Tesla Announces New Hires

Tesla Motors has been busy making the transition from well-funded startup to a full-fledged player on the automotive scene. The Model S is the company's first volume vehicle, a mid-sized sedan priced around $50,000 that is projected to sell around 20,000 units per year.

Selling 20,000 units a year of the Model S is a whole lot different than selling a few hundred Roadsters per year. With the help of a (job security, anyone?) large government loan guarantee from the Department of Energy, Tesla is recruiting top talent and expertise in the automotive industry that will help it to make the transition.

The two new hires are Peter Rawlinson and Henry Brice. Rawlinson is Tesla's new chief vehicle engineer, having worked at Corus Automotive, an engineering consulting firm. He has worked on a range of projects from Bentley to Ford.

Henry Brice is on board as the program director for the Model S, previously working at Ford where he was most recently the assistant chief engineer for the North American Fiesta program.

This is all very good news for Tesla - people that have a wealth of experience in the automotive industry are joining the company. The new positions are part of 150 job openings that Tesla plans to fill in order to deliver the Model S.