Selling an electric sports car creates an opportunity to fundamentally change the way America drives.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Nobody wants to buy a $60,000 electric Civic. But people will pay $90,000 for an electric sports car.
I really do encourage other manufacturers to bring electric cars to market. It's a good thing, and they need to bring it to market and keep iterating and improving and make better and better electric cars, and that's what going to result in humanity achieving a sustainable transport future. I wish it was growing faster than it is.
We still see that people don't really realize that electric cars are here right now. And when we show up with an actual vehicle, and you see it drive away under its own power, it's still kind of a jaw-dropping moment for a lot of people.
Electric cars aren't pollution-free; they have to get their energy from somewhere.
I drive an electric car.
People say they are inventing electric cars. Well, where is the electricity coming from? Flowers? Maybe someday. But what is available now is oil and gas.
I probably wouldn't be a good spokesman for an electric car, because I'll still get on a private jet, and one flight on a private jet undoes all my electric-car good deeds.
At Tesla, we don't go into a community and think we're going to sell one or two cars.
Because of its shortcomings - driving range, cost, and recharging time - the electric vehicle is not a viable replacement for most conventional cars.
Electric cars are not going to take the market by storm, but it's going to be a gradual improvement.