The New York Times reports:

"A FEW blocks from the Tesla Motors dealership here is one of California’s public charging stations for electric vehicles.
But the Tesla Roadster, just the sort of vehicle that planners had in mind when the statewide network was conceived, cannot be charged there.

“It’s an inductive charging system,” Jeremy Snyder, general manager of the Tesla showroom, said of the facility. Translation: the inductive connector is not compatible with the Roadster, whose conductive system uses a plug with metal contacts to carry the electricity that recharges the battery.

Dang. Another government program that didn’t quite work as planned.

Not to worry, the Roadster has a built-in battery charger, so all it needs is power from a readily available source like a standard household outlet. This gives owners flexibility in when and where they can recharge their cars.

Using the standard charging connector (15 amp capacity) plugged into a typical 120-volt outlet, the Roadster needs an hour of recharging for every five miles of driving. If you drive it 40 miles — the typical daily use, according to research by the General Motors engineers developing the 2011 Chevrolet Volt — you can replenish the battery pack in eight hours. If you top off overnight at off-peak electricity rates, the Roadster is cheaply and fully charged by morning…"