This is a story I've been following for what seems like years. Tesla Motors, the innovative Silicon Valley startup that promised to deliver a no-excuses electric sports car, has finally delivered Production Model 2 to founder Martin Eberhard.

Martin put his heart and soul into the car and was then tossed out by the main investor Elon Musk when they couldn't come to terms on the company's future direction. I thought Martin's management was first rate. Of course he made some mistakes, but surprisingly few for a project where nearly everything was new and original.

But like Jim Jannard of RED Digital Cinema, Martin and partners founded Tesla largely to build the car of their dreams, and now Martin drives his dream. A brilliant achievement, and I hope he can get back into the car biz soon.

Filed under: tesla, tesla motors, martin eberhard, and cars

So what are they like, the available electric cars? WhatCar magazine decided to do a group test, between a Fiat, a NICE Mega City, a G-Whiz and a Smart.

The Fiat wast most car-like and had the best range, but blew a fuse or two on the way and was by far the most expensive at 30,000 pounds, or almost $60,000. Top speed is a nearly civilized 75mph.

The Smart was easily the best built, garnering very good crash ratings, had the second best range (but that's only 71 miles) and reaches a top speed of 60 mph.

The other cars made those figures look good.

A video of the test is at the link. The testers clearly looked forward to the more advanced American products, the Tesla Roadster and the Chevy Volt. Either car would make those look laughable, but unfortunately the Tesla's production line seems to have stalled, and the Volt won't be ready for another two years yet.

Filed under: smart, g-wiz, nice mega city, fiat doblo, electric cars, test, and tesla

And it's not bad looking, either.

The entire car is made of carbon fiber to keep weight down, and obviously it's extremely streamlined to limit drag. Unfortunately this also makes it very expensive, but VW expected the price to come down to a level at which it makes sense to build the car by 2012. Thanks to sky high gas prices, they now think it makes sense to build starting two years from now, in 2010.

It uses an 8.5 horsepower diesel; the production model may have about twice that amount of power to satisfy consumer's desire for acceleration.

No word on what the acceleration will be but the car looks very cool and I think a lot of people will want it -- even at the anticipated prices of about $30-50k.

Filed under: cars, green, and mpg