Chapter 3: Tesla in the Middle of Nowhere

«The Future Ahead of Me, The Past Behind Me» is Austrian journalist Toni Borroz's story on gasoline.

Thanks to the voice in my head, okay, the voice from Google maps coming through my Bluetooth headphone (a necessity for the soft top, here loud), I bounce off the main route from southern Arizona through Phoenix and the

Also, since my Miata is black and has no air conditioning (gotta save weight), the last thing I want is to be stuck in the middle of traffic, in the middle of Phoenix, in the middle of yet another day of desert roasting

Badzard buffet

So I'm shunted toward Maricopa and Gila Bend and through Sonoran Desert National Monument.

«Well, you don't have range anxiety," I say to myself.

Maybe it's too much of an impression that the best British electric «systems» don't allow me to middle anywhere that I see this person - an older white guy driving, not like an older white girl in the passenger seat,

I realized he knew what he was doing.

You see a lot of Teslas in large metro areas.

Still .

«Well, you don't seem to have range anxiety.».

Tolling bells

At least in my opinion, I reflect as I ache, another Tesla Model S is coming for me.

But that was it: the future.

That was my conclusion when the white Tesla disappeared into the distance of the vanishing point.

They may not all be Teslas - and probably won't be, given Tesla's shakiness (both in terms of drop quality at the moment and with red ink), but eventually EVs will become a bigger and bigger part of what we see on the road.

I can hear our funeral service, far in the distance, can't you?

Oh, well.

Fast and furious

Performance cars have always been a small slice of the pie.

And in some ways a variation on that is how I feel about EVs.

And EVs are fun, even if most people don't realize it.

Tesla Roadsters, for example, are frighteningly efficient on an AutoX track.

Tesla roadster.

More changes to things.

So what's the problem?

For me, there are two main factors: range and cost.

Range is something that can be easily understood.

To get the same range (give or take) out of a Tesla (the current range performance test) takes a futon-sized battery pack that weighs about half a ton.

Cost, on the other hand, is more problematic.

Of course, the thing about electric cars is that you have to realize that you are paying almost everything up front.

The more they stay the same

But where would I have been a hundred years ago?

Soon there will be something that does 90 percent of what the Tesla Model S does, and it will be available to 75 percent of the public, and it will be.

Horse-drawn carriages are on display at the Autoworld Museum, Brussels, Belgium.

Odd couple.

I'm outside of Blythe or Mesa Verde or Desert Center - who can tell, it's miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles.

And I mean the odd putts.

Both the FF and the GTC4Lusso (yes, it's all crammed into one word) had this quirky, if effective, all-wheel drive system.

On the Ferrari it looks smooth, fast and well distributed.

Fat cats, fast cars and false assumptions

So I pull up to the GTC4 and relax around it without breaking my stride.

«Go get him some boot, old man!» I think as I stick close to him.

I know he couldn't hear me, but at that moment he shot me a look similar to the average Mother's rage.

It was if he said: «How dare you, you impertinent little hedgehog.

I look back down the road again.

Immediately my mind swims to what happens to those who are not in control of his attitude.

Visit to the national museum.

Tony Borroz has spent his entire life racing antique and sports cars.