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Tour a Tesla showroom, get inside Model S on Google Street View

Even in the US states (like Texas) where Tesla is not able to sell cars at one of its stores, residents can now visit a virtual EV sales space. Thanks to Google Street View and the company's high-tech cameras, a digital visit to a Tesla store in Seattle on Westlake Avenue is now possible by clicking here. A slightly misshapen exterior view is available here. Tesla Tweeted its excitement about the virtual visitor's pass – fitting for a company that has to sell some of its vehicles online – and so we spent some time clicking around in the studio. It's so immersive we almost wanted to knock on the restroom doors and touch the exposed battery pack "skateboard" in the back room. Go ahead and tour the showroom in Street View here, and see if you can figure out how to climb inside one of the Model S EVs parked inside (it's possible). We've put together a gallery of screen grabs of our favorite odd-looking and stretched images from the store as well as a fun example of how this just doesn't quite compare with being there (day turns to night instantly, if you click just right around the red Model S). Still, it's fun. If you'd like to visit another plug-in vehicle in a dealership, check out this Chevy Volt at Bachman Chevrolet. Or, why not, the Nissan Engine Museum here. Anyone got other, similar options?

Tesla gigafactory will source materials from North America to keep things green

It's one thing for the Big 3 to get tires and engine parts from cities along the US Rust Belt. It's another thing altogether, though, for Tesla Motors to source far more esoteric materials like graphite, cobalt and lithium from Canada and the northern US. But that's what the California-based company has in mind, and it's all in the name of environmental friendliness and cost, Bloomberg News says. Tesla is looking to bring its raw-material sourcing to this side of the Pond by the time it opens its massive gigafactory that may produce as many as 500,000 vehicles annually, Bloomberg says, citing Tesla spokeswoman Liz Jarvis-Shean. And while the raw-material price may be higher (and driven up further with the additional demand from Tesla), those costs may be offset by the fact that there will be far less transportation and logistics involved. "When all costs are considered, it should be cheaper to source most materials from as nearby as possible" - Tesla's Liz Jarvis-Shean "Transportation impacts are very significant on the heaviest raw materials if they need to be moved from halfway around the world," Jarvis-Shean wrote in an e-mail to AutoblogGreen, adding that there will be additional cost savings from reduced shipping time and less transit-related working capital requirements. "In the long term, when all costs are considered, it should be cheaper to source most materials from as nearby as possible." There are geopolitical issues as well. For instance, China is shutting down some of its graphite mines because of pollution issues, while much of the world's cobalt comes from war-torn Congo, though Tesla says it gets its cobalt from the Philippines. Most of the graphite in Tesla's Model S is of the synthetic variety from Japan and Europe. Of course, Tesla's still trying to figure out where to put its gigafactory, and has said it will be in one of four states: Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico or Texas. The factory will cost an estimated $5 billion and may support 6,500 jobs, so state governments are already starting to campaign to be the automaker's future production home. Regardless, Jarvis-Shean estimated that the sheer economies of scale from the gigafactory will reduce battery-pack costs per kilowatt hour for the company's "mass market" model (sometimes referred to as the Model E) by 30 percent after a full year of production.

Driving the 2020 Lotus Evora GT, and Defenders at a trickle | Autoblog Podcast #631

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Producer Christopher McGraw and Road Test Editor Zac Palmer. First, they talk about driving the 2020 Lotus Evora GT. Then they take some time to update any new happenings and opinions on our long-term Subaru Forester and Volvo S60 T8 plug-in hybrid. In the news this week, the new Land Rover Defender is in short supply, and Tesla is rumored to be creating a 12-passenger shuttle for use in The Boring Company tunnels. Finally, we reach into the mailbag to help a listener replace a Mazda3 hatch with something to better match their lifestyle. Autoblog Podcast #631 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars we're driving: 2020 Lotus Evora GT 2019 Subaru Forester long-term update 2020 Volvo S60 T8 long-term update The 2020 Land Rover Defender is in short supply Tesla may be working on 12-passenger shuttle for The Boring Co. Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.