The manufacturer of consumer-oriented battery electric vehicles in Silicon Valley, Tesla Motors unveiled its second electric car, 'Tesla Model S,' on Thursday. The San Carlos, California based automobile startup company revealed its lower-cost successor to its Roadster and all electric sedan - 'Tesla Model S' at the Hawthorne, California.

The CEO of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, at the unveiling of Tesla Model S at the Hawthorne, California, the site of Mr. Musk's other startup, Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, announced that the company has started taking orders for the electric car - Tesla Model S.

In a statement, the company CEO Mr. Elon Musk said, "Tesla is relentlessly driving down the cost of electric vehicle technology, and this is just the first of many mainstream cars we're developing."

Mr. Musk stated that the Tesla Model S is priced between $49,000 - $56,400, after a $7,500 federal tax credit. He asserted that the Tesla Model S, more affordable than a $109,00 Roadster, is a great option for budget-minded people. In a newsletter to customers, Mr. Musk wrote, "The ownership cost of Model S, if you were to lease and then account for the much lower cost of electricity versus gasoline at a likely future cost of $4 per gallon, is similar to a gasoline car with a sticker price of about $35,000."

According to Tesla Motors, compared with the electric Roadsters' 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds, the acceleration of Tesla Model S will be from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just under six seconds. The Tesla Model S will offer better battery performance. It will be able to go 300 miles per charge, against Roadsters' 244 miles per charge. The Model S will have an onboard charger capable of charging the car up in as little as 45 minutes.

Tesla Motors stated that the Model S will go into production in late 2011, if things go as planned; if the company gets federal funds. The company admitted that it has applied for a $350 million loan from the Department of Energy's Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program to start the production of its Model S, and said that it is "close to receiving $350 million" loan.

Tesla Motors is working fine under CEO Elon Musk, who founded Zip2, sold to Compaq for over $300 million, and later cofounded PayPal sold to eBay for $1.5 billion. The South Africa-born chairman of Tesla Motors and SolarCity, Elon Musk has injected his $100 million into his commercial space travel startup - SpaceX. Tesla Motors is also supported by VantagePoint Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, JP Morgan's Bay Area Equity Fund, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.