Thinx is correct. The problem with Tesla is not the technology, it’s the lack of candor. That is what is being discussed here.

I don’t think that is quite the point here. I don’t doubt electric cars will work – I have merely grown skeptical of Tesla’s ability to actually execute on their promises. I used to be a believer when I first heard about them; and I actually rode once in the Wrightspeed when Ian Wright was demo’ing it at an event.

Tesla have been wildly overoptimistic when it came to what was involved when putting such an EV on the road, and there are lots of issues that have not been resolved. The battery pack first beginning to drop in efficiency after 70K will be a surprise to other designers of battery packs – that really is new. :-)

Still skeptical of the entire Tesla concept, as far as energy efficiency is involved, but what’s happening is that now everyone’s got an EV in the works, and that’s a good thing – as it means we’ll be seeing some real development take place.

At the Geneva motor show this year will probably mark the end of the IC engine as we knew it, given the number of hybrids, EVs, plug-in hybrids, hydrogen vehicles and hamster powered cars on display.

Elon Musk did a good job of keeping the story straight between what was possible and what was not going to happen, while driving. Bob Lutz should take lessons.

This is the whole thing about electric cars. Get a basic car out there, let people buy them and the profit will fund improvements. If you aren’t convinced see cellphones, laptops, TVs, airplanes, all gadgets small and tiny, etc etc etc.

Meanwhile we hear alot of FUD about how electric cars will NEVER work or how they are decades away.

Wait – you mean to tell me that will all of the improvements in a 1000 consumer gadgets that run on batteries that things won’t get better quicker than decades? Maybe they need to hire DeWalt engineers…

Let’s see – I’ll take an Opel Corsa 5 door with a 75 mile range, a-c, a manual transmission (I’ll need a 2 speed), and a full solar installation at my house which will feed power to the electric company during the day peak electricity and buy it back at night (off peak) to charge my car.

Maybe if enough of my coworkers go this same route we could convince our employers to allow us to fund some carports over our parking spaces at work which contain solar panels to partially recharge our cars at work. Each month we can pay $25 into a fund (sort of like bonds) to build the infrastructure to shade our cars and charge them at the same time. Eventually it’ll be an employment perk.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/video-robert-scoble-elon-musk-tesla-electric.php

According to Musk, they’re switching to a single-speed transmission. Also, they claim over 200 mile range, they expect the batteries to last 100K with a decline in range at 70K.