Tesla Birth Watch 30: No Road Trips for Now

I'm not going to worry about $50 worth of gas if I can afford a nearly $100K car... GRIN! I do however agree that the range argument is dumb. People will either stay close to home (same county) or they will trailer their car to the resort/tourist area they want to ride around in with their Tesla just like alot of the motorcyclists do when they take their motorcycles to the beach or the mountains. Trailer it up, leave the truck at the hotel, ride the backroads, come back to the hotel. I am anxious to see this car collectively soak up some miles b/c it will help drive the EV technology forward. I have heard so many comments over the past decade that EVs will NEVER work for a laundry list of reasons. They DO work right now if a person is realistic about what they want to do with an EV. For starters a person has to leave behind that one vehicle that does everything mindset that some folks use to justify driving a 6K lb vehicle for trips big and small (mostly small) or a 8-9 passenger vehicle when they generally need space for 3-4 people. If Tesla manages to create an EV or even a plug-in hybrid equivalent to the Rabbit/Corolla/Civic/Focus/Cobalt with even a 50 mile EV range and a small ICE to keep the batteries charged for $25K I'd buy one. 50 miles represents several days of commuting for me and 1 round trip for my wife. If that car could reach production then with the march of technology within a decade I think we'd see range improve many magnitudes just like computers have gotten SO much better in 20 years, just like Linux has gotten so much better in the past few years, just like cellphones and other small devices have gotten SO much better too. We can DO anything. All it takes is a real need and some capital. I don't necessarily think that what GM is doing with the Volt is really trying hard. I think they are hoping we'll lose interest and go back to buying their SUVs and trucks. I think other automakers are either taking a "wait and see" approach or ignoring the issue completely.

Oh, and FWIW I think some of us could make arrangements with our employers to charge while we are at work. I think at some point in the future there could be employers who would offer this as a perk. A solar cell on the roof of these EVs wouldn't be enough to make much difference in 8 hours BUT a whole line of carport style covered parking spaces covered with solar cells could make a real difference for the cars parked underneath. First you're car is cooler in the summer, second your windows might be almost snow free in the winter, and thirdly your battery would be 100% charged for the drive home. With our enregy consumption style as it stands in 2008 an EV is going to require a few compromises. With some investment and creative problem solving we can be oil import free if we truly want to. Frankly I would have rather Bush spent the billions and billions of dollars on infrastructure for EVs than on the twin wars we have been fighting for - how many years??? Funny - no, sad - how we'll put up with a friggin' war - deaths, families torn apart for months or years at a time, fatherless/motherless children, the pollution all that war equipment creates, etc etc but we won't alter the way we consume what and how we consume here at home to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, to reduce the pollution we create, and to leave a better USA for our children - hell, a better WORLD for our children. I won't be buying a Tesla as it's pricetag is beyond my grasp and I need a small car with at least a backseat (VW Cabrio at minimum which is what I drive) but I applaud their efforts. I know it is likely as much about making lots of money as anything else but they may give our world the first real EV of the 21st century. Toyota did it with the RAV4-EV and quit. GM did it with the EV1 and then gave a list of reasons that it can't work while they were crushing cars people were begging to buy no strings attached. GO TESLA! GO!!! (anxiously awaiting an EV I can afford while considering building my own)