Tesla Motors to open showroom in Washington, D.C.

Tesla Motors, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based electric car manufacturer, has its sights on Capitol Hill.

Indirectly, that is.

The company announced on Thursday that it has signed a five-year showroom lease at the LEED Gold-certified building at 1050 K Street, smack dab in the center of the business district in downtown Washington, D.C.

It's a logical next step for the company, which has seen plenty of hype and news coverage (including here on SmartPlanet) but has precious few square feet to show off its wares, particularly here on the East Coast.

Some details about the green building itself, maximizing Tesla's clean credibility:

• It's capable of retaining its own storm water for irrigation of the street planters and the green roof via a bio-retention system. It saves 2 million gallons of water annually.
• It runs on 100 percent wind power.
• It's 26 percent more energy-efficient than ASHRAE 90.1 standards.
• It removes 85% of airborne pollutants and replaces 100 percent of indoor air every 51 minutes.
• The building's design incorporates a heat recovery wheel, which captures embodied energy in the exhaust air to pretreat the incoming supply air.
• The skin of the building contains a blue glass with high shading coefficient, as well as a glazed curtainwall and hi-tech glass system for thermal management.
• More than 67 percent of the building's materials are sourced locally.

The company's existing U.S. stores include locations in Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boulder, Seattle, Phoenix and Toronto.

Will a zero-emission vehicle win over the Power Lunch set? It remains to be seen, but it's not a bad way to boost mindshare in the nation's capital as the company executes its plan to produce affordable EVs for the mainstream market.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com