# Tesla Event: How the Model S Debut Changed EV Culture

- Link: https://greenlivingguy.com/2009/05/2009-05-green-living-guy-at-the-tesla-event/
- Published: 2009-05-15T23:38:15-04:00
- Author: greenlivingguy

I remember the blue glow first at the Tesla event when I arrived.

The lobby of Frank Gehry’s IAC Building looked like a place from the future. For
this Tesla event, they had brought the Model S prototype to Manhattan. Then suddenly
the electric car conversation felt bigger than the small circle of people who had
been following it for years.

I was there as the Green Living Guy, but also as an author and EV builder. My book,
_Build Your Own Electric Vehicle_, was about helping people make electric transportation
real with their own hands. That night, the people building a new kind of electric
car were close enough to meet and talk books.

## This Tesla Event date deserves a careful note

I’ve long remembered my Tesla event as April 30, 2009. That night followed Elon 
Musk’s appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. Contemporary reports place
Tesla’s IAC Building launch party on April 29. The same night Musk’s appearance 
aired. The Model S prototype then appeared at the Plaza Hotel for a public display
on April 30.

Dates can blur over time. So can the order of a packed evening. What I remember 
clearly is being at the Tesla event, watching the Letterman segment there, and seeing
the Model S up close. I don’t want to smooth over the difference between my memory
and the contemporary record.

At the time, Tesla was still a young company. Many Americans had barely heard of
it. The Roadster had already made people look twice, but a sleek electric sedan 
aimed at a wider audience was a bold promise.

## Letterman put the questions on national television

David Letterman had lost his voice earlier that day, but he still pushed Musk on
the questions people were asking: Why did the Roadster cost so much? Was it really
better for the environment than a hybrid? And when would regular people be able 
to buy a practical Tesla?

Musk’s answer about electricity and emissions became one of the lines EV advocates
remembered. “Actually even if 100% of the electricity comes from coal, the Tesla
Roadster, which is a sports car, produces less CO2 than a Prius,” he said, according
to NBC Bay Area’s report.

That was Musk’s claim in the interview, not a full life-cycle analysis. Still, the
exchange mattered. For years, electric cars had been treated as slow, awkward machines.
More golf cart than dream car. Now a founder was defending an electric sports car
on late-night TV and talking about a sedan that could bring the technology to more
drivers.

Musk told Letterman that new technology needed time to become less expensive and
reach the mass market. He said a lower-cost Tesla could arrive in “a couple of years.”
The Model S would not reach production until 2012. The road from that television
appearance to a showroom car was longer and harder than the phrase suggested.

But that night, the promise felt close enough to touch.

## Across the street, the Tesla Model S prototype made its case at the event

The venue sits right on the West Side Highway, and my memory has always placed the
event with IMG Studios’ production touch along that stretch of the highway. What
the contemporary coverage pins down is the address: the launch party was at the 
IAC Building at 555 West 18th Street in Chelsea, and the rides were across the highway
at Chelsea Piers, Pier 60. IMG’s events operation was producing high-profile auto
reveals in New York in that era, so my recollection may be of who ran the show rather
than where it stood. Either way, it was the same corner of the same highway, and
I remember the crossing between the two.

Across the West Side Highway, attendees could get short rides at Chelsea Piers. 
There was a line, a wait, and a pink ticket. Then came a brief trip in either the
Model S prototype or the Roadster.

I rode in one of them. I can’t honestly swear which one I chose all these years 
later, so I won’t invent that detail. What I remember is the thrill of being there,
surrounded by people who understood that this was more than a new car reveal.

## Model S Prototype

I was in the Model S prototype with Jim Motavalli from the New York Times and Remy
Chevalier from Electrifying Times gave rides that were about 90 seconds. The smooth
acceleration, the near-silence, and the huge digital dashboard. It was still a development
car, but it was known it’s coming! I can’t wait but the regenerative braking needed
work.

That detail makes me smile now. The car was unfinished. The future was not polished
yet. But the prototype was moving under its own electric power, carrying people 
who had waited for their turn.

![The Model S prototype waits as attendees queue for a short ride](https://i0.wp.
com/images.hgmsites.net/lrg/2012-tesla-model-s--waiting-for-our-90-second-ride_100180610_l.
jpg?w=736&quality=52&ssl=1)

Ninety seconds is not long enough to judge a car. It was long enough to feel the
difference between hearing about electric transportation and experiencing it. The
car moved quietly and quickly. The big screen looked like a promise of how much 
the driving experience might change.

## Meeting Elon Musk and Franz von Holzhausen

The personal center of the evening was meeting Elon Musk and Franz von Holzhausen,
Tesla’s chief designer. I had spent years helping people understand how to build
or convert a car to electric power. That work shaped the book I had written with
Bob Brant, _Build Your Own Electric Vehicle_, published by McGraw-Hill.

So I thanked Musk for building their own Tesla event.

That’s because Tesla is creating their own electric car as an electric car. This
is not simply converting someone else’s platform. I respected conversions. I had
written a book to help people do them. But I also knew how important it was to design
a vehicle around electric power from the beginning.

For me, the Model S represented two things at once: the ingenuity of hands-on EV
builders and the potential of a purpose-built electric car designed for a much wider
market. Those paths did not compete. They supported each other.

![A passenger takes a short ride in the Model S prototype](https://i0.wp.com/images.
hgmsites.net/lrg/2012-tesla-model-s--and-away-they-go_100180612_l.jpg?w=736&quality
=52&ssl=1)

## Met Elon and Franz von Holzhausen at the Tesla Event

I spoke with Musk and von Holzhausen about my next edition of _Build Your Own Electric
Vehicle_. They agreed to help. That meant a lot to me. Here was the founder of an
ambitious EV company and a leading automotive designer listening to someone focused
on teaching individuals how to build electric vehicles themselves.

I remember the willingness and the conversation. Now I won’t claim a specific contribution
to the book beyond what I can verify. The second edition, written with Bob Brant,
became an important guide for people exploring EV conversions and builds. Meanwhile,
Tesla kept working toward manufacturing cars at scale.

## What I could see at the Tesla Event and what came later

The Model S on display that night was a prototype. The production car was still 
years away. Contemporary coverage even listed Tesla’s survival as an open question.
A Daimler investment followed in May 2009, and a federal loan came the next year.
None of us in that blue-lit lobby could know exactly how the story would unfold.

We also couldn’t know that Franz von Holzhausen’s design work would lead to a car
that helped change how many people saw EVs. Nor could I know that I would later 
review cars from Mazda, where Franz had worked before joining Tesla.

I did know this: electric cars were not a distant idea. They were being designed,
built, tested, and discussed by people who were still accessible enough to talk 
about a book.

![Tesla Model S make electric cars SAF](https://i0.wp.com/greenlivingguy.com/wp-
content/uploads/2013/03/tumblr_mj3x0luarp1s42f9co1_1280.jpg?resize=420%2C420&quality
=52&ssl=1)

## Looking Back

In hindsight, the night looks like a turning point. At the time, it felt smaller
and more intimate: a few hundred curious people, a prototype across the street, 
and a television appearance that brought the EV conversation into living rooms.

That is part of why I remember it so fondly. The mainstream moment and the DIY movement
were in the same place. One group was imagining how to build electric cars for thousands
or millions of drivers. Another was learning how to build one in a garage.

That connection still guides my work. Through my Green Living Guy Book Tour, I bring
the ideas behind _Build Your Own Electric Vehicle_ to schools, libraries, and conferences.
The goal remains practical: help people understand energy reduction and clean transportation,
one conversion, one book, or one classroom at a time.

Thank you to the Tesla team for the event; as well as Elon Musk, and Franz von Holzhausen
for making time for that conversation. And thank you to the archives of Green Car
Reports and NBC Bay Area for preserving the details that help me revisit the night
more accurately. I’m grateful, too, to Bob Brant, whose collaboration helped bring
the book to readers.

For a little more from my own archive, here’s my original [Green Living Guy post about the Tesla event](https://greenlivingguy.com/2009/05/green-living-guy-at-the-tesla-event/).

## Sources

 * [NBC Bay Area: “Letterman Wants Tesla to Explain Itself”](https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/letterman-wants-to-know-where-the-cheap-teslas-are/1889105/)
 * [Green Car Reports: “We Ride In the World’s Only 2012 Tesla Model S Prototype”](https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1020358_we-ride-in-the-worlds-only-2012-tesla-model-s-prototype)
 * [The New York Times Wheels: “Tesla Model S Arrives in Manhattan”](https://archive.nytimes.com/wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/tesla-model-s-arrives-in-manhattan/)