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To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (163140)	11/9/2008 11:52:43 PM
From: John Koligman	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 306849

I'm talking about boutique manufacturers in the US. DeLorean and Bricklin, among others tried and failed. You can talk about ideas till you are 'blue in the face', but if the economics don't work the ideas won't either. Tell me how something like Tesla works in terms of economics and I'll take what you say more seriously. All the existing luxury manufacturers in recent years needed big money from existing much larger automakers to survive (Ferrari/Fiat, Lamborghini/Audi, Aston Martin/Ford, Jaguar/Ford, and so on). The development costs for a new car are so great that no small manufacturer can do it alone, which is why even Tesla is having trouble using an 'existing' car and then modifying it while charging 110k for it. I've heard 45k for a new Volt, please explain how that works for the masses when they can buy a 17k Honda Civic getting 32mpg at 17k?? Yeah, let the GOVERNMENT subsidize it!!

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (163140)	11/10/2008 12:45:18 AM
From: pheilman_	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

Not even close to correct, Subaru first car 1954, Honda founded 1948, Nissan founded 1932, ... They were merely recent importers to the States. Tesla is absurd, it is either too large a problem, or too small. The huge actual problem: Batteries are not quite up to the task of moving vehicles around, gasoline so exceeds the energy density that the EVs can't compete unless the problem is constrained. So the large problem is to innovate batteries, Tesla has nowhere near the resources to solve this, leave it to the camera, cell phone, and power tool makers. Li-ion cells have 1/10 the energy density of the gasoline and that is difficult to overcome. The small possible approach: Or just leave the beautiful Lotus alone and toss an electric motor in and let the chips fall. Driving issues? Drivers learned not to lift while driving the 911 hard. It is not like the Tesla could ever be taken on the track, full throttle operation allegedly caused over heating problems.