We received a heads up overnight that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will be making an appearance later today at Tesla Motors headquarters in San Carlos, CA. According to the notice from Tesla, Schwarzenegger will make an announcement regarding the manufacturing strategy for the WhiteStar sedan. Given this announcement and what chairman Elon Musk told us last week about plans to centralize production of its cars, it seems almost certain that the factory originally planned for Albuquerque, NM will never materialize. Instead it appears the sedan will be built at a factory somewhere in the Bay Area close to Tesla's headquarters. CEO Ze'ev Drori may even reveal the name of the new car (don't get too excited about this one folks) and hopefully give us a glimpse of what it looks like. Autoblog's Damon Lavrinc will be on site at Tesla HQ at 11:30 PST with all the gory details.

[Source: Tesla Motors]

Click image for photo gallery

While we've been hearing about the Tesla WhiteStar sedan for a long, long time, the idea of combining a Tesla Roadster with a BMW 5 Series is too good to pass on. With the kind of backing that Tesla has and the sheer amount of hype surrounding their first product, the Roadster (above), we're expecting great things if and when the WhiteStar sedan finally makes an appearance. Later this spring is the when unveiling should take place.

On to Number 2.

You know how it goes, when there's smoke... Tesla Motors is reportedly suing Fisker Automotive for stealing inside design ideas. As rumors indicated earlier this week, Henrik Fisker apparently was hired by Tesla to style their upcoming Whitestar sedan. The styling was not to Tesla's liking, either by accident or on purpose - likely depending on who you ask -- so Fisker's designs were rejected. At that time, Tesla claims that Fisker and some associates took what they learned from Tesla and started their own project, which was unveiled recently, ironically enough, as the Karma sedan.

We should point out that it's too early to know where the truth lies when it comes to this story. Tesla is suing for the money it paid Fisker for design work along with unknown damages. There's been no response as of yet from Fisker. We'll surely be keeping you up-to-date when we find out more.

[Source: The New York Times]

Michigan may have received the nod for Tesla's new Technical Center, but the location of the factory where future Tesla models will be built remains unknown. According to the Greensboro News-Record in North Carolina, the town of Alamance has been offering itself up like a, well, like a place ready for Tesla. But Tesla Motors CEO Martin Eberhard won't tell where the plant will be, only that California, New Mexico and Arizona are the current frontrunners. Wherever this plant sets up shop, it'll make up to 13,000 of the upcoming WhiteStar sedans a year. In a nicely worded understatement, Eberhard told the News-Record that the WhiteStar is a four-door sedan that's less costly than the Roadster and a little less "hot." No kidding.

The regular production Roadster will start its life later this year in overseas plants, at a rate of a "few thousand" a year.



[Source: Michelle Jarboe and Donald W. Patterson / Greensboro News-Record]