49 States have snow

[a completely inoffensive name]

@ACIN: except that the Tesla Roadster still suffers from basic range problems. It's out of juice far to quickly, and when it does run out it takes far too long for recharging. That is because it consumes a *lot* of power to do what it does. Your basic diesel car can drive a solid 800 - 1000 miles without refueling, and you do not even have to drive economically to do it.

From the top of my head, the Tesla Roadster can go 240ish miles before needing to recharge. I don't know the recharge time, so I can't say anything about that. However, the issue with driving is that for a commerical car intended for the average consumer, they will not be driving more than 240 miles a day, most likely. Ford kept hyping up its electric-gas hybrid (Volt or something?) that could go a measly 40 miles on electric. But they kept insisting that for the large majority of consumers, their research indicated that 40 miles was plenty for most consumers. The distance from Los Angeles to San Diego is about 120 miles or half the distance that the Roadster can go in a day. If you can get the mileage up to 300-350, then there really is no reason to nit pick about the electric not being able to cross 1/5 of the US before needing more fuel. Let the tuckers keep using diesel for the moment but I see no reason why in 5 years, the electric car won't be able to satisfy the needs of the average consumer taking a 20 mile commute to work each day.