Tesla Electric Sports Car Among Best Inventions of 2006
Time Magazine has released its list of the year’s top inventions and devoted an entire section to transportation. While we think many of the winners, like the Hydrogen Bomber toy and Easy Rider lightweight prototype, are flights of fancy, the Tesla Roadster has to be one of the most practical and appealing alternative vehicles ever conceived. You can actually buy one of these speedy — zero to 60 in 4.0 seconds — electric sports cars right now, if your bank account has a spare $100,000 in it.
We also agree with Time that the Black & Decker Simple Start car charger was a thing of brilliance; it can recharge a car battery from INSIDE the car using a 12-volt outlet.
[Best Inventions of 2006, Time Magazine]
Related: Ceramic Battery Could Be Breakthrough for Electric Cars
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It was $100,000 for the first 100 signature models - that are now all gone. From here on out they are going for the low, low price of just $80,000.
The Tesla is the first practical high performance electric automobile being offeed to the public. Another one being offered is the Tango, a car designed as a commute vehicle that has similar performance (other than range) to the Tesla. The prececessor to the Tesla was the T Zero, built by AC Propulsion. The T Zero was a prototype only, but featured the same level of performance as the Tesla. Another "one off" high performance electri car is the WrightSpeed. This is an electric version of the Ariel Atom and has the distinction of being able to do 0-60 in 3 seconds.
The important message here is that one can make high performance cars with electric motors. We now have choices to buy something with benefits to the earth that do not limit the fun potential.
As a note, The T Zero was at the last Silicon Valley Electric Car Rally and the Tango, Tesla and WrightSpeed were at this year's Electric Car Rally.
Could a major corp please pick up on this and make affordable and available to the general public?
This is awsome! I just saw Who Killed the Electric Car, and hope the EV makes a come back starting here. The only way its going to happen is through an alternative car company. Tesla please create an affordable sedan that gets 300 mpc (miles per charge). Great job so far!