R.I.P. Tesla

[Geee]

American Spectator:

Chalk this up to "Lesson Not Learned."

The Tesla electric sports car is dead -- a victim of its own defective economics. This was not unpredictable.
The company created an electric version of the gas-powered Lotus sports car -- and tried to sell it for twice the price of the gas-powered version.

Just 1,650 of these electric lemons found people rich enough -- and dumb enough -- to spend $109,000 for a $51,845 Lotus Elise stripped of its perfectly good gasoline engine and converted to run on electricity.

Apparently, some forms of green still matter more than others.

And gray too. As in brain matter.
Or lack thereof.

Yes, the Tesla electric was mighty quick. So is the Lotus it's based on. Maybe not quite as quick, because electric motors have the mechanical advantage of tremendous and immediate torque while a reciprocating engine has to rev to build power. But the gas-powered Lotus doesn't run out of juice -- literally -- after a couple laps around the track. And for a fraction of the cost differential between the electrified version and the gasoline-powered version, one could easily hop up the gas-powered version to be quicker than the electric and have probably $20K or so still jangling in one's pocket for gas money.

That would cover fuel costs for, oh, the next 110,000 mile or so of driving. This calculation is very conservative; it assumes the gas-powered Lotus gets only 22 MPG on average (it's rated 27 highway) and that gas prices are $4 per (they're currently down to around $3.60).
So: $20K = 5,000 gallons at $4 per.

And the above is based on the assumption that you spent $30K to hop up the Lotus instead of just being happy with a 5-second-to-60 car (the Lotus) instead of a 4-second-to-60 car (the electric Tesla). If you're okay with the slightly less quick but much longer-legged Lotus, you've got $50K left to spend on gas.

You'd have to drive that electric Tesla for a long time before it caught up with the gas-powered Lotus.

Not counting in-betweens for those hours-long recharge sessions.

And isn't the point of an electric car economy rather than performance? The Tesla roadster is a six-figure exotic. Whether it's powered by electricity or gas, it's a car for the extremely affluent only. People who can afford to spend $100K on a car -- any car -- don't have to worry about what its gas mileage or cost of operating is. Right?

The Tesla was ostensibly built as a way to sex-up the idea of electric cars. Well, fine. A Lamborghini is sexy, too. I'm sure plenty of Walmart associates would very much like to have one of those, too. Also a supermodel wife. And a vacation house in Monaco. Yeah. That's the ticket!

[Pepper]

Geee!

 

Obama has given us a much sexier and worthless car, the Chevy Volt

 

GM is now fully dedicated to producing their completely unprofitable electric vehicle – the 40 mile (or less) per 8-hour charge Chevy Volt.

Which costs $41,000 to make. And retails for… $41,000.

Of which they sold a whopping 1,536 in the first three months of this year. And reached that anemic total only with a $7,500 per car bribe to grease the skids.

 

Again, GM owes We the People $50 billion, so that’s ultimately our money with which they are playing.

 

 

Mr. Sexless in a Volt