What will Martin do Next?

[X-CEOsWife]

The real tough one is Carolyn 2.0...

Yup. We all live in fear of our daughter. She rules the house, if not the world.

[JRP3]

As for the VentureOne car, I can almost promise that Martin will not get into the 3-wheel car business.

Carolyn

Good. We don't need any more weird EV's, we need real cars with 4 wheels and reasonable size and performance. Especially since it's quite doable.

[WarpedOne]

... we need real cars with 4 wheels and reasonable size and performance. Especially since it's quite doable.

As shown by numerous companies producing houndreds of thousands of inexpensive long range EVs now? Or maybe they are not?

This VentureOne is another vehicle which I'd like to own and use. In gas, hybrid or pure EV form, doesn't rally matter. Its basic strong point is that it can be quite inexpensive, usefull, practical and fun to drive. No compromises, remember? People are already paying 50.000$ for CarverOne, which is much more oddlooking.

Bluestar for 30k $ as envisioned by Martin and others at TeslaMotors is still at least 10 years away. Like it or not. But most people who created The Roadster are not with TeslaMotors anymore anyway. I'd say no BlueStar ever, maybe not even WhiteStar.

[Brent]

I'd be delighted if Martin decided to build an electric sedan. With all the firings at Tesla, I don't see that it now has much of a head start versus anyone else. Also, Mike Harrigan told me at the L.A. Auto show that the biggest obstacle to Whitestar was money. Martin, if anything else, knows how to raise money. I think he will emerge relatively unscathed in the wake of whatever TM becomes. He made the car company, and got the Roadster nearly to completion. That has to count for something in the eyes of the financiers-that-be. By contrast, while Elon has a lot of money, he doesn't have the know-how, and I don't see how he's going to hire it anytime soon, not with what I presume to be the low morale at TM.

[Cobos]

I also think the electric sedan is the key to actual meaningful change. With the Tesla Roadster the whole concept of a desirable electric car has been "proven". Well at least if they do get cars on the road within the current timeframe, i.e. at least 100 cars within 2008.
The Roadster though a good Halo car or proof of concept will never be and was never intended as a mass seller. While a Whitestar like car within the $50k-75k will sell lots, especially in Europe. If it has enough premium-car comforts to be a serious contender to brands like BMW, Volvo, Cadillac it will easily sell everything that is produced for the first comers to that market. European buyers accept a much higher price due to higher gas prices and usually an element of sin tax on dino-cars. And with rising enviromental awareness in the US, rising gas prices and the greatly increased usefulness of a 4 door sedan compared to a roadster means the problem is the line outside your showroom not how big rebates you should give.

But I'm just a layman, that really wants the original Whitestar car idea

Cobos

[JRP3]

As shown by numerous companies producing houndreds of thousands of inexpensive long range EVs now? Or maybe they are not?

So there have been no improvements since the EV1 and RAV4 EV and it just can't be done? Or maybe the will to do it isn't there yet?

[JRP3]

This Venture One is another vehicle which I'd like to own and use. In gas, hybrid or pure EV form, doesn't rally matter. Its basic strong point is that it can be quite inexpensive, useful, practical and fun to drive. No compromises, remember? People are already paying $50,000 for Carver One, which is much more odd looking.

How many people? It will alway be a small, niche market, a toy for the rich.

[JRP3]

It's cool, but will never be a big seller or change any trends. A decent, real EV will sell. If Toyota released the RAV EV today with 150 mile range they'd sell thousands right now.

[vfx]

(concept D from Venture Vehicles

It may not be a punishment car but it is too far into the "weird" category. (Same with the the Aptera)
Tesla / Martin wisely did not go all freaky with the Roadster design. Even if they had come out with the sort of bat-like spider/wicked look of an Exige would be pushing it. While I believed (and still do a bit) that the roadster design is a bit pabulum, kind of awesome car smoothed out and a bit commite-ized in it's design, I also believe it was the right thing to do for the introduction of a new car, new technology to the market. You don't want to turn off Middle America. You want to give them something that the girls can call "cute" and the boys can call "cooool.

A very striking design statement would make the car’s evangelists even more rabid but this would be at the expense of their numbers.

[tonybelding]

I think the Tesla Roadster is beautiful, but probably a bit too subdued and conservative for its target market. It looks sexier than a Miata or a Solstice, no doubt, but quite tame by the side of a Lambo or Saleen -- which is supposed to be the category it's aspiring to. It even looks tame in comparison with an Elise.

I have to give Aptera a lot of credit. Their car may look radical, but radical is not the same as ugly, and everything on it was done for a reason. (It's not like the ridiculous Zooop, for example.) They've nailed the direction cars need to go in the future. The only question is whether it's too far ahead of its time for people to accept.