U.S. electric car start-up Tesla Motors Inc said on Tuesday that it is opening a new manufacturing facility that will produce powertrain components for its vehicles.

Tesla, which is hunting for a site in California to build an assembly plant for its Model S electric car, said it will manufacture electric vehicle components in Palo Alto.

Tesla is also moving its corporate headquarters to Palo Alto from San Carlos, California.

Tesla is one of the biggest players in the burgeoning electric car sector and has delivered more than 500 Roadsters, its flagship electric car, and has about 1,000 people on the car's waiting list.

The company's 369,000-square-foot new facility will supply all-electric powertrain components for Tesla vehicles and other automakers, in an effort to speed up the availability of mass-market electric cars.

The company did not reveal where it plans to build the Model S, but said it was in site negotiations and does not intend to assemble the car at the Palo Alto location.

Carmakers around the globe are looking to roll out affordable all-electric vehicles in response to stepped-up consumer concerns about volatile gasoline prices and vehicles' emissions of climate warming greenhouse gases.

Tesla's new site will be located in Stanford Research Park and will take over a manufacturing facility previously occupied by Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N) and Agilent Technologies (A.N). (Reporting by Laura Isensee; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

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