vroooom vroooom! that's the fake sound my feet make while walking over to the dealership...cuz...ialso want my car to make fake noises.... hey! sounds like my first girlfriend! lol

"So you can certainly go test drive one in LA now"

Not the way I'm dressed I can't!

Sweetness. Now all we need is the rich and famous to order a bunch of these cars for good PR and bring down the price.

@daftrok:

That was the thought behind the EV1. Tom Hanks even got onto the tonight show and told the world how great the car was.

That still didn't work out to well for the EV1.

To make any electric vehicle actually viable, the government needs to make them mandatory and provide cash incentives to own one. But it's the US government, so that will never happen.

I can't be the only one who thinks the font in the Tesla logo looks like the font DeLorean used in their marque...

Yes. It's right down the street from me, sandwiched between a Starbucks and the ING building, next to a 405 freeway on-ramp. What does it all mean? Too bad they have a tax bracket detector over the door; the likes of me will never be allowed to set foot inside.

@brother9: Agreed. Not a good sign, if you'll excuse the pun.

@nutbastard: c'mon, its LA. People have seen worse.

My only question is do they have a Telsa coil to keep out the enemy engineers?

I'm gonna guess that you can't change the battery out yourself when it runs out of charge cycles?

Who is that guy in the suit lurking out front?

@squarie: how can you see him? He is almost totally hidden by that plant.

@diverguy: Well, the difference between EV1 and Tesla is that with a Tesla, you actually buy to own. With EV1, you can only lease.

Who cares, frankly? Until we find out whether EESTOR is for real, all this is an amusing diversion.

"To make any electric vehicle actually viable, the government needs to make them mandatory and provide cash incentives to own one. But it's the US government, so that will never happen."

Yeah, that whole "consent of the governed" is such an inconvenience.

what confuses me is why the first dealership isn't here in silicon valley, where it was invented

@mikail511:
It's not in Silicon Valley because LA is where rich people who care about what other people think about them live, and therefore go to purchase the items that can make their private jet's carbon footprint just a little bit less embarrassing to the neighbors...it's all about looks here in LA, in Silicon Valley you just have rich people.

@diverguy:
Ah, but the good thing is the major difference this time is there is no ZEV mandate that is forcing Tesla to make this kind of car. So there won't be the same car-crushing situation. Oh yeah and as ripfire4 mentioned these people are buying, not leasing, and the price is high enough for Tesla to recover all their development costs too. The car can also be ordered all across america and now in europe too; sure, with a long waitlist but it is still avaliable. The EV1 on the other hand had very limited avaliability. Another thing is with performance equivalent to the $65k exige s240, the additional $35k is justifiable even if you don't care for green cars that much because you get a longer wheelbase and a carbon fiber body. 0-60 in 4 seconds is on par for most $100k cars in the market anyways. The EV-1, on the other hand, was estimated to be $40k if purchased & that price was a lot harder to justify for its market, & gas was still cheap back then too.

Can anyone tell me how much it costs to charge it? It claims to recharge in 3.5 hours, so it should be a simple matter of knowing how many watts it draws while charging? 100 watts? 1,000 watts? 10,000 watts?

Assuming 10kW, that would be 10x3.5 = 25kWh to charge. at 15cents/kWh, that's only $3.75 to be able to drive 200+ miles, or less than 2 cents a mile. $3.75 in gas is what, however far you can get on one gallon? Sounds like this car could pay for itself pretty fast, even just commuting to work and going on the occasional day trip.

@Myself: D'oh, I meant 10x3.5 = 35kWh. So more like $5.25 to charge, or less than 3 cents per gallon... etc. etc.

But my numbers were all guesses anyways. Anyone have any real data on the charging?

Does anyone know if the mission of Tesla cars is to reduce the price with mass production, or just to keep this a toy for the very rich, by leaving the price high and limit production.

@mlonidot: cheaper ones are already scheduled for production... sedan I believe...

Cool. May be the first step toward cool and ecological cars. I would love to have the car, but way out of my league.

@mlonidot:

"Does anyone know if the mission of Tesla cars is to reduce the price with mass production, or just to keep this a toy for the very rich, by leaving the price high and limit production."

Since they aren't an established motor company, all their funding has come from private investors and pledges from future owners... It's not cheap to build 100 cars, especially cars like these/i>. So i suspect that while they are making a good margin on the damn things, as it stands they probably really do cost over $80k to build. As someone pointed out they do plan on releasing a $30k sedan in the next 5 years or so, and by then i can probably afford one.

The real advantage with this car is maintenance, no oil to break down, no cooling system to burst open... going all electric eliminates something like 200 moving parts. And this being a gadget site, i think everyone here can appreciate how much more solid things are when they don't have moving parts.

I want one so very badly. Even though it's almost 4x the price of my G35.

(d'oh!)

The only Tesla that rocks is the band that sang Love Song.

@mlonidot: Ever heard of these things called web sites where companies stick info?
[www.teslamotors.com]

If there are no environmentaly friendly/efficient ways to create electricity what's the point of an electric car.

whats the point of an electric car? it doesnt save any fossil fuels because what do you charge the battery with? FOSSIL FUELS because thats where nearly all of the power in the US comes from.

And yeah the Tesla is pretty badass, but id rather have a real car that makes real noises and has real parts that i can work on myself without having to pay 'special mechanics' to fix when it (invariably) breaks.

So again, WHY? Electric cars FTL. there are better 'green' options out there, stop wasting your time.

@nutbastard: moving parts are much easier. try doing any major work on any car with a computer in it, and your screwed, you HAVE to have expensive software etc to even diagnose half the stuff. my '77 Z is all moving parts, and 90% of them have been working fine for 31 years, and the stuff that has broken, is cheap and easy to fix. your tesla breaks, tough shit; what can you do? can you even buy any parts for it?

@chesterdorsey01, @VENAT0R and everyone else in the same vein:
Stop repeating the same crap over and over, cuz everyone else is tired of debunking it! Every single electric car post compels people to come out with the "But it's still powered by fossil fuel!!" You're not educating anyone.

For the hundredth time:

1. The electricity to recharge a BEV does not all come from fossil fuel, some comes from renewables.

2. A BEV is fundamentally much more efficient than blowing up fuel to make heat and a little forward motion. It's around 80% efficient instead of 25%.

Here's Tesla's own well-to-wheel analysis. Sure, they're biased. So cite specific web sites that do an actual scientific analysis that suggests otherwise.

Tesla will soon have even better battery technology as described in this article from Technology Review..

A new lithium-ion battery from A123 Systems could help electric cars and hybrids come to dominate the roads.

[www.technologyreview.com]