No the picture to the left is not a sports car pumping gas, it's actually the new Tesla Roadster 2.5 hooked up to an outlet. The Roadster is a high performance fully electric car being rolled out in the near future. The car gets over 200 miles in a single charge, and can go from 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds!
Over the past decade it has seemed like new car technologies; plug-in hybrids, fully electric cars, and the ever highly touted fuel cell cars, have been continually hyped but when it comes to rolling them out into production, it always seems like they are just a few more years off from actually being produced. Much of this hype and then continual disappointment has lead a green enthusiast like myself to become increasingly skeptical of when the "future" of green cars would actually arrive. But with the production of the Roadster it looks like we have finally reached that point. The main barrier to widespread sales of electric vehicles is the perception about lack of performance, combined with high prices.
The Roadster proves that electric cars don't have to sacrifice functionality and style to be environmentally friendly, but even the cheapest Roadster sells for a staggering $57,000! What gives me hope though, is that the large auto manufacturers like Ford, Toyota, Nissan and GM will all be releasing much more reasonably priced plug-in hybrids, or fully electric vehicles in 2011 and 2012.Is the future of car innovation finally here, by all estimates it looks to be a resounding yes!
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Nice posting. I believe that the Roadster is already on the market and that Telsa will introduce a more reasonably priced (but still very stylish) sedan in 2012. Here is a link: http://www.teslamotors.com/models
Seems like there are more and more innovation going on in car industry.
And more companies are going to environment-friendly ways, which is great!!
While the Tesla roadster is a very impressive feat of engineering. What I believe will do even more to promote sustainable practices, and really bring HEVs to the mainstream, is the new lower cost models that ford and others are coming out with.
The thing that really impresses me about the Roadster is that it differs so very much from the stereotype that most of us have of hybrid and all electric cars. When we think of these cars we often think, of tiny, slow and unattractive cars such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight. The Tesla Roadster is the one electric car that does not stand out as an electric car, but rather a sports car. There is nothing about it that says "electric" until you actually deal with "refueling" it. If the electric car is going take off, it will be because the Auto industry is producing electric cars that drive and look no different than the gas cars we are used to.
Pretty awesome looking vehicle. I might need to get me one of these bad boys.