Chris Paine (Who Killed the Electric Car) gets pulled over in Tesla

Chris Paine’s 1st week with his Tesla Peak Oil Garage

Chris Paine, director of “Who Killed the Electric Car†had an interesting first week with his Tesla Roadster.

I would love to own one and show it off to the police as well... Too bad it's so unaffordable to most people. Ironic that the only folks who own one are the ones who can actually afford to pay high gas prices!

Jealous!

It is ironic. However, Telsa building a $109,000 sportscar (in the same league as a Ferrari, Porche 911 or other premium sports car) is very smart. Tesla gets a lot of attention for the technology, collects a lot of money to do lithium battery R&D, makes a small profit selling a high profile EV (2,000 per year), then can use that knowledge to build more affordable vehicles.

Their next project is the Model S (sedan) that will be priced at $60,000. It will be equivalent to a BMW or Mercedes in terms of quality. Tesla is aiming for 200 miles per charge and 0-60 in 6 seconds. The target is 2011 for the Model S, which means it will be 2012 or 2013. They are aiming for 20,000 per year.

Their 3rd project will be a more affordable EV in the $30,000 range. If Tesla survives that long, they should have the battery system costs down to where it makes sense to put them in a $30,000 vehicle.