A glitzy party shows off pricey Tesla electric car
Jerry Lewis | Oct 25, 2009
Kimbal Musk, CEO of OneRiot and owner of the Kitchen, as well as a Tesla Roadster owner and Tesla Motors board member, helped organize and get the word out about the Friday evening party. I found myself with a party ticket after “retweeting” news about the gallery opening.
![Tesla opening party goers Andre Pettigrew, left, executive director of Denver's Office of Economic Development, with Geoff Cooper, CEO of CaraSolva.](https://boulderreporter.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/TeslaAndreGeoff-300x236.jpg)
Andre Pettigrew, left, executive director of Denver's Office of Economic Development, with Geoff Cooper, CEO of CaraSolva.
![Tesla party-goers Rick Patch, left, president and CEO of Boulder's Lifepics, with Lu Cordova, former president of CTEK who is now president of Almacen Storage Group.](https://boulderreporter.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/TeslaRickLou-300x199.jpg)
Rick Patch, left, president and CEO of Boulder's Lifepics, with Lu Cordova, former president of CTEK who is now president of Almacen Storage Group.
Another interesting angle for Tesla is that they are creating Mobile Service Rangers — teams that will make house calls for a buck a mile. Boulder’s gallery will be part of that program.
![Tesla Gallery opening Boulder businessman George Karakehian is one of the owners of the building now housing the Tesla Gallery.](https://boulderreporter.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/TeslaGeorgeK-279x300.jpg)
Boulder businessman George Karakehian is one of the owners of the building now housing the Tesla Gallery.
The Roadster gets its juice from its Energy Storage System — made up of several thousand consumer-grade lithium ion cells. Not really being a gear head, I’ll admit you can read this same information just like I did on the Tesla Web site.
And Tesla got a very good business page writeup in the Boulder Camera just before the gallery opened with news that a Colorado buyer could get a $42,039 tax break, or about a 39 percent discount on a new $109,000 Roadster. Seems the Colorado Legislature has now put a $6,000 cap on how big of a tax credit you can get for buying a hybrid or electric car, but it doesn’t go into effect until 2010.Also spotted at the party was Andre Pettigrew, executive director of Denver’s Office of Economic Development, who was there to check out the new business arriving in Colorado. Tesla has said it picked Colorado because of Gov. Bill Ritter’s commitment to make the state one of the most environmentally friendly states in the country.
And that may be true. But having Boulder resident’s Kimbal Musk’s pull certainly helped on just where the new Gallery would be located in the state.
(This article also appeared in a slightly different format on Jerry Lewis’s blog.)