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Forget the hybrids - the future is already here
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Tesla Motors Model S (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
That's right. A practical electric car is already here, a stunning announcement by Tesla Motors reveals. The new Model S, while still out of reach of most Americans at $49,900, has features that instantly render hybrids and conventional gasoline clunkers obsolete. It's a sleek looking, high performance sedan that can carry up to 5 adults and 2 children with plenty of cargo space. It can travel up to 300 miles on a single charge, and is designed to recharge in as little as 45 minutes with a 480V source, or five hours in your garage. But it is also equipped for a 5 minute quick battery exchange, so one would think that the gas station infrastructure already in place could be outfitted to accommodate these vehicles. The bottom line is that our entire automobile industry, save for this one futuristic company, is hopelessly and disastrously stuck in the 20th century, notwithstanding GM's brief flirtation with the electric EV1 in the 1990s, which they abandoned for reasons that still aren't clear. We should have started developing the electric car thirty years ago. There is simply no excuse for this. It is a worse scandal than the financial sector meltdown, because the problems of global warming, fossil fuel depletion and foreign oil dependence are far more serious and longer lasting than Wall Street's crash and burn.
The Model S is a performer - zero to sixty in 5.6 seconds, with a top speed of 130 mph, and the sportier version, to be announced down the road, is even faster. Do visit the site - the Roadster is even more impressive. Like zero to sixty in 3.9 seconds! But it's a bit pricey, at $109,000.
Where in the world have we been? And aren't we going to do anything about it? This is the future. Why are we bothering with hybrids? And why haven't we developed solar power? Electric cars and solar power represent the future, and we haven't done a thing as a nation to bring them closer, while this company has shamed us, humiliated us, and shown how things could be today if only we'd started when we should have.
Doesn't anyone in our country in a position to lead have any vision, and courage to stand up to the solidly entrenched special interests? Are we past it? Have we become a can't do and won't do nation?
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