Wednesday, October 5, 2011

2012 Tesla S - "Affordable" Green Car

Price: Not terrible with tax incentives.  About the price of Comparable BMW or Audi
Power: Lots of power.  Lots and lots and lots of power.  Redefines: "silent, but deadly"
Sex Appeal: It drips sex.  Women will look sexy in it, men will look sexy in it, and it will look very nice parked next to any sports car in the world.  And it has 4 doors.  Not bad, eh?


The world was introduced to Tesla Motors a few years ago with the Tesla roadster.  It looked awful cool, was designed by Lotus, and came in interesting colors like electric blue and orange.  Cool colors and good looking is usually enough to make it a huge seller, right?

Wrong.  Everything about the roadster was cool except for two things: the 110k price tag, and the fact that it makes no noise.  Ok it makes some noise, but its a quiet whine at most.  The heart and soul of the vastly overpriced roadster was an electric motor and hundreds of laptop batteries.  These two caveats handcuffed the roadster to one type of buyer: someone fabulously wealthy who likes new toys and occasionally feels morally superior to others.

Unfortunately, the roadster never really lost its "toy" stigma.  It could only go about 200miles on a charge and it took around 16 hours to fully recharge.

Years later and millions invested by Toyota and private investors and we now have the Tesla S.  No longer is Tesla out of the reach of 99.9% of Americans.  Not only is it cheaper (tops out at 70k before tax rebates), but it has a longer range.  The top of the line model supposedly can go 300 miles, which would satisfy all driving necessities, short of a road trip,  for pretty much everybody.

The charging time is also much better.  With advances in battery technology and a high voltage charger,  the Tesla S will be ready in the morning before you are.  The better battery and faster charging times are, I think, the two biggest selling points for this car.

In a world trying to become more "green," this is the only acceptable effort in my mind.  It doesn't burn gas, it doesn't look like a turd, and it has better performance than most gas powered cars.  In short, it offers a green alternative that doesn't want to make you gouge your eyes out for what you have to drive in order to be a cleaner human.  It is my DEAREST hope that Tesla takes off in the next few years, so that we may look upon the Prius less, and not have to sacrifice all fun in life over a few pounds of carbon dioxide.

Did I mention it is pretty?

1 comment:

  1. I've never understood the pressing desire to make all hybrids look like turds.

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