According to the US government, it costs the average driver 42.5 cents per mile to drive, including depreciation and repair. That’s not cheap, and when you have a performance car, that rate skyrockets. Proposed is a car that costs only about 1 cent per mile to operate, goes 250 miles on one charge, and gets an equivalent of 135 miles per gallon. When you think about this type of car, you think lackluster performance. But you would be wrong. This one goes from 0-60 mph in only 4 seconds…
Tesla Motors, led by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning is a Silicon Valley start-up you may have never heard of, and recently got a $40 million funding by many investors including Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and Elon Musk, Paypal founder and chief executive of space-travel start-up SpaceX. They plan to unveil the roadster on July 20. You can see how much time is left on their countdown timer at their website.
With the release of this, the Venturi Fetish, Wrightspeed’s X-1, and other electric cars, I wouldn’t be surprised if the trend continued or even took off; especially with the backing of investors such as the co-founders of Google. That sort of thing tends to make companies start to follow suit.
There are a lot of benefits involved with electric cars: zero-emissions, instantaneous torque, and extremely low operating cost, not to mention the satisfaction of owning the latest and greatest, but there are a couple downsides to consider as well. Read on…
One of the downsides to consider when thinking about an electric car is the (generally) high cost of purchase. This is usually offset significantly by operating costs though, and should not be the only consideration when purchasing. Hybrid owners have been getting disappointed ever since hybrids deputed, due to the less than promised fuel economy actually being delivered. This concern can be greatly reduced with electric cars, as there will be less surprises involved.
Another issue, specifically with electric supercars is the beautiful sound of the loud, rumbling exhaust. I love the sound of a Ferrari V8 at WOT, or an idling Lamborghini V12. Without it, the car just seems…empty. This would be a huge disadvantage to enthusiast drivers, and would be enough to turn lots of them off.
One thing that people also seem to forget about electric cars (the ones you plug in,) is that it still takes power plants (nuclear energy, burning coal, etc) to create this energy. This is a very small issue, as the benefits out-weigh the disadvantages significantly, but is something to keep in mind.
Aside from these issues, I think that this is really a step in the right direction for a new generation of cars, and I congratulate Tesla for doing such a great job with the Roadster, and finding the funding to create it. I just can’t wait to see it! Stay tuned, I will keep you all updated.
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