Thread: What do you think about the Tesla Roadster as part of the American car scene?

Not sure about classifying it as an American car, but they sure are fun to drive. The torque is unbelievable..

I am a hot rod kinda guy, that being said I got into an online debate with a fellow who's brother owns one. He was going on about how great the car was, and how it was the future of performance automobiles. While I think that the car is an important exercise in modern alternative fuel technology, I feel that the Telsa car company is looking to be bought out by one of the global manufacturers, and the current execs run off with fat pockets. As for it being practical, in my opinion it is NOT. They tested two of them on TOP GEAR UK some time back, Jeremy was impressed until the batteries died and it needed 8 hours to charge, so they brought out another one, and it promptly broke. It has a limited range (very limited), from where I live to the closest beach is approx 4 hours by car, it would take me like 2 days to get there in the Telsa; and for the same money I could buy a nice '03 Cobra Mustang and have enough money to put gas (@ current $/gal) in it for 400,000 miles, and the Cobra dosen't need an extension cord.

As for electric cars, where do they think the electricty comes from to recharge them? The coal fired electric turbine! Coal is great for the environment....
Anyone replaced their cordless drill (or what ever's) battery lately? Hell, if you are savy you can buy the tool in a kit that comes with 2 batteries, a charger, and a case for not much more money than a new battery. What is it going to cost to replace the ones in the Telsa, and they WILL need replacing.

Is it an American sports car, in my opinion--No. Just because the company that assembles the imported pieces is physically located on US soil does NOT (again in my opinion) make it an American product.

Like said earlier, I think that in 50 years or so vehicles like this will be looked at as milestones in personal transportation, but for now they are just in style to those that can afford them, and feel a need to be different. They look like a Lotus, so why not just buy a bad-assed Lotus without the extension cord?

I don't see the truly environmentaly friendly cars in the near future (my next 50 or so years), because there is too much money to be made on what powers the vehicles. Think about it for a moment, the research to find "alternative fuels" is funded by vehicle manufacturers and fuel companies, do you think for a second that they are going to give millions of $ to a research group to design a power source that is fueled by something as common as sea water? Hell no, they can't regulate that and charge money for it, they will at least have to package it in such a way that the consumer will have to buy the fuel, so ALL of the people involved can get paid. $$ makes the world go round.

The Tesla Roaster is as American as most other "American" cars these days. Try to find just one vehicle fully built in America, outside of the Toyota Tundra, which is the most American light truck currently for sale. The Roadster chassis is from Lotus, yet much of the rest is done and assembled in the USA. The Chrysler LX/SRT-8 cars ("Imported from Detroit") have very little American content -- just the interior (Johnson Controls) and a few odd pieces here and there. All Hemi engines are built in Mexico and all the cars are stamped and assembled in Canada.

I don't consider the Tesla a sports car by any means, more of a sporty electric runabout. Not exactly practical in its current form, but not really meant to be either.

The Fisker approach is quite different. That group is seriously trying to make a go of alternatively powered cars that are intended to be desirable in their own right, not just for the greenies. That is no guarantee they will succeed, but their approach (to me, at least) is derived from looking much further down the road than what Tesla appears to be focusing on. If either can hit the price point / styling / reliability / usable range equation close enough, they just might take off. I hope they both succeed brilliantly, as I have friends and colleagues at both companies.

Of course, no electric (or plug-in hybrid) will succeed with our country's current lack of energy policy, plus the fact that batteries are built with rare earth materials that the USA does not really have or control (most are in China and Russia) and are a nightmare to deal with when used up. Looking out 20 years, hydrogen looks to be the most promising IF we build a bunch more MODERN nuclear power plants to isolate hydrogen across the land.