The revolution will not be televised, but it'll probably get decent coverage in Wired. I just thought it was time to update that adage. Before I launch into my ecstatic tirade, I just want to ask, those of you who don't read Wired magazine from time to time, WHY THE HELL ARENT YOU?! Despite being owned by corporate giant Conde Nast, read any given story on Wired's site and you'll see something so painfully hard to find in America - JOURNALISM. I've almost never seen them succumb to hype, and that's because they actually do their job and research before doing a story. If you don't want to subscribe, fine, I don't (college=poor) but good GAWD when they put all their articles online for free after a few days/weeks?!
Anyway, yesterday the game just changed in the automotive world and most everybody, true to form, missed it. May I intorduce exhibit A: Tesla Motors. More below the fold, beechez.
Hokay, so I would highly recommend checking out the article first on
WIRED:
Synopsis as follows:
There is a car company, started in Silicon Valley called Tesla Motors. The founder, having made his fortune with laptop computer startup, was looking for a sports car, but he wanted something fuel efficient AND powerful. To nobody's surprise, the two are pretty much mutually exclusive. So he had one of those lightbulb thingies. You know, an idea. Three years later, Tesla Motors, the company he started with seed money from many venture capitalists, PayPal founder Elon Musk among them, has contracted well reputed sportscar manufacturer Lotus to mass produce their first car, the Telsa Roadster. One thing its missing: AN ENGINE.
From WIRED: "The Tesla Roadster is powered by 6,831 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries -- the same cells that run a laptop computer. Range: 250 miles. Fuel efficiency: 1 to 2 cents per mile. Top speed: more than 130 mph. The first cars will be built at a factory in England and are slated to hit the market next summer. And Tesla Motors, Eberhard's company, is already gearing up for a four-door battery-powered sedan."
Not to mention its far cheaper than any combustion powered car with those specs.
Ladies and gentlemen, take a momnet to ponder please, because the game just changed.
No, the Tesla Motors Roadster won't by itself change the automotive game, but the company has planned it brilliantly to put themselves on the map. And did you catch that blurb about the four door sedan they're working on? Okay, lets do the math.
The Roadster's got a range oh 250 miles, though its more likely to be around 200. That doesn't really matter because if you've ever looked at a high end sports car, you'd have to be a masochist to want to take a long trip in one anyway. People with those kinds of things just take their other car.
The Roadster won't sell like gangbusters when it rolls out in '07, but it doesnt have to. All it has to do is bankroll development of that sedan. The beauty of the business model is aside from the cars themslevles there is no research and development because guys like HP, Dell, and the like are doing it for them with their battery research. And there is buz that a new round of battery breakthroughs in on the way, which will Will the cars be expensiveish? Yeah. Duh. But you have to realize that these things will have almost no maintenence. Even the brakes last a ridiculously long time because of regenerative braking.
People, I'm a skeptic, but the Wired article and the Tesla Website especially the Tesla White Papers has convinced me that this is indeed the way of the future. Internal combustion is officially so last century, and hydrogen is an oil company cop-out snake oil deal. Do Lithium-Ion electric cars have a long way to go? Yeah. But the Roadster is not the point. Watch that fucking sedan. Eyes on the prize folks, and these guys just changed the game. You heard it on Wired first.
Peace out, let the dairy shredding begin, and see y'all in the comments.
~Methion