Lesse...
Looks pretty...but,
$80,000 is a joke. Completely useless as an actual mass-market product, since only the stoopid rich could even buy it. If it's not buyable by the general public, it solves no ecological problems. Just an icon to an idea, but with no real practical impact.
Without a paradigm shift in commercial electric power generation, this will just offset the ecological impact. Electricity has to be made somewhere, and these days that's with fossil fuels, like it or not. I might agree that it has some effect on reducing foreign oil dependence, since in the US we typically don't burn oil for power, but then I return to arguement number one...no one can afford to drive the damn thing in the first place.
Lack of service infrastructure. This is not a system your local mechanic can properly service, and few, if any, understand anything about high-capacity electrical drive systems. Further, since one would be perhaps dependent on dealer servicing, I question the availablility of Tesla Motors dealerships for said service. Who's gonna help you when you break down?
Lastly, not only does the price exclude the thing from any realm of practicality, but a two-seat roadster is useless for the mass-family-market...which is where you want to be for big sales and capital recovery.
In the end...nice to look at, and an interesting re-proof-of-concept car, but...
...no real value or impact from an ecological point of view.
Pretty but pointless.
I'd still rather see a whole-hearted effort to restructure the nations energy systems to non-fossil generation, rather than toying with the end product. Walk before you run kinda thing...
