I Never Heard of Tesla Before

There is so much information out there and it is just so easy to miss things. I noticed this Tesla Motors in my feeds twice this morning. I never heard of them before. Last names in the headlines were what drew me to the articles below.

I first heard of the auto maker over at Valleywag. Seems the Governor of California gave a tax break to the company. The article points out that the former Terminator can look pro-business, pro-environment and anti-tax all at once. Nonetheless, I feel that it is a good thing and California gets a plant out of the deal.

(Interesting side note. I also noticed in one of the comments that Schwarzenegger was going to convert a vehicle to hydrogen.)

By now I was curious enough to check out the Tesla Site. Pretty kewl stuff. All I could find was information on the Roadster. I did not yet know there was more. The roadster is a sleek looking car and, according to the site, can go from 0 to 60 in 3.9 seconds.

I looked over the Tesla Site a bit and decided share it here. When I thought I was done, I returned to my feeds. Mr. Scoble had put this post up. He plans to buy a Tesla Sedan. One of his reasons is that he can go 200 miles on 3 dollars of electricity. Wow! If true, he is also right that it is a huge dent in the gas budget.

Granted the cars are expensive. As many of the commenters pointed out, Mr. Scoble is also a consumer Guinea Pig. I think he is being both bold and noble. One of Mr. Scoble’s reasons is very true. He is casting an economic vote with his dollars. I wonder, with oil prices, the economy and all other factors, is this possibly the beginning of a trend? I mean in the sense that a company may actually succeed in this niche market? Are we at or nearing what they call a "tipping point"? How often is Mr. Scoble right? (I think pretty darn often.)

I do not have the knowledge to really speculate or analyze this matter. I confess that I feel it is positive news and would love to see a whole lot of those roadsters. I am also rather certain that the two last names mentioned in the headlines have now increased awareness of this company. Hopefully that means more news on them in my feeds. Maybe more tax breaks for similar companies? Maybe electric buses for cities? Does the average consumer have the confidence in hybrids and such to now invest in one? I don’t know. I still think it is pretty exciting. I wrote this in the manner I did so that people would see it and comment. Thanks for reading.