Fisker and Tesla Annoy Me - February 5th, 2008
This piece from Wired has been sitting around on my MacBook’s desktop for several days now. It looks as if Fisker Automotive may build its plug-in hybrid in Detroit with lithium-ion batteries from British Columbia. And you can pick one up for $80,000.
Go on and give it a read. There’s lots of verbiage about how Fisker is looking for Detroit’s experienced workforce and how they plan to have their Karma vehicle on the road by 2009 with a production target of 15,000 cars a year. There’s even a reference to Tesla losing $43 million from 2002 to 2006. We’ve talked about the Tesla P1 here. The 2008s have gone for $98,000 to $107,000.
Let me say all the right things . . . interesting technology . . . bringing together green cars and car lovers . . . blah, blah, blah.
You want the truth?
It all bugs the holy living cow by-product out of me. So what that some company is going to be cranking out 15,000 cars a year that cost $80,000? Run that math on that. I can’t even compute that many zeroes. And what good does it do the rest of us? Beyond the fact that I will never . . . and I do mean never . . . be able to afford an $80,000 car, I wouldn’t pay that much money for one anyway.
What our oil guzzling, energy hog society needs is an affordable plug-in hybrid that Joe Blow can drive. (You know him. You may be him. What he’s saying when he walks the floor at night is. “Oh my God can I pay my mortgage and feed my kids? And forget about health insurance because that’s not even remotely possible.”)
I don’t want to see green technology that is a play toy of the rich. I want to see it as a standard for the masses. Tesla and Fisker just flat give me an ache in the portion of my anatomy currently occupying my desk chair, no matter how pretty their cars may be. That’s development money that could be better spent elsewhere.
Posted on February 5th, 2008 by Shorty
Filed under: alternative fuels, lifestyle |
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