19 July 2006

An Electric Car is Born

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about the death of electric cars, but gearheads ’round the world are eagerly awaiting the July 20 arrival of a new electric sports car from a startup by the name of Tesla Motors. 

Yes, an electric sports car. Actually, when you think about a sports car as a device focused on pure driving enjoyment rather than as A-to-B transportation (kind of like the automotive equivalent of a Ducati 999), going electric makes a lot of sense, for a couple of reasons.  If all you’re going to do is carve up a twisty canyon road on a Sunday morning and drive a loop back home, there’s no need to worry about where your next jolt of juice will come from.  Second, there’s the inherent nature of electric motors, which develop maximum torque at zero RPM.  It’s torque, not horsepower, that makes for a sparkling drive.  A torquey electric motor will give you neck-snapping acceleration and a scintillating oomph in the small of your back.

Tesla’s car is likely to be very, very good from a performance standpoint: based on the DNA of an established sports car marque, it should combine stellar handling with a 4-second 0-60 time.  Fast, nimble, fast, fast.  And though the automotive landscape is littered with failed startups, Tesla Motors is chaired by Elon Musk, who spoke about rockets at TED2005, has a great track record of creating viable technology ventures, and is about to launch another one.

Here’s to electric cars.  Only 23 hours, 32 minutes, 56 seconds to go…

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