BeerFiles is a sometimes irreverent blog concerning all things to do with IT, technology, people and the media from the point of view of a hard boiled technology journalist and commentator. Stan has been in the IT game for about a quarter of a century. He has seen and written about the rise and fall of more than a few IT players and made many friends, some of whom he has even crossed swords with on occasions. Everything in this blog is purely Stan’s opinion so if you agree, wish to expand upon, correct a post or tell Stan he’s a clueless know nothing, please feel free.

Silicon Valley wants to solve world energy problems

by Stan Beer

Sunday, 27 August 2006

Page 2 of 4 The people behind Tesla is a story in itself. The co-founders are engineers Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, who together previously co-founded NuvoMedia, which in 1998 launched the first e-reader, the Rocket eBook. After selling NuvoMedia for US$187 million in 2000, the pair founded Tesla, named after the enigmatic legendary electrical engineer, in 2002 with a vision of building an electric car that people actually wanted to drive. According to Eberhard, apart from the battery storage problems, electric cars in the past have always been designed by people who don't like cars. Apparently, Silicon Valley, a place where personal transport is mandatory, agrees with him because Tesla has some pretty powerful backers there. Of the US$60 million startup capital, about US$30 million was provided by Tesla chairman Elon Musk, who co-founded PayPal. Other funders include the Google boys Sergey Brin and Larry Page. The Tesla car itself looks like any gas guzzling high performance sports roadster and, according to all reports, it performs as well or better than any of them. Although designed in Silicon Valley largely by automotive engineers poached from Lotus, it is being made to order by Lotus in the UK, while the batteries and the amazingly small electric motor are made in Taiwan. << First page <   1 2 3 4 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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