It has been awhile since I visited the Tesla Motors website and given the fact that I am in the green vehicle mood today, I thought I would pay them a visit. I WANT A TESLA! The car is absolutely beautiful with its sleek lines, innovative styling and fast performance.
• 100% Electric
• 0 to 60 in about 4 seconds
• 135 mpg equivalent
• 250 miles per charge
How fast can the roadster travel?
The car will travel zero to 60 mph in about 4 seconds, with a opt speed of over 130 mph. The acceleration in the car is instantaneous due to fact it has no clutch.
How much does it cost?
On the website you can build your own Tesla, by selecting various options and accessories and paint finish. I opted for the all of the options that includes, premium interior, touch screen navigation, carbon fiber hardtop, Bluetooth cell integration, upgraded sound system, etc. I also selected the Jet Black (premium finish). I wanted to see what this would cost me if I selected all the bells and whistles. Drum roll please….$101, 925 is the price tag.
After seeing the $100,000 price tag, some people might feel a bit of sticker shock. Many of us will never be able to afford such a luxury eco-vehicle. However, for those who can afford the to buy a Tesla, they are paying a fair and reasonable price. I can’t even begin to imagine the costs that are associated with starting a new automobile company, let alone starting a company that produces electric cars. I am sure it will take many years for Tesla to recoup their research and development costs. My hope is that one day they will be able to produce production models that are more affordable and in the reach of mass consumers. The following quote is taken from their website:
While the Tesla Roadster‘s sticker price is in a league with other high-performance sports cars with similar specs, we recognize it‘s out of reach for a lot of people. We consciously chose to develop a high-end sports car as our first car in order to develop the “performance DNA” from which we could create other electric vehicles. Our next model will leverage the Tesla Roadster‘s technology, resulting in a less expensive sports sedan that we can sell at higher volume.
Give the fact the initial production run of the Tesla Roadsters sold out in four months, it is a great indication that people are taking notice and the demand for alternative vehicles is definitely there. I hope the BIG players in the auto industry are taking notice and will come to market with better eco-friendly alternatives!
Now is the time for change, people want better options! The Tesla Roadster is one electric car that is not going to die! This is just the beginning for this company and I look forward to watching them grow. Maybe one day I will be driving my own Tesla!
To read more about Tesla, head over to their website.
Technorati Tags: Telsa motors, electric car, eco-friendly cars, 100% electric, cool cars, green cars
I found this great clip of the roadster! I know you will want one!
Written by steve on February 8th, 2007 with 1 comment.
Read more articles on Transportation.
I came across an interesting press release this morning from MotorWeek. The “Best of the Year” awards have been announced and MotorWeek named Toyota Motor Corporation as “Best Eco-Friendly” instead of selecting a specific vehicle model to give the award to.
“Toyota has made a remarkable company-wide commitment to gas-saving hybrid technology that drivers can use right now, not 10 years from now,” said Davis. “At MotorWeek, we believe Toyota’s commitment to reducing fuel consumption across their broad product line is not only a pioneering step, but is helping to persuade both the public and the automotive industry that we can significantly reduce fuel consumption without giving up the freedom
of personal transportation.”
Congrats Toyota on once again leading the way with your innovative technology! After reading this press release I decided to head over to jump over to Green Car Journal and have a look at the latest hybrid, hydrogen and alternative fueled vehicles. Once again, Toyota is stealing the show with their 2007 Camry Hybrid being name the 2007 Green Car of the Year!
The Camry Hybrid combines a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine with an electric drive motor for a total output of 192 horsepower. With EPA estimated fuel economy of 40 mpg in the city and 38 mpg on the highway, the hybrid Camry variant offers a marked improvement over the standard four-cylinder Camry’s 24/34 mpg and offers a reasonable price of just over $26,000.
“The Camry not only protects the planet, it protects consumers’ pocketbooks,” says Jason Mark, vehicles director for the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It’s one of the most cost-effective hybrids on the market.”
Other top performers that made the Green Car Journal’s list of finalists are:
• The Natural Gas Honda Civic GX
• Lexus GS 450h Hybrid
• Mercedes-Benz E320 BLUETEC
• Saturn Vue Green Line Hybrid
To read more about green cars, head over to Green Car Journal.
If you are interested in the press release, please click here.
Technorati Tags: Toyota, green cars, hybrids, electric, car of the year, Honda, lexus, eco-friendly, best of the year awards
Written by steve on February 8th, 2007 with no comments.
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Ok - I’ll admit it, I’m a bit of a junk-television-junkie!
I’m not proud of it - after all, the time could be better spent diving into my growing stack of eco books, among numerous other fruitful endeavours - but sometimes it’s just nice to flake out in front of the boob tube and watch some good, mindless entertainment - which in this day and age is essentially synonymous with ‘reality tv’.
Whether it be hopelessly out-of-tune, caterwauling American youths (or ‘yutes’ as Joe Pesci would say), a whiny bunch of biz-heads bending over backwards to please ‘The Donald’, or a motley cast of ‘castaways’ discovering creative new ways to backstab one another on some remote tropical island, my weekly junk tv time allows me to unwind after a busy day and offers me an excuse to escape from the lure of my computer nook during the evening.
And it’s not ALL ‘junk’ either - it’s amazing some of the interesting lessons you can learn from watching people behaving badly!
One show I watch occasionally and find strangely intriguing is ‘Wife Swap’. Usually my wife watches it on her own, but due to the close proximity of my ‘nook’, I tend to catch at least part of it regardless. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, I can only imagine what sordid horrors the name might conjure up (I can remember my jaw dropping when I first heard it) - but be assured, it’s all good clean family fun…well…ok, as far as reality tv goes anyway.
By now I’m sure you must be wondering what on earth any of this has to do with green living etc, but bear with me, we’re nearly there!
For all the uninitiated…
Each episode of Wife Swap centers around a two week period in the life of two very different American families. As the name implies, during this period each wife must live in the other household, essentially acting as the wife/mother for the other family - within reason, of course. For the first week the guest wife must follow the rules/routines of her new family, but during the second week she gets to call the shots.
One thing you’ll notice is that they tend to hand-pick the most extreme, polar-opposite families you could ever possibly imagine - ‘neat freaks’ matched with complete slobs, structure & discipline matched with no rules & chaos, health food fanatics matched with junk food fiends - the list goes on. The chasm that separates their different perspectives is often so vast that it can be uncomfortable to watch - yet this is exactly what can make it intriguing for me.
It provides a powerful (albeit exaggerated) reminder of just how different we all are, and just how challenging it can be to really put ourselves in someone else’s shoes.
Under semi-forced circumstances (contractually speaking anyway), as stressful and difficult as the two weeks can be, typically both parties are able to learn valuable lessons from the experience.
[Of course, it wouldn’t be ‘good junk tv’ if there wasn’t the occasional fist fight or screaming match akin to something you might see on Jerry Springer, but I digress…]
Sadly, since most of us are not forced to associate with others who have vastly different ways of looking at the world, we tend to remain divided, without really making the effort to understand those who do not share our views.
This week’s episode was particularly interesting (yeah, it’s my wife’s show…honest!) and in fact provided the inspiration for this post. One of the families was very environmentally focused - gung ho with recycling, composting etc - while the other family were sporting fanatics who simply chucked all their trash into a dumpster on their property.
What’s funny is that it was the wife from the environmental family who shocked and embarassed me - at one point she literally led her new family out to their dumpster and SCREAMED at them for essentially being environmentally pathetic! It certainly came as no surprise when the dumpster-dad turned his back and walked away. Sigh…
The demonstration was yet another reminder of why I’ve never fully embraced environmentalism for most of my adult life. I’ve always felt like my efforts were never good enough, and thus that making any real commitment was pointless. Thankfully I now have a different way of looking at things.
Here’s the question:
Is it better to drag a puppy by the scruff of it’s neck over to where it has pooped on the carpet and beat it with a rolled up newspaper, or to celebrate with love and affection any time the puppy goes outside?
The way I see it, while it’s very important that the pup be educated about the difference between right and wrong, simply screaming at the poor thing every time it makes a mistake only serves the purpose of creating a nervous dog with a negative association with the news (that was me!!!).
Seriously though, there needs to be a LOT more diplomacy, respect and caring if we expect to get anywhere as a global community on all fronts (not just environmental).
On a related sidenote, I’ve started reading a book called “Love Is The Killer App”, by Tim Sanders - a truly refreshing book about the importance of kindness (and other ‘nice’ qualities) in the business world. Of course the lessons can and should be applied to global social interaction as a whole, so I highly recommend it to anyone regardless of profession.
So there you have it folks…
The next time you’re on the couch with converter in-hand, remember - you don’t have to head straight to The Discovery Channel! There are even some lessons to be learned from junk television!
Technorati Tags: reality tv, wife swap, diplomacy, respect, kindness, tim sanders, love is the killer app
Written by Bentley on February 8th, 2007 with 4 comments.
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