As the Hollywood glitterati, and the Mayor of London, get behind the steering wheel, the Tesla electric car could follow Toyota's Prius as a green fashion statement.
When the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, turns to Twitter to "tweet" about his road test of the Tesla, you know that we are in fashion country. Then there are the movie stars, if you still count Arnold Schwarzenegger as one of these, queuing up to get behind the car's steering wheel. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, founders of Google Inc., who probably count among the Hollywood pack these days, are also Tesla drivers. The car has even parked outside Number 10 Downing Street for Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, to admire.
For his bit, not only did Boris rave about the car, he also used his tweets, all of 140 characters at a time, to tell the world that he is "Determined to make London the electric car capital of the world!" Of course, being Boris, the Tesla was as much a photo opportunity as a test drive. It was also fodder for the mayor's journalism and an article of a decidedly "petrol head" tendency. As well as describing his boy racer activity, Boris added that he believes that the Tesla "marks the beginning of a long-overdue revolution".
www.boris-johnson.com/2009/03/10/electric-cars-fast-fun-and-environment-friendly/
Boris may want to make London a Mecca for electric motoring, but Gordon Brown is even more ambitious. He wants the UK to be a "world leader" in electric vehicles. So, while Germany and France try to shift slightly greener oil-fuelled vehicles, Brown's ministers are promising a £2000-£5000 subsidy for the purchase of electric vehicles.
http://kn.theiet.org/news/apr09/electric-car-subsidy.cfm
Johnson and Brown also vie with one another to litter the streets with recharging stations, without which electric vehicles will go nowhere. They will have some catching up to do. In Florence, for example, "eccetto veicoli elettrici" can recharge modern versions of the "bubble car," such as the Pasquali Risciò, produced by an Italian maker of farm tractors.
http://web.tiscali.it/Pasquali/
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pasquali_risci%C3%B2.JPG
It is hard to imagine Johnson raving about the diminutive G-Wizz, the Risciò or even the Chevy Volt (see Transport Commentary 'Highly charged blog', posted on 12 August 2008)
http://kn.theiet.org/comment/transport/kenward-120808.cfm
Small and efficient vehicles are all very well, but motoring has never really been about taking a green route to get from A to B. It is a lifestyle statement for many. So the recent news that Tesla plans to set up shop in London, "walking distance from Harrods department store and convenient to Heathrow Airport," and expects sales to be "split evenly between the US and Europe," may be just what the electric car needs.
The Tesla could do for electric cars what the Toyota Prius did for hybrids. "Hollywood" rushed to get behind the steering wheel of Prius with such enthusiasm that production could not match demand.
Freedom from London's congestion charge - and a £2000-plus sweetener - will do no harm to electric vehicles, but the sight of a few stars of the silver screen behind the steering wheel of a Tesla will probably do more to make electric cars an expensive fashion accessory. (In the USA a Tesla can set you back $50,000 after a federal tax credit.) People with lighter wallets might then be tempted to drive an electric vehicle from a more traditional car maker.
Categories: Commentary ,
Comments
All comments
You need to be registered with the IET to leave a comment. Please log in or register as a new user.