Who resurrected the electric car?

[mithriltabby]

A recent article in Wired discusses the recent creation from Tesla Motors: a $100,000 all-electric sportscar called the Tesla Roadster. At those prices, it’s a status symbol: “My penis is large and environmentally friendly!” The really interesting part is the underlying technology: the expensive R&D is all done by established technology companies investing in making better batteries for laptops and cellphones. Tesla Motors is just spinning off the fruits of that R&D into electric cars, and developing the expertise in that narrow field. And they think they might have a reasonably-priced electric sedan in 2008.

Comments

[sistercoyote.livejournal.com]

I frequently wish I could afford an electric car.

That said, this is interesting. Thanks for the heads up.

[trogula.livejournal.com]

Ah, but in America, an electric car is not environmentally friendly - the electricity has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is the same coal-fired power plants that the rest of us use for everything else.

[mithriltabby]

There are still noteworthy benefits. One is that the equipment used to scrub emissions from a stationary power plant doesn’t have limitations of size and weight like it does on a car, so if we can elect enough politicians to give the EPA teeth again, they could start requiring power plants to clean up their output. (I rather like the experiments where they’re pumping the CO₂-rich output of power plants through greenhouses.) Another is that electricity is fungible; if you have an electric car, switching power plants from coal to solar, wind, tidal, or nuclear power won’t require you to change vehicles the way a switch to ethanol or biodiesel would.

[ladydairine.livejournal.com]

We are interested in this technology for when we buy a house and go solar. We will then be able to recharge our car at home and have it run on the power of the sun.

[rhylar.livejournal.com]

The web site has no price listed. I was hoping the price would be similar to the Lotus Elise that its based on. ($35-40K)

Ah well, I guess I'll wait a bit longer for an electric roadster.

I'll try to find the link to a website that may offer a similar car (for similar prices), and have as another product, a trailer that turns your electric car into a hybrid for longer trips (although only about 30-35mpg while pulling the trailer)

[rhylar.livejournal.com]

http://www.acpropulsion.com/tzero_pages/tzero_home.htm

Not as nifty looking, but they also have the trailer

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

Better than saying "My penis is large and green!"

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

A large, environmentally friendly penis sounds pretty good to me!

[deirdremoon.livejournal.com]

Tech: very awesome. Tesla: whoa. Couldn't spend that much money on a car if it UNdid world pollution.