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Tesla Motors' plans for a West Side manufacturing plant are back where they started.

The San Carlos, Calif., electric car company plans to move forward with the 155,000-square-foot assembly plant it planned when announcing its intentions in February.

But exactly when Tesla will start remains a question.

The company aims to assemble an all-electric sedan called the WhiteStar in Albuquerque at the Cordero Mesa business park at I-40 and Paseo del Volcan Northwest.

Tesla originally planned to break ground in April, but company officials in October said they were mulling whether to construct a larger assembly plant than was originally envisioned.

Now, however, Tesla has told local officials it will stick to its original plan to build on a 14-acre site within Cordero Mesa, with an option to expand on an additional 75 acres in the future.

"They have told us they are back to looking at the original building and the original scope of the work for the assembly plant they have started on," said Tim Cummins, co-owner of Rio Real Estate Investment Opportunities, which developed the Cordero Mesa business park.

"We are in the process of gearing everything back up," he said.

Cummins added he has no timeline for when the company will begin constructing its Albuquerque plant.

"We could pull the trigger almost any time," Cummins said. "It's going to be driven by what their needs are."

Darryl Siry, Tesla's vice president of sales, marketing and service, confirmed Thursday that the company is committing to its original plan.

But he offered no timetable, saying the company's top priority remains with bringing its first model, the Tesla Roadster, to market.

"We hope to get moving quickly (on WhiteStar)," Siry said. "The critical thing is to get the Roadster into production. In parallel, we're planning for WhiteStar. We can get moving on WhiteStar once we get those pieces together."

The West Side plant would be where Tesla assembles the WhiteStar, a four-door, five-passenger all-electric sedan. The company has said the individual components of WhiteStar sedans would be manufactured at locations around the world.

Albuquerque would be the final assembly point, with the original schedule calling for the first cars to roll out around 2010.

Tesla has found itself dealing with delays and upheaval.

The company changed leadership last month, when new CEO Ze'ev Drori took the helm. Around the same time, company founder Martin Eberhard left his seat on Tesla's board.

The two-seat Tesla Roadster, a $98,000 electric sports car being built in England, was scheduled for delivery in the U.S. this fall. But that has been slowed by various issues, including one with the transmission supplier.

Drori, in a blog post last week on Teslamotors.com, said a limited number of Roadsters will be manufactured early this year using an interim transmission design, with full production starting in the spring.