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of the experimental Mini Cooper E to meet demand among eager early adopters. I recently had the opportunity to experience the Tesla Roadster, and if there was ever any doubt that electrics can compete with internal combustion in performance, that doubt is hereby dismissed.

Even those of us who have experienced an exotic sports car accelerating through the gears have not felt such an instantaneous and continuous irresistible shove in the back, accompanied by the spectral moan of electric horses, that the Tesla provides. There are a few limited production, marginally practical, astronomically priced cars that may be quicker, but that's an unfair comparison. Charge It! That Tesla, gently driven, will go 240 miles on a charge, which is probably as far as most of us should drive without a break, anyway. Pardon me, but I don't know many women who could go more than a couple hundred. The real problem is, how long a break? Charge a Tesla from a standard 120 volt outlet, and you're stuck for a day waiting to reach its full 53 kWh charge.

That Hyatt Hotel project provides some encouragement, though. Their "High Power" charging stations figure to provide a recharge in 3.5 hours, or less than an hour for a Chevy Volt, and you can get one for your home for $3,000. Even if that project is only a PR measure, it does give a kick start to solving the chicken or egg issue of hardware versus charging infrastructure. Now, if we could only shorten that recharge time! Ah, but wait! Recent reports indicate it may be only a matter of development time. Breakthrough technology has been announced by MIT that will allow lithium iron phosphate batteries to be charged in as little as 10 to 20 seconds. No, that is not a typo. That's "seconds." They estimate that commercial applications could be on sale within two or three years. That's great for your laptop, but for cars there are some obstacles to overcome.

The problem is amperage. To deliver a Tesla's 53 kWh through the kind of 240 volt supply you might have for an air conditioner or a clothes dryer (and which the Hyatt is installing), you'd need about 800 amps to charge them up in 15 minutes, close enough to the time it takes for a gas fill-up. Just for comparison, your house probably has less than a 200 amp main breaker. So you'd need an upgraded main power supply to make it work, and a cable and connector like the kind they use for the auxiliary power units that power the systems of airliners when they're on the ground. But it's happening. Those of us raised in the car culture have had our moments of gloom and doom over the prospect of a world of anemic Smart fortwos, retirement village golf carts, and public transportation schedules, but we can now look forward to recreational motoring with actual motors (as opposed to "engines"), with the knowledge that we are benefiting from the tenfold improvement in efficiency they provide.

Learn more about this author, Dick Stewart.
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