Here is the Tesla Roadster, lots of reasons to praise this car and several reasons to criticize it but make no mistake, this is the future knocking at our door.First the good

2700 lbs

250 hp at 13,000 RPM

0-60 in 3.9 sec.

All Electric 

Equivalent if 135 miles per gallon in power consumption

There are some draw backs as well.

Only 220 miles per charge (good but not GREAT)

3.5 hours to full charge

125 MPH top speed

Questions about what to do with the batteries after 100,000 miles

The green among us will champion this car for it’s absolute lack of emissions, and the freedom from foreign oil. The practical will lament the fact that this car will only go 220 miles on a full charge and god forbid you run out of juice far from home because it will take 3.5 hours to get back to fully charged. The auto purists will complain that performance is good but not great, especially not for the $100,000 price tag.The truth is all these point are correct but they over look the fact that the coming of this car marks the beginning of a new era. Sure the Prius was a huge step in making Hybrids “cool” with celebrities buying them up to show there environmental friendliness, but the Tesla Roadster is a Leap into the future. It is a shift in the way we look at the problems that the Auto industry will face in the coming years with oil prices continuing to rise, and global warming taking a larger place in the American consciousness. The shift is that auto makers can start to look at alternative technologies to make fast, fun cars! Maybe the future will be Sugar Cane or Switchgrass E85, maybe it will be clean diesel hybrids, maybe electric, or maybe the long heralded coming of Hydrogen power, but the shift is to takes these technologies and put them into cars people will want to drive.Being environmentally responsible and fiscally frugal should not have to mean i have to drive a econobox car that makes a honda civic feel like a Ferrari 430. Right now as you read this top engineers at firms like BMW, Porsche, Ferrari and more are working to combine the driving experience they are legendary for with next generation drivetrains. They are being pushed to bring these technologies to market faster by small companies like Tesla.The Future is coming

Filed under: Uncategorized, Environmental Cars, New Cars