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In an unfortunate turn of events, Martin Eberhard, founder of Tesla Motors and initial force behind the company has chosen to sue current CEO Elon Musk accusing him of slander whilst calling for unspecified damages.

Sighting events around Martin’s departure in late 2007, he claims that Elon orchestrated his rise to power at Martin’s expense.

There’s clearly more to un-earth in this story, Wired.com has a full breakdown.

Every story has too sides… let’s watch…

Marty Tuchman bagged the 500th Roadster; Full story at the Green Car Connection.

NEW YORK - (BUSINESS WIRE) - A New Jersey philanthropist was the 500th person to take ownership of a Tesla Roadster, an important milestone for the world’s leading electric vehicle manufacturer.

Martin Tuchman, former chairman and CEO of Interpool, is chairman of The Tuchman Foundation and a board member of The Parkinson's Alliance and Parkinson's Disease Foundation of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. He plans to charge his Roadster partly with solar energy thanks to photovoltaic panels he helped install throughout his hometown of Kingston, NJ.

“My Roadster drives like a dream -- it’s amazing,” said Tuchman, a former automotive engineer and owner of a 1967 Mercedes 250 and a 1993 Jaguar convertible. Tuchman converted his 1937 Chris-Craft into an electric boat so he could take it on nearby Lake Carnegie, which prohibits gas-powered boats. He plans to use his Roadster as his primary commuter car.

Tuchman took delivery of a Twilight Blue Roadster last weekend, a few weeks before the anticipated opening of a Tesla showroom in New York’s Chelsea Art District. Greater New York is Tesla’s largest market outside of California, and local EV owners enjoy numerous incentives.

Zero-emission vehicles are exempt from New Jersey sales, use and luxury taxes. Single occupants of alternative-fuel vehicles may also use the high-occupancy commuter lanes on the New Jersey Turnpike. These incentives are on top of a $7,500 US federal tax credit, which fully applies to all Tesla Roadsters.

Tesla will also soon be opening stores in Chicago, London, Seattle, Miami, Washington, Monaco and Munich. Tesla will begin deliveries in Europe this summer.

San Carlos, Calif.-based Tesla is the only production automaker selling highway-capable EVs in the United States or Europe. The Roadster beats nearly every other car for acceleration yet is twice as energy efficient as a Toyota Prius. It costs roughly $4 to refuel and can be completely recharged in as little as 3.5 hours.

Michael van der Sande, Tesla Senior Vice President of Global Sales, Service and Marketing, called the 500th delivery an important symbol for the world’s newest production automaker.

“We now have more than 500 real-world customers providing valuable feedback on our cars and contributing to Tesla’s spirit of continuous improvement,” van der Sande said. “We intend to leverage our first-mover advantage and continue to build brand loyalty for years – from our 500th to our 500,000th delivery.”

At a press conference in Stuttgart, Germany Elon Musk and Dr. Thomas Weber, Member of the Board of Daimler AG announced the strategic alliance to accelerate the commercialization of electric drives globally.

"Daimler has set the benchmark for engineering excellence and vehicle quality for more than a century. It is an honor and a powerful endorsement of our technology that Daimler would choose to invest in and partner with Tesla," said Tesla Chairman, CEO and Product Architect Elon Musk. "Daimler is also on the leading edge in the field of sustainable mobility. Among others the lithium-ion pouch-cell battery developed by Daimler and especially designed for automotive applications is of interest to us. We are looking forward to a strategic cooperation in a number of areas including leveraging Daimler's engineering, production and supply chain expertise. This will accelerate bringing our Tesla Model S to production and ensure that it is a superlative vehicle on all levels."

Prof. Herbert Kohler, Vice President E-Drive and Future Mobility at Daimler will take up a seat on the board at Tesla.

Video of the announcement can be found at the Daimler site here: http://www.daimler.com/press/90519/e

Mystery man ‘AbstractLogic’ has created a ‘Drivable radius map’ that produces images like this:

Instead of simply drawing a circle around a point it looks at the roads to evaluate the true distance.

Not a bad reach for the Tesla Roadster shown in the picture, would you try NY to DC?

MPT

It gives me great delight to paraphrase Chris Payne’s movie “Who killed the electric car?” and now “Revenge of the Electric Car” because the answer is {drum roll please…} Nobel Prize winning Physicist and 12th US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.

“Moving away from funding vehicular hydrogen fuel cells to technologies with more immediate promise” is how Chu described the decision to cut spending on hydrogen development in the 2010 budget announced May 7th.

The complete pdf can be found here. with the highlights of the announcement below.

What does this mean for BEV enthusiasts?

For me, it ends the debate over hydrogen, the writing was on the wall but now it’s being rubber stamped from on high; it means greater attention to working solutions, to greener power sources and to confronting climate change.

... and Top Gear was wrong ;-)

http://www.energy.gov “

Washington D.C. --- U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu today detailed President Barack Obama’s $26.4 billion Fiscal Year 2010 budget request for the Department of Energy, highlighting the Administration’s commitment to transformational discoveries, breakthrough science, and innovative technologies in the nation’s effort to secure reliable, clean, safe and secure energy, create new jobs and fight climate change.  While the budget makes important investments in energy independence and job creation, it also cuts back on programs that don’t work as well or are no longer needed.

“The President’s budget for energy reflects his commitment to ending our dependence on foreign oil, restoring our scientific leadership and putting Americans back to work through investments in a new green energy economy,” Secretary Chu said. “It also demonstrates his commitment to using taxpayer dollars wisely – cutting spending on programs we don’t need so we can make strategic investments in our economic future.”

The President’s FY10 budget complements $38.7 billion the Department of Energy will invest as part of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Specifically, the President’s FY10 budget:

• Cuts funding for programs that aren’t needed or aren’t as effective as other investments – like more than $200 million in oil and gas company research that the companies can and do fund on their own.
• Substantially expands the use of clean, renewable energy sources while improving energy transmission infrastructure.
• Supports the Administration’s goal to develop a smart, strong and secure electricity grid.
• Helps restore America’s leadership in scientific research and innovation – including transformative science that can lead to a new generation of clean energy jobs.
• Makes significant investments in low-emissions plug-in and hybrid vehicles, nuclear energy, and clean coal technologies, as part of the Obama Administration’s aggressive effort to reduce greenhouse gas production.
• Supports the ongoing security of our weapons stockpile, continued efforts at nuclear non-proliferation and ongoing environmental cleanup and legacy management as part of the Department’s long-term stewardship responsibilities.

For more information about the Administration’s fiscal year 2010 budget proposal for the Department of Energy, please visit the Budget and Performance page.”

Science magazine has just published an article (Vol. 324 no. 5928, p. 818) and podcast comparing bioelectricity versus bio-ethanol; basically; take biomass such as corn or switch grass and simply burn it to create electricity rather than converting it to ethanol, shipping it to the car and burning it there.

As a result of significantly higher efficiencies inherent in electric vehicles, corn makes more transportation energy as electricity than it does as ethanol!

Listen to the podcast >here<

Wired Autopia had an opportunity to drive one of the test mules that GM have built out of Volt parts. The mules are based on a hollowed out Chevy Cruze that's re-filled with Volt bits to test out the technology.

The good news is that it works, the better news is that 75 integrations vehicles will be out on the streets in June marking the end of the Beta test phase and the start of the Release Candidates.

Check out the full story for batteries, charging and the driving experience...

(Photos: Jim Merithew / Wired.com)

Evo Magazines Harry Metcalfe describes powering the Tesla Roadster (he’s been playing with) from his own wind turbine as “…like discovering I've got my own private oil well at the bottom of the garden.” He erected a GBP12,000 wind turbine that is producing enough power each year to drive a Roadster over 28,000 miles… and that’s not at super-green-eco-smug speeds either!

Full story in the Sunday Times today.