Tesla Model S Electric Burns Rubber, Bumps Production, Price
December 18, 2012
The Tesla Model S sedan – shown above burning rubber in an weirdly silent demonstration of how much power electric drives deliver to the road – looks like a sales success, and may power electric car manufacturer Tesla to profits in 2013.
The Tesla Model S electric luxury sedan
has been a runaway success, with the car praised by most that have driven it and order books already registering more than 13,000 sales. To take advantage of the strong demand, Tesla is in prime position to charge a little more for the Model S and that is exactly what it looks to be doing.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
December 18, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Nice to here. After all electric cars came first. http://www.Islandforsalebyowner.com
December 18, 2012 at 2:58 pm
Somehow as a society we seem to have lost our way. Compare the zombie wastefulness of rubber burning machismo idiocy demonstrated in that Road & Track video with the entirely sensible alternative to the economical VW Bug on offer in this ad. This is 1969. Groovy, Baby!
http://www.autoevolution.com/news/history-of-the-japanese-kei-car-49720.html
When did we give up on thrift, sensibility and practicality and decide that we’d save the planet by the wretched excess of thrill seeking? What’s gone wrong with my nation? It seems to have entirely lost its way.
We’re not going to save the planet for future generations by wastefully “burning rubber”. Sorry.
Of course at $85K for this model, there’s hardly a hot rodder in America who can afford this luxury car.
December 18, 2012 at 5:59 pm
I support Tesla, but the thought that since the company has managed to sell 13K cars (there are around 250 million registered vehicles in the U.S.) they can now raise the price (http://www.teslamotors.com/models/options) sort of makes me throw my hands up in the air.
December 18, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Like you, I wish Tesla success in the marketplace. It seems like a nice stylish vehicle. I don’t for a second believe it will have the remotest impact on global climate change however in the short run. Only when a robust infrastructure of renewable power sources, conveniently located recharge stations and a much more competitive price to alternatives like the Prius will I believe this is anything more than a rich man’s toy.
December 18, 2012 at 6:34 pm
That’s the thing. The price for EVs has to go down, not up. EVs are actually one place where I give credence to rational market theory. Any equation of current EV cost + electric usage compared to gas vehicle + gas price x usage puts the EV out of the market as anything but a green status symbol. Add to that the range and the battery life. I wish it was different, but it hasn’t happened as yet.
Toyota’s coming out with a new plug-in hybrid:
http://www.toyota.com/prius-plug-in/
Its cost is a bit above a normal hybrid, but its EV range is only 11 miles.
December 19, 2012 at 4:41 am
People who are early adopters of technology tend to have more disposable income, and those are the people who can create buzz around new technologies. We need influential people to drive the conversation, create tipping points, and thus accelerate technological development.
December 19, 2012 at 5:01 am
Hi Stephen,
Re: “We need influential people to drive the conversation, create tipping points, and thus accelerate technological development.”
I’m of two minds on this matter. For a long time I favored technological development, most excitedly a decade ago regarding the rapid advance of the Internet. Today I think it has become something of a cesspool. That’s not progress, though it is a development.
Regarding the Tesla automobiles, they are not so much a technological development as they are a line extension for a fabulously wasteful suburban mindset. They are a continuation of L.A. car culture. They are not a sane response to how we are going to deal with 9 billion grasping consumers on a tiny planet. As the Tesla adds its thousands of automobiles to our car fleet, we need to keep tearing down our orchards and row crop fields to keep paving them with more and more suburban sprawl. At some point we’re going to cross over to having the food that was formerly abundant and affordable become rare and precious because we’ve paved over paradise so we can drive our cars.
I think the alternative I’m seeing emerge in Portland, Oregon is a much more sane response to an overcrowded planet. Housing is going up in Portland with no car garages. People are moving in who rely on bicycles, buses and hoofing it to get around their pleasant and cozy neighborhoods. Many of them are actually happy people. How many happy people do you see in daily traffic jams?
Let’s face reality. Even vehicles like the Tesla rely on cheap energy to make them attractive to buyers. And that cheap energy is going to be going away. We’re already willing to risk the permanent pollution of far too many of America’s aquifers for the sake of our next natural gas or shale oil fix. The natural gas is what is charging the Tesla, speaking metaphorically partially and partially in reality. The Tesla is also charged by means of coal burning. So, it’s still condemning the planet to violently destructive climate change over time. We have to start thinking about life differently in the U.S. The frontier is a distant memory. Cheap energy soon will be a distant memory. Cheap food is set to disappear within a decade on present course.This isn’t the time to be adolescents getting excited about burning rubber with high torque motors running on oversized battery packs, eh? 🙂