Thursday, July 20, 2006

Who holds back the electric car? Nobody.

Wired has an article on the Tesla motors electric car, and just to give you a feel of the tone, this is early in the article:
"You see any cops?" Eberhard asks, shooting me a mischievous look. The car is vibrating, ready to launch. I'm the first journalist to get a ride.

He releases the brake and my head snaps back. One-one-thousand: I get a floating feeling, like going over the falls in a roller coaster. Two-one-thousand: The world tunnels, the trees blur. Three-one-thousand: We hit 60 miles per hour. Eberhard brakes. We're at a standstill again -- elapsed time, nine seconds. When potential buyers get a look at the vehicle this summer, it will be among the quickest production cars in the world. And, compared to other supercars like the Bugatti Veyron, Ferrari Enzo, and Lamborghini Diablo, it's a bargain. More intriguing: It has no combustion engine.
Some people on various EV enthusiast sites have whined that Tesla is starting by building penis-replacement cars, but I think this is a great idea: One of the biggest issues EVs still face is a perception of poor performance - something that's been false for at least a decade, but what can you do? Well, make cars that smoke a Lamborghini, that's what you can do. Tesla plans to move on to a Sedan by 2008.

In related news, a Brazilian company (Obvio!) has announced plans to sell 50,000 cars to ZAP in the US, some of which will be EV sports cars with similar performance to the Tesla car.

I like this - it's a great way to start the morning, with good news about electric cars. And these cars both boast 200-250 mile ranges, with excellent performance. All we need to do now is bring the charging time down, and the price.

I'm going to see Who Killed the Electric Car? tonight, so I'll try and have a review for the blog before I go to bed.

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