The Teslas S electric Sedan — inspected by Arnie

Uber-blogger Robert Scoble, formerly Microsoft’s internet evangelist, now with TV outfit Fast Company, says he is saving up for a Tesla Sedan, due for production release in two years.

Tesla Motors, which specializes in all-electric cars, has announced plans to start building the Model S — a five-passenger electric sedan with a 225-mile range — in the Bay Area of San Francisco.

Here are Robert’s upsides and downsides on the model :

Upsides?

1. Gas prices are probably going up from here, not down.
2. I want to be the first to have the sedan in my neighborhood.
3. When I took a ride in the first Tesla I learned that it can go more than 200 miles on just $3 worth of electricity.
4. Tim Ryan, Congressman, approves.
5. My vote, with my dollars, will help push other car companies into doing the same thing.
6. In just a year I put 20,000 on my Saturn Aura, and in two years we’ve put 40,000 miles on our BMW. Turning those miles into electric miles will make a big dent in our gas budgets.
7. It’ll be built in California and I like keeping my money in the state.

Downsides?

1. We’ll still need two cars, or rent cars, for when we need to go more than 200 miles in a day (recharging takes hours, not a few minutes like with gas). But that’s OK, we’ll still need two cars anyway, one for me and one for Maryam (in Half Moon Bay there are no public transportation options).
2. It’s expensive. More expensive than our BMW, which is a very expensive car for us.
3. It’s unproven technology and car. I remember when my dad bought a General Motors’ diesel in the late 1970s and that was a disaster of a car and soured our family on GM cars for more than 15 years.

We await developments with interest.