I guess it's a California thing. You have to believe in global warming (In the mid-west we have had 20 degrees below normal now for 3 months and snow of 14 inches in May). My practical side says the Tesla is nice but if fighting CO2 is your aim you could buy a $20K Honda accord and convert it to run on ammonia ( nearest practical gas to hydrogen). Ammonia is already piped all over the midwest and in contrast to grid power is almost all made from domestic natural gas. And with a loan of $450 million like Musk got I could build a home ammonia generator that takes in grid power to generate hydrogen and using nitrogen from the air. The small ammonia reactor is the only thing that needs to be developed (the hydrogen generator and nitrogen from air products are already off the shelf).
I think we'll start seeing very high mpg gasoline cars soon. Supercar makers are already demoing electronically controlled pneumatic valves and direct injection and doubly clutch gear boxes are now showing up on family sedans. Direct injection + independently variably valve timing + double clutch close ratio gear boxes + regenerative braking and plug-in hybrids should equate to extremely high mpg for gasoline based vehicles.
I agree with the few here that have stated that tesla is in a SV bubble right now. It's the just hip thing to do, similar to the prius situation 8 or so years ago, but with much less volume due to the price point.
