Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Tesla Motors Inc., the maker of a luxury electric sports car, will delay the introduction of its less-expensive sedan if the company doesn’t receive a $350 million U.S. government loan, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said.

The loan will help develop a four-door sedan to be priced at $57,499, Musk said today in an interview. The closely held company won’t open a $250 million manufacturing facility in San Jose, California, without the aid, he said.

“We can’t move forward with that without a major amount of capital,” Musk said. “If we don’t get any government funding then what we need to do is we need to wait until the capital markets recover, which could be a year or two years from now.”

Tesla, based in San Carlos, California, is applying for loans under a $25 billion Energy Department program created by the U.S. Congress to encourage the development of energy- efficient vehicles. Lawmakers and the Bush administration are debating using $15 billion from the fund to bail out U.S. automakers General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

Musk today handed over the keys to Tesla’s 100th Roadster at its showroom in Menlo Park, California. The $109,000 car, which can travel about 240 miles on a single charge, was bought by Sam Perry, a Silicon Valley business consultant who was seen on television during President-elect Barack Obama’s election night acceptance speech being leaned on by talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

Musk said Telsa expects to sell about 1,100 Roadsters next year. With the government aid and the new factory, the company could begin selling about 20,000 sedans annually by 2011, Musk said. A prototype of the new car will be unveiled as early as late February.

Seeking $650 Million

In addition to the $350 million loan application for the new sedan, Musk said Tesla is seeking $100 million to expand its drive train business in which it sells parts to other automakers and $200 million for a battery-cell production factory.

Musk, who received almost $300 million from public offerings of online companies PayPal and Zip2 Corp., has put at least $55 million into the company that started in 2003. Other investors include Google Inc. founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and California-based venture funds Vantage Point and JP Morgan Bay Area Equity Fund.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and actor George Clooney are among those who own the Roadster.

To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Satariano in San Francisco at asatariano1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 9, 2008 19:45 EST