Tesla Death Watch 11: "In 30 Years, a Majority of All New Cars Produced in the United States, Perhaps Worldwide, Will Be Electric"

by Robert Farago

July 14th, 2008 8:52 PM

tesla death watch 11 in 30 years a majority of all new cars produced in the united

The fact that Tesla Chairman Elon Musk owns a solar power and space launch company is, at least potentially, a perfect trifecta. When Musk finally announces that Space X will be launching solar panels into orbit to beam juice to a million gen3 EVs, he'll square the circle. Until then, we just have to listen to more co- and tri-branded crap. This time, it's Newsweek's Fareed Zakaria (author of The Post-America World) in Tesla's spinning teacups. "Q. What's your goal in producing the Tesla Roadster. A. This car itself is not going to change the world—it's a $100,000 sports car being produced in quantities of about 1,800 a year." "About" meaning… 50? Less? "Q. When you plug into an outlet, you're in effect plugging into coal, because a lot of the electricity produced in the United States is coal-fired. Does that bother you from a global-warming perspective? A. I'm very familiar with the "long tailpipe" criticism. I have another company, SolarCity, which is the largest provider of solar power to homes and businesses in California. The solution is to get a SolarCity solar panel on your roof and then have an electric car. It takes actually only a small solar-panel setup—of about 10 by 15 feet—to generate 200 to 400 miles a week of electricity for your car." So, are we cool?

Comments

Join the conversation

4 of 20 comments

Stein X Leikanger on Jul 15, 2008

Mrs. Menno has clued in to the fact that the era of convenient, personal automotion is over. We can fight as much as we want against reduced speed limits and limited action-radius for our cars, it's coming. In the future, we'll treat easily available energy as the precious gift it is, and we'll consider pissing it away taboo. http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/tesla-dead-ahead-the-automobiles-energy-lean-and-speed-restricted-future/

Like Reply
Jimble on Jul 15, 2008

I'd love to own an electric car when (if) they're ready for prime time. But one issue I've never seen addressed is how people who have to park their cars on the street are going to have access to electric power to recharge their batteries. That sounds like a massive infrastructure project and lately the U.S. has been awful at such things.

Like Reply
Kevin on Jul 15, 2008
In 30 years, a majority of all new cars produced in the United States, perhaps worldwide, will be electric That's actually a not-unreasonable thing to say. A lot can happen in 30 years in terms of new production. There are other "experts" running around saying half of all existing cars will be electric in just 7 or 10 years. Those are the idiots.

Like Reply
ZoomZoom on Jul 15, 2008
mel23 Says: As long as one of the battery packs doesn’t explode and kill somebody, this guy doesn’t seem to be doing any harm. Lightening a few wallets, but the buyers of his stuff can afford it. One thing can be said for him which is that he gets a hell of lot of publicity for what he has. Keeping interest going in battery-powered cars can be a good thing, and buyers of a real product, from Toyota for example, will be ready when such arrives. I’m starting to appreciate him. But what all of this "harmlessness" does is erode the trust in business ventures, and makes legitimate future business ventures more difficult to get off the ground. Which is a bad thing for economies, national and personal.

Like Reply