What I don't understand is why all of these leccy cars appear to have so much consumer electronics gadgetry onboard. Am I wrong in thinking that these are just draining the battery and reducing the car's range?

It'd be worth buying one for the lithium at that price.

That's a lovely looking concept car. Here's hoping it actually makes it into production.

I might even be able to afford it by 2011, if I start saving now.

These photos were leaked a couple of days ago.

Don't believe the price at all, the Roadster kept creeping up in price right from the start too. Didn't it end up near at 100k or something silly?

The designers clearly have gone for something flashy over something practical. Touch screens are a no-no in cars. They're a definite no-no in aircraft, why? Because there is no tactile feedback, it's far easier, accurate to actually push a button.

I use a TomTom Go a lot, far better if it had multi-function buttons around the edge of the screen rather than the touch screen buttons it uses.

It's poor ergonomic design by people that don't really understand the importance of getting it right and to be honest, it's not that hard to get it right! The rule is: don't use touch screens.

Sexual.

Specs included.

Maserati? Well in the dark possibly. It's more of a Series 1 Focus / Cougar look. There's precious little of Astonosity to it.

The backend reminds me of an Audi A4 (B8), actually, which I think is a good looking car, but the profile is Aston-ish and the front is definitely Maserati-inspired.

This is definitely a car I could own and love, assuming build quality and handling are up to par, and only time will tell on that score.

I suppose it would add to engineering effort and development time, but I'd love to see a version with, say, 60 mile (~100 km) battery range and a range-extending secondary power unit (whatever that may be, but probably a small combustion engine) used to re-charge batteries while driving. It'd still do me - 95% of my driving is around town, so I'd be all-electric most of the time. In some markets - out here in Australia, for example - I don't think we'll be seeing battery-swap stations or 480V charging posts in forecourts any time soon, so a secondary power source for long-range driving, where distance between towns can get rather large, would be a good idea.

...for the "family car" they promised.

With regards to comments above, I suspect he battery packs will be "rented" rather than owned, to reduce the overall price.

> they could even be worse than fossil fuels

>(Which will still be used to charge the batteries anyway).

Well yes, they could be, but not exclusively, and theoretically not at all.

>Hydrogen fuel cell time.

Where do you think the hydrogen comes from though?

They are quoting $49,900 for the "base model", and ranges of 160, 230, or 300 miles. So the 300-mile version is going to cost more. This price is also with a federal tax credit of $7500 (5154 pounds), but the US government seems unlikely to give a tax credit to non-US taxpayers, so UK buyers will presumably pay more unless the UK also gives a (possibly different) credit.

Sure, electric cars might be exactly as bad for the environment as petrol powered ones. Might be. But petrol powered cars are certainly as bad as petrol powered cars. The difference is the 'might be' and the 'certainly is'. Nothing to loose, really.

I'm waiting for a Tesla MPV.

Very derivative styling. Pretty enough but nothing special.

Good that they are looking at power pack swap-outs instead of recharging.

I'll have you know that I have never once hugged a tree, and don't even consider myself a "greeny" - environmental responsibility is a mainstream view, IMO.

I am a strong advocate of electric cars and I understand very well electricity generation (where it comes from), transmission (distribution over the grid) and consumption (whether industrial or domestic).

Electric cars are about (or at least) three times as efficient as a normal car. A term that describes this well is "well-to-wheel efficiency", which is the distance driven per megajoule (MJ) of input energy from the original source (e.g. oil in an oil well, coal in a coal seam, or wind blowing around doing nothing other than messing up your hair). Taking into account the energy costs and efficiency of every stage (extracting, processing/refining, distributing, pumping and finally consuming energy), you get figures like this:

Normal petrol car (family sedan) - 0.28 km/MJ

Hybrid (e.g. Toyota Prius) - 0.56 km/MJ

All Electric (Li-ion battery) - 1.14 km/MJ

So, even if all energy is derived from fossil-fuel sources, electric vehicles STILL have the lowest emissions by far, AND there are zero emissions at the tailpipe, meaning they don't contribute to local pollution (e.g. smog). Remember when smog-reduction was a worthy aim in itself?

BUT, battery electric vehicles permit energy to be derived from any generating source - wind, solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, nuclear, wave, tidal, biomass, coal, "clean" coal, oil, gas, whatever. De-coupling the transport energy sector from oil, and permitting ANY MIX of electricity generating sources on the grid (then, of course, partly used for battery charging), produces the most efficient outcome and reduces emissions by the greatest degree. Furthermore, both the automotive technology and electricity generating streams can proceed at their optimum pace.

Clearer now? I'd like a dollar, pound, or slap-and-tickle-with-Sarah for every time I've had to explain this .....

When they make an estate/tourer/station-wagon version, with nice rails on the roof for my kayaks, then I'll be interested. Surf-boards and mountain bikes are one thing, but can't get a 20-foot racing K2 inside anything you would honestly call a car...

'course, that roof-rack might just shorten the range a little: it certainly does with a petrol engine :(

But the extra boot in the front sounds perfect for the wet kit after the race.

On the styling - it's not an Aston, Maserati, Jaguar, Audi, Renault look-alike: it's a Mazda RX8 with proper rear doors.

> Where do you think the hydrogen comes from though?

Ummm.. just guessing here... but...water?

I think you what you meant to ask was where will the electricity to split the water to come from?

Well, the sources of electricity are many; solar (wind, photovoltaic, tidal, wave (not tidal-wave), hydro-electric, steam turbines (using heliostats or geothermal to create steam), Stirling engines (reuse the super-heated steam from the former, or waste heat from some other source). There are many many sources of power.. there are very few good ways to store that power. Hydrogen is one.

Now storing the Hydrogen can be tricky because it is such a small molecule, but that's another problem.