So it begins! Tesla is on its way to bestriding the future of transportation like a collasus!

First they build their own cars, then they liscense and manufacture their tech for others, and finally they will end up designing their own batteries!

Good luck to them in their quest, for we have but 6 years to save the world.

Thanks for that Henrik. I wish Th!nk would do an English website!

Anyone know what sort of Wh/km the Th!nk is supposed to achieve?

Think does have an English web it is just not as informative jet as the Norwegian site. The English is here. http://en.think.no/ The Thinks range with a 23kWh Zebra battery is 180km and it can do 100km/h. That is highway speed 70mph. The lithium pack will probably be lighter than the Zebra pack giving it extended range.
The reason the A123 is not used is most likely price and the fact that A123 does not yet sell an integrated automotive pack with cooling. That is the job of Cobasys and they do not make it yet I believe. It will come also because the Tesla battery is capable of exploding although it is a non-frequent event and probably far less likely than dying from a regular car accident. The A123 will also last longer but they will be less energy dense than the Tesla battery. In one or two more years you will likely see the A123 option as well for the Think car. Once the pack is ready by Cobasys it should be easy to plug it into the Think.

I agree with you Lad that Bush does not take GW seriously as most other politicians except for Arnold and Al Gore. In Europe we have none that take GW serious they talk about it and they would all like to appear as if they care but they do almost nothing. Germany, Spain and Denmark are doing a little but far from enough to prevent a GW disaster. I believe nothing serious will be done until something really dangerous starts to happen such as unprecedented melting at the poles at a magnitude that will start rising the global sea level by something visible say 15 cm. That will happen much before the current models predicted it. A report recently at CCG see http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/04/arctic_sea_ice_.html#more shows none of the current models seem to model how serious GW is. Until recently, I used to be in academics and I understand that world well. Nobody dares to publish something that is completely out of order such as a model that predicts GW doomsday in 200 years from now. If a researcher believes this is the right model he will twist the current established model a bit and then publish, wait another year twist the model a bit again and publish a new paper, and so fourth for 8 years or so until he finally arrives at the model he really wanted to publish in the first place. In that way you will not only stand a better chance of getting published you will also get 8 publications made instead of one. This is the difference between making it to full professor instead of associate professor. This is why. Expect much more bad news on GW and even expect the sea levels to rise visible in a few decades perhaps only two.

Here is a link to Teslas ideas for their new enery group. http://www.teslamotors.com/blog2/index.php?p=50&js_enabled=1 .

And Bush hasn't done a thing to promote alternative energy, lower consumption, or smaller carbon footprints. Why should people act when they can rely on a white house to do all the work?

The Tesla pack is not going to go up in flames, not according to the manufacturer (http://www.teslamotors.com/engineering/safety.php; technical: www.teslamotors.com/display_data/TeslaRoadsterBatterySystem.pdf), and it makes sense. You have to design the pack to prevent cell fire cascades to be able to make a pack that's safe with all those cells, but then it will be very safe.

What's great about Tesla's pack is that by creating a computer-benign environment inside the pack, it serves the EV industry with batteries from the portable electronics industry, which means they can advance as fast as that battery industry segment does. This lights a fire under the feet of the people making automotive lithium batteries, and makes it hard for anyone to drag the EV down and stymie progress by machinations involving those companies. (Sort of what happened with the NiMH generation.)

The only downside is that portable electronics makers don't really care very much if their batteries only last 3 years (products become passe so fast) so Tesla needs to light a fire under their suppliers' feet.

Hello: I no that something has to be done because this is rediculous driving around in such large vehicles for personal transport. I do feel that electric cars would be the answer as long as we can recycle the batteries safely. I did see an add for an automobile built I believe in Spain that works on compressed air and this, if it works good would certainly eliminate the need for batteries also. We must find ways to get around this and also make life changes including maybe using bicycles for short trips. Sincerely, Mike N.