CARB to weaken ZEV?

[TEG]

TEG,

I agree with you that it is not so important if a car can do 125mph or 120mph. I am only surprised as 120mph might not be well suitable for marketing purposes - for the european market. If I follow marketing on the tesla homepage, they do mainly marketing in facts & figures.
120mph = 193,12kmh
125mph = 201,17kmh
So only 125mph specification can "hit the wall" and do the marketing "Topspeed: 200kmh" thing in european advertising. A topspeed of 193kmh would be rather ok; but is far more difficult to communicate
Typical left lane speed (not by law, but in real life) on the highway in my country is between 150kmh and 160kmh - eqal 100mph. So the roadster is pretty in range.

Perhaps the European version should be geared slightly differently so it is 0-100kmh < 5, but with a higher top speed. I think American's think of 0-60 as the primary benchmarks, but not so much for much of Europe. The Roadster is better suited as an urban and hill car, and not so much as an autobahn cruiser.

[TEG]

Further Tesla commentary:

http://www.arb.ca.gov/lists/zev2008/...anel_final.pdf

[TEG]

(4 cars on site... giving rides)

[TEG]

Flickr: Photos from KF6OAK
Tesla Roadster on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[mike]

Anyone heading up there tomorrow?
Think I might take off around noon from work and check it out.
I attended the ZEV Symposium back in September of 06 which was a blast for an EV head. (pics I took from the day here.)

[TEG]

I wonder if Chris Paine is there filming "Who Saved the Electric Car"?
(It seems like the usual cast of characters has assembled)

As much as I would like to go, I can't make it.

[TEG]

The Associated Press: Calif. Grapples With Auto Emissions Rule

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_8712897

California air board should stand by zero-emission vehicle mandate

[TEG]

CARB seems to be motivated more by big business and big politics and less by public sentiment.

California cuts future quotas for clean-air cars - Yahoo! Singapore News

"Following a marathon session that included testimony from dozens of auto executives and environmentalists, the board voted to reduce the number of pure ZEVs, or cars powered entirely by batteries or hydrogen fuel cells, to 7,500 for the three years from 2012 to 2014. The previous requirement, from 2003, called for 25,000 such vehicles during that period."

...

"Advocates of clean car technologies called the move a step backward for California's push to cut car pollution, and accused the board of kowtowing to automakers."

[domenick]

I wonder how fat the checks in the mail for the CARB board are?

[DDB]

I wonder how fat the checks in the mail for the CARB board are?

As much as I hate government intervention in anything, you are right, CARB folded like Eliot Spitzer at the Playboy Mansion. The answer here is simple. Consumers simply have to vote with their wallets electing only to purchase new cars that plug in, while giving CA's elected officials the finger.