2010 Tesla Roadster Roadster

Today's automobile manufacturers are working feverishly to develop electric cars to meet environmental concerns. However, electrics have been around since the earliest history of the automobile industry. They were popular with women since crank starting was unnecessary and they were cleaner and quieter than the gasoline-powered cars of the day.

Tesla Motors is a Silicon Valley company founded in 2003 to produce and sell electric cars. Its first product was the Tesla Roadster, the first fully electric sports car. The company is named in honor of Nikola Tesla, a Serbian-American inventor, engineer and physicist whose 1882 AC motor design inspired the Tesla motor.

The Tesla Roadster was introduced in 2008 with 2,250 sold since. It is an all-electric sports car powered by a 288 horsepower electric motor and lithium-ion battery pack. Its rear-wheel drive offers great performance with a 3.7 second zero-to-60 mph time. The car can travel 275 miles on a charge with an 8 hour recharge time.

The base price is over $100,000 but is offset with a $.02 per mile operating cost compared to $.25 per mile for a comparable gasoline-powered car.