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The WhiteStar will be powered entirely by electricity, but it still has a gas cap.

"(It) looks like the kind of gas cover you'd open," said Darryl Siry, head of marketing and communications for Tesla Motors. "Instead, there's a plug."

With the news that Tesla in April will start building a manufacturing plant, Albuquerque becomes host to what industry experts say is one of the up-and-coming companies in the world of electric cars.

The five-passenger WhiteStar is expected to be its most practical product.

"One of the major drawbacks of electric vehicles in the past is that folks can't get the cruising range they need. For many people, they're not practical. You have to charge it after every long drive," said George Peterson, president of AutoPacific Inc., an automotive market research firm in Tustin, Calif.

"Tesla has managed to come up with the vehicle configuration to get 150 to 250 miles per charge."

Tesla has made a splash with its Tesla Roadster, a two-seat electric sports car capable of speeds over 130 mph and accelerating from zero to 60 mph in four seconds. The Roadster, being built at a Lotus plant in England, should be delivered to customers this summer, the company says on its Web site.

But Peterson said the four-door WhiteStar "has much more market potential than the sports car does - to the tune of 10 times more market potential."

The WhiteStar will range in price from $50,000 for the basic model, capable of traveling about 130 miles on a single charge, to $65,000 for a model that can reach 250 miles on a charge, Siry said.

It would take six hours to charge the car, which accepts standard household current, he said. The charge time is cut to three and a half hours with a special, high-voltage home charging system, he said.

Clearly, then, driving the WhiteStar across country would be time-consuming. But Siry said that isn't the point.

"These cars are not designed for long road trips," he said, but for quick trips around town.

Peterson said Tesla's promise of a longer cruising range between charges makes the car a "viable proposition" for some consumers.

But he expects most people to buy the WhiteStar as a feel-good purchase because it has no tailpipe emissions. Even when taking into account that its energy will actually come from a coal- or natural gas-fired power plant, the company says its cars emit fewer greenhouse gases than their hybrid counterparts such as the Toyota Prius.

"You will never be able to justify its purchase price based on the fuel savings," Peterson said. "It's almost purely an ego purchase. Driving it will make you feel good."