Are you kidding me? Woolsey and Eberhard drag-racing in a Tesla Roadster?
In yesterday's Seattle Times, Steve Marshall and Bruce Agnew of the Discovery Institute's Cascadia Center make a nice argument for electric cars and plug-in hybrids. But who cares about that when their starting anecdote reads like a movie scene?Alt-fuel advocate (and ex-CIA head) James Woolsey was taking a test drive in a Tesla Roadster. Tesla Motors' CEO Martin Eberhard was sitting shotgun. When the Corvette pulled up next to them, Martin just smiled and told Woolsey to "Take him." Then, the all-electric supercar "left the Corvette driver with one question when he caught up at the next light: 'What is that?'"
It's a great lede, and it's attached to a good bit of writing that compacts into one article a lot of what we cover here on AutoblogGreen: PHEVs and BEVs are the future, but battery problems, consumer reluctance and holdups in Washington are holding them back for now.
Large government fleet orders for EVs, paving the way for regional implementation, would be a good way to start the serious move towards mainstream EV acceptance, Marshall and Agnew say. The whole article is worth reading, just watch out for this line: "If gasoline in a PHEV is supplemented with Northwest biodiesel, the miles per gasoline gallon jump even higher." Whoops. Put biodiesel in your gas engine and you won't be blowing anyone from a stop light.
[Source: Seattle Times / Steve Marshall and Bruce Agnew]
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