Every Republican president since Richard Nixon has solemnly intoned "We need to end America's addiction to foreign oil."

Are you sure you know more than Audi? Those variants *don't sell*. Audi discontinued the 3.2S quattro version of the old model due to low sales, and only the basic FWD is available with a manual. Be thankful they finally offered the old model with the 2.0 TFSI and quattro.

An A3 TDI quattro sounds great for the USA. Detroit FreeP article says "About 80% of the vehicles Audi sells in the U.S. feature its iconic Quattro AWD system" but I see lots of A3s and A4s driving around without quattro.

Just because you're blind, don't assume everyone else is.

"EV's simply are not a viable alternative to internal combustion"

The Nissan Leaf can travel 100 miles on less energy than is contained in 1 gallon of gasoline. Blowing up fossil fuel to make a lot of heat and a little forward motion is so last century, and any powertrain that can't recapture brake energy and that wastes energy at a standstill is pretty incompetent.

Tesla's first car, the Roadster, had numerous production delays before Tesla made and sold over 2,000 of them. But by "this car" you mean the Model S and Tesla has said for 3 years it will come out in 2012. We'll see; I think you're just being stupid in public when you confidently say it will NEVER come out.

Executive summary: follow the owner's manual and occasionally leave your Tesla electric car plugged into one of the billions of plugs in the world.

It's hard to make your first car from scratch in a new factory, it's unrealistic to expect anyone to know how long it will take.

From the owner's manual page that @rfletch linked to at [media.theunderstatement.com] :

Yup. I'm all for people being free to buy any kind of car they want, but people who buy a jacked-up overweight car with poor aerodynamics solely because they want "commanding road presence" are a drag on civilized society.

Riding higher is for selfish bozos who want that "commanding road presence" crap despite the WORSE aerodynamics, handling, and weight that inevitably go with it.

"nobody sees"?

the only careful on a bicycle is aggressive riding. There is no such thing as defensive bicycle riding

claiborne has the insight. In ten years most cars will get performance as well as efficiency from the battery and electric motor(s), and the engine, if any, will occasionally drone away on long trips and driving up long inclines. European manufacturers will probably still have a "gear selector" that synthesizes manual…

I agree SpaceX has way more contracts than achievements, but "It has already launched, for a paying customer, a low earth orbiting satellite with its Falcon 1 booster in 2009."

No, not a Ponzi scheme.

You obviously overlooked the part of her suit where Honda changed the software to WORSEN mpg in order to reduce premature battery failure. It wasn't a 50mpg car... then it was more a mid-30s mpg car after that move. The facts she presented convinced the judge. Try reading before opining next time.

No, Tesla is starting up a factory at the former NUMMI plant to make the Model S. Lotus has stopped supplying the Elise-based chassis upon which Lotus assembled Roadsters for Tesla, just as Tesla has said all along would happen. (Would haters be happy if Roadster sales were so slow that the car remained in production…

I'm sure multiple journalists are working on books and documentaries on this very topic.