Comments on: Airbag Waiver Keeps Tesla Roadster Alive

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:04:33 +0000

Incase some of ya might not no but when you see the advert of the Audi A8 when it says “Its the $lowest car we built it means they were building it but slowly!!!

By: ex-EV1 driver

ex-EV1 driver — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 01:39:51 +0000

For TheFlyingDutchman’s concerns about the abuse going unfairly to GM: this is probably true. The movie “Who Killed the Electric Car” did slap Toyota and Honda a bit not as much as GM. When confronted by owners who didn’t want to lose their RAV4EV’s, Toyota agreed to sell the leased ones and stop crushing them as they came off lease if they were still serviceable.
Honda sort of got off easy. I guess they were a bit more subtle about their EVplus destruction and the EVplus drivers didn’t put up as much of a stink. Of course, the EVplus wasn’t nearly the awesome car that GM’s EV1 was so it probably wasn’t as painful to give up either.

By: ex-EV1 driver

ex-EV1 driver — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 01:33:56 +0000

You folks might be interesting to know that the first production Tesla Roadster was delivered on Friday 2/1/08 to the company’s chief investor and chairman of the board. My understanding is that they will build a few more prototypes for testing on the line and then, on March 17, they will begin full production. Production will begin at a slow 1 vehicle per week rate, then ramp up.

By: TheFlyingDutchman

TheFlyingDutchman — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:38:13 +0000

How many electric cars are Toyota or Honda or any other non-GM manufacturer selling? None. So send some of your “GM doesn’t want an electric car” their way. And while you are at it, send some to US consumers since the vast majority would not want an electric car. Most would prefer to fill up at a gas station, particularly a gas station hundreds of miles from their electrical outlets.

By: jman

jman — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 01:08:55 +0000

I think the idea is that the rich people buy them and drive them all the time and this proves that lithium batteries works good for ev’s. Plus economies of scale or something like that, the more ev’s we have the cheaper they are to make.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:41:30 +0000

yeah nice car if only a little cheaper i mean were here to help save the enviorment but why make them so expensive! then no onw can buy them except the rich people.

By: ex-EV1 driver

ex-EV1 driver — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:47:45 +0000

I forgot to add: I drove a Tesla Roadster prototype on Malibu Canyon Road in Malibu, CA. I can assure you that I’ve never encountered vapor that accelerated or cornered that well so I’ve concluded for myself that the Tesla Roadster is NOT vapor.
I hope the Volt isn’t either but I don’t know of anyone who has ever driven one.
I’m glad to hear they’ve gotten around the airbag issue and can start delivering roadsters. Hint to all. Some day, “ex-EV1 driver” will suddenly go silent here and “Tesla driver” may appear

By: ex-EV1 driver

ex-EV1 driver — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 20:43:00 +0000

"where was anybody else's EV? "

All of the majors had an EV during the late '90's. Toyota - RAV4EV, Honda - EVplus, Nissan - Altra and Hypermini, Ford - RangerEV and Think, Chrysler - EPIC minivan, GM - EV1, S-10EV. None, except for a small handful of the RAV4EV's, a few S-10EV's, and RangerEV's were ever sold, only a few of the GM EV1, EVplus's, Think's, RangerEV's, and RAV4EV's were allowed into private leases and only in California (a few EV1's were available in AZ and there were a few of fleet EV1's in MA and GA). At the end of most of the leases, after the shills inserted into California's Air Resources Board managed to kill the ZEV mandate, they were destroyed except for a few RAV4EV's, RangerEV's, and S-10EV's.

A movie was made ("Who Killed the Electric Car") to describe a lot of what happened since the press was squelched from actually printing the story through pressure from their largest advertisers (guess which industry). You can buy "WKtEK" online or rent it from Netflix or other outlets.

GM's Lutz is certainly talking a lot now but, I can assure you, he was at the helm of GM when they killed the EV1 as well.

What do we believe? Their actions have killed great vehicles with excellent potential. Their talk sounds a lot like it did in the early '90's when they actually did build the EV1 - and incredible 1st generation vehicle and a testament to the engineering genius that is in Detroit.

By: AP

AP — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:36:46 +0000

Jon,

Sit up and look around. GM's cars of the last couple years have little resemblance to the ones before, as far as quality, technology, and feel. Lutz has given them an innovative attitude. The only time I've seen him disagree with environmentalists is when they rightly deserve it (free with criticism, short on useful science). You're free to be skeptical, but it appears GM has been putting its money where its mouth is.

People criticize GM for killing the EV1, but where was anybody else's EV? California killed the electric car by not holding to their ZEV mandate, which NO manufacturers were thrilled about. GM's was the best, but too expensive to be viable at the time.

By: Like-Cars

Like-Cars — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:18:49 +0000

Good luck!