LOS ANGELES , California ( CNN ) -- While automakers lay off staff and shut down plants in response to the economic downturn , one automaker announced Thursday that it will open a manufacturing plant in the United States , potentially creating hundreds of jobs in the area eventually chosen . Tesla unveils its Model S sedan , with a base price of $ 57,400 . The manufacturing plant will be in California . Tesla Motors , maker of a high-end electric sports car , says it will build an all-electric sedan in Southern California . Thursday 's announcement was made in Hawthorne , California , where Tesla unveiled the Model S sedan at a base price of $ 49,900 , after a federal tax credit of $ 7,500 . That 's less than half the price of its first model , the Roadster . Started in 2003 and bankrolled by PayPal millionaire Elon Musk , Tesla has attracted investments from the Silicon Valley elite , among them Google founder Larry Page . It is widely believed that the Model S sedan will be built near the Space Exploration Technologies Corporation facility in Hawthorne . That aerospace company , more commonly known as SpaceX , was founded by Musk in 2002 . SpaceX recently won a NASA contract to deliver cargo to the international space station when the space shuttle program is retired next year . That contract , worth $ 1.6 billion , was won over such industry mainstays as Boeing and Lockheed . The promise of a high-performance , all-electric vehicle became a reality with the startup 's first model , the Tesla Roadster , a car with the look , speed and price tag -- a steep $ 109,000 and up -- that rivals other high-end , high-performance vehicles . Recently though , the economic downturn has forced Tesla to delay production of their would-be flagship Model S until 2011 . They 've also had to lay off more than 80 workers , which is about 25 percent of the company 's staff . Nonetheless , Tesla predicts it will manufacture 20,000 Model S vehicles a year . That would make it more of a mass-market vehicle than the Roadster ; only 1,200 of which are produced yearly . The company faces many challenges , the foremost of which is convincing consumers to pay almost $ 50,000 for an all-electric sedan when they could pay thousands less for another brand of upmarket sedan or a gas-electric hybrid .
Tesla says manufacturing plant will be in the United States ; 20,000 of jobs possible . The all-electric Model sedan will go for a base price of about $ 50,000 . Lockheed 's challenge : Will consumers pay that much for a car in recessionary times ? The company hopes to make 20,000 Model Model sedans a year .