Admittedly, this is way off topic for this blog, but the recently unveiled Tesla Roadster strikes me as an awesome feat of engineering. They've married the ultra lightweight Lotus convertible chassis with a high performance electric motor & drive train along with a few thousand lithium ion batteries (the kind used in laptops) to deliver a politically correct and wicked cool electric sportscar. It gets Ferrari-like performance, goes 130 mph, runs on pennies per mile and has a range of 250 miles. Heck, it even has an ipod interface. The only downside: it's going to costs close to $100K. If it had luggage space, I might be able to rationalize it. For the money-is-no-object crowd, this car will be unmatched. But for the rest of the world, it will likely be more practical to buy a Lotus Elise, a Porsche Boxster and four thousand gallons of high-test fuel.
Still, I expect these will be more common than Toyota Prius's on Sand Hill road in 2007. The Tesla Roadster is undeniably cool and I hope it will influence car makers world wide. This could be the shape of things to come.
- Tesla Motors: Home, FAQ, Blog
- Jalopnik: Tesla Motors and the Governator
- AutoBlog: Tesla Roadster Unveiling
- OnDisruption: Disruption for Millionaires
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