California based automobile giant Tesla is all set to hit the roads by 2010 with an all-electric vehicle which has an excellent range and offers the state of the art technology when it comes to the automobile world. Tesla plans to produce two basic types of its Whitestar sedan, due toward the end of 2009. One will run completely on batteries. The other will be a range-extended vehicle (REV). The company intends to bring out the vehicles in such a way that they appeal to a large section of consumers.
In the past, the greatest drawback of battery driven vehicles has been their range, with each charge not yielding anything beyond a 50 miles. Now all that is about to change, with the vehicles that run only on batteries lasting a good 150-200 miles before needing a charge and the REV’s going even further that that. The basic idea of the REV is to use a small gas motor recharges the battery pack while the car is being driven. This gives the option to the consumer of either buying an all-electric Whitestar or an REV.
The first of these cars- the roadster is already on display and will hit the market this year or so. GM was the first major car company to tout REVs with its Chevy Volt, due around 2010. The Volt is expected to have a range of 400 miles, which is much better than Tesla’s Roadster at the moment. The Tesla Roadster, coming out this year, can go more than 200 miles on a charge, but it costs $98,000. The gas-electric version of Whitestar will cost a little less than the all-electric version, but the difference is not too great. Whitestar is expected to sell in the $50,000 to $70,000 range, depending on the configuration of the car batteries. The care is the next step forward towards greener roads.
GM wants to sell the Volt for around $30,000 and considering that it can go good 400 miles on a single charge, Tesla might want to go the REV way so as to make it more marketable and to stand a chance of surviving among the competition. But the Roadster does look like a slender and stylish beast on wheels. I’ll give it that much!
