Tesla's $100,000 Electric Car - Savior or Ego Toy?
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The Tesla electric sports car will either spur a massive renaissance in non-gas car development, or it will gather dust in the utter obscurity of a few well-heeled Hollywood garages, alongside private hovercrafts and creampuff T-Birds.
The Tesla was unveiled in Santa Monica last week with much fanfare and spec-flexing: 0-60 in 4 seconds, 130mph top speed, charge range 250 miles.
The thing runs on 1,000 pounds of lithium-ion batteries (like the ones that run your laptop) partially topped up by a regenerative braking system. It also carries all the non-polluter bennies: solo carpool-lane access, luxury car tax exemption, free parking at LAX charging stations and free metered parking in L.A., Santa Monica and Hermosa.
The Silicon Valley-based startup Tesla Motors plans to deliver their first 100 cars in mid-2007 (at a price of $80,000 to $120,000). What matters most is what happens next:
We all know what happened to the last mass-produced electric car: The General Motors EV-1 was pretty unceremoniously scrapped after too many people expected too much of its battery life. There's a whole movie devoted to alternate theories on its untimely demise.
Judging from the foaming gush in comments on the Tesla blog, the demand for a good electric car hasn't dissipated a bit.
Given the (on paper) impressive battery life and the huge amount of money they're charging, will they sink all that money back into the company and come out with a cheaper model for the masses?
WIRED says the sedan model (codenamed White Star) is under development and due out in '08 - but probably heavier, slower and with shorter range due to the limitations of battery tech.
Innovation is good. Now if only we can get some mass-produced hydrogen fuel-cell cars out on the road, and unlock all the engine patents the Big Three and the oil companies ever squashed, we can evaluate side-by-side all the potential routes out of the $4-a-gallon, globally-warmed grave we're digging for our car-driven society.
Posted by: Mack_Reed on Tuesday, July 25, 2006 - 02:21 PM
