Tesla's wild ride

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/10/technology/copeland_tesla.fortune/index.htm

Tesla's wild ride

Building the world's first electric supercar was never going to be easy - even without the hubris, infighting, and mismanagement that nearly sent Tesla spinning off the road.

By Michael V. Copeland, senior writer
Last Updated: July 11, 2008: 1:16 PM EDT

(Fortune Magazine) -- For Martin Eberhard, there were many obstacles on the path to building the ultimate electric sports car. There was the scientific challenge of creating a lithium ion battery pack stable enough to power a 2,650-pound vehicle. There was the belief that Americans would stick with their gas-guzzlers, no matter what the price of oil. And there was, of course, the considerable resistance in the venture capital community to funding heavy industry.

But for Eberhard, the ultimate indignity came in early June of this year. Just days before he was finally supposed to take possession of his Tesla Roadster, a gray beauty with orange racing stripes that he had devoted the past five years of his life to building, a technician who had been driving it on the 101 freeway relayed some bad news.

The most advanced car on the planet had rear-ended a truck.

Instead of sweeping triumphantly into Eberhard's driveway, the Roadster was towed back to Tesla headquarters south of San Francisco where, under the exacting eye of the company's chairman and financial backer, Elon Musk, it would be rehabilitated.

...

[Clear Blue Sky]

1. Great car for $109K...

:sarcasm:

[Nederland]

2. Be patient

This is just the way new technology works. New toys are always so expensive that only the rich can afford them. It's not such a bad deal either because it means the rich pay for the research and development the rest of us benefit from later on.

[Clear Blue Sky]

3. Definitely.

I remember a calculator I used in high school for physics class that cost several hundreds of $$. Now a $10 Casio watch can run rings around that old TI calculator. Even the iPhone is cheaper and better after just a year.

Maybe in a few years there are affordable electric cars.