do you know the way to san jose?

An article in the SFGate on Tesla Motors and the challenges of a factory in San Jose to build a vehicle for the (slightly) more common person.

They did the right thing by starting with a luxury vehicle that has a mix of exotic and non-exotic technologies. The battery pack isn't very impressive, but is about all you can do these days.  The control system apparently works well.  The basic car is a roller from Lotus with a carbon fiber body and not a risk ..  A nice first effort to prove that you can get something going that is a bit closer to manufacturing than one-off prototypes.  

But even in more solid financial times there would be challenges.  A pure electric just doesn't make as much sense as a plug-in hybrid.  An onboard charging infrastructure just makes more sense for the next decade or so.   You also have to build out a dealer and repair network - something established manufacturers have in place.  In two to three years there will be a half dozen plug in hybrids on the market.  Most will probably be much less expensive than the $60k tag mentioned for the model S Tesla.  

Tesla may survive as a very small niche manufacturer, but I doubt they'll ever be common.