Wednesday, June 24, 2009

I'm glad to see this


Tesla Motors is getting a large government loan to start building it's electric cars. I think that's a good thing and will be the next generation for the auto industry. There are a few bugs to be worked out in making these cars. Mainly the way the batteries are produced. The raw materials come from Canada and are shipped to China then the finished batteries are sent to Japan. Why not just make them in Canada for transporting the finished product to the U.S.? I think that will be the wave of the future. Cars rather than being built with parts being shipped around the world will be built regionally thereby saving shipping costs. That sure would add to the labor force locally. The beauty of the electric car is that it has far fewer parts to wear out than a gas model and it runs (from what I hear) as well at the end of it's life as it did at the beginning. Then of course there's the issue of renewable energy to run those types of car.

I had been thinking about buying a Prius before the economy tanked.

5 comments:

S.W. anderson said...

Robert Reich explains it in his book, Supercapitalism. It's a matter of Tesla having things made and done wherever the company can get the best deal.

Tesla is probably looking for very low wages and no environmental-protection hassles where the actual manufacturing is done. China fits that description. The shipping costs are comparatively modest and can be passed on to customers.

Anonymous said...

Hey, if the gubment had divided up the bailouts and sent it to the taxpayers, we could all GET one of those and keep the economy going.....and us as well.

Demeur said...

S.W. - Not exactly. The company appears to be more focused on making cars in an efficient manner using clean tecnology. They are in the unique position now to pick up many of the laid off auto workers at a good price.

Dana you still don't realize what a mess Bush left us. Any money now sent to taxpayers is now just being saved.

Tom Harper said...

"And it runs (from what I hear) as well at the end of it's life as it did at the beginning."

You mean, families won't have to buy a new car every 2 or 3 years? No wonder Detroit was never interested in that newfangled notion.

The Blog Fodder said...

Why on earth send money to the taxpayers? It was THEIR drunken spending spree, based on loans for over priced houses that put the world in this mess in the first place. The taxpayers reneged on their loans, so the banks reneged on theirs and so on down the line. Cleaning up the mess using taxpayers money is only fair.