[Timetrvlr]

From Wikipedia:

Directory:Tesla Motors, Inc.

From PESWiki

Tesla Motors Inc. Roadster


Tesla Motors, Inc. has developed the Tesla Roadster, a 100% electric vehicle named after Nikola Tesla; it has a 250+ mile range. It is not a hybrid. Focus on performance makes it an exceptionally quick car. Major VC backed, as well as backing from Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX ($40 million). Company debuted the car July 19, 2006 in Santa Monica. Tesla Motors, Inc. is a Silicon Valley automobile startup company focusing on the production of high performance, consumer-oriented electric vehicles. The firm was started in 2003 by engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning in San Carlos, and has since grown to include several team members with extensive computer, electrical, and automotive engineering backgrounds from the region. Tesla has also managed to secure initial funding from prominent investors, such as PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
Tesla has a signifigant relationship with Lotus. A design contest was held for the final design of the Tesla Roadster, then codenamed "Dark Star", which Lotus won. Lotus will build the roadster, which is similar in size and appearance to their Elise. Tesla is currently working on a sedan, codenamed "White Star" which may be introduced as early as 2008.
Claims to be more than twice as efficient as any Hybrid on the road. They cost less per mile to drive, use less fuel per mile, and produce less pollution per mile. The Tesla Roadster produces one-tenth of the pollution and is six times as efficient as the best sports car. The Tesla Roadster needs only two gears because the motor delivers high torque over a much wider range of rpm's than any gasoline engine. No reverse gear is needed; the motor runs backwards for reversing.

I understand the roadster sold for $85-90,000, not too bad for a hi-performance car. The sedan should sell for a bit less. Still, that's a lot of dough for a working family but early adopters always pay top dollar for new technology. High volume production brings the price down.

[Simon47]

Hope nobody minds if I resurrect this thread a moment to offer a perspective. We need to look back; way back to the time before the ice ages. No matter how far you go back you will find that where money, commerce and ownership were at play; there was motive and corruption. Before money it was product.

You can go back anywhere between 70, 000 and 200,000 years or so and find evidence of trading behaviour. It is considered that periods of climate change and the onset of glaciation began to cause a shortage of resources and some areas experience prolonged and extreme drought as northern climates iced up. I imagine some severe devastation at the regional and local levels of human habitat were caused by climate change. It may be that this life changing event was a catalyst to a change in human behaviour. It's likely how wars began. Remember that I am talking about modern man not primitive man. We were wild back then but awakening. I won't get all esoteric on everyone but...how we evolved is some cool stuff.

More to the point and it is established that tribes warred and stole and raided and got nasty long before you might think. It makes a body wonder how much we have really changed. It is easy to say that we have improved or evolved but when you step back from your predisposition of acceptance and look at society today; we are all still freightened savage monkeys just scratching and fighting and competing to survive in the natural way of our time. Our current direction of development is now technological economics as opposed to environmentally social. Fear is an everpresent dictator of our behaviour and perhaps it has always and will always be so as a matter of self preservation and the force of influential instincts.

None the less it is accepted in some circles that climate change was where socialism became capitalism on the strictest definition of instinctive survival. There were environmental victims and human victims. The more scarce the resources became; the lower mankind descended to animal behaviour. It was dispassionate. Of course there where the punctiuations in time of various awakening and we passed thorough the dark ages which was a particularly important period for us. As where other notable punctuations of social evolution and the enlightenment we seek today.

We all know that economic and the gain based paradigm we live with and were born into; for all it's glory, benefit and greatness and even moments of enlightenment is capable of extreme barbarism and willingly commit to courses which tax the social tolerance and descend our morality. We commit atrocities in war and tragedy with policy. We have become a society that reveres winners and disregards losers and to survive is also to succeed and life is not the highest goal to achieve. It is all some can do to exist on this earth and never mind any aspirations of wealth through work or a lottery. Many subsist in ecological and developmentally ravaged parts of the world and you can see today; every stage of evolution of man and if you look closely you can see faint glimpses of hope for the future in aspects of society, working to change for the better by returning to nature for solutions. In other parts it is wild, barren and savage. In all places it is survival of the fittest; simply on different terms. Simply; it's human. Humanity still struggles with humane.

Originally Posted by renic

It was when the industrial revolution hit. Prior to the industrial revolution, the only way to get rich was to open trade with new markets or go on conquest for treasures, and to slowly amass wealth over 1 or more lifetimes. The innovations of the industrial revolution brought about the ability for more people to gain wealth very rapidly - by making more efficient business models, and then taking someone's existing "market share." It was one of the major underpinnings of capitalism. Whether or not it can be considered "bad," It's good to recognize that the common people live much better lives than could possibly be imagined in those days.

It's also important to realize that there are much, much, worse governments in the world. I'm sure we could all come up with 5 without spending much time on it.

[Roguegal]

Yes, I do believe it! I also believe that alternative fuels have been in existence for over 25 years. There are a lot of inventions that the government has taken control of and buried because it would "interfere with the economy of the country". But all it has done is put us deeper into a hole.