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The electric car revolution is still coming to Albuquerque.

Exactly when it will arrive, however, remains a question.

Tesla Motors Inc.'s plans to build a four-door, all-electric sedan called WhiteStar at a plant on the West Side remain on track.

But the San Carlos, Calif., company's timeline for building that plant — in the Cordero Mesa business park at I-40 and Paseo del Volcan — remains unknown as it continues designing the WhiteStar, said Daryl Siry, a company spokesman.

"We're still designing what the car is. And alongside that, all of the manufacturing plans change," Siry said. "The two are working in parallel."

A statement announcing the company's plans, issued in February by Gov. Bill Richardson's office, stated that construction of a manufacturing plant would begin in April "at the latest."

But Siry said Tesla first needs "to make sure we have the right car."

The design of the car and its ultimate cost will help determine whether some parts are better assembled in Albuquerque or elsewhere — all factors that could alter the design and size of the West Side plant, Siry said.

Tesla's Albuquerque factory is expected to employ about 400 people, and the company says it plans to roll out the cars around 2010.

Tesla will lease the manufacturing plant from Rio Real Estate Investment Opportunities, the Albuquerque company developing the Cordero Mesa business park that also includes a TempurPedic mattress manufacturing site and a Shamrock Foods Co. distribution plant.

Even though nothing has been built for Tesla, planning for the plant has continued steadily since the company announced its arrival in February.

Tim Cummins, a Bernalillo County commissioner and co-owner of the development company, said Rio Real Estate and Tesla have had weekly discussions about the plant.

Plans for a 157,000-square-foot building are "90 percent complete," Cummins said. Tesla in July, however, asked for 30 days to re-evaluate the initial design to see if more space is needed, Cummins said.

Originally, Rio Real Estate hoped to complete the building by January, he said. If work were to start now, it would be completed around March, Cummins said.

"That's subject to waiting for Tesla as to whether they will expand it," Cummins said. "We're still looking at sometime early next year."

Siry declined to put a timeframe on when the company would move forward with the plant.

The company's immediate focus remains on its first model, the two-seat Tesla Roadster, a $98,000 all-electric sports car. Tesla hopes by this fall to begin production and delivery of the Roadster, pending any delays caused by upcoming crash and durability testing, Siry said. The Roadster is being assembled in the United Kingdom.

Siry said the company intends to apply lessons learned while developing the Roadster to its work on the WhiteStar.

"We didn't lock down the design early on before we started engineering. We kept changing things. That results in delays and costs, etc.," Siry said. "What we're trying to do with the WhiteStar is be absolutely certain we're building the car we want to build, the way we want to build it."