Well, in the fine and tedious tradition of various huge Hollywood movies (perhaps most recently Batman Begins), in showing the following picture I probably should have used the blog post title “I gotta get me one of those”, or some slight variant:
… but I’ll spare you the cliché. This car is part of a fantasy that I (and some others) have. It has nothing to do with the schoolboy fantasy about fast red cars, but to do with engineering, energy, and the environment. It is called the Tesla. It is a tribute to how far high-energy density storage battery technology has come in recent years. It generated a huge buzz at the LA Motor show this last few days, and it is pretty amazing. Actually, a number of manufacturers generated a lot of buzz with various plans for cars that depend less on internal combustion engines and more on electricity, but the Tesla took the prize for most buzz. This is probably connected to the fact that it is really a production sports car, with performance numbers that put more well known cars to shame, such as 0-60 in 4 seconds, which matches that of your top performing Ferraris, and a top speed of 130 mph. It has a range of 250 miles, and takes about 3 1/2 hours to recharge by plugging into your home power supply. For this, it “only” costs $100,000 – quite a bargain. Driving it sounds like an awful lot of fun. So the more conservative all-electric straight-up-and-down sedan for the masses – one that people can instead of a Jetta or Corolla – just does not grab the imagination of the average car reviewer for the press.
So what is the fantasy? Not to rush out and get one (I’ve just not got the $100,000 to spare right now), but that the excitement about luxury cars like this, ones that have gone before, and ones that are to come -yes, rich man’s toys one and all- will translate one day soon into excitement about making a completely electric viable car (or cars) for the general market. It is encouraging to see that a lot of this activity is being spearheaded by entrepenuers who are not going to sit around and wait for the big US manufacturers to get their act together and gear up for the new technological and engineering opportunities to fuel and exploit markets that are sure to come as we (soon, I hope) learn, as a society, to change our energy and consumption habits. (It is also nice to see that the Tesla is made by Lotus in England, a country that more or less lost its ability to make cars for the general consumer a while back.) You can read more about Tesla and its creators in many articles. Here is one.
There are several interesting articles on electric vehicles on the web, and of course there is the film “Who killed The Electric Car?”. Read about the doomed-from-the-start General Motors vehicle the EV1 here, for example. Read about the film here. Go and get the recently released DVD of the movie and get angry about how our society was once again robbed of the opportunity for us all to do more for our environment by oil and other business interests. Read about more battery vehicles here. These are not definitive sources, of course, and I am sure that they have their inaccuracies in them, but it is a start.
One of the things I love about this car (besides for example that is does all of these amazing performance while being very very quiet, which is to counterintuitive one’s expectations for driving a high performance vehicle) is the name Tesla. I have to admit that is an excellent choice. It almost makes me want to go out and find the $100,000. Almost.
So while I am fantasizing about this future fleet of all sorts of electric vehicles that we can all buy, it would be nice if we (meaning me with your help) would help out the manufacturers by sifting through some more names for them to use for these cars. I’m thinking of a nice entry level vehicle (a sort of analogue of the old Toyota Tercel -what happened to that by the way?-) called “Coulomb” perhaps, and a sporty little two-door (very nippy for the shops) called the “Volt”. There’ll be a four-door version called the “Ampère” of “Amp” of coursea.
I’m not sure where in the ladder the model called the “Ohm” would go. My problem here is that one the one hand it can be marketed directly at the young, rebellious set. You know, the socially conscious left-wing inclined ones likely to join some sort of resistance movement. But on the other hand, it can be marketed to the well-to-do West Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica set who like to practice Bhuddism, Yoga, meditation, etc. Bit of a dilemma. I need your help here with more ideas.
Most certainly however is that at mid-range level I’m thinking of a reasonably well-appointed car called the “Faraday”. I’d certainly be easily induced to drive one of those – in black of course.
-cvj
aPerhaps the Coulomb changes its name to the Amp once it is moving…? No, too silly -nobody would get the joke.
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a better look should polish the image of e cars, what i think is always useful!
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DaiLaughing:- Yes, I do know. I was not counting the cars made there under the direction of car manufacturers from abroad. You subtract that, and it does not leave you with much, sadly.
Cheers,
-cvj
No comment on the car really as it has been said – I love this approach to electric cars but realistically environmental concerns remain.
On the “England, a country that more or less lost its ability to make cars for the general consumer a while back.” you may not be aware that we make a lot of cars still. We can still make good cars and more efficiently than the Japanese and others.
Unfortunately we make them for the same Japanese and others. We have plenty of production facilities for cars, we just don’t own them:-(
That applies to the Lotus factory as well which is owned by Proton. Thankfully they let the weird types at Lotus follow their instincts which results in some excellent products including this one.
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Great that someone is out to make e-cars sexy! How about a woman posing in black leather, or NASCAR coveralls. We must contact these people…
While i have no problem with testosterone red sports cars, i’m not into convertables. Where do i put my 17′ (5 m) canoe?
What i want is an efficient car. At the moment, i’m driving a sedan that is getting 43 MPG. It’s “just” a 1.9 liter 4 cylinder engine with a 5 speed manual. It was cheap. I bought it on the used market. The Kelly Blue book value was $1500 for this 5 year old 150,000 mile car. I’ve put 25,000 miles on it in the past year. When it dies, i’ll look for another great deal.
What do i want in a car? Efficiency. A/C. Cruise Control. AM/FM radio with Aux in for my mp3 player. White, so it doesn’t get so hot in the summer. Space for my telescope. 4 door hatchback.
What can i get? Not much. It seems hard to find a car that actually gets over 40 MPG. This one has an EPA rating of 32 MPG highway.
My favorite all time car name is the Daihatsu “Charade”.
Speaking of Tesla, what an interesting fellow! Among many other things, he may have discovered X-ray photography before Roentgen… and his ideas for the wireless transmission of power (not just signals, mind you) are just what is still sorely needed for our laptops.
I recently much enjoyed watching David Bowie play Tesla in “The Prestige” (a flawed movie, unfortunately: in a plot about stage magic, the main plot device is true magic). But how badly I digress…
Hi Clifford!
Whether there’s a sexy woman or not behind the wheel of this car, I seriously doubt — unless you thrive living on the edge, so to speak — that you’d opt to sit in the passenger’s seat, especially as this car hits 130 mph.
Brace yourself,;)
Cynthia
I don’t think I’m presenting any stereotype. My source is mostly the latest report from the DOE (2004). You can get it here.
Of course the specific source of electricy changes from place to place but, globally, coal and natural gas are by far the most important, followed by hydropower and nuclear sources.
In some states, like Idaho, hydroelectricity is the dominant component, but not if you consider the entire country. It’s true that solar and wind powered stations are common in California, but the amount of electricity they produce is relatively small. In fact, for California in 2004 we have electricity generated from the following sources,
Natural gas 51.6%
Hydroelectric 17.5%
Nuclear 15.5%
Other renewables 12.4%
In Montana 65% of the electricity generated comes from coal. And no, burning natural gas and coal is not clean. Maybe in the future it will be, and under some other administration. For the time being, however, the US is the largest producer of global warming gases and a good fraction of those comes from electricity generation.
Cynthia, thanks. Frankly, the willowy woman dressed in the slinky gown is not missed. I find they just get in the way of the car being advertised. I for one would begin to find the woman sexy if she were dressed in practical clothes and was behind the wheel of the car, controlling it successfully around a bend at 130 mph.
But maybe that is just me.
-cvj
Now, Clifford, there’s one thing terribly amiss with this picture! It seems as though the auto-marketeers left out one key component in this snapshot: a willowy woman dressed up in a slinky gown hovering over the Tesla.
Without a doubt, you must have an eagle eye to detect this subtle paradox: the paradox of geeky engineers with a left-wing bent overlapping well-to-do LA’ers with a postmodern sort of mindset.
This story vaguely reminds me of a social-worker friend of mine who just so happens to (believe it or not) model for auto-shows on the side. What a strange juxtaposition: on the one hand, she cares for the most disenfranchised folks in the community; however, on the other hand, she caters to the most enfranchised members of society. Indeed, such an odd juxtaposing at work here: rich and poor, side by side!
And yet, because my friend has an overall wholesome, girl-next-door look about her, she’s confined to modeling for automobiles with a –more or less– conservative appearance. Since Tesla is designed with lots of sex appeal in mind, I think it’s most fitting to equipped this red sports car with a rather racy looking model.;)
I don’t know where Jack and gerry atric accumulate their factual premises, but the stereotypes and generalization they present are fairly inaccurate. At the moment, the electricity i use in my home is being generated by hydroelectric and incinerator-burning of household wastes. Montana and North Dakota are building clean-burning coal-fueled energy plants and expanding wind generation. SoCal has large scale solar and wind generation, and with the million solar roof projects, electric cars will be charging on the sun, not the power grid.
As for the apparent obsolescence of hybrids??? Europe has had rules and regulations that require automakers (US and Asian too) to build vehicles that are for the most part fully recycleable, parts or whole. Most hybrids imported into the US are built with those sorts of interchangeable systems, particularly the Toyota models. If the problem is batteries, then please research that field more thoroughly as there are now options available that last decades of recharging at higher amps than the trash that is “standard” equipment.
I love performance sports cars, owning them since my first 1962 Porsche purchased in 1965, right up to selling of my 2003 WRX in Jan 2005. Since then i have been without vehicles relying on public mass transit for conveyance. The Tesla looks cool, but i hope Lotus is building better cars now than they did in the early 70’s (that Elite was a mess). I can only hope, with Clifford, that this inspires dozens of manufacturers to join in the design and building of our future transportation.
I’m not sure electric cars are better for the environment than gasoline cars. Electricity is generated by burning coal, which is more polluting than burning oil.
Now, electric cars do save gasoline, which means buying less Arab oil, which definitely contributes to improving our political environment.
Not that it is important, but I think “better known” is much more well sounding 🙂
My car fantasy would be to have a high performance sports car (perhaps an Astin Martin) and drive it REALLY SLOWLY just to anoy people. Actually, my real fantasy car would be to own an Austin 35. Perhaps this would fulfil ‘gerry atric’s’ criteria for keeping a car for 20 years in order to be kinder to the environment. I certainly wouldn’t want to part with such a magnificent car in a hurry!
Sadly, it’s not at all clear that things like this really help the environment. For example, the real cost to the environment of hybrids like the Prius is horrendous — worse than a lot of SUVs. The problem with such cars is that they just don’t last very long, and frequent replacement of cars is their worst aspect, worse than gas-guzzling. A Porsche that you buy and keep for 20 years [because it was so expensive, and because it was so well-built that it will actually last that long] is better for the environment than an electric car that you throw away and replace every couple of years.
So: what we need to do is to give incentives to people to buy really durable cars and hang on to them for 10 years at least. I know that I’d rather get a Porsche and keep it, than buy some rubbishy hybrid every 3 years. My present car is 9 years old.
Well, the title is close to physics if not exactly high energy physics, I now drive a Honda Element.
How about the “Ferrari Electrodynamic” or the “Electrodynamic Range”? Years later the original would perhaps become known as the “Classic Electrodynamic”.
“One of the things I love about this car (besides for example that is does all of these amazing performance while being very very quiet, which is to counterintuitive one’s expectations for driving a high performance vehicle) is the name Tesla. I have to admit that is an excellent choice. It almost makes me want to go out and find the $100,000. Almost.”
My dad’s an EE currently undergoing a midlife crisis in the car arena, so I had the audacity to send him the link for this reason alone. Thanks for it!
Just wondering though, cost-wise how much cheaper is it to plug your car into the wall than to pay for gas?