The Roadster is/was built on an Elise chassis and much of its assembly is at Lotus. Lotus is discontinuing the Elise and Exige (already happened in the USA "until the redesigned models are released in 2015") so there's not much Tesla can do.

As with any car, drive sedately in order to get the claimed range. A beefier motor may not hurt efficiency; it doesn't weigh much more and it can handle more free regenerative energy when you brake.

Where were you while Tesla MADE and SOLD 2,000 Roadsters? Now production has ended since Lotus isn't providing them any more Elise gliders. And don't claim it not being practical on an auto enthusiast site. You get in a fully charged sports car every morning and have 245 miles of range, sounds like a blast.

For the Roadster, Tesla made its own battery pack, battery management system (thermal, electrical, safety), motor, and motor controller. They've sold these to Daimler and will put them in the Toyota RAV4. That's a lot of R&D, whether it's "new technology" is a slippery question.

... crickets...

What is practical depends entirely on the driver's needs. Today's $30k 100-mile electric cars are extremely practical for most drivers' regular commute, especially if they live in a household with multiple cars LIKE MOST AMERICANS. Meanwhile Tesla Roadsters have 243 mile range and the Model S has up to 300 miles.

10) Several hybrids do boost performance over the base engine: the old Honda Accord Hybrid, the Infiniti M35H, the 2013 Lexus GS, etc. But getting the optional V6 or V8 boosts performance more and is cheaper, and so far it's been a tough sell to market "Green but not a beige-mobile, more performance than you think,…

Elon Musk invested a ton of money of his own money in Tesla, Toyota invested a bit, they got money from Daimler for battery packs, they raised a lot of money going public, and they raised more money in a second public offering that in part was to fund development of this car. And the government loaned them money as…

Back when the DoE had the loan covenant for its $465 bn loan to Tesla on its web site (complete with signatures, just like your mortgage), I skimmed it. It required Tesla maintain financial credit worthiness and had measured milestones before funds got disbursed, and had a repayment schedule just like your mortgage.

How is Tesla fleecing or suckering anyone? Interest in the Model S is so high people have put down deposits for them, but no one's forcing them. Unless you think the Model S will never appear.

Yup, Tesla got a $465M loan under the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. Since Tesla is designing and engineering in the USA and soon will be manufacturing cars at its plant, the program is working exactly as intended to do when Congress passed it under the George W. Bush administration …

Where is this "terrible stigma of failure?"

The Blue Motion is a micro-hybrid with regenerative braking and stop-start, as are the other Blu* EfficientDynamic, etc. European cars. The Prius-beating 1.6 sounds great if a little underpowered, I don't know why VW doesn't sell it in the USA.

It wastes more during production than you could ever hope to save by using it

It's the South Park angry face

Here you go, BMW i3.

"Acura dropped the Legend name when market research showed that consumers knew Acura products by their model names, "Legend" and "Integra", and did not necessarily associate the names with the manufacturer, Acura." [en.wikipedia.org]

The technology is there, it produced a beautiful distinctive luxo cruiser that burns no gasoline for the first 32 miles in eco mode. It's too early to say if that will get many sales amongst all the other over-$100k indulgent cars (Geländewagens, SLK and SL AMGs, etc.) that some rich people buy to drive short…

Relying on battery powered electrics require us to change how we live our lives, and that's simply not possible

Wikipedia and Merriam-Webster disagree. If someone is only known in the fashion world, he or she is not a supermodel.