The Prius does have a cool and quirky “shifter” located on the dash to the right of the steering wheel. It also has an interesting way of starting up. After inserting the key, and with your foot on the brake, you press the power button and the car seems to spring to life like it has just received a bolt of lightening, kind of like Frankenstein’s Monster! It doesn’t really make too much noise, it just lights up the dashboard displays which seems to be about 10 feet from you. It reminds me a bit of the New Beetle where I feel like there’s 20 feet of wasted space in front of me on the dashboard.
But let’s get back to what is missing from both of these Hybrids. Once you get over the novelty of getting twice as many miles per gallon as most sports cars, and then you pass the gas station where gas is now under $2.00 per gallon you may very well say to yourself as the commercial goes, “I could’ve had a V-8” (or a V-12 for that matter). Can’t somebody make a car that combines all of the great fuel economy of a hybrid with all of the great handling of a Lotus Elise. Well yes, somebody can, and actually somebody did!
The Tesla is an electric car based on the Lotus Elise but with an electric motor. The Tesla is six times more efficient than the average sports car while producing only 10% of the pollution. It’s pretty funny that after I wrote the first part of this story, and I then went to Tesla’s home page for the first time, I see that they seem to have echoed my earlier sentiments in this statement from their web page:
“Most electric vehicles operate under the assumption that driving is merely a necessary evil if you need to get someplace you can’t reach on foot or bike. The result has been cars that are designed, built, and marketed in ways that refuse to glorify driving. We respectfully disagree. We believe driving is exhilarating. Just watch any child on a go-cart and the joy is plain to see. And when you can soar along at top speed, knowing the only oil in the car is in the transmission, the only emissions are the songs from the radio, the ride becomes more enjoyable still.”
I recently got a chance to take a ride in the Tesla Roadster and I can tell you first hand that it really is an amazing car. This is the future of the automobile! It has everything you’d want in a sports car for speed and handling, and it has every amenity as well including heated seats, navigation, a great sound system, and cruise control! Riding in the Tesla is similiar to the feeling you get in an airplane at take-off! It really pushes you back into your seat, and it does so with more of a quiet woosh than the roaring, rising rev sounds that you are used to in a traditional sports car. It is both eerily quiet, and eerily fast!
The only major drawback to the Tesla Roadster is the $109,000 price tag. It is a bit pricey to join fellow Tesla owners George Clooney, Matt Damon, and the Governator Arnold Schwarzenager! But more proof that Tesla is going to be a big player in the future of the automobile can be seen in their upcoming new models. With a price point around $60,000 Tesla will soon be delivering a four door, five passenger zero emissions luxury sport sedan in their new $250 million factory in San Jose, California. The Model S will hit 60 mph in less than 5 seconds and will be able to travel 240 miles per charge.
SOURCE:autoracingdaily
