Jay Leno Fears EVs

[silas10961]

What do people here believe it would it take to change Leno's backward stance on EVs? Jay is not interested in foreign policy or the environment. He is a car nut, and the Tesla is a car lovers car, but to the embittered Leno, it's not a real car unless it smells of gas and has thousands of moving parts which need to be maintained. Curious what readers here feel could change his mind, but I'm resigned to the idea that no one should look to Leno for advise on EVs. He could, however, be upstaged by another celebrity on the road with a Tesla. If only Clooney had appeared on the show with one (instead of the Tango) and challenged Leno to a test drive and a match with one of his sportscars. Priceless advertising. And I think Clooney actually would do it.

 

[Michael]

There are quite a few people that give a higher priority to what they want rather than on any logical considerations. I'm sure that there are also a lot of people that will never embrace that there ever was any such thing as 'global warming' or that there is anything that they can do about it, so why not just live for now and not worry about future generations. Besides there are others that say that there is nothing that can be done because we're already too far down the road to ever recover, so why not just live it up.

 

[tonybelding]

What do people here believe it would it take to change Leno's backward stance on EVs? Jay is not interested in foreign policy or the environment. He is a car nut, and the Tesla is a car lovers car, but to the embittered Leno, it's not a real car unless it smells of gas and has thousands of moving parts which need to be maintained.

I'm curious of where you got that bit of information? Do you have a link? It's just something I haven't seen before.

I was under the impression that Leno owned some vintage electrics, and that he had one of the few (two or three) tZeros that AC Propulsion sold. But. . . I'm not sure if I can find a source on that either, it's just hearsay too.

Maybe somebody should track Jay down and ask him what the real story is.

Curious what readers here feel could change his mind, but I'm resigned to the idea that no one should look to Leno for advise on EVs. He could, however, be upstaged by another celebrity on the road with a Tesla. If only Clooney had appeared on the show with one (instead of the Tango) and challenged Leno to a test drive and a match with one of his sportscars. Priceless advertising. And I think Clooney actually would do it.

I think the car will be its own best advertisement. When they get into the hands of owners and are seen driving about, then a lot of people who are currently skeptical or indifferent will begin to come around.

Jay is obviously a lover of the history of the automobile. If you approach someone like that with an arrogant attitude and tell him this thing is going to render everything he loves obsolete, that's not the right approach. I'm sure the guys at Tesla would never do that. Everything I've heard from them (and most especially their coverage of the Concours at Pebble Beach) suggests to me that they are "car guys" too, and they appreciate the whole history of cars -- not only the electric bits of it.

 

[tonybelding]

I did find a few choice things Leno had to say about electric cars in his "Jay Leno's Garage" column that he writes for Popular Mechanics.

As far as electric cars go, the technology isn't really new. I have a 1909 Baker Electric that goes 110 miles on a single charge. A General Motors EV-1 goes maybe 120 miles. So in nearly 100 years we've only come 10 extra miles. You can take the Baker's Edison batteries, wash 'em out and use 'em again. They're beautiful-looking even though they're almost a century old.

One day, I was doing a thing on driving a new Lamborghini Diablo and an EV-1. I actually had more fun in the EV-1! I mean, I liked the Diablo, it was nice, but the EV-1 was brand-new. So everywhere I went, people were saying "Oooh, what's that?" Of course, you can only go 80 miles, so that novelty soon wears off. That doesn't happen in a Lambo.

Obviously, the last days of an old technology are always better than the first days of the new. The final steam cars, like the Doble, which would get a head of steam up in less than half a minute, were better than the first gas ones. Eventually, we'll get there.

This does not sound to me like a person who is hostile toward electric cars. It sounds to me like someone who is skeptical about the battery cost, safety and limited range -- which is nothing unusual. A lot of people need convincing on those points, and Tesla have been working on it.

And finally this bit which I thought was great:

The mistake the manufacturers make with alternative-fuel vehicles is the same one that's made over and over again. It's like a veggie burger that looks like a hamburger. Why make it look like a hamburger? Why do they make it look like something it's not? To me, if you want to sell electric vehicles, make 'em do something more.

I thought Dick Guldstrand had a good idea. It's just that it was probably too expensive. He had a natural gas Corvette. It was cleaner running. It was easier on the motor. It could go a lot longer between oil changes. Best of all, it was faster than a regular Corvette. You could go, "But Honey, I want to get this car because it gets better mileage." But your real reason for buying it is that it's faster.

If you had an alternative-fuel vehicle that was faster than a conventional vehicle and got the same mileage, it would sell better than the alternative-fuel vehicle that gets twice the mileage but is twice as slow.

Sounds to me like he wrote Tesla's business strategy.

 

[danny]

I happen to know what the real story is but I don't want to reveal anything without looking into whether its okay, I'll get back to you on that.

 

[danny]

So heres the deal, someone I know had a chat with Jay about the tesla, and he said a few things
He feels that the best reason to buy it is because it is a novelty, but the technology isn't novel.
Its a refinement of whats been around for a while he says. Hes not that excited about it at the moment.
It doesn't seem such a big deal and he will watch and see what happens.
I'm not sure that any of the above is new but I thought I'd share it.

 

[savuporo]

Well, Leno's stance might be explained a bit by his definitely not pleasant encounter with a "curious" company called Hybrid Technologies ..

Read here http://evdoesit.blogspot.com/2006/09/curious-case-of-hybrid-technologies.html#comments

The company that so far has produced heaps of press releases, but nobody has seen any of their products in action. They claimed that Jay bought something from them, which he didnt, and the lawyers got involved ..

 

[vfx]

For those who have HGTV on basic cable try to catch the rerun on last week's eposide of "Living with Ed"

Envirovangilist Ed Begley vists with Jay in his dream Gargage. Jay show a few of his eco friendly cars including a 19(16?) Electric Baker and a 60 year old hybrid (runs on steam!) Jay also shows a car he's backing that runs on crops. His quote about it sounds like he stole it from Tesla's (Martin's) "reason why" speech.

Jay does love cars and it's clear after watching the show that it does not matter what powers them. The more unusual the better.

I could see him picking up a Tesla later with chump change ...especially after he puts his planned solar panels on the roof of his Garage.



e

 

[TEG]

Jay also commented that he plans to put solar panels on his big garage.

He also showed off his "eco-jet" project car. Just because it can burn bio-diesel doesn't make it an environmentally friendly vehicle. It probably gets about 1 mile to the gallon of bio-diesel around town!

I don't know how much Jay was paying lip service to Ed's environmentalism, but at least we know that Jay gets some peer pressure to join the fray a bit more.

Now if Arnold drives over to Jay's place in his new Tesla...