No I’m not mixing Eastwood’s blog up with a scientific blog. What I am talking about is the wide variety of low emissions, alternative fuel vehicles out on the market. It seems there are so many choices for new car buyers. Just looking at some new car ads you will see all of the different catch phrases for these vehicles. I remember how confused I was the first time I was following a big SUV with “flex fuel” on the back, “Is that a new performance engine name?” I thought. But I was less enthusiastic when I got back home and researched it. It seems most of the alternative fuel cars on the market are either “trying way to hard”, or they seemed to go into designing it with the thought “how can we make this vehicle the most boring?”.
Naturally, as any motorhead would do, I wanted to see the performance side of things. As I was searching around, I found the new Tesla Electric Roadster “Supercar”.
Tesla boasts a 3.7 second 0-60MPH dash. This means, you can give a Bentley Continental or a Porsche 996 a run for their money from a stop. The benefit is, you will be using zero fuel, and also generating zero emissions. This sounds like a win-win right? Well, there is a limit to how far you can venture away from the plug before recharging. After reading some reviews, and watching some videos, it seems that the mileage you can run on a full charge is greatly decreased with spirited driving. Personally, I think I’ll save my $109,000+ in imaginary money for a vintage european sports car. But then again my priorities are all out of whack, so I may not be the best person to listen to!
Make your own judgement after viewing a couple of these videos I dug up on the Tesla electric Roadster.
These have been around for a while. Anyway, anyone who think that electric cars are zero emissions aren’t looking hard enough. Most of our electricity is generated by burning coal in this country. Plus just imagine what happens when a couple of million of these things get hooked up to the grid, our electrical grid can barely handle a hot summer day when everyone turn on the AC.