Martin Eberhard wanted a high-performance car that was also highly efficient, and an electric sports car seemed like just the thing.

He searched for a cool, speedy electric car everywhere, and tried to buy one from AC Propulsion and several other startups. But nobody was ready to go to market. As founder of NuvoMedia, and part of the founding team at Network Computing Devices (NCD), Mr. Eberhard saw an opportunity.

In 2003, he formed Tesla Motors with vice president of engineering Marc Tarpenning, and became the chief executive. Now, he’s convinced electric cars can take over the world.

“What inspired me was, I knew I wanted a high-performance electric car and others I knew did too,” Mr. Eberhard said. “If you look at the list of people who invested, that’s a hint that a lot of other people want the same thing.”

The San Carlos, California-based company recently raised $40 million in a Series C round of financing, bringing its total funding to $60 million. VantagePoint Venture Partners and Elon Musk, Paypal founder and chief executive of space-travel startup SpaceX, led the round.

Other investors include Draper Fisher Jurvetson, JP Morgan Bay Area Equity Fund, and a number of individuals, including Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Hyatt vice chair Nick Pritzker (through his investment partnership, Tao), and eBay’s first president and CEO of media company Participant Productions Jeff Skoll (through his investment company, Capricorn Management).

Tesla will use the money to launch its first vehicle, an electric sports car that the company says will begin shipping in 6 to 18 months. Tesla isn’t releasing details about the car until July. But the company’s long-term vision is to build cars of all kinds, including low-cost family vehicles, the company said.

Mr. Eberhard spoke with RedHerring.com about his dream to build the next big American car company.

Q: Many others—including DeLorean Motor—have tried, and failed, to start new car companies. What makes you think you can succeed?

A: Really, what DeLorean was trying to build wasn’t particularly quick or reliable or inexpensive. Except for the finish, it was just another car. What we’re building is completely different than the others cars on the road. It’s fun to drive, beautiful, and quick, and it’s electric, environmentally friendly and incredibly efficient. And the world is very different now from when DeLorean was producing his car company.

Q: How is the world different?

A: Aside from a strong interest in reducing oil consumption for environmental and national security reasons, now it’s prevalent for auto makers to buy subcomponents and assemblies from third-party suppliers. So those parts are also available to me, and that means we don’t need to design every single component of the car—shock absorbers, carpeting, and so on. Another reason is that Silicon Valley has created a culture of entrepreneurs and of investment that didn’t exist in his day, so we don’t have to go to the British government looking for handouts.

Q: What about the electric car companies already selling cars, such as Reva in Bangalore?

A: There have been tons and tons of companies, for the last 40 years, that have tried to make little commuter electric cars. The trouble is that, for the most part, it requires the buyer of such a car to change his or her nature. You’re buying a car that is not as good as an equivalent gas car at all—slower, uglier, with not as much range—and they’re trying to compete essentially on price, where they can’t win. None of those cars were built for people who really like to drive. I get the feeling they’re for people who don’t really think you should be driving, but think if you do have to drive, it should be an electric car. I think if you build a car for people as they are, not requiring them to change their nature, it’s much more likely for you to succeed. And I think our investors agree.

Q: Previous electric cars were limited by their range, and I understand that even with lithium-ion batteries, electric cars today can’t compete with the range of gasoline cars. Won’t that limit the market?

A: How many miles do you really need? You’re plugging it in every night. Even when I was a kid in college driving cross-country I wouldn’t do more than 500 miles per day, and that is rare. Today I can’t make a car that can do 500 miles, but I can make a car that can do enough miles so that your commute is no problem. Just give me some time; I can’t take over the world in one day. And just think, if you do 99 percent of your driving in your electric car, and once a year use your gas car to drive to Seattle, you’ll save a lot of gas.

Q: Electric cars have failed twice before: once in the 1930s, when cheaper gasoline cars and low fuel prices made them obsolete, and again in the 1990s, when car companies revived them in leasing programs and killed them again. Why are entrepreneurs such as you so fascinated by electric cars that you won’t let them die?

A: We’re changing the way cars are. Ten years from now, it’ll be obvious that electric cars are the way to go. They are more efficient than any other car on the road, and they are the ultimate multi-fuel technology, because you can make electricity with whatever comes along. If we want to free ourselves from our addiction to oil, it’ll be through electric cars.

Contact the writer: JKho@RedHerring.com