Silicon Valley wants to solve world energy problems

Stan Beer
Sunday, 27 August 2006 12:47

Opinion and Analysis

For decades the developed world has been looking to the global scientific community for ways to break its dangerous addiction to fossil fuels, particularly oil. Thus, it comes as a surprise that one of the few solutions that shows real promise has come not from physicists and chemists, but from a team of Silicon Valley engineers.

According to the founders and team at Tesla Motors, based in San Carlos, the answer to a large part of the energy equation is for cars to go completely electric. Forget gasoline-electric hybrids, forget biofuels, forget experimental hydrogen fuel cells, they say. Just look no further than mobile phones and notebook computers for your answer.

As far Tesla Motors is concerned, a startup founded and funded by some of the biggest entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, the answer is here right now in the form of Lithium Ion battery technology. In fact they have already built an all electric car to prove it and, after launching it in July, their order book is already full for the coming year's production.

The Tesla Roadster is not your typical greenie electric car. It looks like an exotic sports car (or to be more exact a Lotus); it has the performance of a Ferrari (0-60 mph in 4 seconds, top speed 130 mph) and it has a range of 400 km before needing a recharge from a 110V or 220V power point.