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Originally Posted by bimmin

Even at $10/gallon you will never save any money with the i8 at $135k. Compared to say a $50k car thats about $85k in gas savings you'd have to make. $85,000/$10 = 8500 gallons * 135mpg = 1,147,500 miles.

Gas prices are not that important to anyone who can afford an i8. They are just making themselves feel good by buying a "green" car (which is fine). I'm not sure why you say the i8 is not for the US market. I assume more will be sold in this country than any other.

Regardless of what you may see in the news the US is actually full of environmentalists (and with a population of 314 million its also easy to find examples of the crazies who think global warming isn't real). I can't remember the last time I saw an M6 but I see several Teslas everyday. I also drive by a nice sign that someone hung up on my way to work that says "Wake up and smell the permafrost". We certainly have a long way to go but I believe the sentiment is there. Part of the problem is that the U.S. has had the good fortune of developing as an expansive, rich country, with plenty of extra space and cheap energy. Many of our cities were designed with cars in mind while most in Europe predate the car. There is nothing innately superior about Europe’s environmental consciousness, which certainly has its own blind spots. If all things were equal (such as space and resources) I don't think the US would be worse than Europe or other places.

PS, tell BP thanks for the millions of gallons of oil they spilled off our coast.

I'm not going to argue about the whole environmental side, but there's something to be said about the torque these cars provide. Got to ride in a Tesla once and it was a hell of a rush (in the straights anyway). No lag, boom just go.