I took my first ride in a Tesla car yesterday
My roomies in Dallas got one while I was gone. It was a demo of a top line model, so they saved a bundle on the $100,000+ initial price tag. They still had to fork out a small fortune for it.
It had a huge screen computer console and space-age door handles that flush with the door unless you activate them to pop out so you can open the doors--I'm not sure I like that in case of a collision where someone from the outside is trying to rescue someone inside. It was set to take a max of a 90% capacity charge, which apparently extends the battery life by multiples.
It has a range of 300 miles, and can be charged with a special cable that needs a custom wall outlet, which takes a few hours, or a conventional cable and plug, which takes all night (or day). It makes no noise at all, which takes some getting used to, and my roomies (who can afford it all) wanted to make a statement with it. They fully expect that within 5 years, the price on electric cars will come way down (sort of like it was with pocket calculators and then computers), and charging outlets/cables will become as un-exotic as gas stations with lead-free gasoline were 30 years ago.
I'm sure that beyond the high price, there will have to be other issues cleared up, such as environmentally sound way to dispose of the parts, facility of repair, etc, but considering the savings of fuel and--especially--carbon emissions, I have to believe I just got a ride in the automotive equivalent of Yuri Gagarin's orbit module.
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