The South African-born Elon Musk left home at age 17 for North America and made a fortune when PayPal was sold to eBay. Tesla Motors is one of his new companies focusing on electric cars. Its first model, the Tesla Roadster, is a high-end sports car with a price of $100,000 and is planned to hit the market this summer.

Plans are underway for cheaper models, and in the interview, Musk admits that the company had considered plug-in hybrids. But they decided that there wasn't a future for them. He believes in about 3 years they'll be able to offer electric cars with a 305-mile range. For long trips he envisions battery-change stations that would allow you to switch out your battery pack or stations with high-speed chargers that can charge a car in less than an hour.

The promise of widespread electric cars has been around as long as the promise of solar power. I wouldn't hold my breath. In my opinion, plug-in hybrids will be a better bet for the next 10 years since it won't require major new technology and infrastructure improvements.

 

Submitted: Jul 15, 2008    Views: 131    Comments: 0    Likes: 2   


View Article: http://www.newsweek.com/id/145876


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