To be fair, these pics were taken this past Sunday, so it's poor evidence the place is in fact a ghost town but let's just say a tumbleweed rolling through the parking lot wouldn't be out of place. Aside from the fancy sign out front and the etched glass doors, it looks like every other sparsely decorated suburban office we've ever seen.

We love the reading materials in the lobby — all the buff books, plus Vanity Fair, a book on classic cars, The Toyota Way and its wonderful explanation of "lean manufacturing" and the Toyota Production System (may we also recommend Machine That Changed The World and the End of Detroit). TPS, as you know, is the management process where a company welcomes questions and seeks to solve problems via all manner of available help. Openness and communication is key with TPS. Hmm, maybe they only got through the first couple of chapters.

Hilariously, our two favorite books laying around have to be the Tesla bio on the waiting room table sitting across from The Car That Could, a book about the life and death of GM's EV1. We'll let you draw your own conclusions from that one.

We're hearing that approximately 90 Tesla employees, or 90% of the Detroit office, was simply let go, and the remaining employees have to make their way to the San Carlos headquarters with no moving costs covered, no increase in salary and no help getting rid of their old homes. Fortunately, the real estate market in Detroit is red-hot, and the cost of living is about the same in San Carlos.... right?

The relevant section from the Tesla pink slip blog-post-of-death below:

There will also be some headcount reduction due to consolidation of operations. In anticipation of moving vehicle engineering to our new HQ in San Carlos, we are ramping down and will close our Rochester Hills office near Detroit. Good communication, tightly knit engineering and a common company culture are of paramount importance as Tesla grows.

That's right folks, "good communication" is key.

[Photo: James Nielsen/Getty Images]

Tesla is absolutely committed to development of our next generation vehicle, to be unveiled early next year. However, we are going to reduce activity on detailed production engineering, tooling and commitments to suppliers until our Department of Energy loan guarantee becomes effective.

Our translation below the jump.

If they cut back on production engineering, tooling and commitments to suppliers, they are essentially saying they'll show off their prototype but will make no more production plans until they get a federal loan guarantee for their plant in San Jose. This, like everything, is being blamed on the Financiapocalypse.

This actually follows up on some news we heard way back in January that the Whitestar/Model S was toast, despite having seen the Model S mule. Look for a prototype soon and, depending on the market, a production car at some point in the future... maybe. For more on the Valley implications of this check out Valleywag's coverage

[Souce: Tesla Motors]

And how much does this reek of a PR stunt? What automaker parks a mule for their new anti-gas secret weapon at an abandoned building that will some day be a store for the automaker? Can someone say a set-up? [TeslaMotorsClub via Autoblog Green]

According to Fisker, a condition of his work with Tesla involved an arbitration clause in the case of a suit filed by the company. Wasn't that prescient? Both car companies continue to to propel themselves towards limited production, so we have a fun race between significant deliveries and the settlement of ongoing litigation. It's like Le Mans except much, much longer.

"Tesla Motors, which finally shipped its first electric car earlier this month, hopes to raise $250 million in equity and debt to fund its mass production push, over the next two years. Chairman Elon Musk wants to conduct an IPO in New York or London, raise money privately and apply for a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy to build a U.S. production plant for Tesla's forthcoming electric sports sedan."

Tesla says they're going to a be dropping the planned two-speed transmission and replacing it with a much simpler one-speed model that will provide performance numbers in line with what was promised. The two-speed model had to be dropped because of problems with longevity. Of course, this doesn't change the fact that if you're getting a first run Tesla you're going to receive it with a temporary gearbox and have to wait for the permanent solution like everyone else.

The solution, now called DriveTrain 1.5, is going to involve replacing the entire powertrain. The air-cooled electric motor is getting kicked to the curb and its place will be a liquid-cooled unit with more power. Progress! The car works... as long as they can replace everything in time.

Tesla Motors Completes all Regulatory Approvals and Sets Schedule to Begin Production

First production 2008 Tesla Roadster Imported - Series Production Begins in March

WHAT'S NEWS

* Tesla Motors has received all regulatory approvals to import the first production Tesla Roadster ("P1") for sale. This includes all necessary EPA and DOT approvals, including completion of all Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS.)

* P1 will arrive at Tesla Motors headquarters next week for delivery to customer Elon Musk, Chairman of Tesla Motors.

* Series production of the Tesla Roadster is scheduled to begin March 17th, 2008.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND

* As communicated previously, early production units will be equipped with an interim transmission that meets durability requirements but limits acceleration to 5.7 seconds from 0 to 60 mph.
* Separately, Tesla Motors engineers have designed a permanent solution for mass production that supports the original specification of 0 to 60 mph in 4 seconds.
* The planned solution has some very positive benefits for our customers. Instead of a complex 2-speed transmission design, Tesla will achieve the original performance goals with a simpler one-speed unit mated to a higher rated Power Electronics Module (PEM.) The existing motor will be modified to have advanced cooling capabilities to handle the additional power. The permanent transmission unit will be engineered to handle the higher torque of the powertrain.
* The planned solution reduces program risk, provides better efficiency, lower weight, equal or better range, better thermal performance and quicker quarter mile acceleration due to the elimination of the need to shift gears.
* The planned solution incorporates the latest developments of our powertrain team which has been continually improving on Tesla's core technology.
* Early production will proceed at a limited rate and then ramp up to full production when the permanent powertrain solution is production ready later this year.

The upgrade from the interim solution to the higher power, permanent solution will be provided to our customers free of charge when available later this year.

[Source: Tesla, AutoBlog Green]

[Tesla's] brash ambitions make some industry observers scoff. "I wouldn't call it Tesla Motors yet. I would call it the Tesla prototype company," says James Hall, vice president of industry consulting firm AutoPacific, in Southfield, Mich. "My concern is that there are people in charge who don't have a realistic view of the car industry."

Hall estimates Tesla will need 30 to 40 years to turn a profit and $700 million immediately to successfully develop and mass produce a lower-priced model. Traditional automakers typically spend between $500 million and $1 billion to put out a new car—and that's without building a company from scratch first.
Musk calls Hall's thinking generic and con­ventional. "I will eat my hat if we spend anything close to $700 million on our model-2 car," he says.

"Tesla's Whitestar and Darkstar programs are DOA. The Detroit office is in trouble. it's all hands on deck to get the roadster to work"