Tesla – The future is NOW

I’ve seen the future and it’s all around me in Santa Monica, California.  I’m talking about Tesla, and the Tesla Model S.  This future will soon be all around you – wherever you are in the world.  I had the experience of driving a friend’s Model S last month and was completely blown away.  I immediately got on the phone with my friend’s Tesla contact and placed an order for one.  No hesitation, no regret, just a knowing that this is the beginning of something very, very special.

I was interested in fuel car alternates once before, in 2006, when I felt that it was important to at least try and be a little more environmentally sensitive and bought a Prius.  In less than a year, I had enough and sold it.  I completely cooked the front tires after 6 months and just couldn’t drive it anymore.  Around corners it felt like it was tipping over, and at highway speeds, it felt like being in a noisy piece of cheap tin.  My mind was in the right place on buying that car, but it was far from being the right car.

Fast forward to now.  This time it’s much, much different.  I have a feeling and an instinct that I haven’t felt since Steve Jobs first revealed the iPhone in January 2007.  The Tesla Model S is going to change the way we travel forever.  It is a completely different experience to driving a conventional internal combustion engine (ICE) car.  It has pure, smooth, linear torque and acceleration.  You press the accelerator, power is delivered, and the wheels spin.  It’s that simple.  There’s no pumping fuel from a tank, through a filter, into a complicated engine where sparks are fired, explosions are detonated, pistons ascend and descend, rods turn (and I’m sure I’m missing some more gross inefficiencies) as the power makes its way to the wheels.  This all ends with the expulsion of carbon monoxide forced through the muffler, the exhaust, and then out in the atmosphere to damage mammal lungs, the environment, and lots other nasty effects.

To think we’ve gone this long without Tesla is shameful.  Others have tried and failed. The film, Who Killed the Electric Car? shows just how corrupt, political, and greedy some people are.  People, not corporations or government, thwarted progress and stopped the electric car from happening sooner.  Individuals make up corporations – individuals make up government.  Greed, and lack of vision of individuals were the enemy.  The misguided need to coddle foreign governments, wage wars, kill innocents – all around the economy of oil is going to end.  We as citizens of the United States and the rest of the planet are going to reduce the need for oil dramatically – very, very shortly.  We will still need it for airplanes, rockets, large trucks and other specialty vehicles for some time, but for passenger vehicles, the electric car is now.

It’s here now thanks to one person.  One individual decided that he was going to make this happen.  Elon Musk did something where others failed to, and decided by his own sheer force and his determination that it was not acceptable to NOT have a viable electric car.  His vision is now reality, and the second car from Tesla is one word: PHENOMENAL.  It is an absolute brilliant piece of engineering, design, and utility.  I’m completely convinced that ICE vehicles are done.  It’s not IF, it’s WHEN.  There is NO CHANCE they have a future.  The only future ICE vehicles have is their soon-to-be place in museums as relics of history.  They will be joining other obsolete objects such the dumb mobile phone, typewriters, vinyl records & 8-tracks, film, and DVDs – all objects that have been supplanted by better versions with NO DOWNSIDE.

This future is soon going to be everywhere.  This future is growing, and there’s no stopping it.  This future is obvious to anyone that thinks rationally.  The other automakers KNOW IT.  And they’re NOT competing well at all with Tesla.  They’re failing to build a comparable product to the Model S.  So for now, some of them, and the dealerships, have been using their substantial political muscle to try and make it difficult for Tesla to grow as the market allows them to.  They’re trying to block sales of Tesla in certain states. These are dirty, nasty, and desperate tactics.  And they won’t work this time.  The world is too transparent now.  We see through these tactics with great clarity.  They may win a dirty fight or two against Tesla in the short term, but there’s no stopping the unstoppable market forces in a capitalistic society.

BMW, to their credit, has recently tried to build their own electric alternative.  I’ve owned 7 BMWs over the years.  BMW has always been a company that makes beautiful, quality products.  But, I look at their first electric vehicle, the BMW i3, and it’s completely underwhelming.  The range, the power, the styling, the price, are all pretty mediocre to put it nicely.  That said, BMW and the rest of them WILL eventually come out with great cars.  All of them will.  They will all be copying Tesla, they will pay Tesla patent license fees, and they will be able to compete.  The future will have EV versions of  beautiful luxury, affordable compacts, SUVs, trucks, motorcycles – all of them.  It will happen.  But right now, at least for the next 3-5 years, Tesla is going to DOMINATE this market.  Again, it reminds me of the iPhone.  There was nothing like it for a few years after it launched in June 2007.  Today, there are many comparable smart phones.  But Apple sure did get a head start and their stock price and company growth exploded during those first few years of absolute dominance.  The same thing is happening with Tesla.

It is a modern lesson and example to us all that one individual can make such a difference .  When one individual’s vision is clear and backed by relentless determination, something wonderful can happen.

I take delivery of my Black Model S at the Tesla Factory in Fremont, California, USA later this month.  The future of vehicles is here now, and in MY very near future, I see myself smoothly driving out of the Tesla factory – smiling ear to ear.  I can’t wait…

UPDATE: To order your Tesla, be sure and click here for referral credit for both of us!