BOOM! That sound you heard was Tesla getting vindication and Mercedes announcing what could be the most important automotive partnership in a very long time. Today, Daimler, parent company of Mercedes, announced that they have acquired a stake in Tesla motors, darling of the EV car set, and that they will also be exchanging technologies.
Is this the deal that will put electric vehicles on the map for real?
Finally, the wait is over. Tesla has just rolled out, debuted and shown (finally- finally- finally) it’s much hyped Model S sedan. No, it’s not that I’m really into this car that much (although it IS nice), it’s just that I’m glad it’s out so I can avoid all the rampant speculation and hype about it.
So what do we have here, exactly? Let’s take a look under the hood … wait, can you do that with an all electric car? Just what DOES this thing have under its bonnet?
Official word from Tesla concerning their upcoming, and highly anticipated (if not over-hyped) Model S sedan is out. For all of the eco love sent Tesla’s way over their sportscar, a lot of greens have expressed more interest and hopes on the Model S, due to a couple of very well founded concerns.
I’m a huge fan of Tesla Motors (the creators of the electric Roadster supercar,) and it looks like they’re really looking to move forward fast. Tesla plans to open five dealerships this fall located in New York, Florida, Chicago, Southern California and Northern California. The dealerships will be owned by Tesla; they will not be independent like most dealerships.
In addition to this, they will be releasing a sedan named “Whitestar,” that costs half the price of their amazing $89,000 roadster. The Whitestar should start production as early as April of this year. Will Tesla be the start of the electric car revolution? I certainly hope so; I couldn’t think of a better company to lead it. I truly can’t wait to see what Tesla has in store for us next. Continue Reading…
Looks like you’ll have to wait a while to buy the electric supercar by Tesla, the Silicon Valley start-up whom I posted about a while after their Roadster was announced. Not surprisingly, all 100 have sold out, due to be delivered sometime in early 2007. Like I said, I previewed the car before it came out, Click Here to check it out.
The Tesla is said to have been sold for $100,000 each, but CNET reports that was the deposit, the car supposedly costs anywhere from $80,000 to $120,000. It’s not said when the next batch will be sold. A quick refresher: The car gets a 0 to 60 time of only four seconds, while getting the equivalent of 135mpg, and can travel a 250 mile range before recharging.
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… Continue Reading…
