The Tesla sports car may be a harbinger of future all-electric vehicles.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was putting on his best cheshire cat impression this morning in San Carlos as he joined state Treasurer Bill Lockyer and officials of Tesla Motors to announce that the all-electric vehicle company will manufacture its next set of cars in the San Francisco Bay Area. Silicon Valley-based Tesla, named in homage for early 20th century inventor Nikola Tesla, created a stir with its first car, just now in production at Lotus in England, a stylish $98,000 sports car that does 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds with a range of 225 miles per battery charge. Schwarzenegger got one and has been touting the car as a harbinger of a cool new clean tech future, an alternative to the Soviet-era styling of the hybrid Prius, which Schwarzenegger tells me he “wouldn’t be caught dead in.”
It’s what the industry calls a “halo car,” a car to capture the imagination and show what’s possible. But at $100,000, the Tesla Roadster is a car for folks like Schwarzenegger and Dennis Haysbert, of TV hit 24‘s first black president fame. It’s the follow-on cars, a mid-size sports sedan for $60,000, a competitor to the BMW 5-series and Jaguar XF set for the end of 2009, and a smaller sports sedan for $30,000 set for 2011 that will start to make a difference.
And the next cars were set to be be made in New Mexico.
Schwarzenegger’s friend, Governor Bill Richardson, made Tesla a good deal. So Schwarzenegger set out to work with Tesla officials, including Tesla board member Steve Westly, the former California state controller and Obama for President national finance co-chair, to come up with a better deal. State Treasurer Bill Lockyer provided the lynchpin, using the little-known California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority to finace the purchase of $100 million in equipment for the new plant. Tesla is leasing the equipment from the state and can buy it later, but would pay no sales tax in the end. The state is also providing grants for employee training.
Schwarzenegger is fond of telling Detroit to get off its butt. So far, it hasn’t. The big US automakers have resisted not only fundamental technological changes, but also significant increases in fuel efficiency, and as a result have fallen behind world automakers in Japan in Europe.
So now Schwarzenegger has an increasingly famous car company not only headquartered in his state and designing its vehicles here, but also producing them here. I think it will be the first car manufacturing plant since GM shut down in the San Fernando Valley a quarter-century ago.
Schwarzenegger has also adroitly switched the vehicle most associated with him. For years, it’s been the Hummer. But the Hummer, the civilian version of the massive HumVee, which has proved to be so problematic in Iraq combat situations, is on its way out. The Brobdingnagian vehicle, the military version of which caught Schwarzenegger’s fancy following the first Gulf War, is, in this sudden era of very expensive oil, a luxury that’s simply not affordable. I’ll write about the Hummer, and Schwarzenegger’s association with it, another time.
Meanwhile, the Tesla sports car is starting to appear, as you see in the video above. As a vehicle designed to compete with the likes of Porsche and Ferrari, it’s clearly an aspirational vehicle rather than a realistic one. But it gets people’s attention for what comes next. And maybe it will shame the conventional US automakers into making some changes, before it’s too late for them.
There aren’t many political writers who pay attention to energy — too bad it’s the key to so many issues in the new environment — and only a few, like Slate’s Mickey Kaus and Instapundit Glenn Reynolds, who are into cars and gadgets. None seem to have paid attention to this yet.
Your posts are welcome in the Forum.
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Have the fellas at Top Gear gotten a crack at the Tesla yet?
Only $98,000. Will you buy one for me?
I’ll buy the $30K model.
That’s the one that will prove the company’s overall impact.
We’ll assume you are asking, will anybody, please, who might see this, buy me this sports car?
>Ann:
Only $98,000. Will you buy one for me?
Jun 30, 2008 – 1:45 pm
I don’t think so. Didn’t find any Top Gear video on it, either.
Jeremy Clarkson’s too big for the car, though he could squeeze himself into it as he does with the Porsches. Maybe a ride for Richard Hammond.
Dennis Haysbert is definitely too big for it. Maybe Arnold, too.
>Brasky:
Have the fellas at Top Gear gotten a crack at the Tesla yet?
Jun 30, 2008 – 1:25 pm
Detroit not getting off its butt? I’d be the last to give them any credit given their misguided battles against so many inevitables, but I guess you missed the big Article in the Atlantic and all the press about GM’s leapfrog to the Prius, the Volt.
An American car company that can’t cater to the “big boned?”
This company’s doomed!
Surely it has as much room as a 911?
It looks about the size of a Porsche. Steve Westly’s told me a couple of times I can test drive one, but it hasn’t happened yet.
You know these kinds of cars are not for big people.
I’ve heard about it. I’ve heard a lot of stuff like that, with plenty of publicity, that never amounts to anything.
>Selkie:
Detroit not getting off its butt? I’d be the last to give them any credit given their misguided battles against so many inevitables, but I guess you missed the big Article in the Atlantic and all the press about GM’s leapfrog to the Prius, the Volt.
Jun 30, 2008 – 2:01 pm
… Incidentally, I think the first Chevy Volt won’t be produced till around the end of 2010.
Very cool. Didn’t Arnold promote the hell out of the Hummer? Now he can promote the hell out the Tesla.
“the first Chevy Volt won’t be produced till around the end of 2010.”
The Big Three are about to get lapped…again.
End of 2010 means it will be a 2011 model year — assuming the project isn’t delayed.
true on the 2010, real date 2011 at minimum on the Volt, but they are thinking big on battery engineering and are aiming for the mass market on price.
I happen to live near one of the best mountain road test driving areas in California…that car and I were meant to be together…
Detroit killed the electric car.
I’ll get positive about them “making” electric cars when they make electric cars.
I did some cocktail napkin math and I can’t believe it. If someone wants to correct it, please do.
Assuming you bought a $60,000 sports car (instead of the $100,000 Volt), you’d have $40,000 extra to put towards carbon offsets.
Carbon offsets can currently be bought for $5 – $22 per metric ton. Let’s set the price at $15. That gets you 2,667 metric tons of CO2 reduction offsets.
The Porsche Boxter has an output of about 0.25 kilograms per kilometer. Put this into metric tons (divide by 1,000) means 0.00025 tons per klick.
That means with your $40,000, you could drive 10,666,667 kilometers without a positive carbon footprint.
That’s 6.6 million miles (I think that gets you to the moon and back 13 times or so). Carbon free. In one of the most polluting cars you can buy.
Of course, the point of the Tesla isn’t to be an efficient carbon sequestering technology – it’s to move us to the next step in automotive technology. Sort of like a personal investment in the Space Race of our generation. And if rich folks want to make that investment, that’s great for everyone.
Personally, I think electric cars will eventually be the future of automobiles, because you allow drivers to be divested of one source of energy (refined oil) into many kinds of energy (nuclear, wind, solar, biofuels, etc.) thru their electrical outlet.
Anyway, I guess I wrote this for the poor working schlubs who consider ourselves environmentalists, but who will never be able to shell-out $100,000 for a Tesla or even the $25,000 for a Prius.
Let the rich folks subsidize electric car developments – a reliable $15,000 electric car will be here because of their expenditure in capital. Meanwhile, if you’re taking the bus or bike to work, you’re doing more to save the planet.
I heard some company, I think in India, is making a car that runs on compressed air. It costs 10 or 20 thousand dollars.
Nice coup by the Guv.
For those of you who like this sort of thing, one of the Kos Kidz had this beautiful pictoral presentation on all things alt-vehicle:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/29/123633/282
If will be nice for Mr. Westly to say he drives a California-manufactured Tesla during the 2010 race for governor versus an unseen (Geo?) Tracker as he stated in 2006.
I suspect this will be the car all politicos will drive. It’s a no-brainer, which is especially helpful for the politicos with no brains.
Well, he should be able to get one.
My plan is to keep the green cat. Which is green as in the color green. Entirely carbon offset.
He has something to champion, which he likes. Very interesting compendium.
I’ll take the Mini Cooper EV …
>Chris M:
Nice coup by the Guv.
For those of you who like this sort of thing, one of the Kos Kidz had this beautiful pictoral presentation on all things alt-vehicle:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/29/123633/282
Jun 30, 2008 – 3:06 pm
A big Indian company called Tata is making such a car. There’s also an American start-up.
>marcus:
I heard some company, I think in India, is making a car that runs on compressed air. It costs 10 or 20 thousand dollars.
Jun 30, 2008 – 3:02 pm
My head is swimming …
>Brasky:
I did some cocktail napkin math and I can’t believe it. If someone wants to correct it, please do.
Assuming you bought a $60,000 sports car (instead of the $100,000 Volt), you’d have $40,000 extra to put towards carbon offsets.
Carbon offsets can currently be bought for $5 – $22 per metric ton. Let’s set the price at $15. That gets you 2,667 metric tons of CO2 reduction offsets.
Detroit did kill the electric car. Trust, but verify.
>Len:
Detroit killed the electric car.
I’ll get positive about them “making” electric cars when they make electric cars.
Jun 30, 2008 – 2:56 pm
Good luck!
>carole w:
I happen to live near one of the best mountain road test driving areas in California…that car and I were meant to be together…
Jun 30, 2008 – 2:29 pm
I think they’re ending up around $40,000. I’ll be excited about this when it’s actually happening.
>Selkie:
true on the 2010, real date 2011 at minimum on the Volt, but they are thinking big on battery engineering and are aiming for the mass market on price.
Jun 30, 2008 – 2:29 pm
Assuming …
>Brasky:
“the first Chevy Volt won’t be produced till around the end of 2010.”
The Big Three are about to get lapped…again.
End of 2010 means it will be a 2011 model year — assuming the project isn’t delayed.
Jun 30, 2008 – 2:18 pm
He sure did!
And he may.
>Jack Aubrey:
Very cool. Didn’t Arnold promote the hell out of the Hummer? Now he can promote the hell out the Tesla.
Jun 30, 2008 – 2:18 pm
Interesting. Do any of you have a clue who Tesla was? The car is tinsel. He invented the radio before Marconi. He thought alternating current was more useful than direct current (ala Westinghouse)and invented ways to use it. We dis him because he was a Slav (Croation, to be exact.) It’s not the car. It’s the way.
“My head is swimming …”
I like to play numbers like a kid with Legos.
In one of my jobs, I dealt with fractions of fractions and in another, millions of millions…
…it’s given me an appreciation of power of numbers.
So many good ideas. But what’s really going to happen?
Wikipedia has this gem. Years ago people accused McCain of being a carpetbagger when he ran for a House seat in Arizona.
He responded to a voter:
Listen, pal. I spent 22 years in the Navy. My father was in the Navy. My grandfather was in the Navy. We in the military service tend to move a lot. We have to live in all parts of the country, all parts of the world. I wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and spending my entire life in a nice place like the First District of Arizona, but I was doing other things. As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi.
What video today?
Im excited about the TESLA. I have been driving my 100% electric Toyota RAV 4 for over 6 years now and love it. I have over 45,000 miles on the odometer and have had ZERO problems. There is no maintenance and no oils or liquids one needs to keep lubricating the car with. Only windshield wiper fluid. The limitations are the range; they claim 126 miles but its closer to 100. And recharging takes 3 hours. But, I rarely drive more than 100 miles a day and when I do I take my wifes car. So…its a perfect 2nd car now, and with a little more range and a cheaper price, electric cars will hopefully be the future.
Please keep covering this story, as I agree with you that not enough writers cover the energy sector, especially as it relates to vehicular transport.
I drive significantly less than before, but I definitely need more range than that. Actually, I need more range than the Tesla roadster will have. But these cars are starting to get there.
McCain and Obama.
>Jonas Blane:
What video today?
Jul 1, 2008 – 8:01 am
That is one snappy quote!
Kinda shuts down the carpetbagger argument.
>Sam Loomis:
Wikipedia has this gem. Years ago people accused McCain of being a carpetbagger when he ran for a House seat in Arizona.
He responded to a voter:
Listen, pal. I spent 22 years in the Navy. My father was in the Navy. My grandfather was in the Navy. We in the military service tend to move a lot. We have to live in all parts of the country, all parts of the world. I wish I could have had the luxury, like you, of growing up and living and spending my entire life in a nice place like the First District of Arizona, but I was doing other things. As a matter of fact, when I think about it now, the place I lived longest in my life was Hanoi.
Jun 30, 2008 – 6:44 pm
Some of it. The worse things get, the more will happen.
>Capitol Boy:
So many good ideas. But what’s really going to happen?
Jun 30, 2008 – 5:18 pm
The car is necessary to the way.
Don’t forget Tesla’s great feud with Thomas Edison.
>Alan Gesler:
Interesting. Do any of you have a clue who Tesla was? The car is tinsel. He invented the radio before Marconi. He thought alternating current was more useful than direct current (ala Westinghouse)and invented ways to use it. We dis him because he was a Slav (Croation, to be exact.) It’s not the car. It’s the way.
Jun 30, 2008 – 4:21 pm
Incidentally, NWN passed 66,000 comments sometime in the past week.
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