The purpose is that they are the immediate future of automobiles until we find a legitimate alternative fuel source. Realisticly speaking the Telsa is still far from what we want, and last I knew they couldn't keep a transmission in one long term. Now that said, I think its cool. But if I were be buying a car for the purposes of cheaper transportation, first of all a bike is the smart way, but a bike engine powered car is the next best thing. 50mpg, none of the Bs, and it has been around long enough to work well consistantly.

Dan,

I am with you on this one, I don't see how its going to cost that little to run it, and what about when you are cruising down the highway in the middle of east bumfuck and run out of power? Its not like you can hitchhike to the next gas station get a can of gas and come back, nor is it like you can call AAA for a quicky. I don't think we have the infrastructure RIGHT NOW to support it. The thing that amazes me is how different America is in terms of transport from the rest of the world, we are not all confided to cities, the average American is driving ~30 miles a day! Thats alot considering what you see in european countries. We are absolutely reliant on our vehicals, thats not the case in other places. Public transportation is not the answer here, to be honest unless you live in a MAJOR city and I'm not talking even something like Rochester/Buffalo/Syracuse/Binghamton/Albany for a big state like NY, with some large cities, you almost have to have a car. I lived in Rochester, there is a bus system, Bighamton same... well when I lived outside of the limits of the busses... by 20 miles.. now what? Thats not uncommon. See if you are in the city, ok you CAN ride the bus, I don't want to, but its there, but where I grew up outside of Binghamton you had no choice but to have vehical, my brother was commuting 40miles to his job everyday, I was at 126miles round trip for a while, you can't do that on a bus out there. The Telsa may or may not get you to and from work, now what? If you are in a major city, you have public transport, hell NYC I wouldn't own a car, but thats not most of America.

For me the Volt from chevy has potential to be what we need, the actual "experts" are claiming that the 40miles on the battery alone would really be more like 60 which would cover the large populations daily commute, but with the gas powered back up you can see a 500mile range, MUCH more realistic.