Silent Speed

A car that can go zero to sixty in four seconds and tops out at 135mph. Oh, and it is virtually silent when it does so. Welcome to the brave new world of electric cars.

This is not your father's electric car. The $100,000 vehicle, with its sports car looks, is more Ferrari than Prius — and more about testosterone than granola.

Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors Inc. raised $60 million in financing from San Francisco Bay area tech giants to get this car on the road. Those famous Toyota Prius owners Larry Page and Sergey Brin — yes, the Google guys — have invested, as have executives from eBay Inc. and PayPal.

The company is headed by entrepreneur Martin Eberhard, the man once behind a gadget called the RocketeBook. That product, sort of an iPod for books, didn't catch on, but Eberhard sold the company in 2000 to the media company Gemstar for $187 million.

Fittingly for a car designed in Silicon Valley, the Roadster comes with built-in satellite navigation technology and an iPod dock that allows drivers to control the music player via the car's standard Blaupunkt stereo. Owners will be able to check their service records online, naturally.

And, of course, there's a blog. At the Tesla Web site, Eberhard started making his case for the car and his company this week. Bottom line: Electric cars don't have to be for wimps.

"Most electric cars were designed by and for people who fundamentally don't think we should drive," Eberhard said in his Wednesday blog posting. "We at Tesla Motors love cars."

Unlike most electric cars, the company's literature notes, the Tesla Roadster holds enough juice to make the round trip between Silicon Valley and the Pebble Beach Golf Links.

While the flashy two-seater may be too expensive for most buyers to consider, the community of electric car aficionados has received Tesla warmly.

Man. I hope they have some massive liability insurance. When the first person gets run down by silent death on wheels it will get ugly! (By the way, I think this is a great development, all joking aside. A really fun electric car with a decent range will be a good thing. As the product gains in popularity, costs will fall as well. A good thing all around).