Tesla to pay $42 million for Nummi plant

Missing from last week's stunning announcement that Tesla Motors would buy Fremont's shuttered Nummi auto plant was a key detail: the sale price.

It turns out to be $42 million.

Tesla, which makes luxury electric cars, reported the price Thursday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing updated Tesla's application for a $100 million initial public stock offering, giving potential investors information on the purchase as well as the partnership Tesla formed last week with Toyota Motor Corp.

The price may seem surprisingly low for what was, until its closure last month, the West Coast's last big car plant. In comparison, the first phase of construction at Solyndra's new solar panel factory, less than a mile away, is expected to cost $733 million.

But the filing offers an explanation.

Tesla, based in Palo Alto, is buying the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant, but not its equipment. The joint venture between Toyota and General Motors that ran the factory for 25 years plans to auction off the manufacturing equipment in the next several months, according to the filing.

Tesla may bid on some of it, but hasn't decided which pieces will be needed to build the company's Model S sedan, which is expected to begin production in mid-2012.

In addition, Tesla and Toyota are working together to develop future generations of electric cars. That could have contributed to the low price, said Mark Ritchie, president of the Ritchie Commercial real estate firm in San Jose.

"It isn't about the money," he said. "They're partners now."

Last year, the U.S. Department of Energy agreed to loan Tesla up to $465 million to open a plant for the Model S as well as develop the company's powertrain manufacturing facility in Palo Alto.

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