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By AnnoyedGrunt on 11/7/2012 2:56:26 AM , Rating: 2
Being big doesn't help, but being long does. Also, total drag is the Cd * Frontal Area, so being big hurts in terms of drag force as well. Clearly having a very low Cd will be critical for electric vehicles to have a reasoble HWY range without going completely nuts with battery capacity (maybe 85 kWhr is already there). I think it is a legitimate bragging right, although one could argue that it damn well better be that low in order to make the range reasonable at all.

Also, I belive the only lawsuit was with Fisker, and I don't think it was necessarily unwarranted. My understanding was that Tesla initially contracted with Fisker to build the chassis; eventually that deal fell through, and then Fisker all of a sudden has the Karma which has a very similar wheelbase and overall size. I think Tesla felt as though Fisker stole their idea. Tesla lost that case anyway, but I don't think it was any type of patent trolling or anything. Seemed like a reasonable lawsuit and a reasonable outcome.

I've seen some cool youtube videos of Musk doing a tour of SpaceX and others of him on Letterman talking about the ModelS, and he seems like a passionate, intelligent person, who understands that in order to be successful you first need to build a great product. You don't start a car or rocket company on marketing skills alone. I'm rooting for Tesla, if for no other reason that to shake up the auto industry in a big and intersting way.

