electric cars when they rely on gasoline vehicles for the bulk of their sales and profits.

The 2012 Tesla Model S is so different from any other car, he said, that consumers require a great deal of education before they can even start to think about buying.

That’s what the Tesla Stores do, he wrote: let the public learn about the Model S from product specialists–who are not on commission–and, critically, about electric cars in general.

“Their goal and the sole metric of their success is to have you enjoy the experience of visiting so much that you look forward to returning again,” Musk said.

Contrary to spirit of the law?

He acknowledged existing state laws and pledged that Tesla follows them. “We do not seek to change those rules,” he wrote, “and we have taken great care not to act in a manner contrary to those rules.”

In respect to two lawsuits filed against the company, he said Tesla believes they are “starkly contrary to the spirit and the letter of the law.”

Musk noted that they were filed in one case by a Fisker dealer, and in the other, by “an auto group that has repeatedly demanded that it be granted a Tesla franchise.”

He also noted that U.S.-style franchise laws do not exist elsewhere in the world, and described Tesla’s plans for service facilities in some detail.

Laws in 48 states

Source: Photo courtesy GreenCarReports

An early version of the Tesla Model S.

In 48 states, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), franchise laws forbid or severely restrict the ability of automakers to sell vehicles directly to the public.

The specific wording of those laws varies from state to state, but most are based on the rationale that letting big automakers sell cars to customers would stifle competition.

And there’s some history–from half a century ago–that supports the notion that franchised auto dealers may face unfair competition from factory stores selling the same cars.

Tesla Motors, of course, doesn’t have a single franchised dealer.

It has only factory showrooms, and the only way to purchase a Tesla Model S is to order it online.

[UPDATE: NADA upped the ante. It said in an e-mailed statement it was seeking a meeting with the startup automaker to explore "serious concerns about Tesla's intentions."

Its chairman William Underriner told reporters the dealers' group "has 'a whole mess of lawyers in Washington' who work on state franchise laws," which presumably NADA could deploy in every state where Tesla has or seeks to open a store or service facility.]

Changing Colorado law

But dealers insist that Tesla’s showroom workers are part of the sales process, even though they can’t take money for cars.

They view that as a violation of state laws, and are fighting the company on several fronts.

In Colorado, for instance, the state dealer association got a bill passed in 2010 that amended the laws governing dealer operations and their business arrangements with automakers.

The bill, which was signed on March 22, 2010 and took effect immediately, prohibited Tesla from opening any further stores in the state.

As the association wrote in its 2010 End of Session Report:

An existing provision in Colorado law already prevented a manufacturer from operating a dealership so long as they were not [sic] franchised dealerships. This statue [sic] narrows provision [sic] so a manufacturer that has any dealerships in Colorado, whether franchised or not, is prohibited from operating a dealership.

A Tesla Store in Colorado had opened in 2009, spurred in part by interest in a then-active $42,000 tax credit for the purchase of a Tesla Roadster.

Asked for comment on the 2010 Colorado legislation, Tesla spokeswoman Shanna Hendriks said only:

Tesla’s business model was developed in the best interests of consumers and the advancement of electric vehicle technology. In doing so, we have worked closely with regulators to operate within compliance of all current state and municipal laws.

That’s as close to a “no comment” as you’ll get. Tesla currently has just one Colorado facility, in Lone Tree, south of Denver.

Dealerships: the best way to protect buyers

Source: Tesla

A Tesla Roadster

Two weeks ago, Tim Jackson, president of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association, spoke at length with Green Car Reports on dealers’ reasons for opposing the Tesla model and fighting its stores.

It’s really, he explained, all about protecting consumers. He offered three different reasons for the group’s action.

First, he said, independent dealerships usually continue in business to provide service even if an auto company or brand shuts down the supply of new cars.

If Tesla were to fail, he pointed out, it would close all its company-owned stores and service facilities, leaving Tesla owners without recourse.

Owners of Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, Hummers, Saabs, Daewoos, Isuzus, and other vanished makes got varying access to service and parts through independent dealerships long after they disappeared from the market, he maintained.

Second, the dealers feel–as Musk acknowledged in his letter–that Tesla could spend its money much more wisely than on building its own stores.

Imagine, Jackson suggested, what Tesla could do if it applied the money it’s now spending on stores and service centers to its product development plans instead.

And third, he argued, all auto dealers will be hurt if Tesla fails.

If that were to happen, and consumers were left high and dry without a place to have their Tesla cars serviced, he said, it would do great damage to the good reputation of all auto dealers.

Jackson acknowledged that most car buyers have no idea automakers are legally forbidden from selling cars to them directly.

He reiterated the association’s position that the public is best protected by having independently owned dealerships, rather than direct sales by carmakers.

Like Apple, like Tesla

The model for the Tesla Stores is none other than Apple’s outrageously successful chain of retail shops. In fact, both companies’ stores have been designed by the same man, George Blankenship.

“The [traditional] model is that [carmakers] do a bunch of research, hold a bunch of focus groups, and they decide that this is a car we should build,” Blankenship said at the July opening of the Portland store.

“They design that car, they engineer it and manufacture it, and then they sell it to some dealer who then tries to sell it.”

“That’s just not how we’re doing it.”

Meanwhile, Tesla has said it had already logged more than 1 million visitors in its various stores by mid-July.

And the company is moving forward with plans to open 10 more stores in high-end locations by the end of this year.

Heading into January, Musk wrote, Tesla will have 19 stores, three galleries, and 26 service centers in the U.S.–including service centers in cities where it has no showrooms.

This story originally appeared on GreenCarReports.com, one of VentureBeat’s editorial partners.

Top photo: Elon Musk, by jurvetson via photopin

Let’s make one thing clear right up front: I think the 2012 Tesla Model S is the coolest freaking car in the history of Western Civilization.

I put down my $5,000 deposit more than two years ago. I’ve chugged the Tesla Kool-Aid, extra-large size.

But after a 7-minute spin in a dark green Model S last week at the Tesla “Get Amped” test-drive tour stop in Mahwah, New Jersey,  I have to conclude–sadly–that the car is not (yet) perfect.

Yes, the acceleration was mind-boggling, the ride and handling were sublime, the in-dash technology is whiz-bang. But, in my humble (perhaps idiosyncratic) opinion, a few little things just aren’t right.

1.  No “creep” mode. Every automatic-transmission car in the world creeps forward when the driver’s feet are off the gas and brake pedals.  We’ve driven this way all our lives. The Nissan Leaf,  Chevy Volt, and Toyota Prius Plug-In all have built-in creep mode to mimic this effect.

Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] has inexplicably omitted this feature. A driver-selectable idle-creep mode, with the option to turn it off, would make everybody happy.

2.  It’s hard to get in and out of. I’m 6’2″ and hardly limber, so I’m accustomed to a bit of gymnastics getting in and out of small four-door cars, like my Chevy Volt. But to my surprise, the larger Tesla required virtually the same level of contortion. It’s the price I pay for a low-slung, swoopy, aerodynamic car.

Fortunately, the Model S’s adjustable air suspension can take some of the sting out of the daily in-out routine. There are four ride heights: Normal, Low (for aerodynamic efficiency above 60 mph), High (for snow and rough ground below 20 mph) and Very High (below 5 mph).  The car defaults to Normal and squats automatically above 60 mph.

The high settings are driver-controlled on the center touch screen; if I touch “Very High”  as I pull into my driveway,  the car will silently rise about two inches, thus facilitating a more graceful exit.  It will then stay up on its haunches until I return.

3. Regenerative braking settings are awkward to change.  Like the Volt, the Model S has two settings for regenerative braking: “mild”, to simulate the engine-braking feel of a normal car when you take your foot off the gas; and “strong,” which gives a sharper, sportier deceleration and feeds more power back into the battery.  Strong regen has become a signature of electric-car driving.

To change settings, the Volt driver flicks the floor-mounted shift lever back and forth between D and L.  I quickly learned to integrate the two regen settings into the Volt driving experience. It’s actually kind of fun, like downshifting.

But sadly, the Model S regen control is controlled solely through the central touch screen, a few screens down, which  takes it out of the driving loop.

“It was never meant to be adjusted on the fly,” a Tesla rep told me. Too bad. It should be.

2012 Tesla Model S Charging Connector

The paragon of regen control is the Volkswagen E-Golf, which features four regeneration settings, controlled by paddle shifters behind the steering wheel. Leave it to the Germans to integrate regenerative braking into the driving experience seamlessly.

4.  Charge port location is inconvenient.  The 2012 Tesla Model S charge port is cleverly hidden under the left taillight lens. Okay, there’s no unsightly charge port door to mar the flawless lines of the car. And yes, it certainly demonstrates that Tesla engineers are clever fellows.

But it’s an obviously inconvenient location that requires a longer charge cord and more driver fussing around–especially at public charging stations designed for nose-in charging.

This bloody sacrifice of utility on the altar of beauty calls to mind the original  iMac.  Obsessed with its curvy aesthetic, Apple supplied the first iMacs with a round mouse. Sure, it looked cool. But it proved to be utterly useless;  there was no way to orient it by feel. I bought a standard replacement mouse the next day.

Too bad I won’t be able to do the same with my Tesla charge port. And this is one Tesla can’t change in software, either.

5. Turn-signal lever badly placed.  Three times during my test drive, I attempted to signal a turn and hit the cruise control stalk–which is positioned precisely where the turn lever is on every other car–by mistake. The turn lever itself is inexplicably placed well below it.

Blame this one on Mercedes-Benz. As part of its deal with Daimler, Tesla uses an off-the-shelf Mercedes turn/cruise lever assembly. Mercedes-Benz engineers will tell you that forces drivers to put their hands “where they should be on the wheel.” Great.

Tesla should come up with its own, with the lever positions reversed–or at least rotate the assembly to put the turn signal where it ought to be.

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VentureBeat was among the very first to take the new Tesla Model S Beta for an early test drive, and we can report that it’s a beast. We’ve got photos from our plant visit below, and we’ll be uploading a video soon.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the Model S is already sold out for 2012, thanks to 6,500 pre-orders. And after spending some time with the vehicle in person, it’s easy to see why. This car is dead sexy, with all the features to make gadget boy or girl’s heart melt. Yet unlike the earlier Tesla Roadster, it’s actually got room for your friends and family.

With seating for seven (five full-sized adults and two kids in the back), it’s not a vehicle to park in your living room and admire. This is a moving sculpture that expects to be driven.

It handles the hill roads of Palo Alto with the power of a rally car, and the grace of prancing gazelle.  Best of all, it’s muscle you can feel good about. The electric engine is releasing zero emissions as it burns down the road.

What else makes the Model S Beta special? This prototype is in its final stages before the car goes into production, and the Model S will be Tesla’s first mass-produced vehicle. Starting at $49,000, the Model S is the follow-up to the company’s first car, the Tesla Roadster. It will be available in a 160-, 230- or 300-mile range option, and the company says it can charge using any regular electrical outlet.

The Model S Beta has a 17-inch connected touchscreen, developed in-house, that’s equipped with 3G wireless for easy navigation, web and media access, and the ability to run applications.

What we saw was still early, but the Tesla team sees cars as the new app marketplace. That means you can expect someone in the near future to be creating a customized, steampunk-styled interface for someone’s Model S control panel. Even without apps, this giant, luminous screen is responsible for all car functions, and the only physical buttons on the car’s console are the federally-mandated “hazard” blinker, and another button to pop open the glove box. Everything else, from driving directions, to air conditioning, is controlled with the touch screen.

Suffice it to say, no detail was overlooked on the driving experience, the interior or the techy goodness.

We’ll have a full-length video of our test drive and lots more photos coming soon. Stay tuned!

Related articles

• Tesla begins assembling beta Model S electric car models (venturebeat.com)
• Secret Tesla video? Model S sedan, Roadster shown on the road together (venturebeat.com)
• Tesla’s sporty Model S will accelerate faster than a Porsche 911 Carrera (venturebeat.com)
• Tesla Motors inks $100M deal with Toyota (venturebeat.com)

We caught up with 29 electric car manufacturers and developers to find out what they’re doing today. Some are still going strong, some have begun actively producing their cars, and some … well, not every startup can survive.

Most major car companies have begun working on a hybrid electric car or a pure battery-powered electric car. The Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt, two of the cheapest electric cars on the market, now cost less than $50,000. And there are plenty of other battery-powered and hybrid electric cars in the pipeline that will bring those costs even lower.

This list is sorted according to car availability and release dates based on publicly available information.

Battery-Powered Electric Cars

Battery-powered electric cars are emerging as reliable forms of transportation. The Nissan Leaf is currently the leader in the early adopter market for battery-powered electric cars. It costs around $35,000 and has a range of around 100 miles. Tesla Motors’ cars have much higher ranges — the Model S is expected to be able to travel around 300 miles between charges — but are more expensive. Battery-powered electric vehicles face longer turnaround times than hybrids because they take longer to charge than filling up a gas tank.

American Electric Vehicle: Kurrent
American Electric Vehicle (AEV) advises its potential drivers to “slow down,” which seems like wise advice, given the golf cart-inspired design of its Kurrent car. Still, it’s ridiculously cheap.
Price: $10,000
Range/Top Speed: 40 miles/25mph
Release date: Available now

Commuter Cars: Tango T600
The Tango is an oddball. It’s less than half the width of a normal car, and two can fit in a single lane. It also accelerates like a bat out of hell, going from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 4 seconds. But this guy will cost you an arm and a leg. Future versions are planned to be much cheaper, and have longer ranges.
Price: $108,000
Range/Top Speed: 80 miles/150mph
Release date: Available now

Dynasty Electric Car Corp.: IT Sedan
This Canadian company sells five different models, although they all look relatively similar. The IT Sedan is another slow-moving electric car, which brings the cost of the car down.
Price: $19,000
Range/Top Speed: 30 miles/24mph
Release Date: Available now

Pure Mobility: Kewet Buddy
Somewhat reminiscent of the Think (now in the deadpool section below), the Buddy is currently only available in its first launch country, Norway.
Price: $28,000
Range/Top Speed: 37 miles/56mph
Release Date: Available now

Fly Bo: FB-3000
The FB-3000, which bears a strong resemblance to the Smart Car, is produced in China.
Price: $10,000
Range/Top Speed: 60 miles/35mph
Release Date: Available now

Global Electric Motorcars (GEM): e2
GEM is a division of Chrysler. Its vehicles resemble golf carts. Polaris Industries acquired the company earlier this year. It currently has six vehicles that are primarily geared to intra-city use.
Price: $7,500
Range/Top Speed: 35 miles/25mph
Release Date: Available now

Myers Motors: NmG (No more Gas)
The NmG is a three-wheeled car with room for only one passenger. It doesn’t go far, but it’s quite speedy. Myers Motors is based in Tallmadge, Ohio.
Price: $22,500
Range/Top Speed: 30 miles/75mph
Release Date: Available now

Reva: G-Wiz
The Indian-produced Reva still isn’t available in the United States. It’s considered unsafe at high speeds, so it may never make it here.
Price: $16,000
Range/Top Speed: 50 miles/50mph
Release Date: Available now

Smith Electric Vehicles: Edison
The Edison, a large van designed for local deliveries, is Smith’s smallest model, meaning drivers don’t need a special license to operate it. The company, based in the United Kingdom also makes several larger delivery trucks. Smith Electric Vehicles raised $58 million in March.
Price: Unconfirmed
Range/Top Speed: 100 miles/50mph
Release Date: Available now

Twike: The Twike
The company sold out its 2007 Twike line of three-wheeled vehicles. It’s based in Switzerland, but sells in several other countries, including the United States. The company has sold between 20 and 25 Twikes in the U.S. The Twike is registered as a motor cycle by the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Price: $24,400
Range/Top Speed: 80 miles/53mph
Release Date: Available now

Venturi: Fétish
Another high-end electric sports car (and we stress high-end — look at that price!), the Fétish is manufactured in Monaco. Venturi plans to continue manufacturing the Fétish until 2015.
Price: $400,000
Range/Top Speed: 155 miles/100mph
Release Date: Available now

Universal Electric Vehicles: Spyder
UEV’s Spyder has a sporty design, but the company itself doesn’t seem as slick and polished as some of the competitors. The company’s website is just an explanation of the car and the doesn’t indicate how to order it (which you can apparently do by calling the company). The company is based in Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Price: $70,000
Range/Top Speed: 300 miles/80mph
Release Date: Available Now

Miles Electric Vehicles: ZX40S
Miles Electric Vehicles specializes in low-speed cars and trucks that don’t require a lot of juice to run. The vehicles are also cheap because they don’t have to include the same safety standards that higher-speed cars require, such as airbags.
Price: $19,500
Range/Top Speed: 40 to 50 miles/25mph
Release Date: Available Now

Zap! Electric Cars: Alias
Zap! Electric Cars stopped producing the Xebra, its earlier electric car model, in 2008. Its next car is the sporty Alias. The company has also begun work on the A380, an SUV that Zap! says can travel around 350 miles on a single charge. The website indicates that the Alias was supposed to go into production in June, but there are no new details. The company is based in Santa Rosa, Calif.
Price: $38,500
Range/Top Speed: 100 miles/85mph
Release Date: “Accepting reservations”

Lightning Car Company: Lightning GT
This is the United Kingdom’s answer to the Tesla Roadster. The Lightning GT is still slated for a 2012 delivery, and the company is taking pre-orders for the car.
Price: $293,000
Range/Top Speed: 150 miles/124mph
Release Date: 2012

Arcimoto: Arcimoto SRK
The Arcimoto SRK is a two-seater battery-powered electric vehicle. It’s a bit like a three-wheeled electric powered jeep. Like other independent electric car makers, the company has a pretty small retail footprint.
Price: $17,500
Range/Top Speed: 160 miles/65mph
Release Date: Late 2012

Tesla Motors: Model S, Model X
The first shipments of the Silicon Valley-based company’s second electric car, the Model S, are expected early next year. Tesla Motors is working on a battery-powered electric SUV called the Model X, which it will unveil later this year.
Price: $57,400 (Model S)
Range/Top Speed: 300 miles/120mph
Release Date: early 2012 (Model S)

Phoenix Motorcars: Phoenix SUT
Phoenix Motorcars was originally planning to produce a sport-utility vehicle, but it has halted development as of last year. The company has since begun working on a sport-utility truck that’s due next year. The company is based in Ontario, Calif.
Price: $45,000
Range/Top Speed: 70 miles/80mph
Release Date: 2012

Motor Development International: MiniFlowAir
These tiny, unusual little vehicles are powered entirely by compressed air. Motor Development International unveiled a concept car, the AirPod, in 2009 and has since started working on several other air-powered cars. The company is based in Carros, France.
Price: $12,600
Range/Top Speed: 110 miles/68mph
Release Date: 2013

Aptera: 2e
In August, Aptera was forced to return 2,500 $500 security deposits due to a snafu with its credit card processor. The company filed for a $184 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy but was denied. It’s still waiting to hear back about approval for a $75 million loan.
Price: $30,000
Range/Top Speed: 100 miles/TBA
Release Date: TBA

Persu (formerly Venture Vehicles): Persu V3
The Persu is a sleek three-wheeled electric scooter-like car that looks like it comes out of a sci-fi film. The car has plenty of buzz and showed up on Top Gear, a show that tests out supercars like the Tesla Roadster. Persu is based in Los Angeles, Calif.
Price: $25,000
Range/Top Speed: 350 miles/100mph
Release Date: 2014

Proterra: Proterra EcoRide
A Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers-backed electric car manufacturer, Proterra specializes in making buses powered by electric motors. Those buses are meant for public transportation in large cities like Chicago and San Francisco.
Price: TBA
Range/Top Speed: 400 miles/65mph
Release Date: TBA

Mission Motors: Mission One PLE
The Mission One PLE is a concept electric motorbike produced by Mission Motors. The company licenses its electric motors and powertrains out to other car manufacturers. Mission Motors is based in San Francisco, Calif.
Price: TBA
Range/Top Speed: 150 miles/150mph
Release Date: TBA

Wrightspeed: X-1
Wrightspeed recently cut the ribbon on a manufacturing plant for its supercharged electric car, the X-1. That car was last spotted on a track in April racing past a Tesla Roadster, for those of you keeping score. The X-1 is a formula one-esque supercar developed by Ian Wright, originally a founding team member of Tesla Motors.
Price: TBA
Range/Top Speed: 100 miles/104mph
Release Date: TBA

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Around 35 percent of electric car owners were concerned about reaching a destination before running out of juice three months after buying a car, compared to 100 percent of car owners when they first bought the electric car, according to the report. More car owners drove the cars until the battery fell below 50 percent charge. But the report also showed that electric car owners still desire longer ranges.

Most battery-powered electric cars are limited in their range, which can make car purchasers skittish and less likely to buy a pure battery-powered electric car. It’s one reason hybrid cars — particularly a new extended-range model that can travel 25-50 miles on battery power before switching to gasoline — are more popular than battery-powered electric hybrids.

Clean technology research firm Pike Research expects 754,000 extended-range hybrid electric vehicles to hit the road by 2017, compared to around 504,000 battery-electric vehicles. It’s around a three-to-two ratio, which should continue for the foreseeable future in the United States, Pike Research analyst John Gartner told VentureBeat.

Extended-range hybrids can travel much further without having to recharge for upwards of several hours. Most battery-powered electric cars have long recharge times that require drivers to leave them overnight. But Tesla Motors is working on a fast-charging procedure that it says will charge the Model S to around 80 percent battery life in 45 minutes.

The Nissan Leaf, one of the cheapest electric cars on the market, can only travel around 100 miles before needing to recharge. Tesla Motors cars have some of the longest ranges in the industry, with the Roadster traveling more than 200 miles before a recharge and its newest car, the Model S, traveling up to 300 miles between charges. But The Model S is a little pricey at $57,000 before government incentives for purchasing an electric car.

A clear trend is emerging among electric car manufacturers: Plug-in hybrids are a better near-term bet than purely battery-powered cars.

Ford today unveiled the latest in its series of electric cars, a plug-in hybrid electric car called the Evos. The car has a battery-powered engine that can travel between 30 and 40 miles before switching over to an engine powered by gasoline. (Drivers can also choose whether they want to power the car solely off a gas engine, or use both the battery and gasoline to power the car.) The car also collects an enormous amount of data about your driving habits, uploads that data to remote servers, crunches it together with other drivers’ data, and supplies you with better strategies to get the most of out of your electric vehicle.

It’s one of a long line of cars that have been unveiled recently that rely on an extended-range model for electrification. The cars can travel a certain distance on an electric motor before switching over to gasoline. It’s usually a smaller range — between 25 and 50 miles — but the cars are designed to give drivers who want to drive an entirely electric car the option to do so without having to worry about running dry at any point.

Extended-range hybrid electric cars are a new breed of electric cars that differ from traditional hybrid electric cars, which run a powertrain with both electric power and gasoline. The extended-range model powers an engine entirely from battery power, and then when the battery runs dry it uses a gas-powered motor to recharge the battery and extend the range of the car. If drivers limit their driving habits, the car essentially behaves like a battery-powered electric car.

“We really feel like the plug-in hybrid is going to be the most popular for the widest variety of customers,” Ford technology communications manager Alan Hall told VentureBeat. “Hybrids today have been very successful with customers because you don’t have the range anxiety that might come from owning a battery-powered electric car.”

Ford isn’t the only company that expects the plug-in hybrid to win out. Clean technology research firm Pike Research expects 754,000 extended-range hybrid electric vehicles to hit the road by 2017, compared to around 504,000 battery-electric vehicles. It’s around a three-to-two ratio, which should continue for the foreseeable future in the United States, Pike Research analyst John Gartner told VentureBeat.

That’s compared to traditional hybrids, which have become popular in recent years because they are much more fuel efficient than typical cars powered by internal combustion engines. For example, Toyota has sold 3.3 million Toyota Prius hybrids since the car came out in 1997. Pike Research is forecasting 2.75 million traditional hybrid models sold between 2011 and 2017. But traditional hybrids have a first-mover advantage over extended-range vehicles, which have only recently started to gain traction.

Here’s a list of just a few upcoming cars that use the extended-range model:

• The BMW i3 (pictured above) and i8 models both have extended-range versions.
• General Motors’ Cadillac ELR, an extended-range luxury sedan, travels around 35 miles before switching to a gasoline.
• Fisker Automotive delivered the first commercially-produced model of its luxury extended-range electric car hybrid, the Fisker Karma (pictured below), last month.
• Ford today unveiled the Evos, above.

“North America is the only region where we see plug-ins outselling battery electrics because of the mix of manufacturers and driving habits,” Gartner said. “Partly because drivers here in America tend to go further than in other parts of the world, partly because of the flexibility of having a secondary power source. We think plug-in hybrids will outsell battery electrics for the foreseeable future.”

North America is one of the largest car markets in the world, particularly in the United States, where road trips between major cities like San Francisco and Las Vegas are the norm. In my case, it’d be between Austin, Texas, and my hometown Houston, a trip that’s around 165 miles or more than 300 miles round trip. That’s a trip that far exceeds the mileage you could get out of a purely electric car like the Nissan Leaf, which is limited to 100 miles.

Purely electric cars pose two problems for drivers: limited range and a limited infrastructure for recharging them. The first problem should eventually find a solution as battery technology matures to the point that the choice between an extended-range hybrid and a battery-powered electric car becomes a choice of personal preference, Gartner said. But the latter problem still doesn’t have a definitive solution, nor a plan for a solution, in place yet.

“Long term, battery-powered electric cars have the potential to come on in force, but in order to accelerate that, you need to see a significant advancement of the infrastructure,” Volt spokesperson Rob Peterson told VentureBeat. “You’re still required to recharge that car, and even if there’s a network of fast chargers you’d have to have the flexibility to drive in certain limits — right now, people aren’t willing to make that decision.”

Cue Tesla Motors, one of the upstarts in the battery-powered electric car market. Tesla’s cars have some of the longest ranges in the industry, with the Tesla Roadster checking in at around 200 miles before it runs out of juice and the company’s upcoming car, the Model S, running around 300 miles before the battery runs dry, the company claims. The company is also working on a fast-charging procedure that it says will charge the Model S to around 80 percent battery life in 45 minutes.

“The vast majority of our customers just plug in at night when electricity is cheapest and wake up with full range available,” Tesla Motors spokesperson Camille Ricketts told VentureBeat. “We can get an 80 percent charge in just 45 minutes, makes it very realistic to be on a road trip. You just plug in while you’re eating lunch or stopping for dinner.”

The Model S (pictured below) currently runs a pricey $57,000 before government incentives for purchasing an electric car, and will be available later in 2012. Around 75 percent of the reservations for the Model S came from U.S. car buyers, while the rest came from European buyers, according to Tesla Motors chief executive Elon Musk. But Tesla Motors intends to drive the cost of pure battery-powered electric cars down to a point where any consumer can afford the car and it becomes a preference choice between battery-powered electric cars and extended-range electric cars, Ricketts said.

Despite a strong showing of support for the extended-range electric hybrid, the Nissan Leaf has proved popular in the small but fiercely competitive market of early electric car adopters. Nissan sold 931 all-electric battery-powered Leafs in July, bringing the total number of electric cars the company has sold to 4,806. General Motors only sold 125 Volts, but it had to shut down its Detroit-based plant to retool it, bringing its total vehicles shipped to 2,870. General Motors expects to sell around 16,000 Volts by the end of the year now that the plant has re-opened.

In Europe, where there are more well-defined driving habits, battery-powered electric cars are set to bloom. That’s because North American driving habits cater more toward much longer ranges, like those trips between Austin and Houston, while most drivers in Europe have smaller commutes and do not take long driving trips like North American drivers are accustomed to.

“North America is the only region where we see plug-ins outselling battery electrics because of the mix of manufacturers and driving habits,” Gartner said.

Those companies mentioned above still plan on manufacturing battery-powered electric cars. General Motors, for example, has a several deals in place with battery suppliers for a battery-powered electric car the company plans to unveil later this year, Peterson said. But for the time being, those cars are geared toward a niche market that have well-defined driving habits and shorter commutes, Peterson said.

“A pure battery-powered electric car, like a Nissan Leaf, has to be positioned for the right customer and really in the right environment,” he said. “It has to be a person with a very well-defined commute or driving pattern or operates it in an area with a mature charging infrastructure — and right now that infrastructure is not mature yet.”

It would be the company’s third funding round in six months. Fisker Automotive raised $190 million just five months ago to help fund the production of its electric cars. The company finished off a recent $100 million round in May, led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

“If you look at what they are trying to achieve relative to Tesla in terms of producing 15,000 vehicles annually, then Fisker’s fundraising and targets should be considered reasonable,” Pike Research analyst John Gartner told VentureBeat. “Of course Tesla has a much longer history of selling vehicles, albeit in more limited quantities.”

Fisker Automotive was previously valued at around $1.5 billion when it raised a small extension to its last funding round in June, according to venture capital data provider VC Experts. The new valuation would put it on par with Tesla Motors, a plug-in battery-powered electric vehicle manufacturer that has a market cap of around $2.5 billion. But the two companies can’t necessarily be compared side-by-side because they employ two different kinds of electric-vehicle battery strategies.

“Fisker’s strategy appears to be outsourcing many of the key components, such as the motor, electric drive and battery pack, so the development cost and time should be less,” Gartner said.

Tesla Motors’ cars employ a pure battery that powers the electric car that owners have to recharge when empty. Fisker Automotive uses an extended-range model, where when the battery runs out, the car uses gasoline to power a generator that recharges the battery to extend the distance the car can drive. The owner can plug the car in at any time to recharge the battery and save gasoline. Tesla Motors also sells its powertrain technology to other car companies, like Toyota.

Fisker Automotive has produced 54 extended-range electric vehicles and is revving up it production of the high-end luxury electric car, the Fisker Karma. The company delivered its first Fisker Karma manufactured for consumers to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Ray Lane last month. That means the company might soon be another player in the electric car market alongside Nissan and Tesla Motors.

The company is also working on a cheaper electric car — a plug-in hybrid sedan called the N-1. That car should retail for somewhere between $35,000 and $50,000. The Karma has a manufacturer suggested retail price of around $96,000 for a basic model and $109,000 for the top-end model.

The company is backed by Kleiner Perkins, as well as New Enterprise Associates and A123 Systems Inc. VentureBeat has contacted Fisker Automotive for additional details.

The new high-end vehicle features an electric motor that will travel for about 35 miles when the car’s battery is fully charged. When the battery runs out, the car uses gasoline to power a generator that recharges the battery, extending the distance the car can drive. The owner can plug the car in at any time to recharge the battery and save gasoline. The Cadillac ELR will feature a Voltec powertrain — the same powertrain used in its other extended-range electric vehicle, the Volt.

Purely electric cars can take several hours to charge and require drivers to plan out their days or change their driving habits. Owners of range-extending cars do not technically ever have to plug the car in, but if they choose to do so they can save on fuel costs and don’t have to drastically alter their daily driving routines. General Motors’ Chevy Volt uses the same technology, as does the Fisker Karma.

“The extended range is a lot more likely to be a mainstream vehicle in the U.S. than a battery electric,” Pike Research analyst Dave Hurst told VentureBeat. “A lot of Americans, regardless of their actual range, they think they need the range of 300 or 400 miles — whether they need it or not is beside the point.”

Car manufacturer BMW unveiled its own extended-range electric vehicles last month. GM is likely to face stiffer competition from the BMW i8, a sporty electric hybrid that can go from 0 to 62 miles per hour in less than 5 seconds, Hurst said. The Fisker Karma, another luxury sedan, likely won’t pose as much of a threat because it’s made by a smaller and much newer company, he said. BMW also unveiled the more practical i3 mini last month, which it will sell as both a battery-powered and range-extended model.

General Motors has had some trouble shipping its first extended-range electric vehicle, the Volt, due to a number of production delays. The company only sold 125 Volts after shutting down its Detroit-based plant to retool it, bringing its total vehicles shipped to 2,870. General Motors expects to sell around 16,000 Volts by the end of the year now that the plant has re-opened.

“GM definitely sees that there’s a market for the luxury side of things,” Hurst said. “With their strength with the Cadillac brand, I’m sure they’re feeling like they’re stepping into a market that’s pretty wide open.”

Tesla Motors has now released a few videos (here and here) of the all-electric 2012 Model S sports sedan it plans to launch next year.

But we haven’t yet seen one showing the Model S driving together with the equally all-electric 2011 Tesla Roadster.

That’s what the video below shows.

According to our reader Ernest Becker, “On the Tesla Forum there is indication this was put on Vimeo by Tesla, but when the link was posted, Tesla put a password on it hinting it wasn’t supposed to be released yet.”

An enterprising Tesla fan named ZorbaR89 grabbed it and posted it to YouTube, however, along with a note saying, “This video belongs to Tesla and is only uploaded to show thisamazing car, not my intentions to break copyrights.”

We thought GreenCarReports readers–who are often huge electric-car fans–might like Tesla’s minute of all-electric performance, shot in their usual glossy style with some (ignorable) pounding music in the background.

We’ll be happy to take down this video if Tesla wants us to.

Though knowing their desire to keep the Tesla brand in the eyes of the public while they wind down Roadster sales and prepare to launch the Model S, we doubt they will.

This article by John Voelcker originally appeared on GreenCarReports.com, one of VentureBeat’s editorial partners.

“We have started assembling the Beta vehicles,” Tesla Motors’ Model S Program Director Jerome Guillen said. ”While most Betas are intended for testing to prepare for production, a few are earmarked for visits to North American Tesla stores later this year.”

The Model S sedan (shown in an image above) is geared toward casual car buyers and those buying electric cars for the first time. The production model will come out in the United States around the summer of next year and in Europe toward the end of 2012. It recently completed its alpha models for the Model S and has begun quality testing them, meaning demonstration models for press and analysts will be out by the end of the summer.

Tesla added 900 new reservations for the Model S last quarter — which requires a cash down payment of $5,000 — bringing its total reservations for the Model S up to 4,600. The Model S is priced at $57,000 before government incentives for purchasing an electric car. About 75 percent of the reservations for the Model S came from U.S. car buyers, while the rest came from European buyers.

Tesla Motors’ cars have some of the longest plug-in electric car ranges. The company’s first car, the sporty Tesla Roadster, can travel more than 200 miles before needing to recharge. The Model S is expected to have a range of up to 300 miles between charges for the top-level model. The Nissan Leaf — though much cheaper, at $32,000 — can only travel around 100 miles before needing to recharge.

Tesla Motors is also working on a sport-utility electric car called the Model X. That will use the same powertrain the Model S uses, but the company hasn’t said when the car will come out. Tesla also inked a deal with Toyota to provide additional powertrains for the company’s RAV4 sport utility electric vehicles, which brought the company $100 million.

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said the company was on track to run out of Roadsters at the end of the year. The electric car maker is still working on its second car, the Model S sedan, which will be geared toward more casual car buyers and those buying electric cars for the first time. The company said it had sold 1,650 Roadsters by the end of its most recent operating quarter.

Tesla’s debut car, an electric sports car based on the Lotus Elise chassis, carries a hefty price tag of $109,000. The car appeals to sports-car enthusiasts because it can go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 3.7 seconds and has a top speed of 125 miles per hour.

The Model S costs a slightly more reasonable $57,000 before government incentives for purchasing an electric car. Tesla Motors added 900 new reservations for the Model S last quarter — which requires a cash down payment of $5,000 — bringing its total reservations for the Model S to 4,600. The production model will come out in the United States around summer next year, and then in Europe toward the end of 2012.

Tesla Motors’ cars have some of the largest plug-in electric car ranges. The Tesla Roadster can travel more than 200 miles before needing to recharge, and the Model S is expected to have a range of up to 300 miles between charges for the top-tier model. The Nissan Leaf — though much cheaper at $32,000 — can only travel around 100 miles before needing to recharge.

The company is also working on another electric car model, called the Model X, that’s geared toward car buyers interested in an SUV or a minivan. Details about the Model X have been scarce — one of the few facts known about it is that it will use the same power train as the Model S. The car should be unveiled at the end of the year, Musk said.

While the company said it was on track to be profitable in the future once it releases the Model S, it recently raised another $210 million to cover the costs of producing the Model X. Musk first indicated that Tesla Motors might raise additional funding for the Model X in the company’s most recent conference call to discuss its quarterly earnings.

VentureBeat has contacted a representative from Tesla Motors for additional details.

At the same time, according to the announcement, Tesla CEO Elon Musk plans to buy an additional 1.5 million shares of the company in a private placement. An entity called Blackstar Investco, a unit of German carmaker Daimler, will also buy up to 644,475 shares of Tesla as well.

Leading up to that announcement, Musk told Bloomberg last night that he “didn’t think it’s a good idea to plan to sell a company,” and that he personally had no interest in selling Tesla to any other carmaker–or selling it at all, for that matter.

Now, Elon Musk is a serial entrepreneur, and he knows how the game is played. He’s sold companies before, most likely saying right up until the announcement that the company wasn’t for sale, and that it wouldn’t make sense to sell it.

But regardless of how high the shares go, and how many deals Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] can cut, virtually no one believes Tesla can stay independent. At least, no one among auto industry professionals, as opposed to armchair commentators and stock speculators. Carmaking is a brutally capital-intensive business, one with long lead times (a new car takes about five years from conception to production), and one whose products are highly regulated everywhere in the world.

Consider China, where there are now several dozen native carmakers (analysts even disagree on how many). It’s official Chinese government industrial policy that this number should be reduced to five or fewer through mergers, forced if necessary. That’s the only way that a Chinese company can acquire the scale and capital necessary to survive, in the view of that government and most of the world’s auto industry analysts.

And in China, remember, many automakers are owned and funded by state or regional governments, giving them access to capital outside that annoying glare of public disclosure enforced by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. So today, Tesla faces resurgent global giants–General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Volkswagen, Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, Chrysler-Fiat, to name the largest–with the shadow of government-funded competition from China sooner rather than later.

Can it survive alone and grow from 1,750 cars (the number of Roadsters it has built since 2008) to tens of thousands of cars a year (its target for the 2012 Tesla Model S electric sports luxury sedan it hopes to introduce in roughly a year. Industry analyst Aaron Bragman, of IHS Automotive in Northville, Michigan, is dismissive of any chance that Tesla Motors will remain independent.

“Saab and Volvo can’t survive independently, with conventional products, established production, research, development, and retail facilities, global customers, and massive investment,” he starts out. “Neither could Chrysler.

“But Tesla,” he continues as he hits his stride, “with a single $100,000 sports car and the promise of a nearly-that-expensive four-door, a handful of dealers, a lack of profit for the foreseeable future, and rivals rapidly developing their own competitor vehicles—they can?”

Other analysts will tell you the same thing, in different words. So what’s the future for Tesla Motors?

“I still think Tesla’s greatest chance at longevity remains its partnership with Toyota,” Bragman says. That alliance “strikes me as an excellent arrangement for both parties that could be developed into something even better long-term.”

The fact that Daimler, which bought 9 percent of Tesla in May 2009, well before the Toyota investment, is acquiring more shares may point toward a battle of the Titans, in which Toyota and Daimler contend for the fair maiden’s hand.

Which is, frankly, exactly what every venture capitalist–and startup founder–dreams of.

Written by John Voelcker, this article originally appeared on Green Car Reports, one of VentureBeat’s editorial partners.

Most of the concerns for electric car buyers center around how long it takes to charge the car and how far it is able to drive, according to the report. Electric cars are typically limited in how far they will go on a charge, and they can take a long time to recharge. It can take up to 5 hours for some vehicles to charge completely from a dry battery to a full charge. The Nissan Leaf, one of the cheapest electric cars on the market, can only travel around 100 miles before needing to recharge.

Most electric car buyers were concerned about how much money they would save by using an electric car instead of a gasoline-powered car. A quarter of the respondents — the largest segment in the report — said the cost savings over fuel mattered most. That’s because gasoline prices have risen to $4 or more in most places across the United States since the price of crude oil futures rose to around the $100 mark a few months ago.

Only 15 percent of electric car buyers said they were concerned about the cost of an electric car, which can range from $32,780 for the Nissan Leaf to $109,000 for the supercharged Tesla Roadster. (The Roadster can also travel twice as far as the Leaf before the battery runs dry.) The Model S, Tesla Motors’ next car, will come in three different models that can travel between 160 miles and 300 miles before needing a recharge and will cost anywhere from $57,400 for the cheapest model to $77,400 for the model that can travel farthest.

Nissan has also released some information about Leaf buyers that supports the report. Most Leaf owners drove an average of 7 miles per trip and spent about 2 hours charging the car with a 220-volt charger. Leaf owners are also in the top 15 percent of households with regards to income, according to the report. That means they are much more likely to be able to afford some of the higher priced electric cars than typical car buyers who simply need something that will take them from point A to point B as cheaply as possible.

The report also suggests that electric car buyers prefer plug-in electric hybrid cars, which have an internal combustion engine and use batteries and electric motors to improve the fuel efficiency of the car. Plug-in hybrids like the Fisker Karma can achieve fuel efficiency ratings of up to 100 miles per gallon, and can travel much further than plug-in electric cars, so they are more practical in countries like the United States where the population tends to do a lot of long-distance driving.

The survey included around 7,000 respondents in 13 countries, including the United States, China and several countries in Europe.

The company is working on another electric car model that’s geared toward car buyers interested in an SUV or a minivan. Details about the Model X have been scarce — one of the few facts known about it is that it will use the same power train as the Model S — and the car should be unveiled at the end of the year, Musk said. And while the company is on track to be profitable in the future once it releases the Model S, it might look into selling additional equity to help ramp up production of the Model X.

“We do have enough capital to reach cash-flow positive without raising another dollar,” Musk said on the earnings call. “There’s a decent chance we will raise a secondary for the Model X activity and some additional potential headroom growth on the Model S production.”

The electric car manufacturer is still working on its second car, the Model S sedan that’s geared toward more casual car buyers and first-time electric car buyers. It recently completed its alpha models for the Model S and has begun quality testing them, meaning demonstration models for press and analysts will be out by the end of the summer, Musk said. The production model will come out in the United States around summer next year, and then in Europe toward the end of 2012.

The company added 900 new reservations for the Model S last quarter — which requires a cash down payment of $5,000 — bringing its total reservations for the Model S up to 4,600. Tesla Motors also sold 1,650 Roadsters and is on track to run out of Roadsters at the end of the year. The company’s debut electric car was a sports car based on the Lotus Elise chassis that carries a hefty initial price tag of $109,000. The Model S is priced at $57,000 before government incentives for purchasing an electric car.

Most of the reservations for the Model S come from U.S. consumers — but that’s how Tesla Motors wants it, because recalls will be easier to manage if there are any problems, Musk said. About 75 percent of the reservations for the Model S came from U.S. car buyers, while the rest came from European buyers.

Tesla Motors’ cars have some of the largest plug-in electric car ranges. The Tesla Roadster can travel around 200 miles before needing to recharge, and the Model S is expected to have a range of up to 300 miles between charges. The Nissan Leaf — though much cheaper, at $32,000 — can only travel around 100 miles before needing to recharge. Musk didn’t indicate what kind of range the Model X will have, though it will probably be somewhere between the Roadster and the Model S if it uses the same power train as the Model S with a larger chassis.

Tesla Motors posted a lower-than-expected quarterly loss, hemorrhaging $48.9 million, or 51 cents per share. Wall Street analysts were expecting the company to lose 53 cents per share and bring in $47 million in revenue. The company brought in $49 million in the first quarter this year, more than double the $20.8 million it picked up in the first quarter last year. The performance pleased shareholders, bringing the electric car manufacturer’s shares up 3.7 percent to $27.67.

Most of the performance came from the company’s sale of battery components and chargers to Daimler for its Class-A and Smart Fortwo electric vehicles. Development services revenue also rose because Tesla Motors partnered with Toyota to provide powertrain systems for the company’s RAV4 electric vehicle program.

[Photo: norio.nakayama, jurvetson]

The Volt went into production in mid-November and hit dealerships a few weeks later, just in time to compete with the Nissan Leaf. So far it looks like the Volt has won out in terms of sheer numbers — GM sold between 250 and 350 Volts in December. Only around 10 Nissan Leaf cars were actually sold in the past two weeks.

There are around 50,000 people on the wait list for the Leaf, but Nissan initially limited rolling out its new electric vehicle line to around 200 cars in December across five states. The Leaf is around $8,000 cheaper than the Chevy Volt. Leaf Supply will continue to be limited well into early 2011, and Nissan has advised dealers to be careful about what kind of orders they sign for the Leaf.

Each Nissan Leaf ordered in August was supposed to be built-in Japan in September, and orders that come in September had a slight chance of being filled in December. Most Leaf orders are expected to dealer lots in January. California may get theirs first, since the cars are first shipped to Los Angeles before being sent to the rest of the Northwest.

It’s already looking like the electric car market is going to explode over the next several years as GM and Nissan, as well as others, ramp up production of their models of electric cars. Coda, a new startup that makes an electric sedan, expects to sell around 14,000 cars in its first year after release. Tesla Motors, despite some woes with its shares, has a pretty aggressive timeline for its Model S electric sedan and expects a prototype by the end of this year and deliveries to start in 2012. The company plans to build up to 20,000 Model S cars a year and currently has about 3,000 reservations for the car.

Granted, the success of each car is going to depend on whether their owners change their lifestyles to account for a few hours of charging the batteries each day (even VentureBeat’s GreenBeat writer Iris Kuo isn’t exactly sure the world is ready for that yet). Now it’s just a waiting game to see which company comes out on top once each manufacturer finally catches up to demand for the electric cars.

The company’s deal with Toyota has three facets:

1. The joint development  of a brand new,sub- $30,000 electric car, that will contain Tesla’s unique powertrain design, with everything else built by Toyota;
2. The purchase of the NUMMI plant, where Tesla plans to manufacture both its Model S sedan due out in 2012, a new $30,000 Tesla-designed vehicle, and the more affordable jointly designed “third-generation” vehicle;
3. A $50 million investment from Toyota into Tesla when the company goes public, probably later this year.

There’s several pieces of huge news here. Let’s dissect each one of these points:

1. The new car: Tesla clearly realized that the Roadster and Model S weren’t going to cut it — not in a market where the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf are going to dominate at a lower price. Tesla would need its own sub-$30,000 car (which would sell for considerably less after likely rebates), in order to survive. But it couldn’t get its costs down on its own, so partnering with a major automaker seemed to be the best course of action. Toyota, which has had a decade’s headstart as the green car leader since the release of its hybrid Prius, was probably also shopping around for a bold, new play in the space to retain its throne.

The design of the car, which probably won’t be released today, will draw largely from an existing Toyota design, Musk says.

2. NUMMI: The plant, located in the Fremont, Calif., laid off 4,700 employees (and about as many outside contractors) when it closed its doors on April 1. Our inside source says that when Tesla gets the plant up to speed again, in four to five years — when it plans to launch its car with Toyota — the facility should be employing even more people than it did previously.

At top production levels, the plant could build upwards of half a million vehicles every year. Only a small percentage of these will be Model S units. The as-yet-nameless third-generation vehicle, a high-volume car, would make up the bulk of the inventory, along with the joint Toyota-Tesla design. That’s far from a certainty — the plan still depends on the company’s ability to raise enough capital and scale fast enough to make this third car possible.

There’s no word on the price Tesla is paying for the plant, although Musk said the company “got a great price” and that it “otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford it.” We’ll be looking for this figure in the company’s revised S-1 filing due out next week.

We do know, from our source, that Tesla will be using much of its $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to make the buy. This means that NUMMI is the site that Tesla has been shopping around for since last year — not one in Downey, Calif., in the Los Angeles area, which was the leading contender.

3. The $50 million: Toyota will be joining Daimler in owning a stake of Tesla after it goes public — a sale that is expected to take place in the third quarter of this year, but there are no guarantees. While the original S-1 pegged the amount expected to be raised in the IPO at $100 million, our source predicted it will probably exceed that amount.

It’s unclear how many shares $50 million will buy Toyota — it will depend on how the shares are priced in the IPO. And the investment won’t represent any new cash for Tesla, since they were going to raise the money anyway. Still, the transaction does solidify Toyota’s endorsement of the company and its technology.

“Both Toyota and Mercedes are saying that Tesla technology is the best,” Musk said, offering his interpretation of Daimler and Toyota’s investments.

At the same time Toyota, may get to boost its green image, because Tesla is perceived to be the most cutting edge electric vehicle company in the market — whether that’s merited or not.

Again, this is a pretty radical change of pace for Tesla — and it’s apparently come about very quickly. The company had been interested in the NUMMI facility for a while. It met with the plant’s representatives about three months ago with no results. About a month ago, Akio Toyoda, president and CEO of Toyota, approached Musk about a potential strategic partnership, and the two executives hit it off, Musk says.

That version of events seems to conflict with another account of the deal given by Mario Guerra, a member of the city council of Downey, who said that Tesla CEO Elon Musk told him the deal had come together in just a few days, in explaining why Tesla abandoned its Downey plans.

In 2009, Musk said he’d love to acquire NUMMI, but dismissed the likelihood of a deal “unless they gave it to us.”

More details to follow during this afternoon’s press conference at 5 p.m.