An all-electric family car?

Tesla Motors is developing plans for an affordable all-electric car that it hopes to release sometime in the coming years. Telsa is primarily known for making all-electric luxury sports cars (which are well out of the average buyer's price range), so news that it intends to begin work on a "family" vehicle that will cost between $20,000 and $30,000 is interesting.

After the technology is developed for the family cars, the company also hopes to use the technology to build minivans, coupes, and light pickup trucks to be used in commercial fleets. But, creating the affordable technology necessary to manufacture these family cars (and later the commercial fleet vehicles) won't be easy. Tesla will have to partner with other automakers as well as auto parts manufactures to get this done. Here's hoping that the companies involved have the flexibility and the desire to make it happen.

I've always enjoyed the thought of an electric car, but both the price and efficiency of current models have left a lot to be desired. As the technology advances, the efficiency does as well, making these cars more and more viable as replacements for traditional automobiles. All that's left now is an automaker coming up with the ability to mass produce and market these in a way that makes them affordable to the average buyer. I'll be cheering Tesla on with mild optimism as they work toward this.

For more information, click here for a news story from CNET on the Tesla announcement.