Carmel Magazine

d'Elegance driving a Model S. "He put me behind the wheel," he says, "and I was astounded by the performance, comfort and quality of the car. I was hooked." Pèpe's story is typical. Perhaps Tesla's best salespeople are its customers. Karen Hargrove of Carmel Valley owns a Model S as well as a Roadster, the first production Tesla. "My husband Rick and I are always driving them," Hargrove says. "We've sold so many just by taking friends for rides." The Hargroves jumped on the Tesla bandwagon early, purchasing the company's first offering, the two-seat Roadster. "We're both engineers," Karen relates. "We knew people at the company and were highly impressed by the engineering they were doing." She is an enthusiastic and eloquent Tesla spokesperson. "They're really changing the way cars are made. Elon set out to make a great car, not just a great electric car." In many minds, that's exactly what Elon Musk has done. At 42, the South African-born entrepreneur has accomplished more than most people double his years. He ran online giant PayPal and then created SpaceX in 2002. That firm snagged the $10 million Ansari X Prize by launching a reusable spacecraft into space twice within two weeks and is currently working on multi-billion dollar NASA contracts. Not one to let moss grow under his feet, Musk co-founded Tesla Motors, Inc. the following year. The Roadster, first delivered in 2008, sold for north of $100,000. "Our first product was going to be expensive no matter what it looked like," Musk wrote in a November, 2013 letter to Tesla owners, "so we decided to build a sports car, as that seemed like it had the best chance of being compet- itive with its gasoline alternatives." According to the San Francisco Chronicle, 2,500 Roadsters were sold through 2011. Several of those can be seen silently whizzing around the Peninsula, including the beautiful bluish-silver example owned by the Pebble Beach resident Clint Jones with his Tesla Model S. Besides being fast and safe, the car saves owners money with low maintenance and fueling by electricity rather than gas. Yet a maxed out Model S can cost over $100,000. C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 1 4 127 The Roadster 2.5 takes just 3.7 seconds to go from 0-60mph. It produces zero tailpipe emissions. The top speed is electronically limited to 125 miles per hour. Photo: Dewhurst Photography Photo: Kelli Uldall 124-128 Tesla Cars_152-161 Garcia story 1/26/14 12:34 PM Page 4

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