Green Wombat

Tesla Motors this morning announced a $45 million round of financing, bringing its total funding to $105 million as the company prepares to ship its hotly-anticipated all-electric Roadster this fall. The Silicon Valley startup is backed by a who’s who of the tech elite: individual investors include PayPal co-founder Elon Musk – who serves as Tesla’s chairman – Larry Page, Sergey Brin and eBay employee No. 1 Jeff Skoll. Technology Partners and Musk co-led the latest round of financing. New investor Capricorn Investment Group was joined by previous backers Vantage Point Venture Partners,
Draper Fisher Jurvetson, JP Morgan Bay Area Equity Fund (JPM), Valor Equity Partners and Compass Venture Partners. Technology Partners’ Ira Ehrenpreis joins Tesla’s board as does Valor CEO Antonio Gracias. The new round will help fund the development of Tesla’s next zero-emissions car, a four-door sports sedan called WhiteStar slated to hit the streets in the 2010 model year. The first production run of the $92,000 Roadster ($100,000 fully loaded) sold out, but the company is taking orders for the 2008 version on its site. Vroom.