As we saw with the Bono pic, Tesla Motors representatives took the Roadster to Europe for a little PR&R recently. Well, as Darryl Siry, Tesla's VP of sales, marketing, and service, writes in a new post about the company trip on the "feel" blog over on the Tesla Motors website, there wasn't as much R as he might have liked. So, for those of use who don't mind that Mr. Siry worked more than played on the old continent, let's see what he has to say (oh, and we thank him for his service, of course).

First up, pricing. The 2009 U.S. version of the Roadster will cost $109,000, up from $98,000 for the base 2008 model. A lot of the increase can be attributed to the weakening dollar, Siry writes, because Tesla pays for much of the Roadster in Euros and Pounds. The limited edition 2009 Euro-spec Roadster will cost 99,000 Euros, and is comparable to the fully-loaded 2009 Roadster. For more on the Euro-spec Roadster, look here.

Siry also gets into production of the current Roadsters, and says that Job 3 has been delivered (Martin Eberhard is still waiting for some custom paint work to be done on Job 2) and that production will be ramping up this summer and fall. Siry's got more for you here.

[Source: Tesla Motors]

Last spring, Tesla Motors founder Martin Eberhard and Th!ink CEO Jan-Olaf Willums announced a deal for Tesla to supply battery packs for the Norwegian electric cars. The silicon valley startup had created a new division dubbed the Tesla Energy Group to design and build lithium ion battery packs to other car-makers. The packs would be based on the technology they had developed internally for their own cars. Once new CEO Michael Marks came on board and it became clear that the Roadster's production would be delayed, the decision to pull back on the battery business was the next obvious move.

In recent days it became known that Th!nk
was looking for other battery suppliers. Since then, Th!nk has announced a deal for EnerDel to supply packs beginning next spring. The Norwegian company is also talking to other potential suppliers such as Massachusetts based A123 Systems. All of this probably means that production Th!nks probably won't appear until at least late 2008. Once the Roadsters are on the road then, Tesla will revisit the battery sales program.

[Source: CNET]