Remember all that hype over electric cars back in the 90's? They were supposed to change the world. Just imagine plugging your Honda in at night like your Ipod and your cellphone. Yet most people today are still buying gargantuan, gass-gargling SUVs when gasoline is over $3 a gallon.
The first true electric car, the EV1, was abandoned by General Motors in a storm of controversy (see Who Killed the Electric Car for details). But a new Silicon Valley start-up called Tesla Motors (after the eccentric "man who invented the 20th Century" Nikola Tesla, whom David Bowie played brilliantly in The Prestige) has recently revealed their first shot at the Electric Ideal, the Tesla Roadster. They swear it goes from 0-60 in under 4 seconds, with a top speed of 130 mph.
What do you think? Looks a little too "Porsche" for the average consumer to me, and when it ships in early 2008 it'll have a $98,000 price tag. If I were trying to open up the electric car market, I'd target everyday people with an economic alternative to gas-powered vehicles, not a sports car fit for 007...
2 comments:
My partner runs her Jetta on biodiesel. Another great alternative would be a diesel hybrid, that could run batteries and biodiesel. Biodiesel is easy to make if you have a garage.
Who Killed The Electric Car was great movie! I highly recommend it to everyone.
I never saw "Who Killed The Electric Car" but indeed, I am in agreement with you, sir. ;) Nice to see that you're on blogger, if you look me up, you'll find my "Well Penn'd Post" arts review bloggy thing here somewhere. 8)
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