How to Sound Smart : What’s Tesla Motors?
Have you ever heard of Tesla Motors?
If this were a car blog or engineer hangout, I’d be inserting one of those really crazy flash banners about now. ”Prepare to drool! Prepare to drool!”
I’m going to take a wild guess and assume excessive drooling isn’t the case on Making This Home. I’m leaning more toward a guess that most of you haven’t heard of Tesla Motors before, and that’s totally okay. After all, the company only produces about 15 cars a week.
Martin has Tesla radar. We were riding in the bus. I was attempting to eves drop on a conversation between the German tourists in the seat behind us. Then all of a sudden Martin whips around faster than a kid can switch off his bed light when he hears his mom coming down the hall. It was like lightning. I don’t know how Martin possibly spotted this. But the next thing I knew, we were off the bus and gazing at this shiny guy:
There’s something you should know about Tesla Motors. They make EVs (electric vehicles). Based in the Silicon Valley, this company is currently the only automaker building and selling EVs in serial production that are highway-capable. Remember that movie, Who Killed the Electric Car? It is alive at Telsa Motors.
The company is working like crazy to develop electric cars. I’d say one’s definitely worth getting off the bus to examine. This guy’s even getting charged up.
Just a little nerdy break in all of this decluttering mania.
Oh – while we’re venturing into Martin’s turf, you might want to show off your skills by knowing the difference between an engine and a motor.
May 27th, 2010 at 7:14 am
Here’s a link to a story I heard on NPR just yesterday regarding Toyota and Tesla: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127140659
May 27th, 2010 at 7:32 am
Katie,
You are talking about two things near and dear to me , car and environment safe products. Although I am more interested in solar power, battery powered cars do interests me quite a bit. That bring me to the Tesla motors car.
As part of my work I am sometimes required to fly to Oxnard, California where my companies headquaters are located. Well somtimes my stay requires me to stay over the weekend. One time when this happend I went down to the ocean beaches around the malibu area. I was driving down pacific coast highway when this flash zipped past me. I did not hear it and hardly saw it as it went by. Well about a mile up the road I saw it pull into a resturaunt parking lot. I could not resist so I pulled in to check this car out. As it turned out the driver was actually a test driver for the company doing road test to see how the vehicle handled out in real traffic. So I talked to him and learned a whole lot about the car and company.
The car you saw was the roadster model. It has a selling price of around $109,000, or $84,000 Euros. You can also lease one for around $1600 a month. The car will go from zero to 60 in 4 seconds! Which I find simply amazing that a battery could turn this much tourqe. It has a top speed of 125 mph, and can go around 240 miles between charges. He also told me they make a sedan model that seats 7, called the model S Which sell for a more modest price of around $58,000. However with a government credit you can get it for $50,000. It has a 300 mile range between charges. The bad thing is there is a waiting list of over 200 for the car.
I did a little research on the company and I found that the company has also teamed with Daimer moters in germany which now has about a 10 percent stake in the company. So maybe in the future you may see some models be produced in Germany.
So I dont blame Martin for jumping off the bus to check it out i would have done the same thing. The car is a beauty, rare, and hopefully a trend for the future. Imagine streets with no engine noise, would be very errie indeed.
May 27th, 2010 at 7:50 am
Hehe, the only reason I knew about Tesla Motors was because my husband did a similar neck-breaking turn around when we saw one in California last winter. We haven’t seen any in Europe yet.
May 27th, 2010 at 8:20 am
My husband is like this will all things cars and motorcycles. It’s crazy.
May 27th, 2010 at 9:01 am
Yep, my husband too. Not only does he love cars, but he memorizes them on accident. Like, he can tell you what kind of car everyone at his office drives, but some of them he doesn’t even know their first names. He sees a car once, and he can tell you the make, model, color, year, tires, etc… And I’m the one going, “um, I think she drives an SUV?” :)
May 27th, 2010 at 10:05 am
I too would have been drooling with my face pressed to the window. I actually have heard of Tesla myself (without influence from my husband,) but have not seen one in person. I am a bit of a car fan (mainly from an aesthetics point of view.) I know a little about how they work having helped my father restore a classic while in high school, but haven’t done much since. I love the styling of the 60s and 70s US muscle cars but loathe their gas consumption.
May 27th, 2010 at 10:10 am
I’ve actually heard of them before too – but hadn’t seen a photo of one charging! Too funny! And of course I remember that engine vs motor post!
Hope you guys are having a good day Katie!
May 27th, 2010 at 10:21 am
I had never heard of Tesla until your blog post. Then, ironically enough, after reading your blog I go to MSNBC and see this article!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37358614/ns/business-us_business/
May 27th, 2010 at 10:48 am
Ha. My Hubby has Tesla sense too. But we live in the Bay Area so we see them a fair amount. Did you know that they just went into some sort of partnership with Toyota? They’ll be opening up a new factory in Fremont, CA really soon- so maybe they’ll finally be available??
PS For work we have two cars and they are both plug in hybrids- they are so cool to drive.
May 28th, 2010 at 3:24 am
Yes – I couldn’t believe how timely it was to have the Toyota/Tesla news right as we spotted our first Tesla. Here’s hoping for more!
Katie
May 28th, 2010 at 10:00 am
Hmmm. Weird that Steve would copy my comment.
May 28th, 2010 at 10:54 am
ahh good eye, Kate. SPAM! He’s gone.
May 29th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
I am working in a science and right now we are testing new electric cars :-))) exciting project. Sustainabl mobility. And Tesla – since he was born in my country :-) We had to know anything abouth his work in school.