Highway speed indeed

With all the stuff flying around about Tesla suing Fisker and Tesla's transmission supplier suing them and on and on, it's sometimes hard to feel optimistic about the EV revolution.

That is until you're cruising down the 101 last night around 11:30 and you see a sleek, low to the ground black (maybe really dark green) car up ahead, and you get closer and there, silently cruising at 70 mph is a Tesla. It was too dark for pictures, but there's something about actually seeing one in action like any other car on the road that's really cool and reassuring that they're forging ahead.

Sorry no pictures this time, I'm going to start keeping my camera in the car.

Nice - on the Tesla page itself (in the wiki at the bottom) we list around 50-ish registered owners for the 2008 model, but they also just started releasing information about the 2009 model that will have many more cars. Here's what they sent: 

"On March 17th, Tesla Motors officially began production on the breakthrough, 100% electric 2008 model year Tesla Roadster. 2009 model year production is just one year away! We've finalized 2009 program details and would like to explain the process of transferring your waitlist position to Roadster Club Membership. Roadster Club Membership secures a slot for a 2009 production car. Membership also provides additional privileges such as access to the Owners Area on the Tesla Motors website and test drives at Tesla Store locations. Your waitlist position determines your production sequence, but specific VIN numbers will not be communicated prior to production of your vehicle.

The estimated base price for the 2009 Roadster is $109,000. Final pricing will be set just prior to start of 2009 production. The membership fee for the Roadster Club is $60,000; your wait list fee of $5000 will be applied to that total. This balance is fully refundable up until 90 days prior to production of your car. At that point, the remaining balance will be due and options selections will be locked in. Tesla Roadsters are ?built to order? which is why you need to finalize your purchase commitment, color, and options prior to your vehicle going to the production line.

A Tesla sales consultant will be contacting you by phone within the next few weeks according to your place in line on the wait list. At that time, you can ask further questions and receive payment instructions to submit your membership fee and secure your production slot. Your payment will be due within two weeks from the date of our phone conversation with you.

In case you missed it, the Roadster has recently been reviewed by: Car & Driver, Automobile, Motor Trend, Road & Track, and Auto Week magazines - check out the reviews by clicking on the links.

We look forward to speaking with you soon and welcoming you to the exclusive group of Roadster Club members."

I think we're going to start charging a $60,000 fee to be a member at Huddler too ;)