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Who says environmentally friendly can’t be fast and fun? Tesla Motors definitely believes you can have both. The San Carlos, CA based company, with the help of Lotus Cars, developed a lean, mean, and green machine which can travel approximately 220 miles between charges. The eerily quiet Roadster accelerates from 0-60 in under 4 seconds and tops out around 135 mph, performance that normally requires a very thirsty internal combustion engine.

This is an awesome thing for the automobile industry. We have long had a certain fascination with fast cars (myself included), and it’s not about to go away anytime soon. I’m glad somebody with an environmentally conscious mindset noticed. I’ve often wondered what would happen to performance cars as we moved away from fossil fuels, but now Tesla has given me hope. Rather than ignoring the huge market for fast cars, Tesla is delivering.

As cool as the Roadster is, Tesla is a still a very new and small company. Only 650 vehicles are being produced for the 2008 model year and there are only a handful of service departments around the country for the $98,000 car. Since Tesla is such an infant company it’s still going to struggle immensely with high barriers to entry into such a tough field. Here’s hoping that they overcome their obstacles and make it big.

I hope other automakers are taking notice, and realize that efficient doesn’t have to be boring and slow. I have one request though. As wasteful as it is, there is something about hearing a supercar’s engine roar that gives me chills. I don’t know if I want a silent sports car. How about an option to artificially give it a mean-sounding growl on command?

This entry was posted on Monday, February 18th, 2008 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Alternatives, Business, Cars, Conservation, Gas Guzzlers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.